Modal And Link Based On Ninja Book?

I have a login link that is supposed to open a modal and then direct the visitor to a submission form once they are logged in. Here's the link code: <a href="/resources/submit" class="login">Submit New</a> and the jquery based on an example in the ninja book:

Code:
$('a.login').click(function() {
openDialog('#dialog');
});
$('#dialog')

[Code]...

When I put a path name in the href, the modal opens but then quickly closes itself and sends the visitor to the form. If I use href="#" the modal opens and stays open, but when the visitor submits the form they are returned to the page they were on rather than the submission form.

I keep setting this aside and coming back to it, thinking I'll understand what's gone wrong here, but I still don't. I'd like this modal to work for other links with different paths, so I don't want to code the redirect into the js - I want to be able to control it in the link itself.