MSI Press Blog

On the Writing of This Book: An Unusual Collaboration  During the final months of therapy with Seanne, more than ten years ago, I shared the idea of this book with her. Back then, it was just a curious “what if” sort of notion. I thought, “What if someone who could write and who has thought about this recovery process were to collaborate with her therapist on a book?” My initial thought was about how helpful it would have been for me to have had the chance to read such a book. But there was no way to start anything immediately, and it was clear that the idea sounded a bit strange to Seanne though she always expressed support. After the conclusion of my therapy with her, I moved away and became very involved in my professional career as well as moving on to another therapist. I did revisit the idea of a book from time to time and three or four years later began to write. I approached Seanne again about the possibility of our collaboration. The problem was that other than collabo

  Back Story of 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas From the author: The Story Behind the Book: How Self-Care Helped Me Achieve My Dream of Writing My First Book Julie M. Gentile It started between an inhale and an exhale on my yoga mat. My idea to write a book for other busy moms like me trying to live well was planted in the pause between both parts of the breath. I had just had my second child and had become more aware of the options busy moms had to manage their full plates. One word about being a busy mom immediately came to mind: Overwhelmed. I knew I couldn’t manage my own busy life without self-care by my side. Since becoming a yoga teacher in 2011, I was already practicing a variety of nourishing practices to feed my mind, body and soul: getting quality sleep, staying hydrated, practicing yoga, meditating, exercising, journaling, eating more plant-based foods and reading uplifting content. These practices helped me pause enough to get glimpses of how I co

  A bit of a detour from the usual Cancer Diary posts, this week we are posting reviews about a well-liked but not widely known book about living with cancer (spoiler: it has a religious appeal): Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista. #1 Synopsis: Sula is a cat with a divine mission who has an uncanny ability to sense which parishioners at the California's San Juan Bautista Old Mission need her attention at any given Mass. But is it really uncanny, or does St. Francis give Sula tasks during her daily conversations with him? Or is she led by God? Sula has developed a special bond with cancer survivors like herself. The bond between her and the Old Mission parishioners saw her through two bouts of cancer, flooding her with gifts: money for surgery, a home for recovery, prayers, and love. In the pages of "Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story" is comprised of truly charming, heartwarming,

  This week's book back story tells the tale of He's a Porn Addict...Now What? (Overbay and Shea). From the editor -  Joshua Shea had read and was taken with Healing from Incest (Henderson & Emerton, in which an author and her therapist, with permission from the State of Nebraska psychological ethics board, teamed up to tell a compelling story). He and his therapist, Tony Overbay, wanted to do the same. We saw a very positive aspect of these book parallels and offered a contract. From the paperback came a hard cover, e-book (the most popular version of this book), and an audio book. Paperback copies of this book can be purchased at the   MSI Press webstore   at 25% discount with coupon code FF25. For more posts about this book, 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 c

  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