MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from Tips, Tools, and Anecdotes to Help during a Pandemic (Charnas) 5. TOUGH TIMES   Running a therapy group on happiness is one of my favorite job responsibilities. There’s a huge industry focused on happiness. While doing research for the group, I learned that optimism boosts happiness, so we discuss this concept in the group. Like many of the things that make people happy, optimism may be innate, or we may have to mindfully develop the habits and skills that boost this attitude. Here’s my template for optimism:   Be hopeful. Show up. Do your best. Let go. Repeat.   Over the years, I’ve found it’s a winning formula. For more posts by and about Joanna and her books, click HERE . For more book excerpts, click HERE . For more pandemic books that are still relevant, click HERE . 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 .

  From Joanna Charnas, the author of A Movie Lover's Search for Romance   I found everything about Henry Cooper completely charming. Erudite and cultured, he’d written about the space program for the New Yorker Magazine. I’d encountered my father’s old high school friend when I was forty-four, during a visit to New York City for a family event, when Dad was staying with him. A few months after the trip, I confessed my thing for Henry to Dad, who was surprisingly supportive. To amuse myself, I later wrote a short essay about my crush, and read it to Dad. His response: “You should get that published.” Dad was the most intellectual person I’ve ever met. Hyper educated at Andover, Harvard, and Harvard Law, he read books on architectural theory and the collected letters of Mozart for fun. Based on my father’s enthusiasm, and trusting his judgement, I continued to write about dating and all things romantic post-divorce. These essays turned into A Movie’s Lover’s Search for Romance. Of th

Making Artists: The National Theater Institute’s Influence on a Writer   If art moves us, the impact never departs. It strikes an emotional chord that resonates into the recesses of our psyche forever. That’s how fourteen weeks at the National Theater Institute (NTI) affected me.   In the fall of 1980, I was twenty years old, badly dressed, clumsy, and thirty pounds overweight. I took what I was certain would be a permanent leave of absence from my college, with little optimism about my future or myself. I felt lost. I had trained as a stage manager in high school and college, and I loved theater, but enrolling in The National Theater Institute, more than anything else, was a means to buy time while I struggled to figure out what to do with the next phase of my life.     The National Theater Institute, located at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, offered a comprehensive, semester long theater training program for college-age students. Our instructors we

  As a Chanukah gift to our readers, we are offering a 40% discount on A Movie Lover's Search for Romance . Use coupon code ad40 at our  webstore  to get the discount. For more information about  A Movie Lover's Search for Romance , including posts by and about the author and all her books, click 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. 

  From the author’s point of view, there is probably little of overwhelming significance. The author had maintained a blog in the wake of the publication of her book, Living Well with Chronic Illness, a well-received book. After a couple of years, she came to me, the publisher of that book, with the suggestion of organizing these blog posts and putting them into book format. (Nothing super-exciting in this, either. Many authors try to do this with their blog posts.) From the publisher’s point of view, many authors do indeed try to turn their blog posts into books simply by downloading them into a manuscript. This rarely works, and we would not be interested in such a book. However, Joanna organized these in ways that were easy for readers to access. She put thought into the publication, and, as a professional in the field, she knew what blog posts would be of most help to readers interested in the topic. So, she came to us with a pretty solid proposal. Based on that and the fact that h

  Excerpt from   Living Well with Chronic Illness Tae Kwon Do I use the five tenets of Tae Kwon Do, a Korean martial art, to structure my attitude. The tenets guide the practice of this sport, but they also offer an elegant template for shaping an effective attitude. The tenets are as follows:   ·        courtesy; ·        integrity; ·        perseverance; ·        self-control; and ·        indomitable spirit.   When you feel you’re in a rut, these five tenets may help you move toward a better attitude. I’ve kept them framed in my office for over twenty years as a constant reminder of how I want to think, feel, and behave. For more posts about the late Joanna Charnas and her works, click HERE , 25% discount on paperback with code FF25 at www.msipress.com/shop Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Excerpt from A Movie Lover's Search for Romance (Joanna Charnas) THE NEW GUY   You don’t always know when you’re experiencing burnout until you’re hip deep in its muck. You also don’t comprehend how completely addicting Internet dating is until you’re hooked. So if you find yourself burned out from Internet dating, as I did, the prudent thing is to give it a rest. Although I planned to take a break from Internet dating, I’d become too addicted to stop. It didn’t matter that I was emotionally exhausted from too many blind dates. Which is when Simon entered my life.  I met Simon on an Internet dating site. When we first spoke on the phone, he asked if I’d meet him that evening at a party given in honor of a couple of his friends. Simon explained that his schedule was booked for the rest of the week, but he wanted to meet me right away. The party started in mid-afternoon, and assuming I wouldn’t be enslaved and forced into the sex trade, I agreed to rendezvous at his friends’ house

  Today's daily excerpt comes from 100 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness by Joanna Charnas.  11.  A SLICE OF CANINE HEAVEN             When Emme died, I struggled to find the right words of condolence for her owner, my colleague Matt. I finally told him that rarely are my expectations of great things completely fulfilled, but my day with Emme exceeded my hopes and was a joy. Emme was a 170-pound Great Dane who spent one hot summer day, per Matt, “babysitting” me when I was homebound with a sinus infection. I’d been sick in June with a similar illness, and when I returned to work, Matt offered to bring Emme to my home the next time I felt ill. He knew I loved Great Danes but couldn’t own one because of my chronic illness. So, during my second week-long bout that summer with sinus issues, I gave Matt a call. At six-thirty the next day, he arrived with Emme and the largest dog bed I’d ever seen.  After an hour of anxiously checking my front door, Emme settled in. She was th

  Like movies? Like movie stars? Since the publication of her book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance (a great read, by the way, and winner of two book awards), Joanna Charnas has maintained a blog about movies and stars, much in line with her book, but also somewhat different. In order not to spoil the fun-ness of her blog, nothing is being reprinted in this blog post, but you can get it all with one easy click HERE , which takes you to her blog. Jaonna has authored three other books as well, also award winners. Read more posts about Joanna and all her books HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

  Joanna Charnas's award-winning book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance , has been released in hard cover, joining her paperback and e-book versions. Check out more information about this book . Get a discount on the book at the MSI Press webstore by using the code FF25.

  Congratulations to MSI Press authors whose books placed in the Hollywood Book Festival. Irit Schaffer ( Good Blood ) earned the silver medal in the spiritual category and an honorable mention in the historical category. Andrew Harvey ( Tucker and Me ) earned an honorable mention in the autobiography/biography/memoir category.  MSI Press Blog Joanna Charnas ( A Movie Lover’s Search for Romance )    earned an honorable mention in the autobiography/biography/memoir category.  Betty Sha w and Dave Brown ( One Simple Text… ) earned an honorable mention in the general nonfiction category.

  We congratulation our author, Joanna Charnas, for the selection of her excellently written book and compelling story, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance, as a Book Excellence Award Finalist. For more posts on Joanna and her book(s) click HERE .

  photo by Splash Magazine Library Journal calls it, “The perfect pandemic read for those, “thrown into the dating world and trying to mesh real life with that depicted in the movies.” Read more of the review by Splash Magazine on the holiday suggestion list HERE . Also, read the interview with the author in Splash Magazine: "A Movie Lover's Search for Romance" Review--A Captivating Read HERE . Read more posts by and about Joanna Charnas and her books HERE . 

  Joanna Charnas was interviewed about the topic of divorce by Authority Magazine recently. You can read the interview HERE Joanna is author of four books: Read more posts by and about Joanna and her books HERE .