"We can choose to look at Murray as the poor writer who suffered a traumatic brain injury. We can choose to look at him as someone who lost the kind of life it could kill a person to lose. Or we can choose to look at him as a writer who went through some shit and now has another story to tell." -Kristen Tsetsi (interview at Night Train -see above)
"I think you're clearly a writer who was in an accident (NOT an accident victim who happens to have been a writer). From what I've read of your work, both pre- and post-accident, your fundamental writer-ness is still part of you. You may be accessing it differently, and maybe are expressing it differently, but the thing that drives you to understand your own life and the lives of others via writing appears intact." -Susan Tasaki (former editor at The Bark)
Our book launch of "What Doesn't Kill You..." will be at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN on October 9
I was very nearly killed on 6-7-08 in a car wreck, so I'm trying very hard to put my life back together. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. The impact on a person and his or her family can be devastating. And my memory-loss has to be the most frustrating component of this entire disaster. It is as if I woke up from a dream of a life to a nightmare of a reality.
But...
What didn't kill me made me a better writer.
"That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones..." -Raymond Carver -On Writing
… can sometimes be a car running a red light or seem like something as small and annoying as a gnat zig-zagging around your head. We all have our breaking points. Here, sixteen authors share stories of struggle with inner demons, fear, loss, fitting in, family, a psychotic neighbor, stereotypes, self-esteem, love, and, of course, a protective and possessive hound. Nietzsche said that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. We hope that What Doesn’t Kill You… will grab your throat, your heart, and your imagination, and make you feel less alone, and maybe a little stronger, when dealing with your own struggles.
"No head injury is too severe to despair of, nor too trivial to ignore." - Hippocrates
What Doesn't Kill You...
As an introduction to the anthology called "What Doesn't Kill You" that I'm helping Kevin Watson of Press 53 put together, go to Fried Chicken and Coffee and you will find my non-fiction story to be in it, called "Times I Nearly Died:"
"Found myself face down in a ditch Booze in my hair Blood in my lips A picture of you holding a picture of me In the pocket of my blue jeans Still don't know what love means" -Ray Lamontagne, Jolene.
"Perhaps a sense of danger kept them huddled close--cars rounding the curve, drivers staring. In our defense, it isn't every day we pass a scene like this: belonging so palpable, it beats like a heart on the pavement." -Daisy Chain, from "Telling Tales of Dusk." -- Terri Erickson
“I hear a sad song behind a happy conversation / What a perfect situation, I could die like this…” -Molly Thomas, “Make Everything Bright”
The Golden Fish (matsya) were originally symbolic of the rivers Ganges and Yamuna, but came to represent good fortune in general, for Hindus, Jain and Buddhists. Within Buddhism it also symbolises that living beings who practice the dharma need have no fear to drown in the ocean of suffering, and can freely migrate (chose their rebirth) like fish in the water.
