By Porter Anderson / @Porter_Anderson
- Flash: Victoria Noe’s Top-10 standing with SELF-e is in the news in the Alliance of Independent Authors’ Self-Publishing Advice Member Showcase this month.
Have a look! - Be sure to see our September Top 10 SELF-e Books
‘The Opportunity To Be Discovered’
In a new program to spread awareness of SELF-e’s availability at no charge to authors, Chicago-based Victoria Noe has agreed to become our first SELF-e Ambassador.
One of her main means of outreach to fellow authors will be through conferences and festivals. In fact, Noe (pronounced “Noy”) was at the Oswego Public Library on October 3 for the Oswego Literary Festival.
Coming up, you can meet her at these events later in the month:
- October 8: Military Moral Injury Symposium, Union League Club, Chicago
- October 22: “A Library State of Mind” Author Showcase at the Illinois Libraries Joint Conference, Peoria Civic Center, in Peoria, Illinois
- October 24: Princeton Author Expo, Princeton Public Library, Princeton, Illinois
To keep up with new events as she adds them, you can visit her events page at her site.
And Noe’s easy to connect with, being among the most adept indie authors out there at social media. On Twitter, she’s @Victoria_Noe. And here’s her Facebook page.
‘Friend Grief’
At her website, you can find out about Noe’s rather singular work in nonfiction. She’s a specialist in “friend grief,” which is experienced by people who lose close friends or colleagues, and who have no way adequate way to grieve because they’re not considered “close.” They’re not family members and frequently aren’t known to the loved ones of the deceased.
The first four books of her five-title series have been chosen for the inaugural SELF-e Select curated collection made available nationally. And she’s submitting her brand-new fifth installment now.
Here’s her self-published series, and her brief explainer on each title in the series.
Friend Grief and Anger: When Your Friend Dies and No One Gives a Damn
“In the first of a series on grieving the death of a friend, Friend Grief and Anger: When Your Friend Dies and No One Gives A Damn, you’ll meet people who have struggled with anger after their friend died. And they’ll help you answer the question: ‘Okay, I’m angry: now what?'”
Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends
“It’s been likened to a plague, but AIDS was never just a health crisis. The second of a series on grieving the death of a friend, Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends, revisits a time when people with AIDS were also targets of bigotry and discrimination. In stories about Ryan White, ACT UP, the Names Project, red ribbons and more, you’ll learn why friends made all the difference: not just caregiving or memorializing, but changing the way society confronts the medical establishment and government to demand action.”
Friend Grief and 9/11: The Forgotten Mourners
“’Families only.’ Those who were killed on September 11, 2001, left behind more than family members. They left thousands of friends who are often forgotten and ignored: co-workers, first responders, neighbors and survivors who struggle to find a way to grieve the friends killed when the World Trade Center towers fell. In Friend Grief and 9/11: The Forgotten Mourners you’ll learn how they have adjusted to life without their friends, finding ways to honor those they lost on a clear, blue Tuesday.”
Friend Grief and the Military: Band of Friends
“‘They were killing my friends.’ That was how Medal of Honor recipient Audie Murphy justified his heroic actions in World War II. As long as there have been wars, men and women in the military have watched their friends die. Experts warn that delaying our grief will complicate our lives. But what about those who have no choice but to delay it until the battle is over? In Friend Grief and The Military: Band of Friends you’ll meet military personnel and non-combatants who struggle with the grief and guilt of losing their friends. You’ll learn, too, in the amazing ways they help each other, that ‘leave no one behind’ is a life-long commitment.”
Friend Grief in the Workplace: More Than an Empty Cubicle
“They’re friends and coworkers, so when they die, it’s not only a personal and professional loss but a challenge: How can you grieve and get your work done, too? The fifth book in the Friend Grief series is Friend Grief in the Workplace: More Than an Empty Cubicle.”
And, Noe says, a sixth and final book is in the works: Friend Grief and Men: Defying Stereotypes, about the difficulty that men can encounter with the loss of friends in a culture that assigns concepts of stoicism and swagger to masculinity.
‘I Didn’t Have To Think Twice About Submitting’ to SELF-e
During the summer, as Noe and I were talking about SELF-e and what it can mean to libraries, she told me what she would later say in a Writer’s Digest Conference presentation in New York on SELF-e and its benefits to authors:
There are times when people are lost. Something has rattled their world and nothing will be the same. Or maybe they’re just searching for answers to something less dramatic.
SELF-e gives self-published nonfiction authors the opportunity to be discovered by those readers. I didn’t have to think twice about submitting. It’s a no-brainer for nonfiction.
She’s talking, of course, about how many readers use the library to find guidance and information, as well as entertainment and cultural growth. In instances of grief, many will turn to their libraries for good literature on the best thinking in managing emotion and coping with heartache.
Without SELF-e, Noe told the gathering at Writer’s Digest, few of the readers who need help with “friend grief” might find her books. Making her debut as a self-published author means that Noe has started from the ground up, without a publishing house’s marketing support.
“With SELF-e,” she told the authors in New York, “I have a chance to be discovered.”
There’s more to this story: Read the rest
By Porter Anderson Follow @Porter_Anderson
SELF-E Blog: Meet the First SELF-e Ambassador: Victoria Noe
Read the full post at: The Blog from SELF-e, Powered by Library Journal
