Several years ago, when I was much stupider, I briefly interned for a reasonably well-known agent. I let her know ahead of time that I had a vacation lined up where I would be off grid about a month after I started, which she was on board with.
However, due to some wires getting crossed on my end and some stressful visa shenanigans, my last email to her before I left didn't end up getting sent, and I didn't notice until I got back - effectively meaning I accidentally ghosted her a week early. I apologized profusely once I returned, but she never responded, and, in what I now recognize as a stupid move, I slunk off in shame and never tried to contact her again.
So, my question is, what should I do if I ever try to query her? Should I pretend to be just a random queryer and pray she doesn't remember (and that my novel is good enough to catch her interest), or mention that I briefly interned for her and hope that I don't immediately get banished to the shadow realm if she remembers I accidentally ghosted her?
Trust me, she remembers.
You should acknowledge your internship with the addendum of "I still regret I slunk off in shame after accidently ghosting you for a week."
Don't apologize again.
Don't try to fix things.
We've all goofed up in major ways.
Let your spiffy query and excellent book carry the weight.
A savvy agent doesn't let stuff like that get in the way of nabbing a good book.
There are only two things that put an intern on my fecal roster:
Being rude to writers.
Posting crap about their internship on social media.
Notice that ghosting isn't one of them.
