I was going to post this before the conference, but the hotel didn’t have free wireless, so I am posting it now with a few notes on the success of each goal.
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Probably the most important… have fun. - I had a great time.
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Meet people, make connections, and network. - Also a success. I met some great people, made new friends and new industry connections.
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Give as many people as I can my new, fabulous business cards. - I could have given out more, but many people do have this card now.
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Line up a few agents and editors to send the book to if the agent who currently has the manuscript decides not to represent it. - Very successful. I only pitched to the people I had appointments with because volunteering, pitching, and attending sessions made it hard to catch people in the halls, but I have two agent requests for the first 50 pages, an editor request for the first 20 pages, and an editor request for the full manuscript.
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Oh, and have fun! - Yes!
And, while it is much too late to implement feedback for the conference, here is my pitch:
London is a city of progress. Gleaming buildings rise above a foundation of human suffering so the wealthy can avoid the filth and camaraderie of the lower classes. Graceful airships glide overhead through a soup of smog and waste while steam-powered coaches share the streets below with their horse drawn predecessors. For a street rat like Maeko, all this progress simply means that she has to be smarter and faster to evade patrol officers on their new steamcycles. Picking the pockets of the well-to-do to keep from going hungry is riskier and more exciting than ever.
Then she finds Macak, a cat with a clockwork leg. Her interest in the unusual feline leads her to the discovery of a dead mother and child and to a family torn apart by the accusation of their murder. Macak’s owner, the only man who can prove their innocence, has gone into hiding in fear for his life. Maeko will discover just how much a London street rat can accomplish when she decides to protect the cat and prove the wrongly accused family innocent by pursuing the murder investigation through the squalid streets of the city.
Comments are welcome.
After the conference, we unwound with the final Harry Potter movie. A great finish to the movies!
Happy writing all!