MSI Press Blog

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic looks at how the concept of, goals for, and conduct of book tours have changed over time. It also looks at whether a book tour is a good idea, based on likely % of return on investment. The essence of the morphing has been from in-person to virtual, part of that in keeping with the Covid experience. In person Most authors think of the pre-covid take-a-trip from town to town for, generally, bookstore signings. That did work once upon a time, but mostly for people with household names. Previously unpublished authors often have romantic notions, completely untied from reality, that publishers will underwrit...

  Carl , who died from cancer August 16, 2021 would love to see me wearing my non-slid slipper sox . He was constantly slipping as he tried to walk with his walker, unbalanced from hypercalcemia. He found these sox online; they are stronger than the typical non-slid sox (click the link above to get to the sales site), warm, form-fitting, and comfortable.  I was always slipping when I tried to pull him up from his chair after he became too weak to stand on his own. I was barely strong enough to lift his 275-pound body with some help from him, and having sox skid me along the floor because his weight was more than my bicep strength created a dangerous situation. So, he ordered me several pairs, which came just as he was dying. I never got to wear them. He was in a Hoyer lift for transportation at that time. After he died, though the need for super-floor-sticking no longer existed, I cleaned his drawer and gave his sox (too big for me) to my son and daughter, whom they fit. Out o...

  The Scheheradaze  Foundation is auctioning items, each of which is accompanied by a story. The purpose of the auction is to help Afghan girls and other girls around the world. The stories are an added benefit to the items.  Here is what the organization says about the auction and the need for funding: Women and girls around the world urgently need the help of The Scheherazade Foundation. Thanks to recent crowdfunding campaigns, we're now paying for orphan girls' education in  Taliban-controlled Afghanistan , launching a 'camel library' in Baluchistan, and are working on a major and exciting new initiative for Arabia: the SF All-Female  Empty Quarter Expedition .  Click HERE for details and information about the foundation, the auction, and the stories, but hurry. The auction ends soon!

  Sula, well known across the Internet for the general sharing of her story by Guideposts , All Creatures , and others, is listed on every Sunday bulletin of Old Mission San Juan Bautista .  Sula has survived five bouts of cancer, written a book about it ( Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story ). When she entered remission after her fifth bout and concurrent with closure of the Mission gift shop, her home, because of covid regulations, Sula, now 14 years ago, went into retirement, living with a parish couple that has taken care of her whenever she needed to recuperate for years. Now, she comes to the church on Sundays to be with the parishioners and lend them support as she always has. Sula's first cancer is skin cancer. The first bout required clipping her ears. The second bout required removing her ears. She remains in remission from skin cancer. Sula's second cancer was carcinoma at the injection site of a vaccination (her hip). The first time required surgi...

  Many people spend money on Black Friday -- savings and all, you. Some people spend a lot. We are suggesting that this Black Friday you spend a little to help a lot with the little creatures of life. Cats and dogs in shelters need support for payment of dire medical needs, as well as fostering and adopting. Consider helping out a local shelter this Black Friday. And/or help out an organization that feeds stray cats and provides them a home. Here are two that we follow:   Ernesto's Sanctuary for Syrian Cats  in Aleppo   Chachi's Haven in Israel

  Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving celebrates a host of blessings -- and brings with it some difficult moments for those who do not appear to be as blessed as others (those coping with a disability, suffering an addiction, or mourning a recent loss). Click HERE for a choice of past posts that deal with these holiday issues. Happy reading! 

Book description: Posing for a picture at the southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, a long-eared jackrabbit hop from Mexico and 2,650-some miles from Canada, your stomach churns and your mind reels. The air is dusty. A morning desert wind feels oddly cold. No amount of preparation is sufficient for the starkness of your decision. In this beginning, something has ended. Something practiced and old and broken-in has faded. In its place enters immediacy and relevance and sharp possibility. Plans and spreadsheets become paper prayer flags fluttering in a past mind, useless tributes to linear pretense. You catch yourself thinking that it feels like the first day of school. But there are no teachers, no classmates, no classrooms, no halls, and no walls. There is only one choice that yields results: to turn and to walk, to follow the well-worn trail North. With each step, you lose a little more of the other-world, the un-PCT. All you have is what you need. All you need is what you hav...

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses the need to go after book reviews. Why do you have to go after them? Why not just let them come to you? (And maybe we should talk a little more again about why you need reviews.) Why you need reviews credibility, especially if this is your first book, you have a weak platform, and/or your name is unknown in the genre and field in which you are writing getting the word out -- word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising, but reviews generally let the brains associated with those mouths know about the existence of the book quotes for promoting the book, including for the book descripti...

  The Hoyer lift made life work for us when Carl came home on hospice. I had been told about it by a friend after Carl had fallen several times and needed help getting up from more than one neighbor working together. Had I known a little earlier, I could have saved the neighbors some effort and Carl some dignity. Actually, once Carl went on hospice, the hospice company provided us with the lift. (Their aides would not have been able to lift Carl without it.) Having it at home meant that we could move Carl from bedroom to living room and back so that he could spend his days with his family out where they were and where he preferred to be. The Hoyer lift, as see in the picture is a tall pole with a moving base and patient sling for lifting patients who cannot stand. There are at least four  kinds of Hoyer lifts : power lift (highly recommended for large patients with small caregivers) manual (less expensive and works find for average-sized patients and average-sized caregivers)...

  Here are our suggestions for Christmas book giving: Sula the Cat does it again! Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, is a cat with a special mission: to comfort people in need. Every morning, she spends time with St. Francis, patron saint of animals, and receives guidance for the day. During Masses, led by the Holy Spirit, she seeks out whomever God wants her to comfort, and they report that she brings comfort, indeed. In her spare time, she writes books. This time, she is writing about Christmas traditions and how she experiences them as a parish cat. Ever wonder where our various Christmas customs come from? Sula tells you about the history and the customs today, both mainstream American Catholic and Mexican American Catholic customs since both are part of her parish in California. Charmingly illustrated with an Eastern flavor by Russian artist, Zhenya Yanovich. Read excerpts HERE . Purchase the book HERE . People are often at a loss to find the right words to say...

 Taking a little step back from book publishing and a stride into read life, this Caturday I share with you a piece of daily life. Every morning I find a  toy monkey on the floor when I wake up. This toy monkey sits on the bureau every night, and every morning, there it is again on the floor. This morning it was lying on its back. Our cat Wooper (I caught her doing it) swipes it onto the floor and plays with it. She learned that from little Intrepid, who died three years ago but not before he taught Wooper how to play with big toys. A new wrinkle appeared today. Wooper took her monkey to bed with her! I found it on the bed when I walked into the bedroom this afternoon. Intrepid, Wooper's trainer, was barely double the size of the monkey. He earned his name. His favorite toys were dog toys and human toys. He now lies together with his owner in a grave that gets regular family visitors. (Some cats are more human than people!) For more Caturday posts, click HERE . For more posts...

  Congratulations to Irit Schaffer ( Good Blood ) for earning the status of Runner-Up (equivalent to a silver medal) in the 2021 Paris Book Festival's Spiritual/religious category. For more posts about MSI Press authors' awards, click HERE . For more posts about Irit, click HERE . For more posts about Good Blood , click HERE .

  Recently, I wrote an Amazon review of My Yellow Balloon , a very touchingly written and extremely insightful book for children who have experienced loss, written by Tiffany Papageorge, illustrated by Erwin Madrid, and published by Minoan Moon. It is an impressive book on all levels; the writing, the illustrations, and the quality of publication. Something that belongs in the room and hands of every child who has ever lost anyone or anything of importance to him/her. Noah's New Puppy , a book by Richard Rice and Geri Henderson, illustrated by Vincent Rice, that we published a couple of years ago, fulfills a similar purpose but for a different need. Tenderly written, including with guidance for parents on its use, and gorgeously illustrated, this book focuses on PTSD and indeed belongs in the hands of all children whose parents experience PTSD as well as with those who work with them. (Note: MSI Press, editor@msipress.com, will provide a complimentary copy to reviewers and special ...

  " The author's wisdom and experience shine through to inspire and motivate with accessible and straightforward practices that can provide calm in the chaos. She exudes kindness and boundless hope for staying connected in mind, body, and spirit no matter how trying life becomes amid a pandemic and beyond. Her simple but powerful guide can serve as an effective launching point for managing stress by acquiring self-care practices that can be adapted into daily routines." Read the rest of the review HERE . Julie's book received a RECOMMENDED rating. For more posts about this book, click HERE . For posts about Julie and her books (yes, she has more than one), click HERE .

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses the technical aspects of publishing -- things that experienced authors know but first-time authors do not and, more important, things that publishers expect all authors to know. (This information is also important for authors considering self-publishing.) Illustrations All illustrations (drawings, photos, charts, tables, graphics) need to be 300 dpi at the size to be used (the smaller the size, the higher the dpi will be). Yes, iPhone pictures will work; however, if you crop a picture, you will be essentially making the portion of the picture to be used of a larger size and the dpi will increas...

  In March, Carl was diagnosed with advanced stage 4 (metastatic) cancer of unknown primary. In August, he died.  When we got the diagnosis, we had to choose a detour from our normal life. There was no way to move straight ahead with life as usual because, you see, there was this big obstacle, called cancer, straight ahead. So, the question was to detour to the left and choose a treatment option, hope, and focus on the living or detour to the right and let nature takes its course, choose to accept the situation at face value, letting nature take its course, and focus on the dying. To fight or to surrender? There was no logical superiority of either path, not knowing what lay behind the cancer tree and how long was the path for it  continued out of sight. We decided not through reasoning but through conditioned reaction to fight. That is what we had done all our adult lives, as we successfully navigated life for four children, two with rare birth defects, and three grandch...

  Just released -- the hard cover version of the powerful Harnessing the Power of Grief  by Julie Potter. Other versions of this book include  paperback  and  Kindle . For more posts about  Harnessing the Power of Grief , including excerpts, click  HERE . For more posts about Julie Potter, click  HERE .

  (photo from last year, in anticipation of changing that number this evening from 41 to 42) November 13 today is CB Leaver's birthday. CB is the MSI Press author of the popular Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest and one of the oldest CHARGE Syndrome adults in the world. He knows only three others world-wide (Ohio, Massachusetts, and Netherlands) who have reached his age of 42 years (one is actually 45, the others are 42, as well) but thinks there may be another one or two somewhere. It is no mere feat, then, that he has survived, and robustly so, after a very tenuous start in life in which he as given 0% chance of survival by well respected doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and rescued by doctors at Children's Hospital in Boston, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University Hospital, and Stanford Children's Medical Center -- it took a countrywide network to turn that 0% into 100%) and no mere feat also that ...

  Just released -- the hard cover version of the highly praised and award-winning Rainstorm of Tomorrow: The Ever-Flowing Banquet of Philosophy  by Renyuan Dong. Other versions of this book include  paperback  and  Kindle . For more posts about  Rainstorm of Tomorrow , including excerpts, click  HERE . For more posts about Renyuan Dong, click  HERE .

  One of more prolific writers, Joanna Romer, wrote a wonderful little tome about how to help disabled veterans -- all of it researched through interviews with disabled veterans: Helping the Disabled Veteran . Available in paperback and Kindle See more posts about this book, including excerpts, as well as other veteran-related related posts,  HERE . To read more posts about Joanna and her books, click HERE .

  Just released -- the hard cover version of the popular Depression Anonymous   by Dr. Dennis Ortman. Other versions of this book include paperback and Kindle . For more posts about Depression Anonymous , including excerpts, click HERE . For more posts about Dr. Ortman and his books, click HERE .

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic once again addresses reviews, but from a different angle. We can all agree that reviews are important, but they are only helpful if they are available. Why, then, do some reviews over time disappear and what, if anything can you do about it? After all, it is hard enough to get reviews in the first place. So, why do reviews disappear? Sometimes, it is an accident. The Internet is expansive and sometimes clumsy. When websites update, things can accidentally disappear. Sometimes, it is part of an update. If the review is old and the blogger or whoever posted the review on his/her website updates posts to ke...