Since this piece published last week, I’ve received meaningful messages from people with a variety of personal connections to the early days of #HIV #AIDS . This is why I write. Thank you, Noah Michelson huffpost.com/entry/family-s…

My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For Years. I Wasn't Prepared For What Telling The Truth Would Mean. huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/my-famil…

A really poignant article about how keeping secrets from children can cause serious trauma.
Please, stop thinking children shouldn’t know because the “won’t understand”… they know if something isn’t right.

My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For Years. apple.news/AWWnUjN9GQ3uaR…

My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For 10 Years. I Wasn't Prepared For What Telling The Truth Would Mean. huffpost.com/entry/family-s…

These stories of truth, grief & loneliness are necessary and powerful. What this family had to go through is so unfair and it took author Melanie Brooks decades to understand the trauma she experienced amid the loss.

My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For 10 Years. I Wasn't Prepared For What Telling The Truth Would Mean. huffpost.com/entry/family-s…

Powerful piece by Melanie Brooks for HuffPost Noah Michelson.

“I couldn’t tell anyone about the nights when sleep refused to come and I’d sit with my back pushed into the wooden headboard of my bed, my knees squeezed against my chest, clutching my bedspread to my chin. I

A powerful piece I was lucky to publish today on @Huffpost Personal

My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For 10 Years. I Wasn't Prepared For What Telling The Truth Would Mean. huffpost.com/entry/family-s…

Grateful for editor extraordinaire, Noah Michelson for publishing this essay HuffPost.

bit.ly/43MwBid

Nothing makes a writer happier than seeing a reader’s close attention to their book. This Post-it filled copy of A Hard Silence belonged to one of the MFA students who attended my master class at George Mason University yesterday.

“A Hard Silence' is a Foreword INDIES finalist in Grief/Grieving (Adult Nonfiction). When Melanie Brooks' surgeon father was infected with HIV from a blood transfusion in 1985, stigma and misinformation about HIV/AIDS forced them to keep it a secret. forewordreviews.com/awards/books/a…

Remember that time I REALLY wanted to connect with Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert and basically just say I love how you both talk about #grief ?

For most writers the marketing is a grind. We cringe when self-promoting fearing we’ll exhaust
our followers with all the 'Look at me!' Yet, it's how we find readers for our books (which we've spent YEARS writing, so we want people to read them). Ways to help #writers you know:

In October, I received my CPA in #NarrativeMedicine from Columbia University. As a writer and educator in this field, my focus is on helping patients, practitioners, and caretakers find creative expressions of their personal stories and get them out into the world. #healingstories

Join Melanie Brooks tomorrow (2/28) at 7 pm ET at Broadside Bookshop as she discusses her memoir, A Hard Silence, with Suzanne Strempek Shea.

broadsidebooks.com/event/melanie-…

Join Melanie Brooks tomorrow (2/25) at 3 pm ET at Porter Square Books as she discusses her memoir, A Hard Silence, with Alysia Abbott.

portersquarebooks.com/event/be-chang…

Two exciting tour events coming up!

TOMORROW (2/25) Porter Square Books in Boston at 3PM: In conversation with Alysia Abbott

WEDNESDAY (2/28) Broadside Bookshop in Northampton at 7PM: In conversation with Suzanne Strempek Shea

Can’t wait for this conversation Porter Square Books with my friend Alysia Abbott ! We are daughters who lost our fathers to the same terrible disease, so we have a lot to talk about! #HIV #AIDS #memoir
AND 20% of sales between 3-5 PM will be donated to AIDS Action.

This moment of zen brought to you by Melanie’s mental health needs…You’re welcome.