MSI Press Blog

  Here are some excellent podcast interviews of Irit Schaffer, gems from the past. Enjoy! "Seekers of Meaning" - podcast presentation for Jewish Sacred Aging "Trauma, Family, Legacy, and Healing" on Inner Work podcast The Idea Crucible: Body Mind Spirit podcast: Interview with Irit Schaffer, part 1 The Idea Crucible: Body Mind Spirit podcast: Interview with Irit Schaffer, part 2 Blogtalk radio Read more posts about Irit and her book HERE .                                  Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  This week's book back story features Good Blood by Irit Schaffer. from the author -- Irit Schaffer is an author, speaker, physical therapist and healer in California. Her healing journey began in childhood where she was mesmerized by the stories of her father who had supernatural encounters with miraculous healing. Her dad journeyed through the turbulence of the Holocaust, was a Russian POW, imprisoned, suffered gunfire, gangrene infection.  There was no medicine to be had and yet he found a resilience that would change the course of his life and through his stories, hers.    Irit says “I would always ask him how he could tolerate the bullets taken out and not scream, and he would say that he had good blood. I would ask him if I had good blood, and he would laugh.”  That story set in motion Irit’s never-ending desire to understand the mind /body connection and the resiliency and resourcefulness of the human body mind spirit, called “Good Blood”.    Irit went on to achieve a Mast

1961 The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all true art and science.  Albert Einstein  As soon as I looked into his blue eyes, every cell in my body bubbled with joy. Yes, this must be love. I am in love for the first time. His are the bluest eyes I have ever seen. They are like the deep blue of the ocean on a clear and sunny day. My mom is sitting to my left, my sister, Edna, to my right, and I am falling in love. Ari Ben Canaan is his name. He is in charge of taking a boatload of people to Palestine. The boat, Exodus, is filled with Jewish Europeans planning to make their home in the soon to be independent State of Israel. Unfortunately, the British authorities have detained the boat in Cyprus. They are not allowing Exodus to complete its voyage to Palestine, and Ari has to take charge. His confidence is portrayed in his thin and muscular 5’9” frame. “We can go back, or we can go on a hunger strike,” he says, “but before

  excerpt from Good Blood (Schaffer) -  Author Note  People ask me when I began my journey with Good Blood, and my answer is always the same “when I was born.” I laugh when I say it, but it is true. As a child in Montréal, I would curl up next to my dad and beg to hear the stories of his childhood, his family, and his incredible war experiences. “Dad, tell me again how you had the bullets taken out without pain medicine and you didn’t even cry. Dad, tell me again how you healed.” “Dad, tell me again,” was my favorite line.  With my mom, it was different. It was forbidden to talk to her about the holocaust for fear that she would faint, and I was always afraid she wouldn’t come to. Yet, as a child, I did know three things about her war experience, and those three things made a deep impact on me:   She had exit papers to leave, but she stayed to help her parents.  A Christian family hid her and her parents, and it was a Jew who informed on them.  Her father gave her a gold chai

  Irit Schaffer, author of Good Blood , recently taught a Zoom class at Penn State University on her book and its topics. The class received "glowing: reviews, and a repeat class is planned for the fall. For more posts about Irit and her book, click HERE .                                  Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Well, we missed this one when it happened, but better late than never. Irit Schaffer, author of Good Blood , gave an interview (worth checking out) to Release blog. Read the interview HERE . Read more posts about Irit and her book HERE .                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

Irit Schaffer, physiotherapist and author of Good Blood , a story of healing -- from the Holocaust, from a difficult family history, from one's own fears -- will be presenting, via Zoom, a lecture on healing today at Nova Southeast University. Find more information by and about Irit and her book HERE .

  Born in Israel, raised in Canada, and now living in the US, Irit Schaffer works  in her physical therapy practice in California, where her “good blood” background and her extensive educational training has allowed her a unique perspective on the mind-body-spirit connection. For more posts about Irit and her book, click HERE .

Today, Irit Schaffer, author of Good Blood, conducted a guest lecture at Florida State University, where much interest was shown in her book -- and a good many copies sold. For information about Irit and her book, click HERE .

  (photo from last year, in anticipation of changing that number this evening from 41 to 42) November 13 today is CB Leaver's birthday. CB is the MSI Press author of the popular Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest and one of the oldest CHARGE Syndrome adults in the world. He knows only three others world-wide (Ohio, Massachusetts, and Netherlands) who have reached his age of 42 years (one is actually 45, the others are 42, as well) but thinks there may be another one or two somewhere. It is no mere feat, then, that he has survived, and robustly so, after a very tenuous start in life in which he as given 0% chance of survival by well respected doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and rescued by doctors at Children's Hospital in Boston, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University Hospital, and Stanford Children's Medical Center -- it took a countrywide network to turn that 0% into 100%) and no mere feat also that

  It is Tuesday. 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.  Today's topic digresses -- into the absurd, perhaps. Today, I sent for the third time, ARC labels to wone of our authors. The first time the labels disappeared. The second time, they were inexplicably directed to an IRS office in another state. Totally insane! Fingers crossed for a safe arrival this time. Today's experience reminded me of other unexpected, funny, and heartwarming experiences that have occurred over the 20 years MSI Press has been publishing. Here are some of my favorite, somewhat inexplicable stories. When You're Shoved from the Right, Look to Your Left: Metaphors of Islamic Humanism is a great little book, trul

  Excerpt from Good Blood: A Journey of Healing (Irit Schaffer): From: 1978 (Chapter 3) At 5:30 a.m., I wake up, and my head is pounding. A shooting wave of pain goes through my abdomen. Within thirty seconds of waking, I rush to the bathroom. I make it just in time.  Did I upset my stomach? Did anyone else get sick? I wonder. Ok, go back to sleep, Irit, I tell myself.   No sooner do I crawl under the down comforter than the shooting pain sears through my gut again. Almost instantly, I start to feel nauseous, and my hands get clammy. I bolt for the toilet once again, and this time I throw up.  What is going on? I wonder. It can’t be the food I ate because Barna and Jofie ate everything I did, and they’re ok. I would know if they were getting up.  One hour passes, and my back and belly are on fire. As I head to the bathroom for the umpteenth time, I hear footsteps. Barna’s kind Hungarian voice comes through the bathroom door, “Are you alright?”  I’m having trouble thinking of

This book itself contains excerpts from the best of MSI Press's publications on triumphing over difficulties. Want to brighten your day? Find out how others did! From Good Blood by Irit Schaffer -- As soon as I looked into his blue eyes, every cell in my body bubbled with joy. Yes, this must be love. I am in love for the first time. His are the bluest eyes I have ever seen. They are like the deep blue of the ocean on a clear and sunny day. My mom is sitting to my left, my sister, Edna, to my right, and I am falling in love. Ari Ben Canaan is his name. He is in charge of taking a boatload of people to Palestine. The boat, Exodus, is filled with Jewish Europeans planning to make their home in the soon to be independent State of Israel. Unfortunately, the British authorities have detained the boat in Cyprus. They are not allowing Exodus to complete its voyage to Palestine, and Ari has to take charge. His confidence is portrayed in his thin and muscular 5’9” frame. “We can g

  Congratulations to Irit Schaffer ( Good Blood ) for earning the status of Runner-Up (equivalent to a silver medal) in the 2021 Paris Book Festival's Spiritual/religious category. For more posts about MSI Press authors' awards, click HERE . For more posts about Irit, click HERE . For more posts about Good Blood , click HERE .

                                                                                       (photo by Frank Perez) 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. Ever wonder how books get to be accepted for publication? There is often more to any author's story than non-authors and not-yet-published authors would image.  Yes, of course, every publisher has the normal channel of proposal reading and acceptance based on the quality of the proposal, the "fit" of the book, the quality of the writing, and the perceived marketability, typically based on the author's platform. But...some books come into being in some other ways. Here are a few from the MSI Press e