Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Update on Friend Grief and AIDS

One of the benefits of self-publishing is the ability to revise your books at your discretion.

The second book in my series, Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends, has been well-received. It recently earned a 5-star review on Readers Favorites and continues to generate impassioned – and positive – reviews on other sites.
When I wrote it a year ago, the statistics and resources in the back of the book were current. Time for an update.


Around March 1, I will re-release Friend Grief and AIDS with:

  • Updated statistics on HIV and AIDS around the world
  • Additional books and films for those who are interested
  • More links to organizations devoted to education, prevention, treatment and advocacy

If you have already purchased a copy, or plan to purchase one before then, thank you! I will post that updated information as a free pdf on the Resources page here in early March. That way those of you with the original book can see what’s new.

An added note: that new version is a reward for a Kickstarter campaign happening right now. The Last One is a documentary about the AIDS Quilt:

Stigma isn’t silent. Whether it’s spoken at the pulpit or spoken under one’s breath, in political rhetoric or private conversation, it is loud. It is insidious. It is lethal.

In The Last One: The Story of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, we follow the AIDS Memorial Quilt from inception to the present day to uncover how stigma has fueled the growth of the greatest pandemic in human history.

So, that’s what’s going on right now with Friend Grief and AIDS. If you haven’t read it yet, I hope you will – either now or when the updated version is released. Whether you remember the dark, early days of the epidemic or not, I think you’ll find the stories in the book both disturbing and inspiring.

2 comments:

kathleen pooler said...

Viki, this certainly is a plus for self-publishing. It seems to me the best part is the creative control you have been able to maintain. And look his much you've been able to accomplish since. I'm very impressed. Bravo!

Friend Grief said...

Thanks, Kathy!

I've made so many incredible connections since this book came out last year, I want to include them as well as the updated statistics.

Tomorrow I start the re-do, so I can send it off to my formatter next week.

And yes, this is really the first time it hit me just how much control I have over my work: total control. Isn't that exciting?