Submission Of "The Dream"

I did not think I would be blogging twice in one day...

This evening I sent my manuscript, cover-art and profile pic of myself, my bio and my details via the submission form at iReadiWrite Publishing.

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG...

After nearly 9 months of work, the sleepless nights writing and rewriting, the honing of characters and situations, crafting environments from real places and imagined ones, researching every little piece of minutiae of music and musical history that went into the story. From the completing the primary draft to entering the editing phase which I undertook with the help of my editor J, to the conception of the idea for my cover art to the execution of some beautiful photography just this morning, to the last minute fretting and fawning over the manuscript (have I taken care of every single grammatical error or loose plot thread or weak line of dialogue...).

I have done as much as I can do. Now it is for others to judge it's relative worth as a piece of literary fiction. I think it's a beautiful little story, it's well crafted, has a soul. I'm still - even now - unsure about certain parts of it but that being unsure is only minor as I have tidied it up as much as I can. I guess I will know in about a week whether it will be accepted.

A couple of last minute things I did was to finalize the acknowledgments, include a little blurb about myself and a synopsis of the story. I also included a dedication. On the sidebar here you can see a photograph of a guy named Matt Price. Matt Price was a journalist for the News Limited stable here in Australia. For years he wrote a regular column which featured in The Australian newspaper called "The Sketch". The Sketch took an alternate view to the theater of politics in this country and Matt Price deconstructed the pomp and pansiness of Australian parliament and parliamentarians. He saw through the bullshit and the ballsiness of politics and found something rather more human about it all. Of course, his articles were invariably bang on the money and they were so bloody funny. He was universally loved by both sides of politics here in Australia. His regular appearences on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Insiders" program on Sunday mornings were compulsive viewing for a political junkie like myself. When he wasn't writing about politics, Matt was ruminating about life, his love affair with the Fremantle Dockers AFL football team and his idol Bob Dylan - who he had the rare privilege of meeting.

In September 2007, I found out - like many others that Matt Price had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. He sent an email to all of his colleagues telling them of his news and ended it with the most poignant of words "Life is fragile - hug your loved ones". Two months later, on November 25th 2007, at the age of just forty six - Matt Price died, leaving behind a loving wife and two beautiful children...and a nation who wept openly for his passing.

Matt Price had a love of words and a love of a story...he was my hero.

The Hambledown Dream is dedicated to his memory.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

DFA.