Skin in the Game:
The Stories My Tattoos Tell
An Intimate Author Experience
Have you ever read my book?
I haven’t, either.
This podcast, a reading of Kelly J. Mendenhall’s memoir, is like attending a live author reading while listening to a podcast in your favorite listening spot, maybe in your comfiest clothes. Experience Mendenhall’s book, Skin in the Game: The Stories My Tattoos Tell, read by the author. The author and audience experience her book together; as Mendenhall explains, she doesn’t remember writing it.
On June 21, 2017, I worked my last day in an office job, out in the world.
I was losing my ability to walk. My steps were becoming smaller and smaller until I could only shuffle my feet a few inches at a time. Unfortunately, doctors didn’t believe me about my pain and other symptoms, so it took 2.5 years of fighting against medical gaslighting to discover that my spinal cord was being crushed by a mass of cells in my spinal canal.
It would take another year and a half to discover the “worst case of endometriosis my surgeon had seen in her entire career,” which was invading my abdomen, pelvis, and lower spinal canal.
From December 28, 2018, to October 2022, I survived six major surgeries. I had four neurosurgeries and two abdominal surgeries, including a medically necessary hysterectomy.
While navigating it all, I wrote a book. It was published on June 1, 2019.
Five days later, I got the news about the mass in my spinal canal and two upcoming neurosurgeries. And from there, well, you can imagine how hard it was to go out and promote the thing.
I am reading my memoir with you, my audience, for the first time in its entirety.
Much of it I don’t remember writing.
Join me for the highs and lows, rediscoveries, tears, and laughter.
It’s everything you want in an author reading, without having to leave your home.
Episode 6: Chapters 7 & 8: The Sleeve Parts I and II
“I was four years old when my dad died. He was 52. We were both too young. As a result of his untimely passing, I grew up with a sense that something was missing. That some part of me, of who I was, was missing. It’s a feeling that is always sort of just hanging out inside of me whether I’m consciously aware of it or not.
Am I like him?
Did I inherit this from him?
Did he like this kind of music, too?
These are the kinds of questions that popped into my mind frequently as I was growing up, and still sometimes do.”
Excerpt From
Skin in the Game: The Stories my Tattoos Tell
Kelly J. Mendenhall
This material may be protected by copyright.
Episode Seven: Chapter Eight, Concluded (The Sleeve)
“My friend Mark was unlike anyone else I’ve ever met. He grew up in a hyper-religious and conservative family but was one of the most open-minded and accepting people I’ve ever known. He was a Marine, and by the time I met him he had served two tours in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He’d also been in a serious relationship with a registered member of the Communist Party, which always cracked me up.
...
“For the record, I thought Mark was a total jackass on first sight. He wore tweed suit jackets with suede elbow patches to school every day. He laughed at his own jokes—a lot. I was perpetually rolling my eyes at him. I also wasn’t impressed by the Marine thing — I hated the war in Iraq. I was scared to death of losing my friends who were on active duty overseas throughout the conflict.
But Mark always had thoughtful questions and responses to lectures which intrigued me about him. After a while, I softened up.”
Excerpt From
Skin in the Game: The Stories My Tattoos Tell: An Intimate Author Experience: Episode 5
Written and performed by Kelly J. Mendenhall
This material is protected by copyright.
This podcast, a reading of Kelly J. Mendenhall’s memoir, is like attending a live author reading while listening to a podcast in your favorite listening spot, maybe in your comfiest clothes. Experience Mendenhall’s book, Skin in the Game: The Stories My Tattoos Tell, read by the author. The author and audience experience her book together; as Mendenhall explains, she doesn’t remember writing it.
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