The creation of “Dream City” has been Brendan Short’s labor of love for many years. The Western Springs native said that his debut novel, slated to hit bookstores later this month, has been “on my computer and in my head for so long.” For the past months, advance copies have been receiving positive reviews. Short will begin helping to publicize the book through area readings and signings within the next several weeks.

Short started writing his book seven years ago and worked on it as able between graduate studies and work. “Dream City” tells of the coming of age of a Chicago boy born during the Depression. The main character, Michael, is an avid collector of Little Big Books and finds escape and comfort in the books’ heroes, such as Dick Tracy and Buck Rogers.

The process of writing and then publishing his book has been long and involved, and in many ways, “kind of surreal. For so long the story was in my head and I was working on it. All of a sudden it’s out of my hands and sort of belongs to other people. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time,” Short said. “It’s hard to explain. I’ve thought of some element of this book every day for the whole time I’ve been writing it, a little before I was writing it, and since I finished it. For me going into it, I was interested in writing things that are really important to me, really mean something to me. It’s incredibly important to me,” he said.

“It’s hard to publish a novel. It’s not smooth and it takes a long time. I know really good writers who have never been published and others in the same boat that got an agent quickly and sold the book quickly. And there are others in the middle. My experience was that I sent my manuscript to a bunch of agents, and some were interested and some weren’t. I finally got one, and she and her assistant had some good edits. We worked on revisions for half a year and then she sent it to a bunch of publishers. There were a couple of places that wanted to publish it. But almost every step of the process was a long shot. The quality of the book only takes you so far and then I don’t know what it is that the publisher is looking for. It was really interesting to be in the middle of that and see it play out,” Short said.

With his first book completed, Short said that he’d love to be able to write full time and his second novel is already in the works.

“I have written some parts and I’m trying to get into a rhythm with it, but it’s hard with distractions from ‘Dream City’ and with being busy at work,” he said.

“So few writers get to do that for a living. It’s interesting to think about it. There are so many really talented writers out there and you read a book that really moves you and that you think is great. Then you find out that the writer has a regular job and just has to squeeze in writing for a couple of hours a day,” he said.

Short works full time in foundation relations for the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and lives with his wife and daughter in Oak Park.

For further information on “Dream City,” visit www.brendanshort.net.

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