Purl, Mara: - "Mara Purl is the best-selling author of the Milford-Haven Novels, Novellas & Novelettes which, to date, have earned more than 70 book awards and appeared on multiple best-seller lists. Purl pioneered small-town fiction for women with her saga, which is based on her original hit radio drama Milford-Haven, U.S.A. (c), the first American radio drama ever licensed and broadcast by the BBC where it reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners throughout the U.K.Mara's writing credits include plays, screenplays, scripts for Guiding Light, cover stories for Rolling Stone, staff writing with the Financial Times (of London), and the Associated Press. She is the co-author (with Erin Gray) of Act Right. Mara is the Founder of S.T.A.R. - Student Theatre And Radio, a program she taught for fifteen years in three states.As an actress, Mara was "Darla Cook" on Days Of Our Lives. She has appeared in multiple productions of Becoming Julia Morgan and Sea Marks in California and elsewhere, and she performs Mary Shelley - In Her Own Words, winner of the 2003 Peak Award. Mara grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and earned a performing and literary degree from Bennington College. She was named one of twelve Women of the Year by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women.Mara is a frequent presenter at writers' conferences, a national spokeswoman for women on Women's Fiction, Heart Matters (women's health) and she performs audio books. She is married to Dr. Larry Norfleet, and lives in Los Angeles, California, and in Colorado Springs, Colorado."