Hello!

 Welcome to my blog. 

My name is Lisa Koo. I come to you by way of a Seoul, South Korean mother, American native father, born in Seoul, and raised in small-town Minnesota since I was three years old. I then moved to California with $200 in my pocket and one suitcase at the age of twenty. As I write this I am in Las Vegas, henceforth my email address lisakoolv@gmail.com. I had to specify location since Lisakoo@gmail was not available. Imagine my surprise when I learned, according to Google AI, that Koo is also a surname among the British and Irish, as well as among the Chinese and Korean. In other words, lots of Koo's about. (See you at the next meeting!) 

From day one in Minnesota to present day west coast, currently in Las Vegas as I write this, life has been... well, interesting. And by "interesting" I mean a broken-down screaming roller coaster freakshow ride with more twists and turns than a red liquorice candy factory. It builds character, they say. In my case many characters whose stories are just dying to be told. I guess it took me 55 years to be able to put it all into words.

I'm currently 55 years old, in case y'all didn't catch that. I'm divorced, still on the west coast, currently no cats but I do feed the strays and I'm at last doing the one thing I've always loved to do, write. I'm currently writing a book. What's it about? I'm so glad you asked! Let me tell you.

It's a continuum of three primary stories of children who become adults in a world of mental illness, abuse, murder, Christianity (yup I went there), and the meaning of it all. Are we a product of our environment or are we predisposed. That is the question of life, isn't it? That is what most of us seek. Who am I. How did I get here. What does it mean. What's it all for. Why must so many innocents suffer so horribly. Who picks and chooses. Is it environment or heredity. Those used to be my questions about life and now they're my studies. A philosophical pseudoscience of mental illness. As I mentioned earlier, I'm familiar with mental illness.

I grew up in a house where my dad's first wife, not my mom, suffered from horrible mental illness. Back in 70's and 80's no one knew what mental illness was, and worse yet, no one wanted to know. It was swept under the rug with the title "crazy" or "nervous breakdown" and everyone knew to just stay away from the crazy person. Only problem was the crazy person lived with us. To not improve matters the child psychiatrist my dad sent me to said there was nothing she could do for me, the problem was with my dad's wife, not me. The psychiatrist said she wanted sessions with my dad's wife but if his wife wasn't willing to attend the sessions then the psychiatrist was unable to help. Problem unsolved. And that's how things were handled in the 70's and 80's. Just swept it under the rug. Lots of dirt swept under lots of rugs. My dad was gone. He had a mistress and was making a new family with her including a house, and kids none of us knew about until he died in 2015. So yeah, I have stories. 

At 55 years of age, I'm nearing the end years of life. Oh sure, I could live another thirty years but I'm also a stroke survivor and - who knows. Let's just call it my senior years. 

My "target audience" as they say, are people who been there, need more, independent thinkers, observers, conversationalists, people with questions, sapiosexuals, and other philosophical practitioners of cerebral pseudoscience.   

Who knows more about mental illness, addiction, or heartache, the people going through it, or the doctors who never met them before today. That's not a slam on doctors but I had a cardiologist for a year who never got my name right. I don't know how difficult "Lisa" is to pronounce especially with my chart in his hands but goddamnit challenge accepted. He didn't get my name right not one time. So, what's the harm in giving people more things to talk about and consider among the knowing or those wanting to know? 

Please bear in mind I'm a writer not an editor. I know those who come to read this are smart enough to see through my grammatical errors. 

I hope you enjoy your time here. Thanks for visiting me.

Lisa