Born and raised in rural New Zealand, Heather Morris fled to Australia in the early 70s. Falling in love and marrying, she moved back to Christchurch in the mid 70s and had a family of three.

Circumstances brought her back to Australia in the mid 80s and life as a wife, mother and mature aged student at Monash University kept her busy. She subsequently went to work in the Social Work Department of Monash Medical Centre for more than 20 years. As her children found their own lives as young adults, she chose screenwriting as that ‘something I could do for me’. Weekend seminars, workshops and online courses, gave her the grounding to structure, and tell a story in the three-act formula screenwriting demands.

In 2003, she met Lale Sokolov which resulted in her book The Tattooist of Auschwitz being released in 2018. Heather had initially written his story as a screenplay and hung onto that format for a long time. It is impossible to know if Lale’s story would have been received differently had it been written as a novel twelve years earlier.

Cilka’s Journey, based on stories Lale and others shared with Heather, was released in 2019. The following year, during covid lockdown, her first nonfiction novel Stories of Hope was released. This year she is proud and honoured to release her novel Three Sisters. The story of the Meller girls who suffered evil brutality, stayed strong together, survived and found their way home to Slovakia. Moving to Israel in 1949 they worked, prospered, found love, had children and grandchildren – always together.

Heather, too, has made a move. From Melbourne to Brisbane to be close to her children and grandchildren. She looks forward to calling herself a Queenslander (once she is released from hotel quarantine). Her allegiance to a football code/team yet to be determined, but she is so excited to be here.

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