dendrophilous, gwynnega, ktsparrow, fiction_theory, 
tinaconnelly, sartorias and stillnotbored, I managed to get together a query letter that has, apparently, done at least part of its job at least once. An agent emailed me to ask for a partial last night.I'm stoked, obviously, and for the obvious reasons, because as far as I've yet to go, it means I've come far already. And because, as I said, it means the query works okay. It could probably be better. But it's at least good enough to get the door wedged open enough so that the actual book can do some of the talking. Which is kind of important.
(I was pretty worried that I'd only be able to write "gaugh" queries and that my work would remain unseen forever.)
So. One hurdle cleared. Onward. Thanks again, folks.