When she was suddenly assaulted by myriad baffling symptoms of joint pain and extreme fatigue, the author embarked on an intensive search for diagnosis and treatment of what would be diagnosed as systemic lupus erythematosus, a little-known autoimmune disease that promised to destroy her body, her mind and her spirit. From the pages of her intimate daily journal, we travel with her through chronic joint pain, frustration, anger and grief for her former self to her current state of remission. Far from being a litany of complaints, the author’s pages reveal her unexpected spiritual growth and gratitude for life itself, and she hopes she can be of help to others who suffer from this disease or other chronic illnesses.
Although she was raised as a Military Brat, Marilyn Celeste Morris was born in her grandfather's house in Toronto, Texas, a small Southern Pacific Railroad Section six miles west of Alpine. Perhaps as an omen of what would be the next twenty years of her life, the railroad's abandonment of this settlement shortly afterward left her with no "permanent" home.
Schooling consisted of Dependents' Schools while overseas, in Seoul Korea, 1946-47 and Linz, Austria (1949-1952) and various schools stateside. A rarity for a Military Brat, she was fortunate enough to have attended all three high school years and graduated at Lawton Senior High School, Lawton OK. Further education was attained at Cameron State College, Lawton OK, Tarrant County College, Fort Worth TX, and North Texas State University. She received an AAS Degree in Mental Health in 1995.
Morris began her writing career as a guest columnist in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and for ten years wrote a weekly humor/human interest column for a weekly newspaper in the Fort Worth TX area. She recently compiled a selection in My Ashes of Dead Lovers Garage Sale -And Other Stories from a Single Woman of a Certain Age.
Her first novel, Sabbath's Room, a supernatural murder mystery, was closely followed by Once a Brat, part travelogue, part therapy session, relating her world-wide travels with her army officer father during the Post WWII years. She then wrote Diagnosis: Lupus: The Intimate Journal of a Lupus Patient, a collection of personal journal entries about her struggles with SLE. An outgrowth of her Once a Brat book is the novel, The Women of Camp Sobingo, where four women meet aboard a ship bound for a remote military compound outside Seoul, Korea, immediately following the end of WWII. They form a bond that will sustain them through numerous hardships, and at a reunion twenty-five years later, secrets and sorrows are at last revealed. Her third novel, Forces of Nature, followed.
She has taught creative writing at Tarrant County College, Fort Worth TX, survived numerous book signings and speaking engagements; and is experienced in interviewing on both radio and television.
When not writing or editing emerging writers' manuscripts, Morris enjoys searching for former classmates and true to her Brat heritage, she has a suitcase packed under the bed, ready to travel at a moment's notice.
Marilyn Celeste Morris may be reached by email: marilyncmorris@sbcglobal.net to schedule a speaking engagement or arrange for editing services. See also http://www.freewebs.com/graceworksproductions/ for excerpts of all her books.
