Syl(via) Grills Bill

Author Sylvia Dickey Smith

Sylvia Dickey Smith's roots are buried in the land of pirates, cowboys, Cajuns and Paleo-Indians. She grew up in the 40's and 50's in the southeast Texas town of Orange, the last "get off" of I-10 before Louisiana. In the seventies she moved to Trinidad, West Indies with her husband and children and lived and worked there for six years. There she developed a love for other cultures, races and religions.

She graduated with a B.A. in Sociology and a M.Ed in Educational Psychology at mid-life, from the University of Texas at El Paso. In her Freshman English class her professor encouraged her to develop her gift of writing. But lack of confidence and other personal struggles led her down another path. The drive to write haunted her dreams. Ideas for fiction and non-fiction alike turned into a tall stack of spiral notebooks tucked away in a drawer.

It's obvious she's gained self-confidence since then. Her first mystery book (Dance On His Grave) was published May, 2007, and the second book in the series comes out Nov. 1, 2007. The third book is under construction, along with a non-fiction book related to the pirates, privateers, smugglers, and slave traders along the southeast Texas Gulf Coast.

Sylvia now lives in Round Rock, Texas with her husband, Bill, a retired Army Colonel. She is the proud mother of four children, all grown and gone, and excellent writers themselves. She writes in a bedroom lined with books and papers and CD drives. When guests come, she vacates her writing room and sleeps late, rather than getting up before dawn to write.

One of the many things Sylvia does in addition to her writing is manage a very active blog and a writer-friendly web site. And that's where I come into the picture.

Sylvia's blog http://www.sylviadickeysmith.blogspot.com/ now includes an interview with humble, modest little me.

Beginning in September, she'll showcase a 500 word story of mine, "Short For Beelzebub" on her web site http://www.sylviadickeysmith.com/

Be sure to check 'em both out along with all the other (good) stuff, and tell her I said, thanks.

Bayou Bill