"If I Only Had a Brain Injury" ... How a Concussion Took Away My Ability to Read and Made Me an Author

by Laura Bruno
(North San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA)

If I Only Had a Brain Injury

On May 19, 1998, a car accident destroyed the life I knew. I had just accepted a scholarship and fellowship to a 4-year doctoral program in English Literature at Northwestern University. After someone rear-ended my car at a red light, a "moderate concussion" took away my ability to read! Additionally, I could not tolerate florescent lights, had minimal short term memory, constant vertigo and felt so over-stimulated that I spent most days in a darkened room with an ice bag on my head. Oh, and my IQ dropped almost 50 points! I remained unable to read (or write) more than 5-20 minutes per day for over four years!

Obviously, during that time, I wasn't writing my book. I did, however, believe that one day I WOULD write a book to share how I'd recovered. Even before I fully recovered, I somehow knew I would, and having been an English major, writing remained in my blood, despite this intense hiatus. I began writing a book of 52 Healing Hints and on a whim tied it into "The Wizard of Oz." (Dorothy's journey begins with a concussion.) In my extended "right brain" state, I viewed everything as a mythological journey, and Dorothy's tale struck me as a universal metaphor for healing. At first, I thought this book would simply include a few short blurbs and perhaps some pictures--an inspirational pick-me-up.

As time passed, and I recovered, Sally Kempton interviewed me for Yoga Journal (under my maiden name), profiling my recovery in an article called, "Bouncing Back." To my surprise, people started writing to her that my story was similar to their own. She forwarded the emails to me, and people began corresponding with me about their journeys. These were people with MS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. Then my husband caught Lyme Disease, and his symptoms mirrored my brain injury ones as well. I gradually began a medical intuitive and life coaching practice, and I noticed a repeating pattern: people with these illnesses or injuries shared many things in common. One of these things was a desire to read how I had made such a complete recovery!

I continued to write my book. Over the course of 5 years, it evolved into more of a healing guide with contributions from some famous survivors, caregivers and treatment providers. Periodically, I presented my book proposal to agents and publishers, usually receiving the same feedback: nice idea but they weren't sure how well it would sell. Meanwhile, my research showed me that 20 million Americans suffer from brain injury, Chronic Fatigue, Lyme Disease, Migraines, stroke, and other so-called "Medical Mysteries." I set the book aside and focused on building my teaching and coaching business. Again, students and clients kept inquiring when I would release my recovery book.

By Fall 2007, I was spending my writing time on articles and novels, with this book completely on the back burner. One day, while meditating, I "asked" what I should focus on for my next writing project. The answer came immediately and really surprised me. In meditation, I realized that in order to finish my novels, I needed first to release the non-fiction book I had already completed. "OK, fine," I thought. "Where? Send me to the publisher."

But no, I was to change the title from "If I Only Had a Brain" to "If I Only Had a Brain Injury: A TBI Survivor and Life Coach's Guide to Chronic Fatigue, Concussion, Lyme Disease, Migraine or Other 'Medical Mystery'" and release it as an e-book.

"An e-book?!? Where did THAT come from?" My meditation was firm that if I reformatted the book as an e-book and listed it on Clickbank.com, things would come together.

As soon as I agreed and bought Adobe Acrobat to turn my book into a PDF, two more treatment providers volunteered as contributors to the project. I included a recent article of theirs in the treatment providers section, and they were so excited that they started a publicity launch. It turns out they work closely with Linda Tellington-Jones, the inventor of T-Touch. Linda sent out an international newsletter with an announcement about the e-book.

Things continued to fall synchronously into place and shortly afterwards my husband suggested we move to Sedona so I could finish researching my novel, which takes place there. In moving to Sedona, I made contact with Carl Jackson, the editor of Sedona.biz, who took a liking to my story and often ran articles and free press for my events. Frequently, Google would pick up the newsbriefs, and Carl liked that my articles always generated a lot of clicks. He ran the very first book review of my e-book, which was then linked to by numerous brain injury bloggers.

At this point, I received another meditative instruction to self-publish through Xlibris, which I did through a 1/2 price promotion on their expedited program. Just before my book came out in paperback, Sue Vogan of "In Short Order," a radio program devoted almost entirely to "Experts on Lyme Disease," emailed me to invite me to speak on her program. She said that everyone on the blogs wanted to know feedback about my e-book, so she thought she just had to have me on her show.

I accepted. (The interview happens May 29, 2008.) While reading my interior galleys as preparation for the interview, Sue grew extremely excited about my book and wrote a glowing review for bookpleasures.com, which she also posted on Amazon. She has become quite an advocate, putting me in touch with ReaderViews.com and suggesting promotional opportunities through others. ReaderViews wrote a glowing review, which was picked up by USA Today, Reuters and ClickOn Detroit. This happened the same day as my first book signing in Sedona, and by that evening, Amazon had run out of stock of my book.

I quickly learned that one needs to stay on top of the publishing and distribution process, particularly with print-on-demand books. Through many email correspondences and phone calls, I managed to have the listing process expedited through Ingram Books (a major distributor). My rep at Xlibris went the extra mile, contacting resellers as far away as the United Kingdom to have the information correctly placed on the Alibris.com site. We're still ironing out a few details, but for the first month of availability, I feel quite good about things.

This morning I completed a live recording for a radio interview on Inside Scoop Live, and Reader Views also conducted an online interview, which continues to receive a lot of traffic. I'm in process of investigating foreign rights sales and sales to educational facilities, and several organizations have asked to review copies of my book for listing and featuring on their websites. We recently moved to the North San Francisco Bay Area, where new opportunities have already presented themselves. (Yes, I finished my Sedona novel research!)

My husband is a photographer, and last weekend in San Francisco, we ran into another Nikon photographer. He wanted to trade lenses with my husband temporarily, and during the switch we began talking. It turns out that this photographer is an advocate for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, works at a major paper, and is very interested in my book. He offered to contact people on my behalf to help find ways to increase awareness about "If I Only Had a Brain Injury." It's too soon to tell the results yet, but each week it seems like I run into more people with ties to radio programs, television or newspapers.

I feel very blessed that things continue to fall into place so nicely. It's wonderful to be able to raise awareness about injuries and illnesses that affect so many people's lives in such major ways. I hope we can educate the public so that "medical mysteries" involving neurological symptoms no longer seem so "mysterious."

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