Sometimes the planets just seem to align. Or sometimes even just a word or two in the right context at the right time can provide an opening you can somehow manage to wriggle through.
My ultimate aim with the sending out of Mad About The House was to get a copy to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd.
Hopes were raised after I’d had the unexpected honor of having the book accepted as an exhibit in the National Museum of Australia. I had stumbled across an invitation for submissions for an exhibition the museum was putting together, which would showcase to future generations how Australians had dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.
Putting it acronymatically, I sent a P.D.F. of M.A.T.H. to the N.M.A. as a J.O.K.E.
I expected that if I was to receive any reply at all from the Museum’s curator it would be along the lines of, “Albert, we thank you for your submission. Unfortunately it is not quite what we are looking for at this time.” Instead they emailed back, thanking me, and asking for a hard copy!
This would be one of those little door-openers.
The next was the Queen’s COVID-19 Address to the Nation, on April 6.
I hadn’t got to see this by the time a friend to whom I’d sent a copy of MATH emailed saying, among other things, “It is good to know you’ve got something to be proud of when you look back at this time. Like the Queen said.”
I then watched Her Majesty’s Address and found the part my friend alluded to, where the Queen said: “I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” and, “…that the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterize this country.”
Linking this with what my friend had said, I saw how applicable it was to my short story.
I drafted a letter to the Queen, mentioning her inspiring Address to the Nation and quoting the section previously mentioned, as well as my friend’s comment. I also threw in the bit about the National Museum of Australia for a bit of national pride and street cred.
I posted it and a copy of MATH to Buckingham Palace. This was unfortunate because she was actually stuck in lockdown at Balmoral Castle!
But some months later one of my highest hopes was realized when I got home from work to find on the dining table an envelope with an Air Mail sticker on the front and a Balmoral Castle insignia on the back.
I’d gotten my letter from the Queen!
She thanked me for my humorous story, and for writing to her the way I had.
Prince Philip:
‘I say Liz, what was your favorite joke in Mad About The House?’
Queen Elizabeth:
‘My dear Philip, how can one choose just one when one was so amused by so many?’