Hi family and friends — been a while since I did an update on how things are going with our family and life in general, so here goes for the new year:
Mom is still at home with an in-care provider and things are going okay — not great, but okay enough for her to be at home for now. She misses her car, but she didn’t need to be driving it anyway. I call her several times a week to check up on her and although I’m still worried, she does sound better and they have her on the correct meds. The stroke caused her to lose some memory and how to "do" certain things, but she is no longer hallucinating (the combo of the meds, plus the stroke contributed to that bout of mental hallucination, from what they can gather) and that is a huge relief. She is not out of the woods by any means, but she is … stable for now. It’s a day-by-day thing, really. But my brother Barry has stepped up to the plate and taking care of things in a responsible way. Continued thoughts/prayers are appreciated. If she can sustain this level, they won’t have to put her into a nursing home. At least for a while.
Paul and I celebrate our third month anniversary on 5 February. We are definitely moving in together sometime this year — just not sure when. Things are going extremely well for us and we’re absolutely smitten with each other. I am a happy woman and I have a wonderful man who resembles an imposing (yet sexy) blonde Viking but who is as gentle as the breeze. He treats me like a queen in every respect.
Kids are doing great, Jon got his permit and Britt is boy crazy (what’s new?) Cannot complain about my kids; they’re the bestest! Not much more to report on that front as they’re doing their thing, going to school and behaving themselves.
Started spring semester at Univ of Colo - Colo Spgs on 17 January and am still getting back into the groove. Just on the EDGE of having all the credits I need to graduate with my degrees in Philosophy (religions) and Communication. One more semester should do it unless they spring something extra on me. This time around I’m taking physics, astronomy (gotta finish up some natural sci credits), modern classical philosophy and theater studies. Started to add an additional course, but I’m carrying a full course load as it is and, quite frankly, I have enough to juggle w/o adding another extra class.
On the writing front, things are heating up as far as my upcoming book, Sun Signs for Writers. The official release date will be August 9, 2006. Around May 18th F + W will be sending me to Washington, D.C. to participate in BookExpo America. I will be reading excerpts of the book in their booth. While there, I’m going to visit my long-time friend of 11 years, Kerri-Leigh and her family 
The closer it gets to May, the more I’ll know. Will post confirmed details at my author website as I know them: http://www.bevwaltonporter.com Liz O., my fantastic webmaster, redesigned my site…so if you get a chance, please please please stop by and take a look and see what you think (I do think it’s ‘cleaner’ than the old design by far).
My editor at Writer’s Digest Books wants the author/celestial profiles I’d originally suggested added into the book after all. They were abandoned because there wasn’t going to be enough room according to the original word count. But she says she’ll expand the word count to allow them to fit and gave me a March 1 deadline to write them up, which is cool. I’m glad she’s going to let me stuff them in there as I do think they’ll add a fun element to the book.
September will see the release of my first fiction book, Mending Fences, and I am co-authoring another book on writing, The Complete Writer Publishes, with my former co-authors of The Complete Writer — with a new co-author added in this time, Carolyn Howard-Johnson! Deadline for that work is March 31st…so needless to say it’s going to get very interesting come the end of March! In addition, Paul and I are working on a joint project for a movie script…I don’t know where I’ll fit that in before March, but I’m going to try to at least do a little on it (even if it’s mental development/research) here and there till all the other stuff is out of the way. It’s an exciting story and one that hasn’t been done before. The idea was his — and it’s a brilliant one. Of course, I’m just a LITTLE BIT biased. *g*
Otherwise, so far this year I’ve gotten a small tattoo of an Eye of Horus on my right ankle, gotten my hair cut into a Bettie Page ‘do and colored my hair black with red highlights.
Now it’s your turn. How’s your 2006 shaping up?
That’s about it. Hope your upcoming weekend is splendid!
