MSI Press Blog

  (Picture by Stacey Gentry. This year is Sula's first Valentine's Day in heaven; she crossed the Rainbow Bridge last August. MSI Press wishes her a happy Valentine's Day, a happy Caturday, and a happy afterlife without pain.) This Valentine's Day, help mend the broken hearts of unwanted and helpless animals who feel that they've been forgotten. Just $19 a month can help the ASPCA provide love and care for neglected animals across the country. Make an urgent gift TODAY. HERE is where to reach the ASPCA. You can read more posts by and about Sula and her books (six in English and one in Spanish) HERE . You can read many stories about Sula online and find some great pictures of her HERE . And, if you would like to become a Sula fan, you can interact with her on her Face Book page HERE . And, yes, even though the account is now posthumous, it continues to be active. Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .  

  Photograph by Stacey Gentry  And now, about me— Every morning, I make the rounds of the museum, grounds, and church, after starting my day at Mass in the Chapel with the priest and parishioners I love—and, appropriately, on a bit of an empty stomach though I do not take communion (being a cat, you know). After Mass, I go to the Mission Gift Shop for breakfast and, depending upon the day, I begin my rounds somewhat later. Actually, if you have read my other books, you know as much about me as it is possible to know. For those who have not read them yet, I can tell you my tale in a nutshell. It is pretty simple because the beginning is rather cloudy. I only know what the people at the Mission Gift Shop remember about me some 12 years ago. Yes, I am quite a big girl now with my own set of life experiences. It seems that I was always in San Juan Bautista, a beautiful Mission town in the Mexican tradition. Lots of Spanish spoken here, so I have had to learn to meow in and respond to two l

  photo of Sula, looking for more of her books, by Stacey Gentry Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, is back in the news again. This time, an article about MSI Press LLC in the San Francisco Post details the role Sula and her books play in raising money for the presentation fund of Old Mission San Juan Bautista. Check it out! Nicely written! For more posts about Sula and her books -- and lots of neat pictures, click HERE .

  This morning I discovered a chat note sent to Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista.  Someone had set a video of Sula to the song, "I Have You." It is beautiful. It brought me a morning smile -- I hope it will for you, too. Just click right HERE . For more posts about Sula, her seven books, her friendships, and her many interviews, 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 . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com. 

  I doubt that much more needs to be said. We (the community of Old Mission San Juan Bautista) placed the headstone on the grave of Sula, known here as an MSI Press author, this past week. May she rest in place, having served her community well for 17 years. See Sula's Face Book page . See more posts about Sula . See more Caturday posts. 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 .

(photos by Stacey Gentry) Sula, parish cat at Old Mission really got into preparing the creche for this Christmas. Here are some additional pictures of her participation. You can follow Sula's adventures on her Face Book page HERE . For more posts about Sula and her books, including excerpts, check HERE .

Hi, I am Sula, the Parish Cat. In honor of Caturday, I am going to invite you to join me on my Facebook Page  HERE   -- I have almost 800 friends now; you can be my friend, too, if you like read some blog posts about me HERE   -- all kinds of information: who I am, pictures of me, information about my book, and more: go discover! read the interview that Mudpie conducted with me when my book, Suriving Cancer, Helping People: One Cat's Stor y first came out HERE   -- it was fun; I think you will like it see  the stories about me on the Internet (from local newspapers, Guideposts Magazine, All Creatures Managzine, and more) read reviews about my books; you can a list of the reviews here Christmas at the Mission Dia de Muertos Easter at the Mission Saints I Know Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story Tale of a Mission Cat read some excerpts from my books HERE And, for some immediate reading pleasure right here, this is the Canticle of Sula that Stacy Gentry, my care pro

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with Easter at the Mission by Sula. Sula, the now-famous church cat, tackles a mysterious topic for her fifth book: What is Easter, what is its meaning, what are the beliefs behind Catholic behaviors associated with the Lenten season and Easter, why is it called the Paschal mystery? Sula answers these questions with history, dogma, and humor. And, of course, with pictures, lots and lots of people-cat pictures. The sections of the book--Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and East Morning--are beautifully illustrated with drawings by Uliana Yanovich. For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press 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 . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for  reviewing  a current or

  Excerpt from Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story (Sula)   Greetings, World! My name is Sula. I am told that I am a very attractive cat. A bit rotund, I am a domestic shorthair with a very luxuriant and fanciful white coat, accented by greyish-black bangs and a greyish black tail. I am almost ten years old, a big girl now. I live by choice at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, the latest in a long line of mission cats, and I am a cancer survivor. Supposedly, I am a Turkish Van cat by breed, but I doubt that I came here from Turkey. On the other hand, I don’t know where I came from. I don’t think it really matters. I am here, and I like being here. Moreover, I have a mission and a Mission. What more could any cat want? As a cancer-surviving Mission cat, my chore is to heal people who, like me, must overcome burdens in their lives. (I am so very glad that I do not have the same mission that previous Mission cats had: ridding the Mission of mice and rats. I think they must

SHELLY Shelly starred in the book, How My Cat Made Me a Better Man , by Jeremy Feig -- and that book placed as finalist in the Book of the Year award. For more posts about Shelly and the book she inspired, click HERE . INTREPID Intrepid is a memoir and love story written by grieving owners when he died at age 11, far too young, of cancer. For more posts about Intrepid, click HERE . SULA Sula is perhaps the most famous cat of MSI Press. She has written six books.        For evidence of Sula's Internet fame, click HERE . For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE .

  No, not from writing. She is, in fact, right now working on her next book, Sula and the Franciscan Sisters, due out mid-February. She is retiring from full-time work at the Mission. Her cancer has returned (fourth bout), and while she has great veterinarian care, the combination of the gift shop and Mission being closed most of the week because of covid and Sula's need to heal, she now works only on Sundays. Not at Masses because none are open to the public right now; they are streamed until covid dissipates. She works part-time as a retiree at her gift shop home. You can follow her activities at her Face Book page HERE . If you want, you can like her and become part of her fan club. Posts about Sula, her life, her Mission, and excerpts from her books, with lots of photos are HERE .

  Well, this may be the shortest book back story yet. Easter at the Mission came about at Easter time after several other Sula (parish cat). Essentially, it was Easter. Sula had already written a popular book, Christmas at the Mission . Readers reported learning things about Christmas they had not known, and the hope was, with the help of the deacon, to do the same with he Easter book -- that hope seemed to have been realized even more in the Easter book than the Christmas book. For more posts about Sula and her award-winning 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 . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% disc

  (photo by Martin Klimek) Long overdue is this story about Sula, parish cat of Old Mission, who was featured in the Christmas issue of Guideposts Magazine and in the All Creatures spinoff magazine in 2017 -- she was the cover in both cases.  Since that first story, which you can read online HERE , asn well as view the beautiful photography by Martin Klimek (sample above -- and more pictures at the Guideposts online site), Sula has written six books about and in support of her parish, Old Mission San Juan Bautista. They have received wonderful reviews! You can read more posts by Sula and her books HERE .

  Excerpt from Sula and the Franciscan Sisters - The Sisters, Their Convent Home and Work, and Our Mission A long time ago, the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, as an order, were not Catholic; they were Anglican. Then, they became Catholic. As Franciscans, they found their way to Old Mission San Juan Bautista, a Franciscan Mission established by St. Junipero Serra and Franciscan friars from Mexico in 1797. The Franciscan sisters came later. Once here, they helped the parishioners, other people, the cats who came to visit them at the convent, like my friend Julius, and, of course, me. The Franciscans are a mendicant order. That means that they work. Some orders are cloistered—they spend their time inside all the time, praying. Some orders teach; the Jesuits like to teach. The Franciscans teach, too. The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement at San Juan Bautista have taught at the St. Benedict School in nearby Hollister. They also have taught catechism, Rite of Christian Initiation

  We recommend Easter for the Mission even for those who think they know all there is to know about Lent and Easter.  Sula, the now-famous church cat, tackles a mysterious topic for her fifth book: What is Easter, what is its meaning, what are the beliefs behind Catholic behaviors associated with the Lenten season and Easter, why is it called the Paschal mystery? Sula answers these questions with history, dogma, and humor. And, of course, with pictures, lots and lots of people-cat pictures. The sections of the book--Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and East Morning--are beautifully illustrated with drawings by Uliana Yanovich. For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE . For more posts on Lent, click HERE . For more Caturday posts, 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 pr

  We are hard at work on our next cat book, again by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission: Sula and the Franciscan Sisters . It is mainly a picture book, great pictures, some incredible pictures. We now have it available on pre-order for only $10! (Post-release price is anticipated to be $14.95.) We hope to have it out this month -- but not yet at the stage where we can promise a September release. This book is envisioned as a memorial to the Franciscan nuns who lived at the convent in San Juan Bautista for many years and helped to take care of Sula. How they loved her, and how she loved them! The beautiful pictures in the book show that. For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE .                 

Old Mission San Juan Bautista is famous -- in part, because it is beautiful; in part, because it is one of the oldest Missions preserved in its original conditions; and in part, because Alfred Hitchcock made it famous in the movie, Vertigo , considered by the American Film Institute as the 7th best movie of all time, and at times, considered the best movie ever. (You can even visit the Vertigo coffee shop and buy Vertigo coffee at the Windmill Market in San Juan Bautista, inspired by the movie, and in San Juan Bautista you can see most of the places in the movie today just as they were in 1957--and 1857.)  The Mission is indeed old, and it needs preservation. For preservation, it needs funds. That is why Sula, who serves as the Parish Cat at Old Mission writes books, ministers to parishioners, and has her own pew. (The picture above was taken from Sula's pew during a healing Mass; she does get a good view.) For a short video about the work of the preservation committee and the reas

  Today is the feast day of St. John the Baptist, and Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission, has a book that is perfect for the day. The cover of Sains I Know shows the statue of St. John the Baptist in Sula's hometown of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). Here is Sula's description of SJB. St. John the Baptist Early first Century A.D. The town of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist), where our Mission is located, was founded on the feast day of St. John the Baptist, June 24 (the reason that most of my books have been released on June 24), and named after him. Our Mission was founded on that day, too. In the beginning, the two were very connected. St. John the Baptist is one of the best-known saints, even to non-Catholics. Even so, his exact birth dates are not known. He was born six months before Jesus, whose coming he foreshadowed, and was murdered in the last year of Jesus’s ministry, so we do know the approximate dates—the first 30 or so years of the first century. He