MSI Press Blog

This excerpt comes from  Helping the Disabled Veteran  (Joanna Romer)      Homeless Veterans Drive down any major thoroughfare in a medium to large-sized city, and you’re bound to see this sign at an intersection: “Homeless Veteran. Please Help.” The sign is usually being wielded by a man between 20 and 70 years old, bedraggled in appearance and wearing a helpless expression on his face. Sometimes the sign says, “Will work for food,” especially if the Veteran is on the younger side. Sometimes the sign bearer is disabled, with just one leg, standing on crutches or in a wheelchair. What do we do when we see such a person? The light changes and we drive on through the intersection; or, if we’re feeling charitable, we put a dollar in the outstretched cup. Sometimes if we get a look at the veteran’s face, a tear may come to our eye: there’s something very wrong about this situation . The more cynical among us may posit that the whole thing is an act — that the man with the sign is jus

  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

  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

  MSI Press wishes all its readers and staff a happy veteran's day this November 11, 2022.  A special treat for our readers -- Helping the Disabled Veteran by Joanna Romer. Treat yourself to excerpts HERE . Get a 25% discount with code FF25 at MSI Press webstore. Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .