MSI Press Blog

  Today's book back story is about  The Musings of a Carolina Yankee  by Wally Amidon. From the publisher: Wally's book did not land at my doorstep in the traditional way--not as a proposal in any form either via mail or email. Rather, it showed up as a self-published book literally on my doorstep, sent as a gift by childhood friend, Wally, who had moved from Yankee territory (the Maine-New Hampshire border) to redneck country (rural South Carolina). I was aghast at the production, and I often use it as a sample of the difference between self-publication (especially when authors are taken in by a vanity press that does no extra work) and a professional publication. Certainly, self-published authors can produce quality books, but that was not the case with Wally's. The vanity press had just published it exactly the way he had written it. It looked like they had just scanned typewritten pages. The content was good, and the humor could prompt out-loud laughing, but the present

  An interesting article was posted this week by The New York Times -- about what reactions about how behavior at dinner can indicate early stages of cancer. (Yes, we want to catch cancer in the early stage, so this article is worth reading). Here is it: " The overlooked sign of cancer you may be missing at dinner time ." For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The CCC is expanded and updated weekly. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informative, cancer-related story -- and be open to guest posts:  Cancer Diary .   Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twit

  April is Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month. Learn more... Guide to Esophageal Cancer   For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The CCC is expanded and updated weekly. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informative, cancer-related story -- and be open to guest posts:  Cancer Diary .   Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter  here  or on our  home page . 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 excha

As with Carl, many people have "signs" of cancer that can be interpreted either as something else quite mild or dismissed entirely as just a bad day or maybe I ate something bad yesterday. Otherwise quite healthy people simply ignore them as an annoyance. (Before cancer, Carl was sick just one day in his life -- 50 years earlier he threw up, once, on the lawn, from unsuspectingly drinking stagnant water the day while carrying out his Forest Service employee duties, Seriously. Never again did he ever throw up even after three rounds of chemotherapy, but he died, healthy, from cancer!)  This is the insidious nature of cancer. Often, you just do not know you have it because the signs are so innocuous until it has taken over your body and is in the winner's circle -- and you have an incredibly difficult battle to get your body back -- and many people lose that battle every single day. This is especially true of "toilet information." Change in bowel movement is prett