MSI Press Blog

  Today is "We Love Memoirs Day" -- and we have some very good memoires, award-winning ones.  Here is a quiet a collection of posts about our fascinating memoirs. Browse with pleasure...choose your fav favorites and read the linked excerpts. If you want to read the whole book, most are on Kindle. If you want to feel the paper moving past your fingers, most are available through online sellers. All are available at significant discount from our webstore: www.msipress.com. Use code FF25 and take off 25% (even from books on sale -- and a lot of our memoirs are on big sale).                                           Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Little Simone , our Himalayan cat, has a significant amount of arthritis, as did Murjan , our late Turksi Van cat (he is so missed!). Of course, cosequin capsules are a daily "treat," However, early on, we came across an orthopedic memory foam bed (just like the ones for people) that both cats have loved. I throw a blank on top to protect the covering although it is washable and because Simone (pictured above) especially loves soft and warmth.  Now that Murjan has passed over the rainbow bridge, Sula , our parish cat (and book writer), who also has advanced arthritis has inherited the second bed. The beds are available from Chewy -- and no, I am not a rep nor do I get anything for an endorsement. I just know how hard it is to make life easier for cats with arthritis. Especially comfort. Simone sleeps very peacefully for hours on this bed.                             ...

  Just released: the hard cover edition of   Typhoon Honey  by Kris Girrell and iCandace Sjogren.  See more information about this book  HERE .                                          Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Julie Gentile, author of 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas and How to Stay Calm in Chaos , published an article in Yoga + Life Magazine , "3 Ways to Make Your Mantra Come to Life." You can read the article HERE . Read more posts about Julie and her book HERE.                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Excerpt from How to Stay Calm in Chaos Tuesday Stay Flexible Do you consider yourself flexible? I’ve been teaching yoga on Tuesdays for several years and ever since I began, Tuesdays have reminded me to stay flexible. Not just in the body but in the mind and in the heart.    When some people think about yoga, they think about the movement part of it, but yoga is more of a path than it is about the asanas (poses). Our poses come to life with our breath, and we move so it’s more comfortable than sitting for meditation. [MR1]   The flexibility you learn in yoga extends well beyond the mat. Being flexible in thought and mind can lead to creativity and innovation, helping you transform, reevaluate, and innovate daily routines. Although so many things are closed right now, new possibilities are available if you are open to them. This is the beauty of remaining flexible. Staying flexible also helps you find rhythm and flow. Let this be a friendly little nudge to let you k...

  Released yesterday: the hard cover of edition of How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately by Boris Shekhtman.  Read all about the book HERE .                                                  Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Well, we missed this one when it happened, but better late than never. Irit Schaffer, author of Good Blood , gave an interview (worth checking out) to Release blog. Read the interview HERE . Read more posts about Irit and her book HERE .                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Just released: the hard cover edition of One Family: Indivisible by Rev. Steven Greenebaum.  See more information about this book HERE .                                          Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  From  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star No one uses the word, sloth , nowadays, but it is a good word. Learners who spend their time glued to a chair, couch, or bed will find themselves fighting fatigue—from doing too little. Get up, get out. Run. Go to the gym. Whatever it takes to get the blood circulating in your body, and the endorphins that come from exercising pumping through your veins. Those endorphins play an important role in learning. See more posts on  this book . See more posts about   language learning.                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  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 backlists. What are they? Why do publishers use them? What do they mean for authors? What is a backlist? Publishers have a front list of books that they are actively selling. Among these are books that "earn their keep" at the very least (i.e., costs of printing, advertising, promotion, distribution, royalties, warehousing, share of overhead, legal requirements such as copyright and permissions, etc., do not exceed the revenue they produce.  Of course, publishers would prefer that books do more than "earn their keep;" they would like them to make a profit. Working against bo...

  Shannon Gonyou, author of Since Sinai , appeared on A Jew and a Gentile podcast , sharing her faith journey. For more posts about Shannon and her book, click HERE For more spiritual conversion stories, click HERE . For more posts on spirituality, click HERE . For more posts on Judaism, click HERE . To listen to podcasts by MSI Press authors, click HERE .                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Excerpt from How to Live from Your Heart : The Heart’s True Functions  The heart chalice has many functions. Some of these were mentioned in the last chapter on the different types of energy that pass through the heart. Besides energy, the heart also contains knowledge that is part of a person’s individuality. The individuality is comprised of all the positive and negative characteristics that have been played out and accumulated through many lifetimes. If you don’t believe in past lives, you can call these accumulations part of the collective unconscious, a term coming from the research of Carl Jung, a famous psychotherapist in the last century.  These accumulations carry aspects of the different cultures on the planet, and those aspects in turn constitute hidden qualities that can emerge during your lifetime. If your heart is functioning with the positive qualities, then you will appear to others as a warm-hearted, kind, and loving person. If your heart is...

  When a dying loved one does not want to talk about the ramifications of dying is an issue I have been wanting to address for a time. it was a very difficult one for us. More than head-in-sand, it was a deliberate refusal by Carl, when he was dying, to become involved with completing really important paperwork, like advanced directives, will/family trust, power of attorney. It was as if he could avoid death by not talking about it. (Of course, to be fair in representing the situation, he found out from a fall, with no warning, that he had probably only days and weeks left to live. The local hospital said days; Stanford was more positive about taking steps to turn days into something longer.) Cancer Diary will address this topic again (and likely again). For today, though, I want to share Diane Hullet's Best Life, Best Death podcast interview with Barbara Karnes on these sticky end of life questions, from the point of view of hospice worker and family member. See related MSI Pres...

  San Juan Books is the hybrid division of MSI Press LLC. It allows first-time writers to become published in a traditional way through the reduction of risk by sharing publication costs. All other publishing features are traditional in nature, and most SJB authors go on to be offered traditional contracts for their subsequent books. SJB publications are available as paperback, hard cover, and e-book versions. SJB authors' books very much hold their own against their contemporaries in the traditional publishing division. Indeed, a number of them have outsold their traditional compatriots. Today, San Juan Books presents author Colette McNeil. Colette McNeil aspires to develop confidence in individuals with autism by expanding the perspectives of their parents, families, teachers, and caregivers. Experience: Colette McNeil has worked with children and adults with disabilities for 30 years.  She spent 20 of those years teaching students with autism and related disorders ages 3-22...