Marla Hardee Milling is a native of Asheville with ancestors on both sides of her family going back many generations in Western North Carolina. She's a full-time writer with more than eight hundred published articles and essays. She's a contributing editor for Blue Ridge Country and a freelance staff writer for Match.com and writes regularly for Capital at Play, Smoky Mountain Living and the Asheville Citizen-Times. Her byline has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Our State, WNC, AAA GO Magazine, Luxury Living, NICHE, American Style, Redbook, Parenting, Health, Kid's Heath, Women's Health & Fitness, Denver, Charleston, New Orleans Gourmet, Chocolate for a Woman's Soul II and many others. She's written two previous nonfiction books: Only in Asheville: An Eclectic History and Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville.