Marshall, Shelly 1948-

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Marshall, Shelly 1948-
(Selly Bean)

PERSONAL:

Born June 1, 1948, in Burbank, CA; daughter of Donald Bernard (a police officer and writer) and Georgiana (an x-ray technician and writer) Marshall; children: Karma Marshall Wilson. Ethnicity: "Russian." Education: Metropolitan State College, Denver, CO, B.S., 1978. Politics: Conservative. Religion: "New Age Christian."

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Fairview, UT. Agent—Djana Pearson Morris, Pearson Morris & Belt Literary Management, 3000 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Ste. 317, Washington, DC 20008. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Hand of Hope (rehabilitation home), Denver, CO, cofounder and member of board of directors, 1970-77; adolescent addiction recovery educator and workshop leader, 1977—. Certified substance abuse counselor, State of Virginia; Cortez Community Mission, founder, 1975; St. Luke's Hospital, Denver, therapist, 1975-78; marine deputy in Bonner County, ID, 1980-84; Serenity House, vice president, 2000-02, and member of board of directors; NAN Foundation (Russian charity), representative, 1991—, representative to United Nations, 1998—; Charles City County Council on Youth, member of board of directors, 1999-2004; Voice for the Children, action alliance leader, 1999—.

MEMBER:

INCASE (addiction educators; life member).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Writing award from Rocky Mountain Writers Guild, 1977; first-place award in short story contest, Northwest Writers Association, 1992, for "Harvesting the New Man."

WRITINGS:

Day by Day, Hazelden Publications (Center City, MN), 1974.

Young, Sober, and Free, Hazelden Publications (Center City, MN), 1979, 2nd edition, 2003.

Teenage Addicts Can Recover, Gylantic (Littleton, CO), 1992.

The Power of Touch (in Russian), Safo (Moscow, Russia), 1993.

Hour to Hour (in Russian), Twelve (Moscow, Russia), 1994, English translation, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Your Dream of Recovery, ARE (Virginia Beach, VA), 1995.

Pocket Sponsor, Day by Day (Ruthville, VA), 2003.

Contributor to professional journals and other magazines, including American Journal of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Journal of Drug Education, Journal of Addictive Diseases, RV West, Venture Inward, New Age Retailer, Convergence, Children's Playmate, and International Journal of Addictions. Editor, NAN Newsletter. Some writings for children appear under the sobriquet Selly Bean. Book reviewer for the Web site MentalHealth.net.

SIDELIGHTS:

Shelly Marshall told CA: "I am as intimate a partner with the disease of addiction as one might expect of an ambivalent lover. I hate the disease for what it's taken from my family members as much as I love recovery for what it has given them. This disease of addiction devastated my entire family until a courageous alcoholic mother found sobriety in the late 1960s, leading most of the family into recovery.

"At age twenty-one, I found recovery and acquired a degree in human services. While going to college, I raised my daughter and compiled my first book of daily meditations, Day by Day. As more professionals began to realize that alcoholism and addiction were as real for adolescents as for adults, challenges in the field expanded. To help meet those challenges, I wrote Young, Sober, and Free, a twelve-step program for young people in recovery. When workshops for school personnel, parents, and professionals didn't take my time, raising my daughter as a single mother did. In 1970 I helped to establish the Hand of Hope, one of the first halfway houses for poly-drug abusers in Denver. In 1975 I founded a detoxification center for American Indians.

"In 1978 I left my hectic life in Denver for the mountains of Idaho to raise my child away from the drug-associated inner-city schools. I soon devoted all of my time to writing and researching for adolescent addicts. But for all my endeavors in recovery, personal tragedy from addiction was never far away. In 1988 I found it necessary to send my daughter to a chemical dependency unit in Spokane, Washington. Having experienced addiction from every other aspect, I found myself the mother of an addicted child. This last experience was the one that prompted the research that resulted in the book Teenage Addicts Can Recover.

"I continue to collaborate on recovery research. I even travel to Moscow, Russia, on a yearly basis to lead workshops for professionals and to address community organizations there."