MSI Press Blog

  When times get tough and everyone has to look out for everyone else -- helping children, older parents, neighbors, and others, the most forgotten person is the self. Yet, taking care of the self can be the single most important thing you do in order to be able to care for all the others who need your help, regardless of your role in their lives or relationship to them. So, start out the week being good to yourself. Here are some books that can help.     Mama, do you find yourself too busy to take good care of yourself? Whatever your situation, you deserve spectacular health and wellness. With Julie M. Gentile as your personal wellness mentor, this book coaches you along your own authentic self-care path. Using 108 writing prompts and self-care practices, including yoga poses, meditations, and breathing exercises, Julie shows you practical ways to live well that only a mama modern would understand. Become the self-care goddess you truly want to be—you’re worth it! A Woman’s Guide to S

About the Book As Sula walks through her Mission home, she meets more than a dozen saints, In Saints I Know , she shares them with anyone who has an interest.  Saints I Know depicts the lives of 21 saints in both their imperfection and perfection--chosen based on the relationship to a Franciscan Mission, Old iMission San Juan Bautista and, told through the eyes of the Mission's cat. The sections of the book include saints related to the founding of the Mission (St. Francis, St. John the Baptist, and St. Juniper Serra), the Holy parents (Mary and Joseph), saints whose statues are behind the altar in the Mission, patron saints of animals, patron saints of children, and the favorite saints of the parish priest. In a final section, she gives some thought, as well, to future saints. Book Endorsement Pending Review of the Book This is a brand-new book so Sula is still waiting for reviews. Want to write one in exchange for a free copy of the book? Send a note to editor@msipress

  Jeremy does wonderful videos, and the blog post video chosen for today's Caturday post explains How to Take Care of a Cat -- worth a few enjoyable minutes to watch it! Jeremy's book, How My Cat Made Me a Better Man , was a finalist in the Foreword Reviews/Indiefab Book of the Year Award competition , as well as winning the Kops-Fetherling Legacy Award for Humor . Read more posts, including excerpts, about Jeremy's book 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. 

  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

  www.allthingsmindful.org I came across an excellent post recently about personal development on the All Things Mindful website. The article says, quite rightly, that change starts with embracing transformation, not from rote applications of suggestions of coaches and books. Take a look at this great article, "Maximizing Your Personal Growth and Development," and then, when you are ready, check out MSI Press books, by experts, that can help provide you guidance as you leap from pillar to pillar, gaining strength and agility at life itself. A Guide to Bliss: Transforming Your Life through Mind Expansion (Tubali)   A Theology for the Rest of Us (Yavelberg)   A Woman’s Guide to Self-Nurturing: How to Build Self-Esteem by Being Nice to Yourself (Romer) El Poder de lo Transpersonal (Ustman)   How My Cat Made Me a Better Man (Feig)   How to Get Happy and Stay That Way (Romer)   How to Live from Your Heart: Deepen Relationships, Develop Creativity

Love cats? Like to read good books? Like to read good books about cats? Have online sites where you can post reviews? We need you! We are looking for reviewers for our wonderful cat books. All have received top-notch reviews, but none have received LOTS of reviews. We want to bring these good books to more readers. That takes more reviews. If you are willing to review any of the following books, we will be happy to send you a free copy. Contact editor@msipress.com. How My Cat made Me a Better Man Books by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission: Christmas at the Mission Dia de Muertos (in Spanish) Easter at the Mission Saints I Know Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story Tale of a Mission Cat Intrepid

  I have written a bit about the process of pets dying before, along with the ways in which vets can be (or not) helpful. In that post, I shared a book by Barbara Karnes on understanding the pet-dying process, which I had found very helpful and which would have provided me with a fair amount of relief and guidance had I known about while Murjan was still alive. It explained much about his dying process and death that was comforting in retrospect. You can read that post HERE . In this post, I want to share the emotional aspects not only of the dying itself but also of the role of the support community (which should be supportive but in our case was not so, at least not to the extent that we needed and that could have been). As a result, my experience with Murjan's dying days were traumatic--more traumatic than they should have been because of lack of support from the veterinary hospital that should have been my source of support.  As I explained in the earlier post, Murjan had been

  Jeremy Feig, MSI Press author of the award-winning book, How My Cat Made Me a Better Man , inspired by his silky black and highly pragmatic late cat, Shelly, wrote recently that he and his family (wife and young daughter) had moved from Santa Monica, California to Cascais, Portugal in December. Say what? That is what I imagine Shelly would say. They pulled up roots and moved half a world away. Now, for a cat, that is a bit distressing. They don't like to change their habitats, and Shelly certainly was complete owner of her habitat in Santa Monica. However, Santa Monica is on the coast, and so is Cascais. Just perhaps Shelly could have found some way to feel at home in the new location. "We were looking to shake up our lives up a bit," Jeremy wrote. Very likely, Shelly would have agreed that he had succeeded. Nothing like moving to another geographic location, where everything looks different, the language is different, and you are now the minority. Still, Shelly would h

  Today's shared blog post comes from Jeremy Feig, author of the multiple award-winning book, How My Cat Made Me a Better Man . Jeremy explains, on video, how to make your own hoop glider. Check it out HERE .k  Book of the Year finalist Kops-Fetherling Legacy Award in humor purchase at 25% discount with code FF25 at MSI Press webstore For more posts about Jeremy and his award-winning 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 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. Want to communicate with one of our authors? You ca

  In his inimitable, tongue-in-cheek fashion, in a short, humorous video, Jeremy Feign, author of the award-winning book, How My Cat Made Me a Better Man ,  desccribes "How to Befriend a Wild Animal." Take a refreshing break and watch it here: https://youtu.be/icWw2_pp9w8 Book of the Year finalist Kops-Fetherling Legacy Award for humor For more posts by and about Jeremy and his book, click  HERE . To purchase the paperback book on discount, use coupon code FF25 at the MSI Press webstore . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter  here  or on our  home page . 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 any of our books? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use co

  Excerpt from Clean Your Plate!  Be Nice to Your Friends [ILLUSTRATION 6, CHAPTER 6 WARNING GOES HERE] As anyone who has ever talked to a toddler can tell you, toddlers can be brutal. Like, soul-crushingly, life-ruiningly frank. There’s a lot of truth to the Internet meme that says “if a woman calls you ugly, she’s jealous; if a man calls you ugly, she’s flirting, but if a kid calls you ugly...you’re ugly.” Kids have absolutely no sense of social niceties. They also occasionally spaz out with small bursts of poorly-controlled demonic meanness of unknown origin. (No, it’s not just your kids. It’s all of them.) Why We Say It The fact that parents across the globe tell their kids to be nice to their friends is entirely unsurprising. We’re terrified our little monsters will alienate their peers and doom themselves to a life of social isolation and misery (sticking us with the therapy bills). However well-meaning this parental plea for our kids to exercise their still-developin