MSI Press Blog

Precerpt (excerpt from book prior to publication):  Raising God's Rainbow Makers  (Mahlou) Lizzie's Birth, part 2 Labor Day? Going into labor on Labor Day? Of course, babies are born on Labor Day every year, but somehow it felt too on the nose. That day, my husband Donnie—who was working for the U.S. Forest Service at the time and knew every pristine corner of the Bitterroot and St. Joe National Forests—had taken me on a wonderfully relaxing all-day picnic. Just the two of us, stopping wherever the wilderness invited us to linger. We drove more than a hundred miles, heading north along the Montana side of the Bitterroot Mountains, then west across Lolo Pass and into the lush valley and crystal lake of the Coeur d’Alene area (I could suddenly understand the beauty that inspired that name). From there, we traveled south along the sparkling Salmon River, its occasional small rapids and graceful twists lined with pine trees. We watched as rainbow trout, with nowhere to hide in the...

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from  My 20th Language  by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Study Abroad Unlike many—if not most—of my foreign-language-learning peers, I never had the chance to study abroad during my university years. I attended college on a full scholarship, and that scholarship money could not be used for study abroad programs. If I wanted to go abroad, I would have had to pay my own way. As the eldest of eight children of a shoe-cutter and a part-time farmer, that was simply not possible. I was already working nearly half-time just to afford clothing and cover expenses not included in my scholarship. So, I learned my languages in the classroom. And I held my own—often outperforming those who had studied abroad. By the time I completed graduate studies in comparative literature and later enlisted in the U.S. Army, I had reached Level 4 proficiency in two languages and Level 3 in another two, as measured by the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT...

  Excerpt from Surviving Freshman Year by Gregory Jones -  Sunday Lunch             Austin barely got to work on time. He had been out late the night before with Brandon and some others they met through a college-age Bible study sponsored by a local church they attended. Austin usually went to church with his family on Christmas and Easter but had never been a regular attender. Brandon had invited him, and it seemed like a good way to make new friends. Austin was enjoying the study and had made new friends, and they had enjoyed a fantastic game of capture the flag the night before. They had gathered at the church playground, which bordered an open field and a wilderness trail. The students had divided into two groups with each group choosing a base on opposite sides of the church. The object of the game was simple: The first group to get the other team’s flag and return it to the spot where their flag was located w...