MSI Press Blog

  Recently released: E-book version of A Believer-in-Waiting's First Encounters with God : congratulations are offered to author Dr. Elizabeth Mahlou . Book description: A Believer in Waiting's First Encounters with God allows readers an entrée into the world of what might be called a modern-day mystic, a world where spirituality, contemplation, hierophany, and miracles unite. Good, evil, suffering, darkness, unknowing, and the unconditional love of God are the leitmotifs that bind the author's experiences from the physical world to the spiritual realm. Paperback available at 25% discount with coupon code FF25 at MSI Press webstore . For more posts about Elizabeth and her books, click HERE . 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

  Dr. Elizabeth Mahlou, author of Blest Atheist , her conversion story (abbreviated here ), says she had two goals in the writing of this book. One, perhaps obvious, to any reader was to continue her conversion story after the immediate first weeks. The second, not obvious to any reader not in her personal circle, was the telling of a true story of evil, one that greatly disturbed her and some of her closest friends and one that was played out on a deeply spiritual level that is seldom discussed because many, if not most, people do not encounter such things, or if they do, do not recognize the spiritual warfare going on.  Elizabeth changed all the names and other details, such as location, professions, and organizations involved in this spiritual battle, which forms the hidden core and major prompt for this book--something the casual reader, or even perhaps the more intuitive reader, would notice. For those involved in the warfare, however, it did not matter that names were changed. Th

  Excerpt from Blest Atheist The Hannah Dustin Award My childhood contained two compartments: home and not-home. Not-home was a special place that I kept carefully separated to prevent the excesses of home from tainting it. Not-home was the place where I received validation, especially from teachers who encouraged me in many ways. Several of my elementary school teachers used me as a reading group teacher. Others encouraged my propensity for writing poetry and mysteries. Still others brought me whole libraries of books from their homes which I would inhale the way I had inhaled all the books in our small school library. My French teacher in high school encouraged me to write French poetry, which was published in our bilingual school journal. More pragmatically, I was drafted to write the class prophecy my senior year. As a result of all my writing, that last year in high school, my classmates voted me class poet in the popularity awards that are typical of American high schools. As eve

  Today's excerpt comes from A Believer-in-Waiting's Encounters with God by Elizabeth Mahlou Silent Running Just when I begin to think that I understand perhaps a small slice of God’s grace, I find myself back at the beginning. Physical things happen to me that I do not understand. Mystical things happen to me that I do not understand. Where are these experiences supposed to lead me? Or, am I supposed to sit tight and let their transforming power alone affect me? I just don’t know. So, confusion reigns. While I am grateful to God for the unexpected and unexplainable healings, I have received, they, too, have left me in a state of confusion. Why would God intervene in my fate in this way? Am I supposed to be doing something in response? When it comes to mystical experiences, I find myself even more confused. Are these personal, intimate gifts for maintaining in a private relationship or are they joy and knowledge to be shared with others? If the latter, then I do such a poor jo

  Happy Easter to all! Here are some readings related to Easter from a couple of our books: From Blest Atheist: The Church in Siberia From Easter at the Mission : Easter Vigil and Palm Sunday

                                                                                       (photo by Frank Perez) 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. Ever wonder how books get to be accepted for publication? There is often more to any author's story than non-authors and not-yet-published authors would image.  Yes, of course, every publisher has the normal channel of proposal reading and acceptance based on the quality of the proposal, the "fit" of the book, the quality of the writing, and the perceived marketability, typically based on the author's platform. But...some books come into being in some other ways. Here are a few from the MSI Press e

  Dr. Elizabeth Mahlou is our most reclusive author. she  wishes to remain anonymous because she speaks candidly about her childhood abuse while avoiding naming names in order to shield the innocent from more emotional harm. However, using her pseudonym, she is willing to communicate with readers who enjoy her books,  A Believer-in-Waiting’s First Encounters with God  and  Blest Atheist . She is now hard at work on a follow-up book,  Raising God’s Rainbow Makers .  Dr. Mahlou maintained two blogs for several years. 100th Lamb  and Clan of Mahlou are still available, cached, on line. Dr. Mahlou knows our author, Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission , and she wrote a story about her,   “Cat with a Divine Mission,”  that  appeared in   Guideposts Magazine   in December 2015.  Dr. Mahlou has often used a tiger, a kindred spirit, as an avatar . You can read more posts about Dr. Mahlou and her books and blogs HERE .

What follows is a guest post from Dr. Elizabeth Mahlou, from her blog, Clan of Mahlou. I cannot resist. I am going to post something that came to me in email. I think all parents (and grandparents) can relate. Here it is: GOD CREATED CHILDREN (AND IN THE PROCESS GRANDCHILDREN) To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students... here is something to make you chuckle. Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children. After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was "DON'T!" "Don't what?" Adam replied. "Don't eat the forbidden fruit," God said. "Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve! We have forbidden fruit!" "No way!" "Yes, way!" "Do NOT eat the fruit," said God. "Why?" "Bec

  from the blog of the 100th Lamb The Crushed Cup As I put away my things recently on a Royal Moroccan flight from Paris to Rabat, I noticed with annoyance that the previous passenger had left a crushed drink cup in the pocket of the seat in front of me. I removed it, only to find to my dismay that it a nearly invisible amount of liquid still in it that dripped on the tray in front of me. With nothing with which to wipe up the liquid, I ripped a piece of paper from my notebook and used that, a trick I learned from my days of living in the Soviet Union, where toilet was in short supply. Notebook paper is not the remedy of first choice, but it does work—in both cases. Then, I looked around and saw that all the stewards and stewardesses had already seated themselves for take-off. With a sigh, I put the crushed cup back in the seat pocket where I had found it. Now, it would continue to be an annoyance for at least the first portion of the flight until plane service began and would reac