MSI Press Blog

Labor Begins When Other Labors Cease  The day of my first son’s birth was one of those early spring days that make me happy to live in Austin, Texas. The sun was shining, the flowers were in bloom, and I was feeling some mild but noticeable cramps. I felt eager, open, and fully welcoming of my baby as I walked through the neighborhood, telling my belly, “What a beautiful day to be born!” As with most new experiences, I started off with high hopes and great determination. After a few hours, I began my preparations: making sure my bags were packed, adding essential items like a toothbrush and contact lens solution, preparing a light meal that would be easy to digest, and otherwise doing a lot of stuff that would later prove mostly unnecessary. After a while, I began to feel agitated. I wanted to get everything done, but my detail-oriented mind was slowly being overtaken by my body’s strong messages. I was losing concentration, unable to focus on the thoughts in my head. I woul

A. Darius Husain is the Executive Director of Face to Face Academy, a charter high school in St. Paul, Minnesota whose mission is to graduate students considered most at risk for dropping out of high school. The Minnesota Department of Education named F2F a “High Quality Charter School” for its work in graduating students and closing the achievement gap. Newsweek named F2F as one of American’s Top High Schools 2014 in the category “Beating the Odds 2014 – Top Schools for Low Income Students.” Mr. Husain serves as the Director of Research for the International Medical and Educational Trust in Missouri. He holds a B.A. in psychology with an emphasis on experiential education from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota and has completed Master’s course work in school counseling at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. His book,   Roadmap to Power , co-authored with Dr. Syed Arshad Husain, has been recommended by US Review of Books, highly reviewed by a numb

S yed Arshad Husain, M. D., is a child psychiatrist known worldwide for his work with children living in war zones and disaster areas. Dr. Husain founded the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri, and counseling centers in Bosnia, Kosovo, and an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan. He has published scientific articles in major peer-reviewed journals in the U.S. and Canada, and has written five books including   Hope for the Children: Lessons from Bosnia . He has received numerous awards from major professional societies including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; 2014 awards include the National Council for Behavioral Health Doc of the Year and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Catcher in the Rye award. He was given an Honorary Ph.D. by the University of Tuzla, Bosnia. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and

My brother, Charles, visited Paris a few weeks earlier than I did in the spring of 1988. Before my trip, he instructed me three or four times to buy a French phrase book. I didn’t understand his insistence on this matter. He spoke fluent French, so his advice wasn’t based on his own needs. After being told for the umpteenth time to buy the book, I went to a bookstore and purchased one. This was two decades before smart phones were available, which can now translate for travelers. My brother must have been psychic, because my host in Paris, a friend from high school, had a family emergency and had to return home to the U.S. after the first day of my six-day visit. My trip to Paris would have been much more challenging without the little phrase book. Eight years later, I worked for a large AIDS Service Agency full of young people with extra cash. My colleagues were always darting off to Europe on vacation. I lent my little phrase book out several times, and it was always recei

Joshua Shea, author of MSI published book, He's a Porn Addict...Now What? seemingly had it all. A loving wife, two children, and a supportive extended family. In 2010, after nearly fifteen years working of his way up the journalism ladder, he launched a lifestyle magazine in his hometown. Within a year, he was one of the founders of Central Maine’s largest film festival and had won a seat on the City Council in Auburn, Maine. Accolades, including receiving the Key to the City and being called one of the “Next 10 People Shaping Maine’s Economy” by a state newspaper followed. While the public got one picture of Joshua, behind closed doors, his longtime mental health and addiction issues were festering. A workaholic by nature, he actively ignored the red flags surrounding his long-existing pornography and alcohol problems. Finding it easier to lose himself in a bottle of tequila and adult websites, his relationships with his family, colleagues, and f

Still on the move, MSI Press staff is returning home to Hollister and San Juan Bautista, stopping on the way to meet author, Colette McNeil, at Porto's in Anaheim. (Great restaurant choice, by the way; Google it.) Colette is author of  Understanding the Challenge of "No" for Children with Autism . Her book has been reviewed with strong, possitive recommendations from  Readers' Favorite  (5 stars) and  Midwest Book Review  (a "must have" for parents and educators).

Still on the move, MSI Press staff has reached San Diego -- attending a conference this weekend. San Diego is home to MSI Press author, Joanna Charnas. So, we met for lunch and fun at Tandoori House, and we talked about Joanna's forthcoming book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance . And also about her wnning previous books:  Living Well with Chornic Illness   and  1 00 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness . And we made THREE podcasts! Check Joanna's book pages in a couple of weeks. We will place them there -- and on this blog (so do keep following our blog)! And if you want more than inside information, sign up for our newslettert!