I would like to take a moment to say thank you to someone who has shown me unconditional love and support from the moment we started dating nearly 13 years ago.  Without my wife, Courtney, and her steadfast faith in my dream there’s no way I would have seen that dream realized today as I start the first day of my new career as a full-time author.  Even when a virus wiped out months of work on a project and then a malfunction in a backup storage disc caused even more setbacks, she never let me lose hope that one day I would get here.  And in this, as in so many other things, she was absolutely right though at times I had trouble seeing it. 

In fact, until I sat down and started typing these words this morning, it still didn’t seem real.  I always thought of my career as an author as something like a manned mission to Mars, successful fusion power generation, or the truly perfect hamburger–a never ending quest for something too unattainable to ever really be achieved.  When I typed the first sentence for this piece I sat for a moment, overcome by emotion. 

 I often find myself surprised and a little confused that I have been so blessed with a wife like mine.  She has been my rock solid support when I needed it and the strong push to get off my butt and get to work when called for as well.  She brings out the best in me and makes me want to do better, all at the same time. 

 So Babe, you have literally helped make a life-long dream a reality today.  Words cannot express how grateful I am or how thankful I am that I get to share this life and its adventures with you. 

I love you!

D.W. McAliley
Author