I’m not sure if you were, but I was … on tenterhooks wondering how my pitch — the one y’all got a sneak peek at a week or so ago — would work out for me. I found out this weekend.

This was the big event, the Historical Novel Society’s big conference, that I’d been using as the deadline for my book to be ready. It didn’t happen. Well, the conference happened; it’s the deadline that didn’t.

Last November, when I finished writing my novel, I had this vision that I’d take a few weeks off, then January to June, edit, then get on a plane and do my pitch to an agent, who likes the pitch and asks whether my book is ready, I say yes, and she says, send it to me.

By April I sensed I was not making deadline. That was confirmed in May, and by June, the vision was dustbinned. I’m not even close. It needs another round of revisions, and I am probably optimistic when I say “another” — “anothers” might be more like it.

So, I showed up in Vegas, pitching a book I didn’t have. Talk about a sales job.

Here was the “elevator” part of the pitch I gave: “When famine decimates her country, a young servant girl joins forces with a group of freedom fighters intent on returning the country’s food to the people, but when their plan is crushed, she must choose between her country’s survival and her own.”

For those who sent in suggestions to improve it, many thanks. You did me a real solid.

I gave my pitch twice, to two separate agents. For one of them, I used the above pitch, followed with a more descriptive “real pitch.” For the second agent, I decided to skip both the elevator and the real pitch and just ad lib. You know, practice being real. To my astonishment, I pulled it off (as in I didn’t flub my lines)– he liked the pitch; he just didn’t want the book.

Agent #1 got the whole pitch, and she also liked it, enough that she asked me for the first 10 pages. That was nice validation, especially since she knows I have to cut another 70,000 words before I can call it a book. The best I can hope for here is she likes what she reads and asks me to let her know when my book is ready. Wouldn’t that be nice?

A great piece of news revealed at the conference is next year’s is going to be in Ireland. It’s like an omen. I have an Irish book; I’m going to be in Ireland, pitching to Irish agents, and my book will be ready this time. Dream the impossible dream, right?

I treated myself after the conference to a trip to the Bellagio, which always puts on a great display. I’ve added a few pictures below, and will save the rest for next week, when I’ll tell you all about my stay at Caesars Palace and other Vegas news.