MSI Press Blog

  a happy Shenan (CB) lounging with a happy Murjan  March 1 and business taxes loom big: due the Ides of March. (Not a very perspicacious day....) So, I thought I would give myself a little extra time, not prepare a new column of my own making, and simply share a delightful youtube video by one of our authors, Joanna Charnas. She says, " Happy Cat, Happy Life! " An oldie, but goodie! Enjoy! For more Caturday posts, click HERE .   For more posts about Joanna and her award-winning books, click  HERE .    For book reviews, interviews, videos, and more, check out Joanna's title pages at the MSI Press website:  100 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness,   A Movie Lover's Search for Romance ,  Living Well with Chronic Illness   and  Tips, Tools, and Anecdotes to Help during a Pandemic . To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount, use code FF25 at  MSI Press webstore . Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to...

  Today, February 28, 2025,* marks Rare Disease Day, an international observance dedicated to raising awareness about rare diseases and their impact on patients' lives. Among these conditions is CHARGE Syndrome, a complex genetic disorder that affects approximately 1 in 10,000 births worldwide. The acronym CHARGE stands for Coloboma, Heart defects, Atresia choanae, Restricted growth and development, Genital abnormalities, and Ear abnormalities - reflecting the multiple systems affected by this condition. What makes this Rare Disease Day particularly noteworthy is the ongoing contribution of Shenan Leaver, believed to be the oldest living person with CHARGE Syndrome in the world. Despite facing numerous medical challenges throughout his life, Leaver has defied expectations by not only surviving but thriving as an author. His resilience exemplifies the potential for individuals with rare conditions to lead fulfilling lives when provided with proper support and opportunities. Leaver...

  Today's back story is about the book, Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest  by Shenan (CB) Leaver with Betty Lou Leaver. From the co-author: CB Leaver , the author, is a mentally challenged CHARGE Syndrome adult who never learned to read or write. His mother, Betty Lou Leaver, a highly published author, who wanted her son to understand the purpose of the written word: sharing thoughts and/or information with others. It took a full year of working together to put CB's remembered stories on paper, to check that they had been accurately transcribed. CB learned a lot about the written word both in the process of writing and in getting feedback from pre-publication readers of the manuscript. CB subsequently did a book signing at the Los Angeles Book Fair. He had a great time learning about reader reactions to his book. He was also adept at using his people skills and humor to draw readers to his booth.  Book available at 25% discount with code FF25 at msipress.com/shop. Read exce...

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest (Leaver).  Read more about the Shenan Leaver and his book HERE . Currently on sale for $5 at MSI Press webstore .cookie, Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest, Shenan Leaver 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 .    

  MSI Press authors, Sula Parish Cat and Shenan (CB) Leaver, at Old Mission San Juan Bautista Gift Shop office Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission, has written seven books, the most recent one, Sula and the Franciscan Sisters , released this month. Today, KSBW in Salinas, California featured Sula, her passing, and parishioner response -- along with quite a surprise at the first Mass after her passing. Listen to it HERE . For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE For posts about Shenan and his book, click HERE .                                    Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Shenan (CB) Leaver, author of Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest , was recently interviewed by the Mission Village Voice , where his book is being serialized. From the MVV introduction to the column: "Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest is collection of anecdotes about a 'detail-oblivious' homemaker and traveler, told from the point of view of CB, her mentally challenged son. The simplicity of language has made this book a favorite with ESL students, and the humorous 'conclusion' about life from a child's point of view endears it to anyone with a sense of humor. The reason CB's mother worked with him to write the book was to teach him the impact of literacy -- why people write and why people read. Even though it has been impossible for him to learn to read and write very much, through the joint preparation of the book he did learn a lot about literacy. CB is a 42-year-old CHARGE Syndrome, on of about 4-5 worldwide his age. He was given 0% chance of living, dispro...

  Rare Disease Day is an observance held on the last day of February to raise awareness for rare diseases and improve access to treatment and medical representation for individuals with rare disease. Rare Disease Day is meaningful for MSI Press since one of its authors, Shenan (CB) Leaver suffers from CHARGE Syndrome. CHARGE is so rare that he is one of only a handful of survivors in his age group worldwide -- he has personally found four besides himself! CHARGE Syndrome is a disorder that affects many areas of the body. CHARGE is an abbreviation for several of the features common in the disorder: coloboma, heart defects, atresia choanae (also known as choanal atresia), growth retardation, genital abnormalities, and ear abnormalities. The pattern of malformations varies among individuals with this disorder, and the multiple health problems can be life-threatening in infancy. When CB was born 42 years ago, CHARGE was not even known! Now, 70% of children born with CHARGE make it to ...

  (photo from last year, in anticipation of changing that number this evening from 41 to 42) November 13 today is CB Leaver's birthday. CB is the MSI Press author of the popular Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest and one of the oldest CHARGE Syndrome adults in the world. He knows only three others world-wide (Ohio, Massachusetts, and Netherlands) who have reached his age of 42 years (one is actually 45, the others are 42, as well) but thinks there may be another one or two somewhere. It is no mere feat, then, that he has survived, and robustly so, after a very tenuous start in life in which he as given 0% chance of survival by well respected doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and rescued by doctors at Children's Hospital in Boston, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University Hospital, and Stanford Children's Medical Center -- it took a countrywide network to turn that 0% into 100%) and no mere feat also that ...

  excerpt from Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest There's a Stranger in Mommy's Bed Sometimes Mommy gets really tired. She says that working mothers reach proportions of exhaustion that exceed the imagi­nation. In such cases, what they say and do has little resem­blance to commonsense. I guess that must be right if I judge by my mommy. For example, let me tell you what happened to her one week­end. Friday evening after a long and frustrating, to say nothing of exhausting, week at work, she fell asleep on the living room sofa. (She does that a lot. She says she is going to watch television, but she never does. She just stares at the screen for a few minutes and then topples over. I have never seen her watch a whole tele­vision show like my siblings and I do.) Anyway, she did her frequent act of screen staring and top­pling over on the Friday evening I am talking about. My daddy, of course, could not wake her up; he never can when she topples over asleep. So, my sister found her asle...

  The Power of Observation Once my sister, Echo, had learned to drive, she was much more observant than my mommy was. She belongs to that group of people that Mommy calls detail-observant, so she pays very close attention to all kinds of things that Mommy does not notice at all. One night after work, my mommy and Echo were driving home together. Well, Mommy, the grande dame of detail-obliviousness, was doing the driving, and clearly, it was Echo, the de­tail-observant, who was doing the watching. That is pretty typi­cal of how they usually drive together. At the light where Mommy had to make a turn to get onto the highway coming to our town—she and Echo worked in the next town over—there was a long line of cars. That was no sur­prise. There often was a long line at this particular light, espe­cially right after work, so Mommy was sort of expecting a line, anyway. Mommy could see all the way to the intersection, and the light there was red. So, she got into line behind the cars. Sh...