MSI Press Blog

  How many gift shops can boast the presence of a divine cat, always willing to meet with and pose with customers? Sure, a few can. Among them, a leader is the gift shop at Old Mission San Juan Buatista, where Sula, parish cat and a member of the staff at Old Mission, as well as author of six books, lives in residence. Well, lived in residence pre-covid. With current covid curtailments, she retired to live with her godparents nearby in Hollister and now works on Sundays, where she attends Mass to comfort people who need her and engage with customers at the gift shop next door. Among other Catholic products, such as rosaries and statues, the gift shop also sells all of Sula's books, and the proceeds go toward the restoration fund for the Mission. Sula has raised a lot of funds to help save her Mission! To read more about the Mission and the gift shop, click HERE . To see more information about Sula and her books, click HERE .

  Breakthrough means breakdown first It has often been said that as humans we will do far more to avoid pain than we will to maximize pleasure. We realize that most people think that they want to find joy, happiness, or pleasure, but in truth most of our efforts are in the opposite direction. One look at evolution, however, will quickly demonstrate that it is through pain, failure, and breakdown that we get better, stronger, and smarter. What is it that we learn in these painfully tough moments or experiences? Let’s first dissect what happens in a total breakdown. What do we actually mean by breakdown? It is important to differentiate that we are not discussing something like a “nervous breakdown.”  That is something that should be handled by a medical professional, and neither this book nor this specific chapter are intended to solve these kinds of problems. That being said, please read what follows through this important filter.  Breakdowns are, in fact, epic. Breakdowns are t

Congratulations to Dr. Liz Bayardelle, MSI Press author, for the selection of her book as the finalist in the Nonfiction-Humor category of the Readers' Favorite Book Award competition.  Check out the awards HERE . Find out more about the book HERE .

  According to Literary Titan -- "Readers will love this book because it answers a lot of questions that bothers believers." " A Theology for the Rest of Us  is not just a religious book. You will get history lessons from the book and also learn more about humanity. Every reader is guaranteed lifelong lessons once they are done reading the book." Read the complete review HERE . To see more posts about Arthur Yavelberg and this book, click HERE .

  (photograph by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses difficult authors.  No publisher likes a difficult author. All publishers get them at times. All difficult authors are difficult in different ways but here are some that we have seen (not necessarily within MSI Press, where we have a wonderful consortium of authors supportive of each other and the press itself but with sister presses, for the most part):  They want to have control over every aspect of production, e.g., the time schedule, the cover design, the marketing plan, color vs B&W; this can be particularly the case for first-time authors. There is a good r

  Personal experience from the editor: When three of our six cats were diagnosed with cancer, it was at a late stage. (The number is normal; 50% of cats over the age of 10 end up with cancer.) Even talented feline oncologists cannot turn the clock back. They can try to stop the clock, but sometimes the damage is too great.  We lost Intrepid to cancer three years ago (and wrote a book about him). He survived only a month of chemotherapy; he was diagnosed too late, and several important organs were in the process of failure: kidneys, pancreas, stomach. His older "brother" (not biological) who came from Jordan as well was diagnosed at the same time.  Murjan  managed to survive three years on chemotherapy, but by the time he died last Sunday, he was on seven medicines, periodic hydration, and down to 5 pounds (from 16). He fought valiantly, but ultimately the cancer won. Likewise, our young Lynx Siamese cat, Snyezhka, has breast cancer, diagnosed at stage 4, treated with surgery,

  Murjan went over the rainbow bridge tonight after a valiant three years of fighting lymphoma and with such indomitable spirit that even on Sunday, after his hydration, he jumped down from the chair he was on, certain that he still had the springing power that he has always had. But he fell and landed on his side. Clearly, he hours were numbered.  His last days and hours were so typical of cancer patients. (Check the MSI Press website in a few weeks; there are plans for a cancer resource page for people and animals -- those questions that one can never find an answer to in spite of how much time you spend on Google; the tentative page name is Carlr's Cancer Compendium. And check out the book on cancer by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission ) First, the chemotherapy stopped working. Then Murjan lost interest in food, then in drink -- and then his spirit left his body. Just like his owner, MSI Press graphic designer, Carl Leaver, a month earlier. Murjan was born in Jordan and moved to S