Marla Hardee Milling is a native of Asheville, North Carolina, and a seventh-generation Buncombe County resident. She's been self-employed as a full-time freelance writer since August 2004. More than 850 of her articles and essays have appeared in a wide variety of magazines, websites, and newspapers. She serves as a longtime contributing editor for Blue Ridge Country magazine. Her byline has also appeared in Our State: Celebrating North Carolina, Smoky Mountain Living, Capital at Play, Far & Wide, Go Magazine (AAA Carolinas), Asheville Citizen-Times, Charleston, WNC Magazine, Denver, The828.com, WNC Parent, NICHE, AmericanStyle, Luxury Living, Parenting, Redbook, Health, Pregnancy, Kids Health, Women's Health & Fitness, SmartComputing, PC Today, The Christian Science Monitor, New Orleans Gourmet, Chocolate for a Woman's Soul Volume II, and many others. Marla has also written three other nonfiction books: Only in Asheville: An Eclectic History; Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville; and Wicked Asheville. She previously spent 10 years as a news producer at WLOS-TV in Asheville and 6 years as director of communications at Mars Hill College (now University). She loves traveling and making new discoveries. Her children, Ben and Hannah, are her best day-trip buddies.