MSI Press Blog

  All of his children were afraid of my father-in-law. He was stern, gruff, and spoke little. It was not the same with me. Not only was his son (the one I married) very much like him, but my father-in-law and I had the US Army in common. I had joined the Army joined the Army in 1973, at the end of the Vietnam War; my husband failed his physical and remained a dependent throughout my Army career. In 1975, I received a direct commission as an Army officer. This gave my father-in-law and me a common frame of reference for our military service. My father-in-law liked to talk to me about his WWII experiences as a Captain stationed in Alaska because even though I was a Vietnam Era veteran, I understood what those experiences meant to him and mean in general.  At one point, he and my mother-in-law came to California for his birthday, just a couple of years before they both died. They wanted to visit Fort Ord, where he did his basic training, and they wanted to see the house they fir...

  A HERO'S SUICIDE   b y Joanna J. Charnas   This following essay was written in 2017 but has not been previously published.   Earlier this week I learned that one of my former patients killed himself. I’m devastated and can’t stop thinking about him. His name was Ryan Larkin.   Ryan was a Navy SEAL. He completed four tours of duty, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan as a corpsman. Ryan arrived at the inpatient psychiatry ward of the hospital that employs me four weeks prior to discharging from the Navy, and he remained with us for a month.   While he was in our care, I became concerned about Ryan’s treatment. His attending psychiatrist was a skilled and caring provider, but the other players in the larger mental health system seemed mostly fearful of Ryan. Fear is not an optimal state in which to deliver care. My colleagues repeatedly expressed concern about his opioid use and labeled him “drug seeking.” In 2016 the country had a new awareness of the burge...

  In honor of National Military Appreciation Month, Larry MacDonald shares the following:  I was in the US Navy for four years (1958 - 62), serving as an Interior Communication Technician (IC2) on the Guided-Missile Cruiser USS TOPEKA CLG-8, stationed in Long Beach, California with one cruise to WestPac (Japan). The IC Gang was responsible for showing weekly movies in the mess hall on board.  After selecting and picking up the weekly movie on the Naval Base, we invited the cooks for a preview...they provided food in exchange for watching the movie in the IC Room. The good old days!   Read more posts about the Larry and his books, click  HERE . AWARD FOR RV OOPSIES Kops-Fetherling International Book Award for Sports and Recreation AWARD FOR TRAVELS WITH ELLY American Bookfest Best Books Award Finalist Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to...

  The following story is shared by Fred Craigie, author of the award-winning book,  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living . When my wife and I came into each other’s lives over 50 years ago, she had four living and age-appropriately healthy grandparents. They lived locally when she was growing up and she was blessed to have known them well.   For several years until they began passing away, I was blessed to spend time with them and come to know them, as well. Among them was her paternal grandfather, Charles. Charles had spent much of his adult life around motor vehicles, running a small bus line that failed after the stock market crash, selling trucks in upstate New York during the Depression (often, we understand, to bootleggers, the only people who had money to buy trucks) and selling cars after that. Befitting his professional life, he had an engaging interest in people and a ready smile, coming naturally with total sincerity a...

  Suggested reading: Helping the Disabled Veteran   (Joanna Romer) In this, her final, book, the late Joanna Romer suggests ways to assist disabled veterans leaving the military and trying to integrate back into mainstream society in spite of their disabilities. Chapters contain recommendations, suggestions, and practical suggestions, based on a large number of wide-ranging interviews with disabled veterans about their experiences after returning from war. Literary Titan gold award Heart to Heart Resuscitation: A Memoir (Victor Montgomery III) I have your six ... The window of opportunity to make a difference for someone considering suicide can be a matter of seconds. The real-life stories in this book illustrate this tension dramatically. H2H Resuscitation-the book and the therapeutic model-provides encouragement and hope to overcome combat veterans' immediate life-threatening depression and suicidal thoughts, the priority being to get veterans to safety. "Oh, yes," the...

  In honor of National Military Appreciation Month, Arthur Yavelberg,  author of the multi-award-winning book,  A Theology for the Rest of Us ,  relates a story told to him by his father, who served at NORAD -- My father was a "career man" in the Air Force for 25 years, starting when it was still the "Army Air Corps."  He was supposed to be a radio man on bombers--until someone in charge of the training program noticed he was wearing glasses.   "How long have you been wearing those?" the officer demanded to know.   "I believe I was born with them, Sir!"  My father was one of those who believed the term "military intelligence" was an oxymoron, but he was intelligent enough not to say so in so many words.  As it turned out, he was reassigned to NORAD, essentially a string of military bases across Canada and the northern US in anticipation of a Soviet nuclear strike launched across the North Pole.  He came home one day and so...

  Today's Publisher's Pride is Heart to Heart Resuscitation: My Journal by Victor Montgomery III , which reached  #271 in US military veterans history and #281 in coping with suicide grief . Right on time for National Military Appreciation Month! Read more posts about Victor and his 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 publishing with  MSI Press LLC ? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. 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...