So says Laurie Lindeen, the former guitarist-singer-songwriter for the three-woman punk band Zuzu's Petals, in her new book. Now she's also a solo artist, a mother, the wife of Paul Westerberg of Replacements fame and a creative writing teacher. And she's done all of this despite -- actually, in spite of -- receiving the news in her early 20s that she has multiple sclerosis.

"I take on impossible challenges," says Lindeen, 45. "I'm really attracted to them."

And this self-described Madison townie, who now lives in Minneapolis, has written the rock life piece of her story in a new book, "Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story." Her book is filled with unvarnished tales of her life from a nascent basement band to international tours.

Yes, there's plenty of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. But there are also insecurities, mistakes and failures, plus loads of hilarious and bizarre encounters.

The city of Madison unfolds like another character as she grapples with leaving behind her home life and split family to move to Minneapolis.

Take, for example, this description of her East Side neighborhood: "I grew up in a neighborhood inhabited by sulking makers of strange casseroles with inappropriate crunchy things sprinkled on top to divert our attention from the hamburger/cream of mushroom soup goulash that lurked underneath."

Lindeen cites Turner Gymnastics, Sennett Middle School, Kollege Klub, Killdozer and Slichter Hall. As a child growing up on the East Side, she played "Don't Step on Otis Redding" with her friends swimming at Olbrich Beach. (Redding died when his plane crashed into Lake Monona in 1967 and a predominant Madison urban myth was that his body had never been recovered.)

Few last names are given, but it's not hard to figure out that her former roommate, "the Midwestern Warhol" Butch, is Butch Vig of Garbage. Or that the "shy, kind, quiet" Steve, who gave Lindeen her first guitar as "something to do" while she struggled with MS, is Vig's bandmate and Smart Studios partner Steve Marker.

She writes of jealousy between bandmates -- which included another Madison native, Coleen Elwood, who Lindeen describes when they meet as having been "a cheerleader at a rival Madison high school (with) a reputation for excessive peppiness," adding, "I went to the bong-hits-before-the-game high school." (She attended La Follette.)

Was it tough to share intimate details?

"For some reason, no," says Lindeen. "The good thing is all of it happened so long ago. There's a whole lot of space. And when you write about something it's clinical -- it becomes freeing."

But not everything in the book came easily. She was told by her editor she had to develop the characters of her parents and husband or cut them from the story. (Her mother, Carol Lindeen, is a housemother to a Langdon Street sorority and works at a Hilldale clothing store.) "Clearly I was hedging," she admits. "These are my three most complex, confusing relationships."

And writing about Westerberg elicits feedback from his fans, some of whom view him as a cult-like icon. Often those reactions are not so friendly. "People like their rock 'n' roll fantasy and here I am deconstructing it," guesses Lindeen. "They don't want to see the guy who snores and leaves his socks all over the house."

Interestingly, she hasn't drawn complaints from anyone for her confession, tantamount to blasphemy in these parts, that she hates the Green Bay Packers. And those negative vibes she had when abandoning the city of her youth have actually come full circle.

"Now I'm really romantic about Madison. I see it as the best place ever," says Lindeen. "I love it and I come back five or six times a year. I even think, from time to time, of moving back."

She'll next visit on June 22, when in addition to eating a Buck's pizza and meeting friends at the Edgewater Pier, she'll read from "Petal Pusher" at Borders, 3750 University Ave., at 7 p.m.

You can ask about the time Carly Simon picked her up hitchhiking, being the opening band on tour with Adam Ant or even her severe stage fright that she says made her intolerable before her gigs.

But go to see Lindeen, not her hubby. "I'm coming by myself. He'll be home doing the child care."