MSI Press Blog

  April Fool’s Day has been around for centuries, though no one can quite agree on where it began. Some trace it to the 16th‑century switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, when people who still celebrated New Year’s in late March were teased as “April fools.” Others point to spring festivals across cultures—times of playful chaos, role‑reversal, and harmless trickery. However it started, the spirit has stayed the same: one day each year when the world gives you permission to be delightfully ridiculous. In our house, though, April Fool’s Day doesn’t just happen . It is anticipated. It is engineered. It is practically a season. And the reason is simple: my son Shenan. Shenan is a prankster by nature and by name. He even owns a shirt that reads, “If I Shenan once, I’ll shenanigan.” This is not an idle threat. This is a personal mission statement. So it’s no surprise that April Fool’s Day is his favorite holiday. While most people start thinking about jokes on March 31...

  We live in an age where everything feels “saved.” Our photos sync automatically. Our documents live in the Cloud. Our creative work floats somewhere between devices, always accessible — until it isn’t. Today is World Backup Day , and it’s a reminder that convenience is not the same as security. The Cloud is not a backup — it’s a workspace Cloud storage is designed for access , not protection . If a file is deleted, corrupted, or encrypted by ransomware, that loss can replicate instantly across every synced device. Redundancy spreads the problem; only a true backup preserves the original. As Forbes notes, redundancy simply “carries deletion forward.” A real backup is independent of your cloud provider , stored elsewhere and untouched by sync errors or cyberattacks. Why backups still matter Human error happens. One wrong click can erase years of work. Cloud outages occur. Even major providers experience downtime or data loss. Cyberattacks spread fast. Ransomware can...

  We spend so much of life chasing “more.” More productivity. More achievement. More options. More noise disguised as opportunity. But there comes a moment — often after loss, illness, upheaval, or simply age-earned clarity — when you realize that more is not what makes a life full. Sometimes the richest life is the one with fewer moving parts. Simplicity sharpens meaning When you strip away the unnecessary, what remains becomes luminous. A quiet morning. A single conversation that matters. A task done well. A relationship tended with presence instead of speed. Simplicity doesn’t shrink your world. It reveals it. Simplicity restores agency A simpler life is not a smaller life. It’s a life where you choose what deserves your energy — and what doesn’t. You stop scattering yourself across obligations that don’t align with who you are. You stop performing for systems that never had your wellbeing in mind. You reclaim your time, your attention, your breath. Simpli...

  When a $3.34 Deposit Means More Than It Looks Most authors have received a royalty statement that made them laugh — not because it was large, but because it was tiny. A few dollars. A few cents. A number so small it feels almost absurd. But those tiny deposits are messages in a bottle. They say: Someone found your book. Someone cared enough to buy it. Someone spent time with your words. In an industry obsessed with launches, lists, and metrics, it’s easy to forget that books live slow, wandering lives. They travel through time. They find readers long after we’ve stopped tracking them. And sometimes they send back a little signal, a quiet acknowledgment that the work still matters to someone. A $3.34 royalty isn’t a paycheck. It’s a whisper: I reached someone. And for many authors, that whisper is worth more than the number on the statement.T hese Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors ...