MSI Press Blog

From MidWest Book Review: Synopsis: "Compiled and co-presented by Pat Young and Joanna Romer, " Life after Losing a Child " tells the poignant stories of a dozen individuals who have suffered the loss of a child. and describes how they learned to heal. "Life after Losing a Child" shows readers who have suffered the loss of a loved on how to come to grips with the loss and handle the grief; how to engage in activities that help the healing process; and how to find the strength to move on. Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "Life after Losing a Child" is especially recommended reading for anyone having to deal with the loss of a child -- as well as those wanting to know how they can help someone bereft and grieving the loss of a child. Simply stated, "Life after Losing a Child" should be a part of every community library collection in the country.

  Excerpt from Life after Losing a Child by Pat Young and Romer - Losing a Second Child Cristy got her transplant and seemed to be doing very well. She enrolled in college and went on with her life, but then her lungs failed again. She had a double lung transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Then, she needed a kidney transplant because the anti-rejection medicine caused her kidneys to fail. Kathleen was relieved when she was able to donate one of hers to her daughter. If nothing else, it would buy them more time.            The day before she was to receive her bachelor’s degree, the doctors told Cristy her lungs were failing and there was nothing else they could do. “Mom,” Cristy had said to Kathleen in tears, “I’m dying, and I don’t want to die.” Cristy moved back home where her mom could take care of her. Kathleen made her car into “a little ambulance” and took her daughter to Pittsburgh, hoping to get another transplant. Despite all of Kathleen’s efforts, Cristy p

Extracted from photo by M. Katherine Shear, M.D. See original photo with words and blog article at aspire.com .   Whether they die in war, from illness, by suicide, or as a result end-of-life issues, their loss affects relatives, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and colleagues in  devastating ways. The following books are gentle but helpful treatments of the issues of bereavement and grief. Damascus amid the War by Muna Imady Written by popular author, Muna Imady, whose book, Syrian Folktales, has delighted an uncountable number of readers outside of Syria, Damascus amid the War tells the very human story of the devolution of a society. The book containts 29 pre-war poins, vibrant with imagery of daily life in a robust Damascus. The 100 war poems that follow show the devastating affect on the people who navigate a daily existence after war came. This is a posthumous publication, containing Muna’s very last works and an introduction by her mother, Elaine Imady, author of Road to Dama

Holidays   If you’re a newly bereaved parent of a deceased child and you haven’t encountered a major holiday yet—say Thanksgiving or Christmas, be prepared for a shock. The holidays can bring home the extent of your loss in a way that nothing else can. Having recently lost a child, you might not be thinking about the holiday or how it will affect you. This is a mistake. It is better to face it in advance and decide how you will handle the holiday. Will you decorate for Christmas as you’ve always done? Will you go to a relative’s house and try to get through the whole thing as quickly as possible? Or will you close up shop and absent yourself from the holiday completely, traveling to Cancun, Key West, or a neighborhood motel, with or without your spouse? Paulette Jarnagin lost her son Keith in a drowning accident six months before Christmas. Paulette, who admits to “always going overboard” at Christmas, didn’t want to celebrate the holiday that year, but her family and fri

  With cancer, it does happen. Many stories do not have happy endings, and some endings come sooner than we would like. MSI Press has published several books on bereavement. Broader in scope than the experiences of those who have lost loved ones to cancer, they share many, if not most, of the emotions of those who have grieve for those medical science could not save -- and they give hope and a wide range of options of how to go on and LIVE.  Harnessing the Power of Grief (Julie Potter) get the book or ebook In this book, Julie Potter traces back decades the research on understanding and coping with grief, which she describes as a natural human response to loss. Pulling from the work of Worden, the author prescribes four tasks for those in grief to use in managing their grief. She also walks the reader through special situations like tragic loss without warning. A book for those who are grieving and those who are walking with grievers. Read more posts about Julie and her book HERE . Lif

Whether the death of a child was due to illness, accident, suicide or drug overdose, the pain is the same — an ache in your heart that won’t go away. Will your life ever be the same? Perhaps not, but as the interviews in this book reveal, you can go on to have a meaningful life. Trish Armor [previous chapter] dealt with her loss through a number of powerful methods. She started a local branch of a bereavement group called Compassionate Friends for other parents who had lost a child. She turned to her faith, a gift she said her daughter had given her, and most significantly for her, Trish turned to Mindfulness. According to Mindful.org, Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present—aware of where we are and what we’re doing at the moment. Such an awareness, says Trish, can be hugely beneficial. “We tend to live in the past when losing a child and have a lot of negative thoughts,” she remarked. Forgiveness is another very important element in the process of co

  This week's blog post is the next in the series of book back stories and is the story behind Life after Losing a Child (Young & Romer). From the author -  A former editor of mine, as well as a good friend, lost her son. When she called to tell me, I walked around my house for an hour before I wrote her a poem. It is the first page in a book I co-authored with another good friend, my late friend Joanna Romer. We agreed, before writing the book, that a loss such as that was even more painful – and different – than the loss we both shared as widows.  We set forth to interview parents who had lost children and followed each chapter on loss with a healing chapter, depicting ways each parent dealt with the loss in a positive way to help with healing. Several of the interview chapters were friends of ours, which made it all the more real, and painful. I hope this book has helped a parent who lost a child in a good way. Paperback copies of this book can be purchased at the MSI Press

  Happy International Women's Day ! We are taking a different approach today because it is International Women's Day. So, it seems natural to look at the process of women writing books for women, using some examples from our onw publications. Of course, there are no limits to the topics that women are interested in. The range really is as broad as for men. However, there are some books that zone in on areas experienced principally or exclusively by women and sell nearly exclusively to women. Is it worth writing such narrow-niche books? Based on sales, the answer appears to be yes, and don't forget that women make up over half of the world's population, so the unanalyzed market is large. While the topics that women can and do write about for each other are many, the ones we have focused on at our press and that seem to resonate with a large enough part of the population are: aging, health & fitness, and life events. AGING Aging happens to all of us, and it would seem

Name: Patricia Young Book: Life after Losing a Child   Date of Interview: August 5, 2018 Who are you? What do you want readers to know about you? Pat Young has written for the Daytona Beach News Journal, South Bend Tribune, Flint (Michigan) Journal, Clarkston (Michigan) News, New Mexico Magazine, Silver City (New Mexico) Life Magazine, and other publications. She earned numerous awards for her writing, including National Newspaper Association and Michigan Press Association awards. She earned two media awards while at the South Bend Tribune. One of her stories (Giant Wind Harp in Tune with Nature) in New Mexico Magazine was chosen for inclusion in SIRS Discoverer data bases. Why are you qualified to write this book? Pat, and her late co-author Joanna Romer, are both widows. Though neither has lost a child, both women understood the painful bereavement process one goes through after the loss of a loved one.   What is the message

Released today! ISBN: 9781942891710 Life after Losing a Child tells the poignant stories of a dozen individuals who have suffered the loss of a child, and describes how they learned to heal. This book will show readers who have suffered the loss of a loved one how to come to grips with the loss and handle the grief how to engage in activities to help the healing process; and how to find the strength to move on.. Follow the book on our website: click here   See interview with Pat Young on this blog: click here Book can be purchased at www.msipress.com/shop/ Use Coupon Code FF25 for 25% discount as an MSI Press blog follower

  Pat Young has written for the  Daytona Beach News Journal ,   South Bend Tribune ,   Flint (MI) Journal ,   Clarkston (MI) News ,   Hometown News   in Daytona Beach, Florida,   New Mexico Magazine ,   Silver City Life Magazine   and other publications. She also worked in public relations and advertising for several real estate companies in Michigan, New Mexico and Florida. She earned awards for her writing, including National Newspaper Association and Michigan Press Association awards. She earned two media awards while at the   South Bend Tribune . One of her stories in   New Mexico Magazine   (“Giant Wind Harp in Tune with Nature”) was chosen for inclusion in the SIRS Discoverer data base. She has an associate degree in liberal arts. She has written stories, articles and poetry since she was a kid, but the book she is co-authoring with Joanna Romer,   Life after Losing a Child , is her first book. When she isn’t writing, she volunteers at the Port Orange, Florida YMCA and at the Pon