Search for a Star (3 page)

Ellie's heart started to tick a little harder. If only she
could
get hold of Charlie Daniels. With the films being such a huge hit lots of magazines might suddenly decide he was a hot topic. How cool would it be if she was the first to write an article about him? There was plenty from the newspapers after the opening of the first film in the trilogy. Some people claimed that he had attended the premiere, but with no pictures to prove it, maybe he hadn't. Ellie decided to check his website again, to make sure that she hadn't missed anything, and then to try his publisher, as Sophie had suggested. She could also try emailing his agent, if she could track down who it was. Surely he must have one? Ellie Ixos thought of her father's phrase
You can do this!
Like him, she didn't intend to give up easily.

Ellie trawled through the website again, and found absolutely no way of contacting him direct. Lots of authors had a “contact me” bit on their websites. Ellie had used them herself occasionally, when she had read and enjoyed a particular book and wanted to tell the author how much she'd loved it. Surprisingly often the authors would reply, but she guessed that Charlie Daniels wasn't the sort of author who thought it important to keep in touch with his readers.

She went to the publisher's website, and onto a page that was devoted to the Fanghurst Trilogy. There was a competition to win a beautiful silver chain, which, in the book, was worn by a particularly scary time-travelling character. It would make a lovely necklace for any normal human being. Ellie was pleased she'd looked at the site.
I'll go in for the competition,
she thought.
I might even win! But I'll have to wait until I get home. There are a couple of really difficult questions and I need to find the answers in the first book…if only I can find the reference without having to read the whole story again
.

She didn't actually consider that too much of a hardship. It would be fun reading the book again. But then, all at once, Ellie felt as if she was being deflected from her real purpose, to interview the author himself. The whole website page had been designed to sell books, without giving away any snippets of author information. Once again, there was no way of contacting the author, but there was a general phone number and email address for the publisher. She wondered about phoning, but felt a bit shy. In the end, without a lot of hope she sent a brief message, saying who she was, which magazine she worked for, and how much she would love to interview Charlie Daniels. She made a lot of the fact that she was a very young, wannabe journalist, who totally loved his books – just in case that helped. Then, after a lot of effort, trawling through a load of online newspaper articles that referred to him in some way, she finally managed to find out which literary agency Charlie Daniels was with. It was a big firm, with lots of agents, and it took a while to track down which one was his. Once again she sent an email, and hoped for the best.

Ellie sat back in her chair and let out a sigh. She hadn't realized how hard she'd been concentrating. She felt as if she'd been staring at the screen for days.

“You haven't gone for any lunch yet, have you, Ellie?” said Francesca. “Why don't you go now? You look as if you need to get away from that screen for a while.”

“Okay, thanks,” said Ellie. “I think I will.”

Francesca was right. Ellie did need a break. She grabbed her bag and went down to see Sophie, as she had promised.

“I thought you weren't coming!” said Sophie as soon as she appeared. “Flynn's been and gone again, but he said he'd try to drop by for a coffee later. There was a networking problem up in the Art Department, but it shouldn't take long.”

Ellie pulled out a stool and sat at the old, wooden table that Sophie used to sort mail on. Sophie had been franking some mail to go out, but it was pushed to one side at the moment.

“So tell me all your news,” Ellie called to Sophie, who had gone into the back room to put the kettle on. “What's this about the pot?”

“Well!” Sophie reappeared with a smile on her face. “Like I said, it's not confirmed yet, but a man phoned me up the other day and said he was interested in my pots. He'd seen them in the little gallery near where I live, and had picked up one of my cards. He was particularly interested in my glazes, you know, the colours I use, because I mix them myself.”

“That's great!” said Ellie, feeling very pleased for her friend. “You're on your way.”

Sophie bit her lip. “It
is
great,” she said. “Or at least it will be if he really does buy one.” She paused, and looked at Ellie. Her eyes were shining, and there was an undercurrent of nervous excitement in her voice. “Especially,” she went on, “as I thought I recognized his name, he's called Mark Kettle. When I looked him up on the internet I discovered that he's a big name in the ceramics community as an avid collector of studio pottery.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And he has a load of workshops he rents to craftspeople, next to his museum, with a restaurant attached. He's a celebrated patron of the arts, Ellie…but…”

“What?” Ellie was puzzled. “Aren't you thrilled?”

“I just wish now that I hadn't told Flynn. He's gone totally over the top about it. He thinks I'm going to be famous overnight, a recognized studio potter who every gallery will want to collect. But it's not like that! I'm only just starting out. I'm thrilled that Mark Kettle has noticed me. It's fantastic, but if he is genuinely interested he'll want to see how I develop over the years. He's not going to rush off and announce to everyone in the art world that he's discovered a genius.”

Ellie could see what Sophie meant. “Well, Flynn will get over it,” she said, giving Sophie a hug. “He's proud of you, that's all.”

“I know,” said Sophie with a crooked smile. “I just wish he'd rein back his enthusiasm a bit. It's all totally impossible to live up to.” Her phone buzzed and she looked at the screen. “He's on his way down. Now please, Ellie, try not to encourage him.”

Before Ellie could reply, Flynn appeared at the door with a beaming smile across his face. “Ellie! How are you? Have you heard Sophie's news?”

Ellie grinned back at him. “Yes I have. And I'm very well thank you, and glad to be back at
Heart
.”

“Good. So, aren't you impressed? I am.”

“Of course I am. It's great news!” said Ellie, trying to walk the narrow line between sounding too enthusiastic, which would annoy Sophie, and sounding totally disinterested, which would probably upset Flynn. “Guess what!” she added, trying to steer the subject away from Sophie and her pots. “I'm trying to get an interview with Charlie Daniels.” But Flynn couldn't be deflected. He was opening his laptop as Ellie spoke, and didn't seem to have heard her at all.

“I bookmarked Mark Kettle's website,” he said. “You won't believe how influential he is!” He put the laptop on the table, and opened it up. “He's an entrepreneur,” he told Ellie. “And a patron of the arts. Apparently he's seen everywhere with famous people. He's
seriously
good news. Just imagine. Sophie could end up with
her
work in his collection of modern European studio pottery. How about that?”

Before Ellie could frame a sensible answer, Flynn clicked on another page in the website.

“You can read about him here.”

Ellie was actually quite interested in finding out a bit about the man who might be buying one of Sophie's pots. If he really did have celebrity friends he might be involved in some things that the readers of
Heart
would like, and she could suggest him as someone else to interview for the magazine. But after quickly reading a bit about him she decided that he wasn't right for
Heart
readers. Apart from supporting the arts and craftspeople, his website said he enjoyed boats, especially large yachts, and had an ambition to sail around the world one day.

“He's such an important person in the art world,” Flynn told Ellie as soon as she looked away from the screen.

“Yes,” said Ellie. “He does seem to be. But it's good Sophie isn't getting too excited in case he doesn't buy a pot after all.”

“You're as bad as she is!” said Flynn with a look of disappointment on his face. “It's good to be modest, but Sophie needs to be more confident. She ought to get out there and be seen, so he doesn't forget about her. After all, there's a lot of competition in the art world.”

“I'm sure there is,” said Ellie, unpacking her lunch and taking a bite out of the chicken wrap she'd made herself that morning.

“She needs to go to some really high-profile events.”

“Who's going to invite
me
to high-profile events?” said Sophie, sounding rather fed up.

Flynn looked a little disconcerted, but then his face cleared. “You don't need invitations for
everything
,” he told her. “There are things you could buy tickets for. They don't have to be arty events. Anywhere people might be who would be interested in your pots. You could take your cards and distribute them.”

“Like I'm going to do that!” said Sophie. “You'll want me to go around sticking leaflets on car windscreens next. It's ridiculous.”

“It's got to be better than sitting at home, waiting for people to come to you,” he said. He sighed theatrically and looked at Ellie. “You see the problem I have with her?” he said.

“And you see the problem I have with
him
!” said Sophie with feeling. “For a start, someone
has
come to me. Mark Kettle! Isn't that good enough for you?” For a few seconds she looked really cross. Then she relented and went and gave Flynn a hug.

“I'm sorry,” said Flynn, giving her a kiss. “You're right. I just want everyone to know about you. And I suppose I don't want you to risk losing famous Mr. Kettle.”

“I'll keep my fingers crossed,” said Ellie, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “I'm sure he'll
definitely
buy your pot. After all, he's seen and liked it…why wouldn't he?”

Back upstairs after lunch, Ellie looked at her emails. There was nothing from Charlie Daniels's agent, but the publisher had sent a brief message suggesting that Ellie might like to go to the author's website, as well as their own page advertising his books.

Well that's not very helpful,
thought Ellie.
I've already done that!
She decided to have another look at the author's blog, but before she did that she opened another email that was waiting in her inbox. She didn't recognize the company it was from, but as the magazine's spam filters were pretty good she hoped it would be okay to open it.
It's some sort of agency,
she realized as the email opened with the heading,
SFB, Agent to the Stars
and an illustration of a shooting star trailing a tail of sparkles behind it.

Dear Ellie,
the email began.
Pop Lowther has asked me to pass on this information that she promised you a while ago
.

Ellie's heart started thumping. She had almost given up hoping to hear from Pop. Ellie had interviewed the famous singing and modelling twins Pop and Lolly, and Pop had told her that she was going to start a new career. She couldn't tell her what it was then, in case things didn't work out, but Pop had promised to give the scoop to Ellie when she could. Ellie had heard nothing since, so this was very exciting.

Pop wanted you to know that her new venture will be to design a collection of casual clothes for a chain of high-street fashion stores. Details below. She will be making a statement about it soon, but is happy for your magazine to run the story as a scoop in your next issue if you wish. She also asked me to pass on her compliments and apologizes for not contacting you herself. She is in Morocco just now, on a modelling assignment.

Ellie read the email, then she read it again with a broad smile creeping across her face. This was
brilliant
! Francesca was bound to be pleased with her, and Angel ought to be as well. Every newspaper and magazine loved a scoop.

Ellie looked at the name at the bottom of the email. It was signed with a flourish,
Satin Fountain-Blowers
. She must be the “SFB” at the top of the email. Quickly, Ellie scrolled down to read the details with shaking hands. The heading said
Press Release
. It contained the name of the fashion stores, the name of an Italian designer who was working with Pop and a bit of information about them both. The press release was dated in the future, giving
Heart
enough time to get the information out before anyone else. Ellie closed the email carefully and got up. She wanted to reply, thanking Pop and Satin, but she thought it best to show Francesca first. She needed advice about scoops and how to use them.