The worst two things that can happen to a writer are losing the hands and losing the mind.

Just a little over two years ago, on 6.7.08, a man who wasn’t watching the signals breezed through a red light and slammed into Murray Dunlap’s blue Volkswagen Jetta. After a three-month coma, Murray woke up to a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and amnesia.

The accident cost him not only much of his memory (which he’s slowly regaining with the help of good friends and a loving family, he says), but also his wife, his dogs, and his job.

We can choose to look at Murray as the poor writer who suffered a traumatic brain injury. We can choose to look at him as someone who lost the kind of life it could kill a person to lose. Or we can choose to look at him as a writer who went through some shit and now has another story to tell.

I recently had the pleasure of getting to know, and interviewing, Murray Dunlap. For the full interview published at Night Train, click here.