MSI Press Blog

  This excerpt comes from  Helping the Disabled Veteran  (Joanna Romer) Legal Help   Your son Tommy came home from Afghanistan paralyzed, and you’re stymied on how to help him. He’s been living with you and your husband for over a year, and a good part of that time you’ve been trying to get a certain benefit that would help him and your family a great deal. Unfortunately, because of a supposed “hitch” in his service record, that particular benefit does not seem to be available. Tommy says the hitch is an error — but so far you’ve been unable to get it removed. Is there anything you can do? Yes, there is. Paralyzed Veterans of America is an organization that provides competent attorneys to assist in cases just like this. They have litigated hundreds of cases for veterans, helping them to get the benefits they need (Legal Services – Paralyzed Veterans of America). Veterans have the right to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims if their benefits reque...

  Today's story behind the book is about Widow: A Survival Guide for the First Year  by Joanna Romer. From the publisher The late Joanna Romer was one of our first authors, and ultimately she wrote ten books that we published. A professor of journalism, she approached us in our early days with a manuscript for widows and how they could cope with widowhood. It was a subject she knew well, having recently become a widow. With her journalistic instincts, she had tracked down other widows, determined the commonalities, and provide a guide that many have now found helpful during their first year. The book is full of these personal stories that provide the bigger picture for the "map" that Joanna lays out for new widows. How Joanna found us in those early days, I do not remember, and she is not around now to ask. The relationship, however, was symbiotic. She produced books that people wanted to read, and we even, at one point, commissioned her to write one we felt was needed. T...

from  Divorced! Survival Techniques for Singles over Forty  (Romer)   Feeling Abandoned   There you are, facing your first Christmas alone—ever. You’ve always had someone around at the holidays—first your parents and siblings, later on your spouse and your own children—but this year, things are different. Your wife left you in August and you haven’t really had the heart to hook up with anyone else yet. Both your parents are long gone and your only sister lives 3,000 miles away, with her own family to take care of. What should you do? There’s a big part of you right now that feels like a motherless child, totally abandoned. Maybe you feel rejected, unattractive, or unworthy of love. These are all feelings that society places on people who are the “victims” of divorce, and they have nothing to do with who you really are. This is not a place where you want to remain for very long. Once you erase the perception of yourself as being abandoned by your ex-spouse, a lot...

  Excerpt from  Creative Aging  (Vassiliadis & Romer) - How to Age with Panache   For years I’ve admired the women wearing beautiful scarves, twisted expertly enough to look like they’d just tossed the scarf over their shoulders with a casual knot slipped in front. These women possessed an air of assured confidence that I didn’t feel belonged to me. Whenever I put on a scarf, it felt presumptuous. Who did I think I was? I didn’t belong to this fearless group.   Some of these feelings may have manifested because I didn’t start my work life in an office setting where the appropriate attire was business formal. None of my relatives dressed that way, either. Somehow, whenever I tried wearing a scarf in the mode de jour , it didn’t feel right.   As I’ve aged, though, I’ve grown more comfortable in my own skin. Life marches on, and it’s easier now to let self-doubt and criticism roll off my shoulders and into the if-they-feel-that-way-it’s-their-problem-not-m...