Los Angeles-based author Mara Purl is such a frequent Central Coast visitor that her two new novellas, When Whales Watch and When Otters Play, are largely set here, from Morro Bay to Anacapa Island. She recently answered a few questions about herself, her books, and her writing career.
Where are you from originally?
I was born in New Haven, CT, but moved to Tokyo, Japan as a child, when my father’s career took us there. I attended the American School in Japan, where the curriculum is American, but the student body is comprised of 40 nationalities. That multicultural childhood informs the rest of my life and my writing.