Mary Cox-Bilz
Bio: Author and mouth artist Mary Cox-Bilz had always wanted to write, but spent most of her younger life doing the things other women did. She went to college, managed her own business and did evaluation and counseling in the Maryland Rehabilitation Center to help other physically challenged people learn to manage their disabilities.The daughter of a Maryland State Police Officer and a State Administrator, Mary was born with Arthrogryposis (ARTH-row-grip-O-sis), a birth defect that left her a quadriplegic with only 3% use of her left arm and 7% use of her right. Though, Mary is confined to a motorized wheelchair, she teaches four writing classes a week for a local college, travels to speaking engagements, gives telephone and television interviews, and attends writer's conferences sponsored by the International Women's Writing Guild. Mary uses a mouth stick to type manuscripts on her computer, or surf the Internet, and does pen and ink drawings, holding the pen in her mouth. About six months after her husband's death, Mary gave up her 56 hour a week telemarketing business, started her first book, and returned to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to follow her dream of becoming a writer. Since November of 1998, she has written three books, published by White Oaks Creations, of Cartersville, VA, and is hard at work on the fourth. A lifelong Christian, Mary is a member of a local United Methodist Church, but stresses that her writings, while firmly based in Christian faith, are inter-denominational and suitable reading for any audience. More recently, Mary has begun to create a line of special greeting cards, featuring her own drawings and verses, and to market reproductions of her art works and poetry broadsides through local bookstores and on her Internet website at www.marycoxbilz.com
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