MSI Press Blog

  Sula, parish cat at Old Mission, wrote a helpful book,  Easter at the Mission , with information not generally shared in books that more superficially discuss the events around Easter, that explains Catholic dogma (much would also relate to Protestant denominations).  Sula's book is informative yet delightfully illustrated and easy to understand. It can be purchased on the spot at Old Mission gift shop or at St. Francis Retreat Center, both in San Juan Bautista. Or, it can be  purchased online . Want a discount? Order from  MSI Press webstore at half price sale ; use code FF25, and get another 25% off. Cannot beat that price! But it won't last beyond Easter, so please do hurry if you want the book. Here is an excerpt about from the section on Good Friday: Veneration of the Cross On Good Friday, the parishioners venerate the cross. The veneration begins with the cross being brought down the aisle. When it reaches the altar, the cross is laid down, and the priest lies prostrate

  And now begins the Triduum. Here is an excerpt about Maundy Thursday from Easter at the Mission .  What is Holy Thursday? Holy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) starts the Triduum (Latin for three days) with its evening Mass. The Triduum is a 3-day period at the end of Lent and includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday vigil. Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper. That is when Jesus ate together for the last time with his 12 apostles (and during which Judas slipped out and betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver). Before eating supper with his apostles, Jesus washed their feet. The feet washing is also commemorated during the Holy Thursday Mass. Maundy , a term common to Protestant churches, is an old word used in England and France that meant “commandment” (Latin: mandatum ). It was called that because during the Last Supper, Jesus gave the apostles (us, too) a very important commandment: “A new commandant I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you”

  WBAL , Baltimore's NBC station, recently interviewed Dr. Kristin Wilcox and Andrew Wilcox, authors of Andrew's Awesome Adventures with His ADHD Brain. See both come alive on television as they talk about the content of their book and why the wrote it (click on the WBAL link). Andrew's Awesome Adventures with His ADHD Brain comes alive in this interview. "Meet" both authors in their own home! Andrew's Awesome Adventures with His ADHD Brain is featured in this month's MSI Press Newsletter., which will be distributed on Thursday, April 14. If you are not signed up for the newsletter, it is not too late to get this month's issue if you sign up today (literally). We do not send retroactive copies of the newsletter. For more posts about the Wilcoxes and their book, click HERE .                                          Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. (Much also applies to traditionally published authors whose books have not been on a perfect glide path upward to success.) Today's topic reflects a reality experienced by all but a very few authors who have recognized names, expansive contacts, big pockets (or big publishers with deep pockets), or, for one reason or another luckily found a sweet spot (typically after years of being in bitter places). Most books do not start out as NYT bestsellers and remain there for life. They either start well and fall off (usually quickly), start slowly and remain with slow and then almost no sales, or start very poorly and then ta

  (diagram and contents of diagram from Beth Frates via Twitter) Literature gives suggestions for caregiver as if life is calm and caregivers are never angry or stressed out (implying that it is wrong to be so). The reality is that even in the best of circumstances, i.e. the existence of good support systems, caregivers do burn out . Thinking that other caregivers do not and that it is wrong to be angry or somehow even to instinctively respond with an unkind word or behavior is somehow is unique and makes one a bad person creates quite a guilt trip later.  In normal, circumstances, caregivers become sleep-deprived. Sleep deprivation leads NATURALLY to short tempers, frequent frustration, and, yes, bad decisions. Individuals' decisions that are made while sleep deprived cannot be thought of as intentional or well considered. At one point, I was so sleep-deprived that I fell asleep and drove off the road and into a field of cabbage (fortunately, I was not on a major highway), with m

  Time goes by so quickly!! It is already Palm Sunday (for Christians in the world). How many understand much beyond the palms? Sula, parish cat at Old Mission, wrote a helpful book, Easter at the Mission , with information not generally shared in books that more superficially discuss the events around Easter, that explains Catholic dogma (much would also relate to Protestant denominations).  Sula's book is informative yet delightfully illustrated and easy to understand. It can be purchased on the spot at Old Mission gift shop or at St. Francis Retreat Center, both in San Juan Bautista. Or, it can be purchased online . Want a discount? Order from MSI Press webstore at half price sale ; use code FF25, and get another 25% off. Cannot beat that price! But it won't last beyond Easter, so please do hurry if you want the book.                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

 For a few decades, we have rescued feral cats. In fact, with only one exception, our "domestic" cats have been ferals that we brought inside to join other ferals, already domesticated, as part of a bonded cat family. Right now, we have five cats (alas, Murjan , the single non-feral cat we had, died from cancer last fall), all of whom get along pretty fabulously. Of course, all of that is easier said than done, and the bonding took time -- lots of it. Here are some of the things we did to create our cat family, some of which is not at all typical of what others have done, but it has worked for us. We don't trap the feral cats at all; we win them over and invite them in. We do this by feeding them a distance from the house and walking away, then moving the dish closer and closer to the house and walking less and less far away, until they are eating at our feet, at which point they will usually let us scooch or kneel beside them. To get to this point may take weeks. Getting