Well, actually, it was the Travelodge at LAX. But it was the closest I was going to get to Hollywood on this weekend trip. Screenwriting Expo was holding a Pitch Festival at the Westin LAX. Announcements of these events have been dropping into my inbox for years now and I've ignored them all. Screenwriting is such an industry and so many gurus, mentors, Hollywood Insiders, script readers etc are so busily exploiting the aspiring screenwriter that it just seemed easier to ignore them all and hope that another means of selling a script would present itself. It didn't and the dates on this event coincided with some cheap air fares and most important, the realization that the script needed to be moved out of my head and my MacBook and get some exposure, any exposure to the real world. And I needed to practice the art of pitching. Like many English people, embarrassment is a default position when talking about my own work. "Well, it's um, it's a big, (oh my) passionate,love story set in the world of opera(should I just get up and leave now?)"

The time had come to practice my five minute pitch and to recite it to somebody other than Clarabelle the cat.  I'll give an account of my two days at the Pitch Fest in my next post.