MSI Press Blog

    Today's book excerpt comes from   Widow: A Survival Guide for the First Year  by Joanna Romer. Nurture Yourself Nurturing Yourself   Grieving effectively is about finding a balance between two worlds. On the one hand, there is the life you had with your husband; you miss it, and him; you wish he were still with you. Often there is pain involved in your memories. On the other hand, you know you have to go on---there are a million details to take care of in connection with his passing. Your current job (if you have one, or maybe now you have to find one), your children, other relatives, friends and other individuals in your life will expect you to carry on. No one wants you to go to pieces---and you don’t really want to either, do you? One of the best ways to handle both the emotions and the sense of unreality that grieving brings, along with the responsibilities of carrying on, is to nurture yourself. Get in the habit of this, early and often---fr...

  This week's blog post is the next in the series of book back stories and is the story behind Life after Losing a Child (Young & Romer). From the author -  A former editor of mine, as well as a good friend, lost her son. When she called to tell me, I walked around my house for an hour before I wrote her a poem. It is the first page in a book I co-authored with another good friend, my late friend Joanna Romer. We agreed, before writing the book, that a loss such as that was even more painful – and different – than the loss we both shared as widows.  We set forth to interview parents who had lost children and followed each chapter on loss with a healing chapter, depicting ways each parent dealt with the loss in a positive way to help with healing. Several of the interview chapters were friends of ours, which made it all the more real, and painful. I hope this book has helped a parent who lost a child in a good way. Paperback copies of this book can be purchased at the...

  Today would have been the 54th anniversary for Carl  and me. Last year, I spent it in the cemetery with Carl, as I did the year before. This year I cannot because I am in Bandung, Indonesia, but perhaps that is just as well.  On our 51st, he was alive, but not well. Three weeks earlier, he had fallen, been xrayed, and found to be in the advanced stage of cancer of unknown primary , with liver, lungs, bones, and stomach completely riddled with cancer cells, blood clots in his lungs, and his bones throwing off cells to create hypercalcemia, the reason he had fallen. It was a difficult time. We were just coming out of the covid months. We brought our CHARGE Syndrome son CB who had been living in group homes for 20 years home when they were not careful with protection from covid. At the same time, our spina bifida daughter, who lives about 30 miles to the south of us, independently, with a county-provided part-time aide lost her caregiver to surgery and no one wanted to tak...

  Just released -- the audiobook for The Widower's Guide to a New Life by Joanna Romer. This book was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award. 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 . 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  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! Fin...

  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 yo...

  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 au...

  Today's book excerpt comes from Joanna Romer's Widow: How to Survive (and Thrive!) in Your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Years CHAPTER SIX Exercise Dare I bring up the obvious? There are few things as crucial to your state of mind as exercise. While it may have been easy to go the gym, run around the block, or swim at the neighborhood pool during your first year of widowhood, by Year Two it’s become a little harder. Why is that? Quite simply, when you’re in a state of extreme stress or depression, such as early widowhood, exercise acts as a tonic, giving an immediate boost. As your sense of wellbeing returns, the benefits of exercise aren’t so obvious. They are still there, however, and exercise is still vitally important. Even though we begin to feel a new sense of calm and acceptance waking up in the morning, that doesn’t mean we should loll around the house all day in our pajamas. Yes, certainly, once a week it’s great to take a day off, but during the week try to incorporate a little...