MSI Press Blog

  When Carl lay dying in home hospice, we were given three vials of morphine for pain. Oddly, we used very little of it. He did not need or want it. At one point, his liver was grieving him, and we gave him a small amount and called the hospice to find out what we should be giving since the bottle said only "as needed." We were told that we had given a pediatric dose -- for a 300-pound man. He did not seem to need more at that time, though, but the next couple of days, a couple of times, he indicated he was in mild pain, and we tripled the dose as suggested by the nurse. He, however, after that, never indicated he was in pain. Our son asked if he might like to be given at least a small dosage prophylactically, to which he responded, "You wanna turn me into a dope addict?" Carl had a limited tolerance for pain all his life, so if he said he was not in pain, he was indeed not in pain. Had he been in pain, he would have taken anything and everything available!  The opp...

  Rare Disease Day is an observance held on the last day of February to raise awareness for rare diseases and improve access to treatment and medical representation for individuals with rare disease. Rare Disease Day is meaningful for MSI Press since one of its authors, Shenan (CB) Leaver suffers from CHARGE Syndrome. CHARGE is so rare that he is one of only a handful of survivors in his age group worldwide -- he has personally found four besides himself! CHARGE Syndrome is a disorder that affects many areas of the body. CHARGE is an abbreviation for several of the features common in the disorder: coloboma, heart defects, atresia choanae (also known as choanal atresia), growth retardation, genital abnormalities, and ear abnormalities. The pattern of malformations varies among individuals with this disorder, and the multiple health problems can be life-threatening in infancy. When CB was born 42 years ago, CHARGE was not even known! Now, 70% of children born with CHARGE make it to ...

  War and natural disasters create atrocious living circumstances not only for the people caught in the vortex but also for their pets, who are not used to foraging for themselves, have not built up the skills for survival, and are met with austere conditions too frequently too overwhelming to support their efforts to stay alive. Ukrainians are devoted to their pets; having to leave them behind may look like desertion but in a blitzkrieg style war can be the only option to helping ensure a fleeing family itself survives -- and is likely gut-wrenching. Many families are scooping up their pets. Some cannot, and their pets are now on the streets. Network for Animals is stepping in and doing the best it can to take care of animals left behind. It needs help. Help = money. Any amount; US dollars stretch farther there than here. Network for Animals is registered in a number of countries, including Brazil, the USA, and UK, as a reputable charity, and contributions are considered tax deduc...

  Watch the presentation HERE : For more posts about Dr. Sabzevary, his lectures, and his book, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

  Excerpt from Andrew's Awesome Adventures with His ADHD Brain Sometimes My ADHD Brain Needs a Reminder on a Neon-Colored Sticky Note. Dismissal time! My ADHD brain doesn’t have to pay attention in school anymore today. Now, if I could only remember what I have for homework. I rummage through the miscellaneous papers shoved into my backpack, looking for my planner. “Found it!” It’s blank because I forgot to write down my homework assignments. Again. I stare at the books in my locker hoping to remember. Nope. “Darn!” I hear my bus number being called. Slamming the locker shut, I run down the hall with the nagging feeling I am forgetting something. I weave in and out of the sea of kids making their way to the front door of the school. My feet are moving faster now as I make the final sprint to the bus. Made it with only a minute to spare! I flop down onto the seat. “My trumpet! That’s what I forgot!” Mom reminded me before I left for school this morning to bring my trumpet home. Oh w...

  On December 9, Franki Bagdade chats with The Chaos Keepers , Jozlyn and Ginger. Her 5-star book, I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Them . is available at the MSI Press LLC webstore at 25% discount (use code FF25). For more posts by and about Franki and her book, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

   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 asks, very simply, what of the standard advice to authors is still viable, given the many changes in the book industry and life in general during and post-covid? Let's look at various pieces of advice that most authors have received from their publishers or from online writing sites. For books to sell, you need a lot of reviews.  Over 100 reviews is the recommended quantity. That is the classic advice. However, we have had hot-selling books that have had nearly no reviews. In those cases, there has been word of mouth "selling," in which influencers have recommended the book, book clubs hav...

  Carl dozing with his beloved cat, Intrepid both died of cancer, were cremated, and share a vault in local cemetery's columbarium Carl was often dozing during the last months of his life, perhaps as much as the last year. He had had uncontrolled sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome for years. For the former, her refused treatment; the CPAC and his beard battled for dominance, and his beard won. RLS was tames with medicine.  When Carl would doze off, I just assumed he was tired because he did not get adequate amounts of sleep. However, something else of which I was completely unaware was probably at work: dying. The dozing off became longer and more frequent during the last 2-3 months of his life, and during the last week, he moved from being mostly interactive to being mostly somnambulant. Carl dozed off and on during the day a lot even as much as a year before being diagnosed with advanced stage 4 cancer of unknown primary . Indeed, some of it was very likely a manifestatio...

  Book description: It's a tragic story about love, addiction, about a girl growing up in Soviet Union in a poor family and getting herself in bad dangerous situations due to the lack of moral values and lack of family support. Will she be able to overcome addiction, will she continue getting herself in trouble after she moves to the United States? Will she trap herself there again or obtain freedom? Will she be able to stay strong and keep her hunger for life despite her trauma and loss? The author of the novella, just like her heroine, was born and raised in the Soviet Union and emigrated to the United States in the late 1990s. The author is a practicing licensed psychotherapist, for many years she has been working with mentally ill people and with drug and alcohol addiction patients. Therefore, one of her tasks, already as a writer, was to more deeply reveal the problem of addiction and, possibly, influence the prejudice against those who could not cope with life's difficult...

  Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista and prolific MSI Press LLC author, has her own youtube series, the Sula Diaries. Listen to one of the diaries HERE Read more posts about Sula, her battle with cancer, and her books HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

  Watch Dr. Sabzecvary's YouTube presentation  HERE . For more posts about Dr. Sabzevary, his lectures, and his book, click  HERE .

Quotes from Luca Lampariello 's review of How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately by Boris Shekhtman: "will immediately supercharge your speaking skills in a foreign language" "I highly recommend this book to any learner of any language at any level of skill" "In terms of actionable skills, this book provides the most bang for the buck of any language learning training book on the market." LISTEN TO THE EXCELLENT YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE . For more posts about Boris Shekhtman and his books, click HERE . 25% discount available on this book at www.msipress.con/shop with code FF25.

Franki Bagdade, author of I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Them , was recently interviewed on the podcast, The Commons with Karla . Click on the link to listen to the podcast. For more posts by and about Franki and her book, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

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 how authors can sell their books. After all, it makes no sense to put all the effort into writing a book, self-publishing it or getting it published, and then having it sit on a shelf for ever, with no opportunity for it to share its message. Unfortunately, many, if not most new authors, in our experience, never think beyond the day their book appears in print (or, in some cases, beyond their first month of book launch activities). They assume that, of course, they did the work of writing the book, and the publisher will do the work of marketing the book. It does not work that way, and marketing ...

Dear Carl, Tomorrow is Valentine's day, the first one without you. I want you to know that I received the note above a couple of days after you died. I do not know why it took over a week to reach me; perhaps I was distracted with your dying and spending every minute I could with you even though you were barely aware (seemingly) of what was going on around you. I am told that with the brain fog from hypercalcemia and chemotherapy, it would have taken much effort for you to be able to get online and write this note. I am so glad that you did. That note is the centerpiece on our bureau now. Thank you, too, for the poppies. I know you loved California poppies; that is why I asked you to send me poppy flowers after you died so that I would know that you are okay. Well, even though all the flower books say that poppy season ended six months ago, you have done a good job of keeping at least a couple of the poppy plants blooming. The one at the bottom of the hill had three blossoms yester...

Excerpt:  Two especially important factors to keep in mind when there has been violence in a relationship and there is a potential for it to happen again.      1) You need to do or say whatever you have to, in order to placate the abusive partner and keep them from escalating.       2) Safety overrules accountability. This means that when you are in a potentially dangerous situation, it is better to be safe than to call someone out on their abusive behaviors or statements, which may just escalate things further. While there are many situations that contribute to family violence, parenting and money matters are two of the most common.  Difficulty with Kids  Kids are on edge and struggling right now, sometimes not getting schoolwork done or arguing with parents and siblings. In this time of social distancing and perhaps even quarantine, kids cannot do some of the many things that they usually do to de-stress such as play at t...

  When my beloved Murjan was dying from cancer , I was desperate for information, but my husband was dying from cancer at the same time, which gave me very little time for seeking out answers. Murjan was almost 19 years old and had been on chemotherapy for three years. His vet did not know how to help him further, but she apparently did not want to admit that -- and subconsciously I did not want to admit that she did not know what to do and had essentially given up on him. I was unable to get timely appointments, or any appointments at all, even in the emergency room. We do not have any vets in town. I have to travel no matter what. Murjan's vet was located an hour north of us. To get help, I contacted other vets. A vet to the west of us recommended hydration, and so we stated hydrating Murjan every other day. His vet to the north allowed as to how that might help. But Murjan kept losing weight. He was down to 5 pounds (from 16 pounds) when he died.  Finally, a vet to the sou...