Henry Hoey Hobson (18 page)
Love and thanks to my wonderful family for putting up with my domestic deafness while writing this book. The little ones had to resort to âMum ... Mum ... Mum ... Chris!' to get my attention, and the big ones, to email.
Thanks also to my mate Maryann Stitt, swim coach extraordinaire, for stroke correction on the natatorial passages; the inspirational kids, coaches and families at St Ambrose's School, Newmarket, and Kelvin Grove Swim Club; my incomparable first reader and publisher, Leonie Tyle, and editors Rosie Fitzgibbon and Sarah Hazelton, who are everything that editors should be.
A special thank you to my very favourite vampire writer, Jason Nahrung, for creative inspiration. This book wouldn't have been written, JN, but for those drinks around your coffin.
Twelve-year-old Cecilia Maria was named after saints and martyrs to give her something to live up to.
Over my dead body,
she vows.
In the blinding heat of 1970s Queensland, she battles six brothers on her side of the fence, and the despised Kapernicky girls, lurking on the other side of the barbed wire.
Secrets are buried deep, only to surface decades later when Cecilia drags her own reluctant teenagers back home to dance on a grave and track down some ghosts.
Warm but tough-minded,
Dust
glitters with a rare and subtle wit, illuminating the shadows that hang over from childhood and finding beauty in unexpected places.