Carroll Extended Bio

Carroll's Extended Biography

Biography of Carroll Hofeling Morris

I was born in Lovell, Wyoming, east of Yellowstone National Park and west of the Big Horn Mountains. I was the second of four children born to Dola Harris and William (Bill) Hofeling. I grew up surrounded by Porter and Harris relatives, and I have many wonderful memories of time spent at Clearview Farm, which is where my Harris grandparents lived. Music, reading, church activities, horseback riding, going to the mountains and 4-H were among the activities that defined my youth in Wyoming. I had my first experiences as a writer. In the fourth grade, I gave some poems I’d written to my teacher. She promptly lost them! In sixth grade, a poem I wrote was printed in the school paper.

My family left Wyoming when I was 14. I completed 9th grade in Brighton, Colorado and graduated from high school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Sioux Falls, I discovered I had a knack for acting, performing in high school and community theater. I even won the best actress in the one-act play contest when I was a senior! I also continued writing short stories and poems, which appeared in student publications.

After graduation, I attended BYU, where I received my BA in German. In 1965, I spent spring semester in Salzburg, Austria with the initial BYU Semester Abroad. Living in the picturesque city while studying history and German was an extraordinary experience, the memory of which I cherish.

I met Gary Morris the fall of my senior year at BYU. We were drawn together initially by the fact that we were both German majors and had lived abroad. We received our degrees and were married in1967. That fall, we moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where we were both graduate assistants at the University of Oklahoma. Over the next three years, we had the first two of our four children, John and Lisette, and received our MA degrees! I’m not sure how we did it—I sure wouldn’t advise others to do the same!

In 1967, degrees and children in hand, we moved to a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where my parents had resettled. Gary was employed as a German teacher and coach by the Wayzata school district. Our lives over the next decade centered on church and children (Mattie and David joined our family). I taught piano lessons and taught a few Germany classes in Gary’s school to bring in extra income.

When I enrolled the younger kids in the school district’s Suzuki violin program, my experiences as mother and coach prompted me to write my first published book, A Suzuki Parent’s Diary, or How I Survived my First 10,000 Twinkles. It’s still in print, each year finding a small but enthusiastic readership among parents of Suzuki string players.

Shortly after that, Gary was chosen to participate in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange. We packed up our four kids, now ranging in age from 7-15 and spent 1982-1983 in Walberberg, Germany, which is between Cologne and Bonn. Gary was busy teaching and the kids were in school, so now I had time to do something I’d always said I would do—if I had time. Write. I began The Broken Covenant that year. It was published by Deseret Book in 1985.

From then until we went to Germany on our second teacher exchange (1988-89), I worked as a freelancer in the advertising department of a local company. I also continued writing, publishing The Bonsai, Saddle Shoe Blues, The Merry-Go-Round, various short stories and the non-fiction book, If the Gospel is True, Why do I Hurt so Much, all with Deseret Book. (Although these books are out of print, used copies in good condition can be found on the Net.)

By that time, our kids were college age, so when we got back from our second year in Germany, I started working fulltime as a copywriter to help with the bills. I liked getting a paycheck every two weeks, but my creative writing suffered. I wouldn’t publish another book until Almost Sisters in 2006.

I did have a life outside of work, however. Family activities, biking, traveling and gardening filled many hours. I also began a study of alternative heath and wellness techniques. I’m a certified Master Rapid Eye Technician and Master Hypnotist. I use these techniques as well as Reiki energy healing and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) when working with clients. I taught seminars on stress relief, self-care, understanding emotions and dealing with ambiguous loss. I self-published a booklet my clients called Getting from Insight to Action. It includes techniques and exercises for creating ongoing positive change.

In 2002, the company I was working for closed its doors, and in the aftermath of 9-11, there weren’t many opportunities in advertising. For the next year, I focused on my healing practice. Then, in March of 2003, Gary and I surprised ourselves—and everyone else!— by deciding to move to the retirement community of Green Valley, which is south of Tucson. I’m sure I wouldn’t have even considered such a move if I’d still been working fulltime or if we’d had grandchildren in Minnesota.

We’re both happy with the move and can’t imagine ourselves anywhere else. We enjoy having friends and family come to visit, especially our children. They’re scattered far and wide—John lives in San Francisco, Lisette in Germany, Mattie in Chandler, Arizona and David in the Big Apple. (Nope, no grandchildren so far!)

I’m very grateful that Nancy suggested back in 1999 that she, Lael and I should write a book together. We “wrote at it” for many years, not thinking much about who might publish it. When Deseret Book expressed interest, we had to start getting serious! As we’ve seen the response of readers to the first two books, we feel that writing this series has been a calling. Working with my sister, Nancy, and my “Almost Sister,” Lael has been and continues to be a blessing.