New Years Eve tomorrow, so I won’t get the chance to blog again until next week. We’re hosting our normal family and friends gathering, which I’m looking forward to. I’ve not seen much of Trace this Christmas. We traditionally spend Christmas Eve together with the aid of a take-away meal. It didn’t happen this year, she had a chest infection and although she invited me over, I declined.

She’d been working hard in her new job and was basically worn out. Christmas Day would be busy as she had to work during the morning, so it just didn’t seem fair. I popped over for ten minutes to exchange presents, and although I missed it, I know we’ll make up for it next year. That’s what friendship is all about.

We’ve rang each other during the week, but it will be nice to spend some time together. It will be pretty much open house here, the kids, their friends, our friends and a few of the neighbours. I am not going to go mad tomorrow with the cooking – well, I say that now – somewhere between now and then, I’ve have a panic attack and turn into the village’s equivalent of Delia Smith. It’s guaranteed.

I always have a problem when entertaining – I don’t know when to stop. I put so much effort into making sure that everyone has a good time – I forget about myself. Which is where Tracy comes in – she waves alcohol and munchies at me. A couple of glasses later and I start to think, bugger them, it’s my New Year as well – they can help themselves.

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Looking back over the past year, as one is expected to do – must keep with tradition, I’ve decided that I’ve had a really good year. Finished college and gained a recognisable business qualification – which if I wanted to, would enable me to move to a better paid job. I won’t of course, like most people that work for our company; it’s not about the money.

Yes, it’s had its ups and downs, but that’s quite normal too. It’s amazing how you can cope with what life throws at you and in all honesty, you don’t have to look too far to find someone that’s had it worse than you. If I turned the clock back twelve months and someone had told me at the time that I’d have started to write stories and produced my own website, that I’d make new friends, people that are prepared to accept me for who I am - I’d have probably laughed and disagreed with them. It still surprises me now that I’ve actually done it, but what surprises me more – is how I feel about the genre. As a reader, I’d look at anything – didn’t put a lot of though behind it, but as a writer I’ve started to see things differently. Talking to people and listening to their points of view have opened my eyes and most certainly made me question how I view things. I’m sure my writing will change over time, I can see a slight difference already – but hopefully my sense of humour will continue throughout, that will always be important to me. That sense of humour has seen me through many traumatic events over the years, it’s very much part of my coping mechanism and unless you know me personally and some of the things I have to deal with, I very much doubt you’d ever understand it.

The next part of James and Jay will be with Scally next week and I’ve brought it back round to my original idea, which will probably surprise a few people in the end. Cobweb, Gnome and Sulya, in a roundabout sort of way have given me a new idea and I’m enjoying myself developing it – humour playing an important part.

It’s dawned on me during the last couple of weeks, that I don’t need to fit into anyone elses idea of the genre – it’s my world and the control over it is also mine. Its taken time for me to reach that point and several helping hands along the way. People that I’ve learnt to trust because they’ve been there for me, been very honesty with me, challenged me, joked with me, made me laugh and on a couple of occasions, even made me cry. They have earned my respect and I’m honour that they trust me enough to welcome me into their lives.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions – what’s the point, I’d only break them, but the closest I’ll get to it is my determination to carry on developing my writing, my spelling and my punctuation; for they all play an important part in what I hope to achieve, goals that I’ve set myself for 2007.

On that note, it's time for me to finish my last blog for 2006 – once again I'll take the opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Hope you have a good time.