MSI Press Blog

  excerpt from The Musings of a Carolina Yankee by Wally Amidon Eagle Lake Fishing Trip In the course of a man’s life, there comes a time to think back to simpler times and things that made you a little happier as the years rolled by. One of these snippets involved my father-in-law, Louis Saucier. The story begins in Eagle Lake, Maine, where Louis was born and grew up. Part of the family journeyed back to the homeland with him from our home in New Hampshire to visit his relatives and to do a little fishing. At this time, Eagle Lake was still a small town, made up mostly of small houses and camps. It was a place that appeared to be in lost in time. The inhabitants neither realized about this nor particularly cared about it. Most of them were family in some way or related to others who were related to someone in the town. I would venture to say that this was where the term, close-knit family , came from. I had never before been to Eagle Lake, nor had I met this side of the famil

    Learning to Feel   by Kris Girrell has been a favorite since its release a month ago, spending most days in the Amazon top 100 in its various categories and reaching #1 on hot new books on Amazon.  Also, already, it has gathered a number of 5-star ratings. Here, from Amazon, where all reviews are 5 stars: #1.  The author uses his personal journey in learning to feel to expose universal struggles we all can relate to. Great reminder that our emotions are our greatest teachers and this book teaches how to listen to the lessons they are trying to teach. #2.  I never thought taking a journey through the lifetime of a man from boyhood deep into manhood could be so invigorating, enlightening and abundantly full of learnings. In this book Girrell lays his soul out for all to see in such a vulnerable way that one must laugh, cry and experience the world with him. Different authors have tried break the concept of Emotional Intelligence into discreet boxes with labels attached to incomplete

  Excerpt from Tucker and Me (Andrew Harvey) PLAYING WITH FIRE               My father, George, had a rather odd love-hate relationship with fire. It reminds me of an old joke about a famous monster, which stated that Frankenstein’s primary form of problem solving was strangulation. Deadly effective, but not the most subtle approach. George never strangled anyone as far as I know, but he did use fire as a key solution for vexing problems around his property.             Fire is one of those things that can be either good or bad; it all depends on the context and care in which it’s put to use. George’s judgment was never his strong suit, but he did have protocols he employed when using fire. Now you might think this would involve things like safety equipment, universal precautions, and the like. However, none of these cumbersome things were taken into account. There really was only one rule. When you used fire to solve a problem, you had to drink beer. A lot of it.             The first

Dr. Andrew Harvey served in law enforcement for 25 years, the last 12 as a captain with a Southern California police agency.  He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice from California State University at Los Angeles, and an educational doctorate in the field of organizational leadership from Pepperdine University.  He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the California POST Command College, the West Point Leadership Program, and is recognized in California as a master instructor. Dr. Harvey is an award-winning college educator, with two decades of college teaching experience at five different institutions, ranging from community college all the way through the university doctorate level. His book, Tucker and Me ,   is a delightful tale of a boyhood split between the South and the big city of Los Angeles. LISTEN TO MARY ANN RAEMISCH INTERVIEW ANDREW HARVEY ON  TUCKER AND ME  AND MORE Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down

  (Princess Muna in white, middle; Me in black, far right; Dr. Alexa, NYIT/NY, in blue, far right; others - members of the American Psychological Association) I knew who she was. She knew who I was. But I had never personally met Princess Muna until the American Psychological Association came to Jordan on the quest of setting up a degree in psychology at one of the universities there. Until then, psychology was not a topic of study at any of the several universities in the country. At the time, I was working as the chief academic officer at New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. We also had a very small branch, computer science studies only, in Irbid, Jordan on the campus of the Jordan University of Science and Technology, which oversaw the in-country activities of NYIT. Princess Muna (nee Tony Gardner) was/is the mother of King Abdullah. A Brit by origin, she wed King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, a much-beloved (for obvious reasons, it seemed to me) royal, one whos

  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.  This week's conversation points out the reason why many authors get rejection after rejection with only the note that "it is not a fit for us." Chances are that is really, truly the reason, and it means that the author did not do his/her homework. Authors should only be submitting work where there is an apparent "fit." To do otherwise is a waste of the publisher's time and a waste of the author's time, efforts, hopes, and, often, money. So, how do you know that there is a potential fit? Check out the kinds of books that the author publishes. It is amazing how many fiction submissions we get. We do not publish