Thank you to everyone who made our 10th Annual Go Red For Women Education Day and Luncheon such a success! Make sure to mark your calendar for next year's event - Fri., Sept. 20, 2013.
"... Fill your heart
with what's important..."
Meet Mara Purl, best-selling, award-winning author and the 2012 Go Red For Women Luncheon Speaker
Mara Purl, best-selling, award-winning author of the popular and critically acclaimed Milford-Haven Novels and Milford-Haven Stories, pioneered small-town fiction for women.
Mara’s beloved fictitious town has been delighting international audiences since 1992, when it first appeared as Milford-Haven, U.S.A.©— the first American radio drama ever licensed and broadcast by the BBC. The show reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners in the U.K. In the U.S., it was the 1994 Finalist for the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs.
What the Heart Knows (Book One) is an Amazon best-seller (ranked #5 in Books; #5 in Women’s Lit & Fiction;#5 in Romance;#1 in Contemporary Fiction; #1 in Family Saga Fiction). The novel was named Winner of the Indie Excellence Award and Finalist for the Book Of the Year Award. When Hummers Dream (Amazon best-selling prequel short
story to Book One) was nominated for the Global E-Book award. Where the Heart Lives (Book Two) debuts in October 2012. In addition, early editions of her novels have won fifteen finalist and gold literary awards including the Benjamin Franklin, Indie Excellence, USA Book News Best Books, and ForeWord Books of the Year.
Mara’s serial novels are uniquely structured to suit new media formats and have reopened a trail blazed by Charles Dickens. Yet it is with women Mara has truly found her U.S. market. She has a loyal following in the Women’s Fiction genre, and has become a spokeswoman both for authors and for readers of Women’s Fiction.
Mara’s novels are based on her successful radio drama Milford-Haven, U.S.A.,the first environmental radio soap opera, and the only American radio soap ever licensed and broadcast by the BBC, where the show reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners throughout the U.K. Along with producing sixty episodes of her BBC show, Mara also produces and performs audio books. She won the silver Benjamin Franklin and the gold USA Book News Audio Fiction awards for performing the first two of her own novels. And most recently, she was awarded the San Francisco Book Festival Gold Audio Fiction award for her performance of Spa Deadly and X’s by Louise Gaylord.
As an actress, Mara’s regular role on the TV soap opera Days Of Our Lives opened the door for her to create her own soap. Mara was awarded the 2003 Peak Award for performing her one-woman play (co-written with Sydney Swire) Mary Shelley - In Her Own Words.
Purl is also the co-author, with Erin Gray, of Act Right: a Manual for the On-Camera Actor. It’s also an award-winner, and the authors are working on its second revised edition. Mara’s screen-writing includes The Meridian Factor, cowritten with Verne Nobles, 150 radio plays, scripts for Guiding Light, and a television adaptation of Milford-Haven cowritten with Katherine Shirek Doughtie.
As a journalist, Mara's writing credits include two cover stories for Rolling Stone, staff writing with the Financial Times (of London), and an Associated Press assignment to cover the Apollo Soyuz mission, where she was the youngest reporter ever to win the NASA pool position in Mission Control. She is a member of the Authors Guild and of the
Writers Guild West.
Mara was named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women.
Mara’s rich artistic background includes growing up in Tokyo, Japan and a performing and literary degree from Bennington College. She is married to Dr. Larry Norfleet and lives in Los Angeles, California and Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is a long-time and frequent visitor to the Central Coast, and a frequent speaker at California and Colorado events.
Read more about Mara!