I’m so pleased that Louise Krug has agreed to a guest post for the blog. Her wonderful book, Louise: Amended is out in May by Black Balloon, a wonderful Brooklyn based press. I offer author posts to those who, for whatever reason, I cannot accommodate on the Happy Ending stage, but whose work and voice I believe in and want to help promote. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. –Amanda Stern

First, the book trailer….

 Now, the guest post…

LOUISE KRUG

At age twenty-two, Louise Krug suffered a massive brain bleed and underwent an emergency craniotomy that disrupted her ability to walk, see, and move half her face. She currently lives with her husband Nick and daughter Olive in Lawrence, Kansas, where she is pursuing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Kansas. Louise is the author of Louise: Amended, which will be published by Black Balloon Publishing in May 2012.

I wrote Weezy’s Brain Adventure comic in 2007 for a graduate graphic novel class at the University of Kansas. The class was full of fine arts kids who really knew their stuff, and then a few of us writers who knew nothing. We read work by comic artists Chris Ware and Julie Doucet, and I learned about Lynda Barry’s work on my own. I drew a lot growing up, and I rediscovered drawing when I took the class where I drew this comic, which was my first one.

I have a sketchbook now and draw comics when I can. Drawing Weezy’s Brain Adventure helped me remember that I had a sense of humor, which tends to go away in a medical setting. That humor gave me a sort of control over my feelings and reactions.

Obviously, brain surgery wasn’t funny, but drawing out the dark humor in events that unfolded before, during, and after the surgeries helped me cope. Being able to see what happened to me during my illness in a visual narrative inspired me  to write what became my memoir Louise:Amended, because I was able to see, or at least start seeing, the narrative arc of the story I wanted to tell and the visual scenes I wanted to emphasize.