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 3: Skin in the Game: Chapter 4
“Fast forward four years. I was in my college dorm pulling an all-nighter writing a paper when I heard from Angela out of the blue on Myspace. I remember actually holding my breath when the message came up as I tried to think of a way to respond. Was this a setup? I mean, you never knew with her.”
Excerpt From
Skin in the Game: The Stories My Tattoos Tell: An Intimate Author Experience: Episode 3
Written and performed by Kelly J. Mendenhall
This material is protected by copyright.
Episode 4: Skin in the Game: Chapter Five
“My stepbrothers, who were twins, were almost exactly one year older than I was. They were the closest thing to pure evil I have ever encountered. Our parents hadn’t even married yet when one of them strangled me until I was nearly unconscious, a friend intervening and pulling him off from on top of me just in time.
I was 15 when that same twin held a butcher knife to my throat and, again, a friend intervened.”
Excerpt From
Skin in the Game: The Stories My Tattoos Tell: An Intimate Author Experience: Episode 4
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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