MSI Press Blog

  Today would have been the 54th anniversary for Carl  and me. Last year, I spent it in the cemetery with Carl, as I did the year before. This year I cannot because I am in Bandung, Indonesia, but perhaps that is just as well.  On our 51st, he was alive, but not well. Three weeks earlier, he had fallen, been xrayed, and found to be in the advanced stage of cancer of unknown primary , with liver, lungs, bones, and stomach completely riddled with cancer cells, blood clots in his lungs, and his bones throwing off cells to create hypercalcemia, the reason he had fallen. It was a difficult time. We were just coming out of the covid months. We brought our CHARGE Syndrome son CB who had been living in group homes for 20 years home when they were not careful with protection from covid. At the same time, our spina bifida daughter, who lives about 30 miles to the south of us, independently, with a county-provided part-time aide lost her caregiver to surgery and no one wanted to take over, given

  Carl died of Cancer of Unknown Primary -- never could find the original cancer; CUP is frustrating that way. Of the cancers that were known, stomach cancer was one of the five cancers that wracked his body. We did not know anything until it was too late. Carl lived only five months after his initial diagnosis. Had we known what to look for -- and even though to check out little aches and pains and oddities -- he might have fared much better.  For those still living with what may seem like little aches and pains and oddities, here are some  Stomach cancer: causes, warning signs, and treatment (msn.com) . For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/o

  We share a couple of items with you in honor of All Saints Day. (1) We would remind you of the book, Saints I Know , by Sula, parish cat at Old Mission (shown above with Our Lady of Guadalupe). It is a great resource for catechism students in choosing a saint's name. It is also a great resource for anyone wanting a collection of true stories about well-known and not-so-well-known saints. (2) Sula also wrote a book, Sula and the Franciscan Sisters (saints in waiting). (2) Today is the second anniversary of Carl Leaver 's birthday following his passing in 2021. Carl was co-founder and chief typesetter of MSI Press from 2003-2021. While he was born on All Saints' Day, he usually referred to himself as a "rotten pumpkin," being born the day after Halloween. Happy All Saints' Day. Read more posts for All Saint's Day here . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI

One of the fun things that a publisher (or at least, an acquisitions editor) gets to experience is meeting more than one member of a family -- as authors whose work we publish. In this series of presenting family authors, we take note of the Leaver writers, who have written books in various combinations and solo. Above pictured is Betty Lou Leaver and Shenan (CB) Leaver, who collaborated on Mommy Our House Guest , a fun book that has gained a number of afficionados and been serialized in a magazine.  Betty Lou, who has written dozens of books, including, for MSI Press, Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star and The Invisible Foreign Language Classroom (with Laura Dabbs) and Carl, who typeset and designed the covers of many MSI Press publications and edited Overcoming the Odds , collaborated on the book,  Intrepid.  who unfortunately passed away in 2021 from Cancer of Unknown Primary, Carl, unfortunately, passed away suddenly in 2021 from Cancer of Unknown Primar

    The following excerpt comes from Overcoming the Odds, edited by Carl Leaver\. GUIDELINES: TWO RULES FOR SURVIVAL Gratitude 1. When you get up in the morning, express gratitude that you had your husband as long as you did. You can do this by writing down some thoughts in a journal, saying a prayer, or just thinking grateful thoughts. 2. Talk about your loved one with friends, mentioning particularly nice things your husband did for you and others. 3. Make a list of everything that you have to be grateful for. Post the list in a conspicuous place: near your computer, on the refrigerator, or in a journal you use every day. 4. Take yourself out to lunch at a favorite place, and feel grateful to be lunching there. Savor the food; admire the ambiance. 5. Go to a movie that you know will touch you. Be grateful that you can still be touched. Do Something for Someone Else 1. Buy a little gift for one of your husband’s relatives. Sisters, brothers, even cousins may be hurting as much as yo

  Two years ago today, Carl Leaver, typesetter, graphic designer, and co-founder of MSI Press LLC , passed away after five too-short months of cancer of unknown primary . We all want a legacy, no matter how humble, and Carl certainly has one. To wit, Dozens of MSI Press authors loved his book covers -- and, in a kind way, they reached out to him in his dying days to tell him so. He edited one book, Overcoming the Odds , and co-authored another, Intrepid . Books almost always outlast us. He was Dad to four children (or seven, depending on how you count the three who moved in with us as teenagers) and three grandchildren, two of whom lost both their grandfathers in 2021, and daddy to a couple dozen cats; his very special cat, Intrepid, who preceded him in death, is buried with him. His name is engraved on a brick, shown above by Br. James, at the St. Francis Retreat Center in San Juan Bautista, reminding a number of people of him as they pass over his stone. His obituary is the second mo

  There are many things, obviously, that contributed to Carl's death from cancer. No one thing is the isolated reason (generally). Among those "things," though, is lack of movement.  Carl was obese. It was hard for him to move, and, therefore, he did not like to do so. He accompanied me to the gym and worked with my trainer, but he balked at most of what she asked him to do. She assigned us "homework." Not all of it was enjoyable, but I did it because it was helping me build strength, endurance, and flexibility -- and so the results were enjoyable. Carl was unwilling to do the homework, no matter how simple and minimal she made it for him. Not even a couple of minutes a day. He watched me work out with m y homework, typically about 30 minutes each evening. Although I asked him to do his small exercises of 4-5 minutes instead of just sitting on the couch, watching me, he did not want to and so did not. If I sound frustrated, it is because I am. He might be alive

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with Intrepid  by Carl Leaver and Betty Lou Leaver.  Available at discount (currently on sale) at the  MSI Press webstore .  Read more posts about Carl Leaver, Betty Lou Leaver and their books HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.  Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our  Authors' Pages .    

  excerpt from  Intrepid  by Carl Leaver and Betty Lou Leaver Preface All cats are special, but occasionally one is unique—so unique that you know that this one time, this one cat’s lifetime, is the only time you will encounter such a soul. That makes every day with the cat a delightfully special day, and it makes the death of such a cat a real tragedy. The memories linger, and they are no less sharp a year, or two years, or three years later than they were when they took place. Intrepid was just such a cat for us. So many things remind of us him nearly every day: replacing a light bulb—he would always climb the step ladder to help, putting up a Christmas tree—we never could when he was around because he would eat it or any plant, and the silence of waking up in the morning—he always woke us by pushing onto the floor any moveable item he found on the bureau (and, regardless of weight, he could usually find a way to move any item there). Missing Intrepid is part of our daily life now. F

  Our gentle, loving, lap-sitting, bright-eyed, Siamese-mix Snyezhka, rescued from the streets a decade ago when she was a couple years ago, is in remission for breast cancer (thanks to immunotherapy) but now struggling with lung cancer (immunotherapy did not work so now she is on steroids) and liver cancer (this was last night's ER surprise).  She has been in the ER, with the vet, or with the oncologist three times in the past three week. Financially draining, yes, but even more emotionally draining, bringing back memories of the last five months of Carl's life -- one cancer leading to another and then to another in all too rapid an order until the end came, not unexpectedly although abruptly. Snyezhka is falling in that same path -- dozing more than awake, eating less and less, and losing her balance. She collapsed last night, rolled of the top of the sofa where she was sleeping, then staggered across the cushions, and rolled onto the floor, and staggered under a chair and f