Live Your Dreams

On Sunday I had the chance to meet with two professionals related to horse racing. The first, Aaron Gryder, took a moment to sign my program after speaking with some twenty young riders about his experiences atop a thoroughbred. Mr. Gryder is a real class act, he being so kind to take time out of his busy day to spend it with the often most ignored part of racing, the fans. He explained to the group of how he started riding as a jockey at age sixteen and that following your dreams is the most important thing to finding satisfaction in life. He signed my program as just that, "Live Your Dreams".

So what are your dreams?

For everyone this could mean something different. Perhaps it’s finding a mate, or starting a family, reaching the pinnacle amongst your peers or in your profession, acquiring a lot of stuff, being famous, etc. Concerning my dreams I've been fortunate enough to acquire some of them through a lot of hard work, but there are others that require outside help. One of them is publishing a novel. That is where the second professional came in.

Frank Scatoni is an agent and founding partner of Venture Literary. He represented Gary Steven's work The Perfect Ride. I had the opportunity that afternoon to sit at his finish line box and make a pitch for Regal Heart. Despite some verbal bumbling towards the end, Mr. Scatoni still said that he was "interested in giving the work an in depth look." Rachel Alexandra's romp in the Haskell just an hour earlier certainly made the pitch of a filly chasing the Triple Crown all the more believable. I couldn't have timed it better.

The offer was made that whenever I feel it’s ready, that Frank would be willing to review the first two chapters of the novel. In the publishing industry getting past the query is a challenge in itself. Now it’s to the task of making the first two chapters as sharp as possible.

Perseverance!