MSI Press Blog

  This week's book back story is about the book, Saints I Know , by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission. From the publisher: This book was written by Sula's amanuensis to help the teens in her second-year confirmation class choose a saint's name; she had help from Deacon Van, the deacon at Old Mission San Juan Bautista. One point they wanted to make was that saints' were perfect (like teens, struggling to find their place in the world). The other is that there are a great many saints, not just the handful that become the traditional confirmation names. They wanted to give the teens a representation of saints who might be associated with the interests they had or the Franciscan nature of Old Mission SJB (noting more Franciscan saints than just St. Francis).  For other posts about Sula and her books, click  HERE . For other book back stories, click HERE .  Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list,

  This week's book back story focuses on the award-winning  Mental Health Mayday  by Gregg Bagdade. From the author: As a firefighter and a paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department, I served 20 + years before I realized that my department was behind the times regarding handling mental health within the fire service. With the support of my wife and family, I went back to school, obtaining my Bachelor’s Degree from Penn State and then my Master’s Degree from Concordia University. I became licensed as a professional counselor and set out to change the stigma that was mental health within the fire service. I began working in private practice with first responders exclusively helping them with their mental health needs. Shortly thereafter, I realized that my affinity for writing would pay off in dividends if I just wrote a book so my message could spread far and wide. A year later, Mental Health Mayday was published. It is a portable, easily digestible primer on how firefighters can ha

  This week's book back story features How to Be a Good Mommy When You're Sick by Emily Graves. from the editor -- Unfortunately, the author has been incommunicado for several years, so all I have is a few notes from correspondence with her. It seems that she had some significance first-hand experience in chronic illness, in her case, rheumatoid arthritis at a young age. As she strove to maintain her professorial position and raise her son in a "normal" environment, she learned many useful things that could help others in similar circumstances -- not necessarily suffering from rheumatoid arthritis but from any debilitating illness. Library Journal was impressed with her book and provided an excellent review. And the book was off and running.  Purchase the paperback 25% discount with coupon code FF25 at the  MSI Press webstore . For more posts about this book, click HERE . For more book back stories, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Pr

  Blest Atheist is the perfect book story to tell on Easter. After all, it opens and ends with an Easter scene. The story behind the book is actually told within the pages of the book. Dr. Mahlou sspent her life as an atheist; Blest Atheist is the story of that life and of her conversion to Catholicism.  Here is the book description: As a young child, outraged by the hypocrisy she finds in a church that does nothing to alleviate the physical and sexual abuse she experiences on a regular basis, Beth delivers an accusatory youth sermon and gets her family expelled from the church. Having locked the door on God, Beth goes on to raise a family of seven children, learn 17 languages, and enjoy a career that takes her to NASA, Washington, and 24 countries. All the time, however, God keeps knocking at the door, protecting and blessing her, which she realizes only decades later. Ultimately, Beth finds God in a very simple yet most unusual way. A very human story, Blest Atheist encompasses the

  Today's book back story provides inside information about One Family: Indivisible by Steven Greenebaum. From the author: In 1999, I hit the wall. Fifty years old, I couldn’t make sense of my life or the world around me. I had lived believing in a God of justice and of love. But so much hate in the world. Injustice everywhere I looked. Where the heck was God? I wanted answers. Then, after months of pleading, I heard the quiet voice of what I believed and believe was God and took three pages of dictation . It took nearly 10 years of living with and studying the dictation to understand that I had been pointed toward Interfaith – a belief that humanity needed to listen to and respect one another if we were ever going to achieve the love and justice that lay at the core of God’s word. Now what? I felt it important to share what I had learned, which meant I needed to write a book. Me? A book? Ok, one book. I poured everything I had into it. In the end, The Interfaith Alternative  wa

  Today's back story is about the book,  Old and On Hold  by Bertha Cooper . From the publisher The story behind this book and 14 others like it share one important thing in common: they came out during the pandemic. Not only did they come out at that time, but they were planned as a set of books (by various MSI Press authors with special expertise related to various aspects of the pandemic). Bertha, who had earned the recognition as "best new voice in health and fitness" with her book, Women, We're Only Old Once , knew a lot about aging, and older folks were particularly hard hit by COVID at that time.  Many of the insights in the book are true even now. After all, many retirees get caught holding in place for many reasons, not just the pandemic. Some useful thoughts and insights shared in this book are true at any time. Book available at 25% discount with code FF25 at msipress.com/shop. Read more about Bertha and her books HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsle

  This week's book back story features Intrepid: Fearless Immigrant from Jordan to America by Carl and Betty Lou Leaver from the publisher -- When Carl Leaver's beloved cat -- with quite a unique personality -- died from cancer, he found one way to deal with his grief was to compile the pictures he had made over the 11 years of Intrepid's life into a story. For sure, Intrepid did have a story. Ironically, Carl died from cancer three years ago. Intrepid is buried with him. Purchase the paperback at 25% discount with coupon code FF25  at the  MSI Press webstore . For more posts about Carl Leaver and his 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

  This week's book back story is about Peter Jonas' book, Soccer Is Fun without Parents . From the publisher --  Unfortunately, Peter died a short time after writing this book so it probably did not get as much attention as it otherwise would. Peter was an athletic coach and professor, who saw two things that prompted him to write this book, weaving the themes together in a unique way: (1) Parents are too negatively involved in their children's sports  and (2) Leadership skills are an inherent part of sports. He develops both in an easy-to-read style. His ability to reach out to the everyday person is what attracted us to the book, and we do not regret publishing it though our association with Peter was too short-lived. He lives on in this book and others he has written. Obviously, literary experts concur with our assessment. The book has received two awards. Description of the book: Approximately 75 percent of children who play organized sports quit by age 13. While there