MSI Press Blog

  MSI Press has added to its collection of affiliated books a self-published book by MSI Press author, Dr. Amir Sabzevary: An Interpretative Introduction to Western Religion s: This book is an antidote to contemporary philosophical, religious-spiritual markets and trappings. The book details the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual subtleties and complexities that exist and are experienced on the quest towards wisdom: the qualities that teachers of wisdom must possess, what is expected from seekers after truth, the teacher-student relationship, the importance of love, the stages of spiritual evolution, and the nature of a spiritual community. This book offers a rare and uncommon glimpse into the inner or esoteric dimensions of the three great Western religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Using everyday language and examples, the book offers understandable accounts of some of the core and complex practices and teachings of these great traditions. Those inte

Excerpt from Christmas at the Mission  Angels In the  Bible, Luke tells us about the important role that the angels played in the birth of Jesus. They were the voices and choir letting the shepherds know the good news. Angels are messengers from God. In fact, that is what the word, angel , means [B2]   : messenger . [VW3]   Jesus’s birth is not the only time that the angels been involved in the affairs of people. Think about some other times: ·        Three angels appeared to Abraham; he gave them food and rest, and they told him that his wife Sarah, who was very, very old, would have a child—and she did: Isaac. ·        Jacob wrestled with an angel. ·        It was two angels who saved Lott [VW4]   [B5]   from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. ·        An angel appeared to Joshua before the fight for Jericho—and we know that Joshua and his people won, with the help of God. ·        An angel rescued Daniel from the lion’s den. ·        An angel announced to Zachar

`      Rob Asby, the "Spanish Obsessed," talks about how to improve Spanish proficiency and draws from How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately by MSI Press author, Boris Shekhtman, n this article . Rob says: How is your spoken Spanish? If you’re anything like me, it depends on what day you ask the question. Some days my spoken Spanish is flowing and accurate (or at least, it feels like it), other days I stumble apologetically over every sentence. Over time, however, I’ve learned what it takes to have more good days than bad, and in this post I’ll share what’s worked for me. This post focuses on the “performance” side of speaking, dealing with the psychological blocks to achieving fluency. If you feel that you struggle with fluency, and are frustrated with your spoken Spanish, you’ll find the tips in this post helpful. Read more HERE . Read posts about How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately here .                                         Sign up for the MS

  excerpt from Choice and Structure for Children with Autism COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION   Cues: Children with autism need clear and predictable cues to help them know what to do, when to do things, where to go, or what to get. Basically, they need cues to assist their comprehension of your requests. You may or may not be aware of it, but you are already using predictable cues with your children to let them know what expectations you have. A cue is anything that is done, said, shown, or positioned to signal an expectation to act, refrain from acting, or indicate that there will be upcoming information. A cue can be as obvious as standing in front of your child with a ball and asking, “Do you want to play basketball?” A cue can also be as subtle as raising an eyebrow and taking a deep breath before answering a request for another chocolate bar. With this breath, most children already know the answer is, “No.” Children with autism, by nature of the diagnosis, do not pick up on su

  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 contracts -- what is a good one, what is a bad one, and what do the specialized terms actually mean? I will answer these questions in a series of posts, using, to start, our contracts, and will go through them paragraph by paragraph. Then, I will look at some other publishers' contracts for differing. So, for today, let's take paragraph 1 (all paragraphs are numbered in a contract; that makes it easier for refer formally and legally to specific clauses). Before paragraph 1;  Name of the publishing company The words, MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT, or something similar, establishing that this i

  Excerpt from Blest Atheist The Hannah Dustin Award My childhood contained two compartments: home and not-home. Not-home was a special place that I kept carefully separated to prevent the excesses of home from tainting it. Not-home was the place where I received validation, especially from teachers who encouraged me in many ways. Several of my elementary school teachers used me as a reading group teacher. Others encouraged my propensity for writing poetry and mysteries. Still others brought me whole libraries of books from their homes which I would inhale the way I had inhaled all the books in our small school library. My French teacher in high school encouraged me to write French poetry, which was published in our bilingual school journal. More pragmatically, I was drafted to write the class prophecy my senior year. As a result of all my writing, that last year in high school, my classmates voted me class poet in the popularity awards that are typical of American high schools. As eve

  This is a short post to bring some new information about CUP, a deadly kind of cancer -- the finding that alcohol has been found to be a significant risk factor. This is helpful information because so little is known about CUP -- and if you don't know the primary cancer, how on earth can you figure out the risks? This article shows research that has correlated the risk factor of drinking alcohol directly with CUP, as opposed to most research which only draws indirect conclusions. (Note: Carl died from CUP and was not a drinker, but, of course, risk factors are just that -- risky and factors. They are not straight-line cause and effect situations. As I have noted in other posts, I think his very good immune system actually did him a disservice, but, as I say, that is in a different post.) Read more posts about CUP HERE . Read more about Cancer Diary posts HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web pa