Real Estate Investor Writes Hopeful Story Of Recovery From Brutal Attack And Financial Crisis

NEW YORK - April 13, 2016 - PRLog -- Riding the housing boom of the 2000s, Diana Martin combed Austin for tired, rundown bungalows, bought them, and with artistic flair, recast them into little gems for people looking for custom homes. Then Wall Street crashed. Trapped with three houses in a market where no one was buying, she couldn't make her mortgage payments. The banks - the same ones begging for government bailouts-began moving against her. Desperate to sell, she opened the door to an interested buyer-who tied her up, and pistol whipped her. That was October 8, 2011.

Unemployed, bankrupt, and brutalized by the attack, Diana tumbled into the hell of post-traumatic-stress, mentally replaying the attack over and over again.

A Couch Named Marilyn: My Big Fat Mess Called PTSD is the story of an indomitable woman who, with courage, uncanny humor, and saintly embrace of Marilyn (the couch so named because of its seductive curves),  climbed out of the abyss of PTSD and into the next chapter of her life.

A Couch Named Marilyn (BellaVista Publishing House) arrives May 2 and is available on trade paperback (ISBN: 978-0-9961103-0-3) and e-book (ISBN: 978-0-9961103-1-0).

States Kirkus Reviews, "Having fought off one robber, Martin also had the 'overpaid thieves' of Wall Street ruining her prospects...Martin commits to fully tracing the difficulties she faced. This is that rare inspirational book without a trace of pink-cloud saccharinity. Remarkably honest, powerful, and vivid."

Diana Martin is a writer and artist, which she says translates into having worked a long series of second and third jobs. Diana now lives in Massachusetts with her family and two cats after spending 27 venturesome years in Alaska and several critical ones in Austin. She was born and raised in the Albany, NY area.


A Couch Named Marilyn