MSI Press Blog

  INTRODUCTION  On a balmy afternoon in July, the weather turned ugly shards of lightning, booming thunder, roiling green and black clouds, and an angry wind that shook our trailer unmercifully. Forecasted tornado warnings in the Edmonton area had me peering through rain streaked windows at a darkening sky, scanning for dreaded vortexes that would prompt a hasty retreat to our campground’s washroom.  A little brown head bunted my leg, chimpanzee-esque eyes expressing concern. “Don’t worry,” I said, “The odds of dying in a tornado are 20 million to one.” It’s the ONE I’m worried about, she replied, continuing her frantic pacing.  An hour later, sanity returned with mottled gray skies and peaceful prairie breezes. Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, said it best: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” That’s good—being stronger may have helped us survive even worse weather yet to come, Canada’s “Storm of the Century.”  In 1960, John Stei...

The following excerpt comes from Dr. Fisanick's book, The Optimistic Food Addict (Chapter 6):               The roads were thick with ice the night I told my parents I was pregnant. My boyfriend and I broke the news to my mother first, as we sat on that old, gold couch in the living room, waiting for my dad to get home from the midnight shift.               My mother, who had been a teen mother herself, was disappointed, probably because she knew the hard road ahead of me. She wanted me out, and she was sure my dad would feel the same.               I had just turned seventeen and was in my senior year of high school. I was an underachieving Honors student. I stopped caring about school the day I met my neighbor’s blond haired, blue-eyed best friend. And there I sat next to him, five months pregnant ...

  Yesterday, the water softener tank needed potassium. Four 40-pound bags. The tank’s top sits at my chin—awkward height for a short woman with aging shoulders and a healthy respect for gravity. So, I asked my visiting son, who’s eight inches taller, to help. Chest-level for him. Easy. We picked up the bags at Ace Hardware. He carried one into the basement. I carried two—one in each hand. Easier to balance 80 pounds split between two hands than carry 40 in one hand and nothing in the other. My son dumped his bag into the tank, then turned to me and said, “Can you go grab the last one?” Sure. I trotted off and brought it down. No big deal. But I wonder how many adult children expect their 75-year-old mother to carry 80 pounds of potassium and then go fetch more. I’m not sure he even noticed.  It wasn’t ninja in the leaping-through-shadows sense. It was ninja in the unquestioned competence sense. The kind that doesn’t announce itself. The kind that just lifts, balances, an...

  Recently released: book trailer for When Liberty Enslaves by Jerry Aveta:  When Liberty Enslaves Book Trailer. Read more posts about Jerry and his book HERE . Watch more book trailers HERE . See more books on bestseller lists HERE Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)   Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?  We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us? Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help. Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't kn...

For Caturday fun, enjoy the trailer from How My Cat Made Me a Better Man by Jeremy Feig. LISTEN TO THE TRAILER HERE For more posts about Jeremy and his book, click HERE .  Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Excerpt from Travels with Elly (MacDonald) - from chapter 2, ALBERTA  “If we hope to preserve our way of life, the first thing we must do is rediscover our respect for the land, the water, and the entire natural world. And if we do manage to regain that respect, then we must make sure that human beings never lose it again.” (Quote from the late, The Honorable Dr. Lois E. Hole, displayed on a plaque at the Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park in St. Albert)  Shortly after crossing the border, we entered Crowsnest Pass, site of the devastating Frank Slide. In the early morning of April 29, 1903, a mountainside came thundering down in the darkness, burying most of the town of Frank and killing 90 people, the highest death toll from any slide in Canada. Massive boulders, remnants of the slide, remain piled 30-metres high on both sides of the road. An Interpretation Centre provides personal stories of survivors and dynamic, hands-on educational programs. To forew...

Larry MacDonald has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology and over 30 years of experience RVing and freelance writing for various magazines, including  MotorHome ,   Trailer Life , and   Canadian RVinglds . His book,  RV Oopsies: 101 Dumb Things That RVers Do!  is a compilation of ten years of research on RV mishaps, rated from “dumb” to “dumbest,” with helpful hints on how they could have been avoided. A “must-read” for all RVers, new and seasoned, wanting to save some grief and cash by learning what  not  to do while RVing. In his subsequent t book, Travels with Elly: Reflections on Canada by an RVer and His Dog , the author travels from coast to coast in a trailer with his wife and pets, including their poodle, Elly, in order to gain a better understanding of his adopted country. An informative read for armchair travelers with a spirit of adventure, for those wanting to learm more about Canada, and for any cross-Canada traveler, especially RVers and do...