Category Archives: Oh, Baby!

Happy New Year! The Year of the Unicorn (Cissell II)

Posted on August 23, 2019 | 4 comments

Last August, I typed my New Year’s goals for you after declaring my own year (still working on the calendar system, but I can tell you right now, February is gonna get more days. Possibly at the expense of September. I hate that month).

I haven’t been very present on this blog. Or anywhere, actually. Although things aren’t as bleak as they were last summer, it’s still been an intense year.

I published two books last fall, the first two in a new series.

I started January with shingles, which resulted in constant pain (mostly gone now) and some hearing loss. I went through an entire season of all-to-frequent contact with my lawyer, but after almost 9 months, was able to finish that labor in a great place to protect my child for the next 11 years.

I also published A Wing and a Prayer and hit the USA Today Bestseller list!

I went to Belgium and Czechia.

I got married.

I published another book – like three days later.

A book cover. Green background with standing stones. A woman with long, dark, curly hair and white skin is on the cover. The title is "The Lost Child, An Eleanor Morgan Novel by Amy Cissell."

We celebrated my kiddo’s 1st Liana-versary with hiking and presents and cake and decorations. (I didn’t quite get the layer colors quite right, but she assured me I can keep practicing every year until I do.)

And here I am, almost through August. Ready to send my kid off to 2nd Grade. And even though all the big stressors of the last 12 months are mostly gone (I’m married, my kid is doing pretty well, the legal stuff is over for now, I got four books out in the last 12 months), something still isn’t right.

But you know what? It’s fucking New Years. Last year was the Year of the Phoenix. I had 12 goals.

Feel comfortable in new job by my birthday (2/24 in case you need time to plan your celebratory activities) – done
Publish five books & 1 novella by the end of the Year (8/14/19) – not quite; 3 books & 1 novella
Find three new clients for the editing business I share with the Beer Guy – We have worked with 3 new clients (and then some!)
Get married – Done
Have the most awesome honeymoon ever – Super done
Find a physical activity I super enjoy and do it regularly for fun (preferably trail running) – still in progress – more on that in a minute
Develop a regular at-home yoga practice – hahaha. no.
Stay meds compliant. I’ve never managed to be compliant for more than 6-8 months. I’m currently, as of New Year’s Day, five months in on my current medication. There will be the added challenge of switching providers and insurance. – passed with flying colors. I’m 17 months in, managing the dickish new providers, and making things happen.
Find two really good pairs of jeans. – eh. Yes. Kinda. I’m happy with my new affinity to leggings.
Learn to appreciate massages. – done. I get monthly massages and they are wonderful.
Become more comfortable with self promotion. Still working on it, but if you want to check me out on Amazon, I welcome your participation!
Develop an elaborate framework for the Cissell calendar and Cissell astrology. – well, I created a graphic for Cissell II. So that happened.

I found out this week that I have pretty sever sleep apnea, which has almost definitely been contributing to my depression and exhaustion. During my sleep study, I stopped breathing about 25 times each hour, meaning I’m waking up every 2 minutes or so.

I’m also upping the dosage on my crazy pills. This was the dosage that was recommended by my old psychiatrist a year ago, but when I switched to Kaiser, the new shrink didn’t believe I was bipolar (despite an almost 20 year history of getting independently diagnosed by several psychiatrists) and didn’t want to increase my dosage. So I’ve been coasting along at this ‘not quite therapeutic enough’ level for just over a year while doing my best to avoid the crummy shrink. (Did you know at Kaiser, you can’t just switch therapists or psychiatrists. It is a process of 3-4 months. Fortunately, crummy shrink was on vacation this week and I got to talk to her substitute. He was fantastic and is going to be my temporary guy until I get a permanent placement again.)

So – time for my New Year’s resolutions for this, the second year of Cissell.

Find a fairly inexpensive place to vacation abroad. (Don’t want to break my streak of getting a passport stamp every year since 2016).
Finish the Eleanor Morgan series and add at least one Oracle Bay book to my list.
Work on marketing skills.
Use CPAP machine religiously and find out what it’s like to be rested again.
Learn to be more vulnerable. Strength /= lack of emotion. Ask for and accept help.
Make time, 3-4x/week, for exercise. Even if it’s just 20 minutes.
Rediscover my love of the trails, whether it’s hiking with my daughter or running by myself.
Biweekly swim dates with the child.
Monthly blog posts
Quarterly fancy dates with my husband
Stop frequently and watch in awe as my daughter grows up and completes second grade. Be there when she needs me, but staying a few steps back when she doesn’t. (Also, force her to ride her damn bike already, I mean I was riding before kindergarten C’MON!) Let go of the things that don’t really matter (biking) and work on the things that do (swimming) and find a way to enjoy soccer momming.
Court balance and self care.

Rocks balancing on rocks - five total - in front of the ocean. — Bonus: spend more time in the water, whether it’s ocean, lake, river, or swimming pool. Water is my happy place.

What are your goals as you move into the Year of the Unicorn?

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Book-It! Please send pizza, Cake or Death, Friends & Family, Made of Awesomesauce, Not Dead Yet!, Oh, Baby!, Priorities!, The Beer Guy, Where's My Towel, Woot!, Write Now!

tap tap Oh hey! You’re still here! Spoiler: So am I.

Posted on August 13, 2018 | 1 comment

It’s been a couple minutes, right? I left you on a fairly grim note, and I’d love to tell you that my two month absence since then is because I’ve been frolicking on a cloud made of rainbows and gin cocktails and unicorns and nachos.

That, however, would be a lie.

June and July were so fucking hard, y’all. I don’t know what I did to deserve the child I got, but it must be so karmically confusing to everyone who knows about it. She’s simultaneously the best and hardest thing that’s ever happened to me.

BUT BUT BUT! It’s August now, and things are good! Looking up! So much excite! You’ll have to excuse me for pouring out all my happies and announcements all in one post.

First, the personal news.

I am engaged. Like for realsies. The beer guy is going to marry me, even after everything. He knows my crazy and not only isn’t running away screaming, but actually put a ring on the insanity. It’s really hard to convince myself that he just feels sorry for me when there are wedding plans afoot.
I should be both the hand model and the hand photographer, right?
I got a new job! I’ve been at my current one only about 16 months. It was there when I needed it, and I’ve honestly loved working with the departments I was assigned to. My issues were elsewhere. After spending the last 15+ years in jobs that treated me like a professional adult, it was hard to go back to an environment where that wasn’t the case. Once they denied my ADA accommodation because it’s more important for me to have a physical presence in the office (where I see almost no one and talk to even fewer people) than for me to be productive, happy, and healthy, I knew there was no way to win. The number of times I was either misled or flat out lied to just compounded the issues. I’d been hoping to stay at least four more years for a number of reasons, but my mental health and happiness (and that of the people I’m close to) weren’t worth it. Once I’ve started for real, I’ll share more of my new job information – and do another little celebration as I leave academia – forever!
Professional Excite time!
My next book, the first in the Oracle Bay series not only has a cover, but it has a presale sale! From now until release day (10/25/18), Not in the Cards is on sale for 99¢ at just about every online outlet you can think of. Paperbacks will be available a little closer to the release date. (And, if you’re in Portland, you can come to my release day party! There will be books, and tarot cards, and definitely some bubbles.)
Professional Excite #2!
The Eleanor Morgan series is getting a new look. While I get my ducks in a row to replace the series (and go with a re-edited version of The Cardinal Gate), you can pick up my remaining inventory of old covers for the low, low price of $10/ea (autographed) + shipping ($8 for Cardinal Gate), or grab all four for $30 + shipping. Just head on over to my store! (There is a separate entry to grab all four at once – you won’t get the discount if you pick them up separately.)

In the meantime, check out the newly imagined The Cardinal Gate (the rest of the covers will be revealed in my next newsletter, which will also have a Raj chapter in it…you may wanna subscribe over there on the right…)

That should cover all the big stuff that’s been going on over the last couple months – at least the stuff that’s any of your business! 😀

We have a family trip to the coast this weekend (the Bean, the beer guy, his parents, and me), then school/new job starts, my spontaneous trip to Canada in October (I just decided yesterday to go spend the night in Vancouver one weekend), and then a busy fall/winter/spring schedule.

I’m a little behind on my writing schedule, but I’m still hoping to get everything out more or less as planned.

Not in the Cards – 10/25
First Hand Knowledge (I’m about 60% done with this and will finish this month) – end of November
Belle of the Ball – December (ideally 12/15)
Wing & a Prayer – January 8 (set in stone!)
The Lost Child (Eleanor #5) – end of February

After that, my schedule is an unknown. It will depend a bit on the demands of my day job, how busy my editing schedule is next year, and book sales. I am fairly committed to releasing Eleanor #6 in 2019 and likely the next Oracle Bay. That’ll be 3 novels & 1 novella next year and that might have to be my max.

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Made of Awesomesauce, Not Dead Yet!, Oh, Baby!, The Beer Guy, Woot!, Write Now!

Tagged bipolar, book sales, cover reveals, eleanor morgan, engaged people, new job, oracle bay, writing

Four Things Friday

Posted on March 16, 2018 | 2 comments

I am so tired, you guys. Like jet lag and stress and pre-release week and new meds have all combined to kick my ass. I’ve been in bed before 10 almost every night this week and the only regret I have about my kiddo coming home tonight is that means I won’t be able to sleep in in the morning.
This kid had my mom send me this picture while I was traveling. I just heart him so hard.
Ireland was such an adventure. It was fraught with last minute schedule changes all over the place. The day we were to leave, I got a notification that our planned flight out of Portland was delayed, which meant we wouldn’t get our connection. A scramble later, and we were on a flight that left earlier, dropped my kid off at kindergarten, cried a little, and made it to the airport with 15 minutes to spare (hooray for TSA pre-check!) to get our luggage on the plane with us. The rearranged schedule meant a 5 hour layover in the worst airport in the world – Charles de Gaulle – and getting to Dublin four hours behind schedule. The drive to Cork when we’d both been up for 24+ hours, were getting used to a new car and opposite side road driving, and also the dark was…interesting. BUT! We made it, got into our hotel, and then found a pub on the corner for food and birthday beer for me.
Me and beer and my cute new hat (necessary because COLD!)

Oscar Wilde in the snow (Galway)

Later, the Beast from the East trapped us in Galway and we were forced to cancel the Spain portion of our trip. The entire country – rail, airports, buses, etc. – was shut down and there were travel alerts everywhere. We ended up spending an extra few days in Galway and then heading to Limerick for a few days (where we celebrated the Beer Guy’s birthday). Spain will have to wait until next time, I guess.

The Beer Guy, having a beer in Limerick, on the occasion of his 40th birthday

Dunguaire Castle
These shoes. YOU GUYS. These shoes got me through 2.5 weeks of constant walking, on cobblestones, in the snow and slush, through fields, everywhere. They are miracle shoes and I am going to buy 100 more pairs as soon as I find some in my size.
Miracle Shoes on a 1000 year old step
Lemme tell you about the new diet craze that will soon be sweeping the nation. I lost weight on this trip. And it wasn’t despite my steady diet of beer and meat and potatoes, it was because of it. (It had nothing to do with the 5+ miles/day of walking…or the fact that I wasn’t stressed out – much…or the fact that I wasn’t sitting in front of a computer for 12+ hours a day…it was the BEER!) I’m going to write a book and get super rich, you guys!
Introducing:
THE GUINNESS DIET

The Cliffs of Moher – one of the many long, long walks we did in snow and slush.

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Made of Awesomesauce, Oh, Baby!, Shoe Me!, The Beer Guy, Woot!

Tagged alvie bean, ireland, shoes, travel

Three Things Thursday: Travel Freakout Edition

Posted on February 15, 2018 | 1 comment

I am leaving next Friday for a sixteen-day European vacation. This is (a) my longest trip I’ve ever taken since college and (b) the first big trip I’ve taken with the Beer Guy. (We’ve done weekend trips, and a week-long trip to Mexico, but his family was there, and although I love them all, it’s not quite the same.)
Vacation goal: pics of the two of us. Together. Because I have zero from Mexico or Colorado…
I am a notorious overpacker. My packing list actually says: “Cardigans – all of them.” Which wouldn’t be excessive if I only owned two. However, I have at least a half dozen, perhaps more. I am trying to remind myself that I don’t need 2-3 options for every day, and that the Beer Guy will not make fun of me if I wear the same outfit more than once in 2.5 weeks. Probably.
The worst part? My kidlet. It’ll be the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing him, even though I did arrange with his dad that I could spend a couple hours with him the day I get home, since he won’t come back to me until five days later. (My mom is coming to spend time with him, which is great for them and our cats and our house, but still…so long without Alvie Bean squishes.)
Ack! This kid. My heart. *sigh*

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Made of Awesomesauce, Oh, Baby!, The Beer Guy, Where's My Towel, Woot!

Tagged alvie bean, the beer guy, travel, vacation

Three Things Thursday: Is it really Thursday edition

Posted on January 25, 2018 | Comments Off

It is Thursday, right? I’ve been off a day all week. Anyway, I think I have the right day, so here goes.

Money is the worst, y’all. (I’ve started my taxes for 2017.) Money is also the greatest (I’m going to Ireland/Spain in <1 month!). Sigh. Money.
My child, the adorable and sassy AF Alvie Bean, has a very special gift. He is able to find the smallest puddle of water in every outdoor space and fall into it, drenching himself in situations when it should be impossible.
Book stuff is hard, yo. I sat down with the Beer Guy last night and brainstormed my/our plans for the next three years. I’ve got so much ambition, but not as much time as I’d personally prefer. I’m going to have to be extremely disciplined about time to ensure I fit in the day job, the writing, the editing, as well as self-care and exercise. I think it’s doable, if ambitious, and can lead to a future where I can maybe *fingers crossed* eliminate one of those things (psst…the one that takes the most amount of time…).