Okay, let's skip to the SCBWI agent's party.
A good turn out of SCBWI members and lots of lovely literary agents. Some of them seemed to be after exactly what I hade written; Marvin's Curse. So after introductions and questions I decide to approach one of them. I wait patiently in line for my turn, wishing the other writers would just hurry up, after all, it was my work she wanted, not theirs.
So my turn comes ... and my mouth goes into involuntary spasms. I spout something out about a boy who sees and speaks to ghosts; she's not impressed. So I try harder, too hard. 'W-What if he had mental health issues?' I babble. Well, to say the colour drained from her cheeks would be an understatement. 'Have you ever tried writing a pitch?' she says. Oh, god. Beam me up Scottie.