So, I’m sitting here in the loft, scheming new ideas and plot lines for this next novel of mine, The Rose Guardian. Christmas music is playing on iTunes. Over my head the roofers are thumping and bashing and doing a Morris dance, installing a new steel roof on this grand old stone house. On the floor below Izzy, my adopted budgie, squawks and trills, happy he’s been given a new stalk of millet. Doesn’t take much to make him happy.

I suppose Izzy and I share that, finding joy in simple things. In two days Kelly and Adam, Gary’s and my two fantastic kids, will be home from Toronto and Calgary. There will be hugs and tears of joy, laughter and memories made to carry us through the days of 2010.

2009 has been a good year here at the old stone house. Sure, there have been moments of trial. But overall a great deal for which to be thankful, and accomplishments of which to be chuffed.

Gary’s end of Five Rivers, the custom glass and mirror business, has grown at a sensible and positive pace despite the recession. Many new contractors have retained his services on a regular basis, with prospects lined up for January from Owen Sound to Toronto’s lakeshore.

And my end of the business, the publishing house, has settled into a vibrant, viable community of like-minded people. From three authors published in 2009, including me, we’ve expanded to nine: Paul Lima, Deb Salisbury, Lorina Stephens, Nate Hendley, the Patrick Lima and John Scanlan team, Kelly Stephens, Alicia Hendley, and Simon Rose. The publishing list runs through non-fiction and fiction, gardening and writing, to fantasy, science fiction and mainstream, adult to young adult literature.

I remember years ago laughingly commenting that if I won a fortune I’d buy myself a publishing house. Then POD technologies developed. And, voila, dreams do come true, not quite as we expect, but there they are, staring at you, encompassing your life.

And so that’s what Gary and I wish you this year: the realization of your dreams. They won’t just happen. Dreams do require imagination, hard work and determination, a willingness to think in visionary terms and take risks. But dreams can and do come true if you dare to have the courage.