I am Katie McKenna -- writer, sometime comedian and professional fundraiser living in Brooklyn. I got run over by a truck, a big 18-wheeler, and lived to tell the tale.

Most of my earlier writing had been never-ending journals since I was 8 years old and stand-up bits for open mic nights around New York City. Creating something that makes another person smile or laugh gives me joy. I delight in laughing at myself.

This memoir began as a journal entry on a borrowed laptop during my extended hospital stay. I had finally regained use of my hands, and it was the best way to psychologically work through the intensity of my debilitating accident. It felt like my written musings became one long stand-up set -- a way to make light of the terrible, but surprisingly hilarious, things that happened when I was 25 years old and had just been run over by a truck.

Yes, that seriously happened.

For real.

I actually know what someone means when they say, “I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck,” because I was. Twice, if you count the axles (and I do). On the morning of October 2, 2007, I went from being a 25-year-old girl riding my bike before work to a traffic victim with deep tire tracks across my stomach.

After 10 hours of emergency surgery, I woke up horrified. My body was fractured, stuck with tubes, covered in fresh wounds and surgery scars. I looked down at legs that were attached to my body that refused to do what I asked them.

Everyone has had a moment where they feel like they have been run over by a truck. One pivotal moment that breaks apart everything one knows to be true. My truck moment was literal, but others are figurative. We all have a choice: either mourn the life you lived or fight to create a new life so beautiful that you can’t help but fall in love with it. This memoir is a record of that fight.

My new life is here with awkward, hilarious, heartbreaking and amazing details. If Inkshares publishes “How to Get Run Over by a Truck,” I hope to be a source of inspiration and strength for others who have gotten knocked down by life. Those looking for a story that will help them believe that they can get up again.