MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from The Widower's Guide to a New Life   by Joanna Romer - INTRODUCTION Learning to Be Alone When we lose a loved one—a friend or relative—our first reaction after the pain is usually atavistic: how will this affect me ? When we lose a spouse, however, no such reaction is possible. The grieving widower or widow soon becomes aware that this loss is catastrophic in a different way: it’s more like losing a part of oneself, one’s arms or legs. We keep waiting for that dear one to reappear, we want to claim her or him—until we realize this isn’t going to happen. We’re alone. Not only are we in pain but also we’re alone. For the widower, in particular, this can be quite a shock. Accustomed to having a “right hand” or equal partner always around, the newly bereaved man can be thrown into confusion. He has not realized his level of co-dependency. Suddenly, he’s facing life without his spouse in a thousand different ways, and he is devastated. What can you do when your be

  Our suggestion for Veteran's Day: Helping the Disabled Veteran by Joanna Romer https://msipressblog.blogspot.com/search?q=helping+the+disabled+veteran Get the paperback at 25% discount with coupon code FF25 at the MSI Press webstore . For more posts about Joanna and 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. Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our  Authors' Pages .

  This week's blog post is the next in the series of book back stories and is the story behind Helping the Disabled Veteran (Romer). From the editor -  Little did Joanna know that this would be the last full book she ever wrote. (She published ten books with MSI Press.) In fact, the final chapter was written by Mary Ann Raemisch, one of our copyeditors who had edited Joanna's previous books. Joanna was in the process of revising the book (originally written on the broader topic of all veterans, then deliberately targeted toward one of the more forgotten groups of vets -- those who ended up disabled from their war experiences) when she died unexpectedly. The revision was complete except for the final chapter. A colleague of Joanna was able to find and download the book from Joanna's computer files. I approached Mary Ann, knowing that she was familiar with Joanna's style, given her extensive experience copyediting Joanna's work, and asked if she thought she could emu

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with The Widower's Guide to a New Life  by Joanna Romer. Read more about this book and its author  HERE .  Get a paperback copy at  MSI Press webstore . If not on sale at the time, use code FF25 to get 25% discount. (Note: the code does not work on books that are already on sale att discounted prices.) 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' Pag

  The following excerpt comes from Recovering from Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Stalking by Joanna Romer. INTRODUCTION   This book is for you if you’ve ever been the victim of domestic violence, abuse or stalking. It’s also for you if your sister, mother or friend has been victimized, as one of the stories in this volume describes. Having escaped a dangerous situation or come to grips with it in some way, you must now start the process of rebuilding your life. Where do you turn? How can you find the “self” you were before the abuse began? Is this even possible? Hopefully, this book will provide some answers to those questions. Included are interviews with women just like you who overcame the reality of domestic violence, stalking or abuse. You will also find advice from therapists to help you sort your life out and put the pieces back together. Domestic abuse these days ranges all the way from being called a slut to hospitalization and even murder (included in this book). In the latt

  The following excerpt comes from Passing On: How to Prepare Ourselves for the Afterlife by Joanna Romer. CHAPTER ONE The message One day while meditating I received the following message: It is time to begin the ascent. Don’t be nervous. There is nothing scary about it if you’re aware. On the other hand, don’t over-dramatize. This is not about writing a book but about you. You are transcending. It’s what you wanted: to be conscious of the crossing over. Of course, you can write about it, but also learn, take it in; it’s an education. Now, what would you do if you got that message? Would you take it seriously? I did, for a couple of reasons. First, I had just turned 70 a month prior to its receipt. Of course turning 70 does not automatically mean the end of life as we know it, but it does start to make you think a bit about what’s to come. I’m reminded of that TV commercial where a woman at a restaurant is handed a note saying, “Your heart attack will arrive at 2 pm tomorrow”

    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

  Editor's comment. I am commenting here because Joanna has passed on, but her book has not; it is still very much alive and selling. It continues to provide good advice to those who are welcoming home and continuing to support disabled veterans. This book was an easy sell to us and something that authors trying to find a publisher might think about. First and important, Joanna had already published several books with us -- wonderful ones that helped a lot of people and some of which won national awards. So, quality of writing was no issue. Second, the topic was close to us. MSI Press was veteran-founded and, after conversion to an LLC, is veteran-run. (Note: we have a new book, being released, on September 15 that also addresses disabled veteran issues -- Heart to Heart Resuscitation; not yet advertised, but it will be soon. Watch for it!) For more book back stories, click HERE . For more stories about Joanna and her books, click HERE . For more posts/books about veterans, click H

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with Recovering from Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Stalking by Joanna Romer.   Read more about Joanna and her books HERE . Get a copy at  MSI Press webstore . 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 Life after Losing a Child by Pat Young and Romer - Losing a Second Child Cristy got her transplant and seemed to be doing very well. She enrolled in college and went on with her life, but then her lungs failed again. She had a double lung transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Then, she needed a kidney transplant because the anti-rejection medicine caused her kidneys to fail. Kathleen was relieved when she was able to donate one of hers to her daughter. If nothing else, it would buy them more time.            The day before she was to receive her bachelor’s degree, the doctors told Cristy her lungs were failing and there was nothing else they could do. “Mom,” Cristy had said to Kathleen in tears, “I’m dying, and I don’t want to die.” Cristy moved back home where her mom could take care of her. Kathleen made her car into “a little ambulance” and took her daughter to Pittsburgh, hoping to get another transplant. Despite all of Kathleen’s efforts, Cristy p