gimp surviving your survival
a memoir by alisa christensen
Is available at Amazon.
I was a stunt woman-actress in LA. In 2002 I had a life altering injury, burns and brain damage. Some of gimp is from journals; my early entries were good therapy, there was over a foot of medical paperwork and I copied every surgery report. It was helpful cognitive rehabilitation to write ‘lattisimus dorsi and hetrotopic ossification’ but would have been watching paint to read.
In 2007 I finally got serious about presenting gimp as a readable manuscript and realized there were many event’s I didn’t write about as they were happening; they were too painful or too complicated.
Words still alter and reposition mysteriously. (The snail that broke a camel back? No, straw.) I left some in to amuse but most had to be fixed to make sense.
This isn’t raw diary writing; it’s been soothed and refined for viewing pleasure. I quoted the songs I was listening to and books I was trying to read to separate thoughts and to agree with the human condition, everything has been said, written and sang (sung?) before.
A note from the old mentor was, don’t have too many names your audience doesn’t care, it’s distracting. Good advice. Story characters, I love most of you as Friends; but some of you are Villains, so names have been changed to protect the idiots.
If you can't afford gimp, please e your snail mail (contact) and a copy will be sent gratis. xoxkisses
There are fotos up at FoxyTheLittleDog/Gimp which follow the book. There are graphic fotos of surgery, don't run the slideshow if you are squeamish.
Reach Alisa at
Portland Burn Survivors, Inc
we have our EIN from the IRS and the 501c3 to start raising money for projects / stay tuned
PBS on Facebook