It’s been ten years since Waiting for Westmoreland came out. Yes, the title refers to that general from Vietnam. But the book is really about how my experience in Vietnam put me on a quest to reform myself and make the world a better place. I have continued on that path to enlightenment over the past four decades.

We have published a tenth anniversary edition commemorating my first sharing that experience with the world in 2007.

This special edition has a colorful new cover, an expanded epilogue and a foreword by 40+ year friend and retired diplomat Bob Tansey.

If you haven’t read it yet, now is your chance to get the book at a holiday discount. If you have read it, now is the opportunity to buy one as a gift for a friend or family member who needs it. See the excerpt from the foreword below about why you should.

Here’s the details:

Get an Amazon Kindle version,  for just $1.99 through December, 2017 [In the US; may be higher elsewhere].

Or get an EPUB version for your tablet or other e-reader at that same price. Note: Nook, iBooks, Kobo and others are still pending but will be available soon.

Rather have it in print? The trade paper version is on sale at $10.16 plus shipping through December (a 40% discount from the cover price). Order soon if you want to send it as a gift–it’s 3-5 days to print plus shipping time (you can pay for expedited shipping, of course).

So why buy it and perhaps give it away as a holiday gift? Take a peek at the foreword: 

John Maberry and I met over forty years ago. I’m pleased that we’ve kept close contact all these years. I went overseas with the foreign service and later as an environmentalist, spending most of the past thirty years living and working all over the world. John and his wife Juanita spent most of those years in Northern Virginia before retiring to a remote corner of New Mexico while my wife and I returned to the Washington, DC area a few years later.

John and I met because we were both attracted to the teachings and practice of Buddhism and are both members of the SGI-USA Buddhist community (see sgi.usa.org). I like to share the values and practice of Buddhism with others, and one might say it’s simply convenient for me to share this book, a story of my old friend and fellow Buddhist practitioner.

On deeper reflection, though, this book means a lot more to me – and may hold a lot for you! There are important universal truths in here, told through the story of my old friend. That’s why I buy this book and give it away to people—I believe that they can benefit from it possibly even in profound ways.

. . . .

As John’s story unfolds in this book, we get to share in the lessons he learned of life and how he put those lessons into practice through great personal effort. He takes the past and rectifies it – turns “Poison into Medicine” rather than allowing circumstance to define him and how he will live.

Still not convinced? Here’s an excerpt from one recent review:

“Here we have a book that is much more than memoir, and more life journey told (and written) exceedingly well and with great courage. If the writer’s mandate is to ‘open a vein’, Maberry has opened that vein and allowed whatever flowed to fill this work.” [continue reading]