The Early Years

Cindy grew up in a large family--six kids, two parents, assorted cats, dogs, hamsters, birds, fish, guinea pigs, gerbils, mice, and every kind of you-name-it-they-had-it pet including one not-so-lovable snake.

In her family, she is fifth in line to the throne--which means she grew up with the joy and terror of having four older siblings. Because she was towards the bottom of the family food chain, naturally, she took her share of hits over the years for things she didn’t do since the blame for anyone or anything getting hurt, broken, or mutilated filters down from oldest child to youngest child. Lucky for her, she has a younger sister so she could pass the blame on down the line. Not so lucky is after her younger sister was born, she learned that the downward “I didn’t do it--the baby did!” ploy was no match for the “you’re older, you should know better” argument the adult members of the family called into play.

Occasionally Cindy is asked if she liked growing up in a large family. As a kid, she wasn’t exactly thrilled about having enough siblings to start her own circus. The hope of being an only child, spoiled with tons of toys, her own room, and a pony was something she could only dream about. Now that she's all grown up it’s much easier to say she's happy for her large, loud, crazy, circus-like family.

The Adolescent Years

If Cindy had to pick a period in her life that affected her the most, she’d pick her adolescent years from the ages of 11 through 18. That was a trying time, filled with some rough experiences. As luck would have it, rough experiences equals good reading. Author Frank McCourt who wrote "Angela’s Ashes" once mentioned in an interview that no one wants to read anyone’s story about a happy, easy childhood. Cindy loved that, since many of her young adult stories are drawn from the difficulties she experienced during her own adolescence. Who knew bad experiences would turn out to be such a good thing?

The Adult Years

While working full-time in the corporate world, Cindy moonlighted as a freelance writer. Not to be content with just two jobs, Cindy also started up a part-time business selling vintage dolls from her home. After Cindy's son was born, she added motherhood to the already crazy mix.

When the large corporation Cindy worked for needed to downsize and offered their employees an incentive package to voluntarily leave, it was Opportunity knocking. Cindy seized that opportunity and gave up her day job. She used that extra 40+ hours a week to build up her small company, and to devote more time to writing.

It's been twenty years now that Cindy's been balancing her two careers as a writer and owner of the well-known vintage toy business Toys of Another Time. On rare occasions, she stops to take a breather from both her business and her writing just to play, but her hobbies are writing, photography, and playing with vintage toys--which are all connected to her work anyway so there is rarely any downtime.