MSI Press Blog

Parenting has its joys; it can also be demanding when all does not go as planned or hoped, as in this picture of parents with their son and two emergency room specialists, raising up (literally) their physically challenged daughter. MSI Press offers several unique books on parenting--for the everyday difficulties and the unique challenges. Take a look! 3 65 Teacher Secrets for Parent s by Cindy McKinley and Patti Trombly See posts by and about Cindy and Patti, including book excerpts, HERE . Courageous Parents   by Dr. Haim Omer Read posts by and about Dr. Omer, including book excerpts, HERE . How to Be a Good Mommy When You're Sick by Dr. Emily Graves Read posts by and about Dr. Graves, including book excerpts, HERE . Lessons of Labor by Julia Aziz See posts by and about Jula Aziz, including book excerpts,  HERE . Life after Losing a Child by Pat Young and Joanna Romer See posts by and about Pat  and Joanna. Noah's New Puppy by Richard R

  Here are our suggestions for Christmas book giving: Sula the Cat does it again! Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, is a cat with a special mission: to comfort people in need. Every morning, she spends time with St. Francis, patron saint of animals, and receives guidance for the day. During Masses, led by the Holy Spirit, she seeks out whomever God wants her to comfort, and they report that she brings comfort, indeed. In her spare time, she writes books. This time, she is writing about Christmas traditions and how she experiences them as a parish cat. Ever wonder where our various Christmas customs come from? Sula tells you about the history and the customs today, both mainstream American Catholic and Mexican American Catholic customs since both are part of her parish in California. Charmingly illustrated with an Eastern flavor by Russian artist, Zhenya Yanovich. Read excerpts HERE . Purchase the book HERE . People are often at a loss to find the right words to say in

  This is a series of Caturday posts on the topic of taking in  feral cats .  General information (from previous posts): For a few decades, we have rescued feral cats. In fact, with only one exception, our "domestic" cats have been ferals that we brought inside to join other ferals, already domesticated, as part of a bonded cat family. Right now, we have five cats (alas,  Murjan , the single non-feral cat we had, died from cancer last fall, and  Intrepid , closely bonded to Murjan, died three years ago from the same kind of cancer, and, most recently, Snyezhka , who had been valiantly fighting three kinds of cancer, died from a saddle thrombus, probably related to her chemotherapy but, of course, no one is going to suggest that and it really does not matter since knowing exactly what caused the reason for her death won't bring her back). All five of our feral cats get along pretty fabulously -- and they also got along well with the three predecessors. Of course, all of th

  Excerpt from  Noah's New Puppy .  It is difficult for us to make excerpts from this book because each sentence has artwork. Here are a couple of excerpts we were able to make in the past along with more information about the book. Click HERE . THIS BOOK WAS AWARDED THE KOPS-FETHERLING INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD HONORABLE MENTION FOR CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS. For more posts about this book, click  HERE . For more posts about Richard Rice, click  HERE . For more posts about Geri Henderson, click  HERE . For more posts about PTSD, click  HERE . For more posts about military families, people, and issues, click  HERE . Currently on half-price sale at www.msipress.com/shop.  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

  Women, We're Only Old Once  is  a 2023 Independent Press Award WINNER   in the category of Aging/Midlife.  Congratulations to MSI Press author, Bertha Coope Book description: With over ten years of growing into an old woman with the help of her friends, Bertha Cooper knows whereof she writes. In this book you will learn that growing old is not the slow death of our personalities, our bodies, or our relevance to the world. Someday, it will happen, but not yet! Feel the wisdom below the years we've lived and the power that comes with making our own choices about our aging selves.  Women, We're Only Old Once  offers explanations for natural changes that occur while aging and transitions we must make as we age. Women can be relieved to learn that having less endurance or word-finding problems are not signs of disease. Women are empowered to put their energy and spirit where it counts on their journey in this important phase of life. Bertha Cooper also earned the Kops-Fetherli

  The following is an excerpt from the description and history of the Day of the Dead as written by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission in her book, Dia de Muertos. Los antiguos mesoamericanos, quienes comenzaron la costumbre de celebrar la vida de sus antepasados =cada año (el Día de Muertos) creían que la muerte es parte del viaje de la vida. La muerte no es mala, no es el final de la vida, sino el comienzo de una nueva vida. Nueva vida viene de la muerte, al igual que los nuevos cultivos en este valle agrícola en el que se encuentra la ciudad de San Juan Bautista surgen cada año para que nuestros maravillosos trabajadores agrícolas cosechen en beneficio no solo de nuestra ciudad, valle y estado, sino también para muchas personas en muchos estados de los Estados Unidos donde nuestro producto se envía todos los días. Tal vez esta interpretación de la muerte—de que sea parte de un ciclo de nacimiento y renacimiento, es la razón por la cual San Francisco se refirió a la muerte como “Herma

  Today's back story is about the book, It Only Hurts When I Can't Run  by Gewanda Parker. From the publisher: When Gewanda approached us with her pre-publication manuscript, it was clear that here was a person who had experienced tremendous trauma as a child. That is a story, of course. A sad story. However, what was also clear was her resilience in overcoming that trauma very, very successfully. That was a story worth publishing. An uplifting story. A story that can help others. More important for us as publisher, it fit into a line of such books, the leaders of which were Elizabeth Mahlou's Blest Atheist and Geri Henderson's and Seanne Emerton's Healing from Incest -- and ultimate prompted the commissioned book by Joanna Romer, Recovering from Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Abuse . When it was released, Gewanda's book quickly flew to the top of Amazon's hot new releases lists: #4 Hot New Releases in the child abuse category #8 Hot New Releases in the fam

excerpt from RV Oopsies: 101 Dumb Things That RVers Do!  (MacDonald)  91. UP ON THE ROOF Alan decided it was time to clean the roof of his motorhome while it was parked in the driveway. Since his model did not have an attached ladder, he propped his extension ladder against the side and climbed up with a hose and cleaning supplies. While spraying down the roof, his hose caught the ladder and knocked it down. OOPS! Alan’s wife was not due home for another four hours, but quite a few cars were passing by in view of the rig. He figured he would just wave and someone would stop to help. For more than an hour, he waved. The few motorists who noticed him waved back and kept on driving. Finally, a man stopped and put the ladder back up. Alan sheepishly thanked him and decided to clean his roof another day. When Alan reported this mishap to me, he still hadn’t figured out how to prevent a reoccurrence. I suggested several options: ·    use a distress wave (crisscrossing arms above the

  Book excerpt: Self-Nurturing or Entertainment We all like to be entertained. The trouble is, sometimes entertainment isn’t as satisfying as we think it should be. The reason for this is because, instead of nurturing us in some way, the entertainment drains us, even makes us feel bad about ourselves. What kind of entertainment does this, and how can we avoid it? A little bit of forethought will usually do the trick. Take movies for example: perhaps we are assiduous in our efforts to avoid violence in films—we just don’t like it. But many of the movies out today contain violence, whether we like it or not. (This was explained clearly on the PBS special “Makers”: most movies, it seems are geared for men, and men, according to this special, like to see something being blown up or somebody getting shot.) So suppose you’re going to a movie with a man—husband, brother, male friend—and he is gravitating toward a really violent flick, while you’d like to see something like “The 100 Foot J

  Literary Titan has award I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Then 5 stars. In part, the reviewer wrote, This is a critical resource for parents that will help parents re-evaluate their parenting style and promote conversations on parenting and how there is no one-formula-fits-all in raising different children even within the same family. With quirky humor and a free-spirited tone, Bagdade has written an engaging parenting book that is colored by her experience as a mother and consultant educator. She details easy-to-follow approaches to parenting that will help parents enjoy their children, even during their worst times. Read the rest of the review HERE . Connect to other reviews of this book HERE . Read more posts about Franki and her book, including excerpts,  HERE .                                    Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .