Little Cindy grew up very happily in Litchfield, Connecticut with her mom, dad, and two brothers, John and Gary, whom she liked to boss around. When she was 8, she decided she wanted to be a writer and so she started her own newspaper called The Talmadge Lane Tattler. It was just for people who lived on her street. She paid her brothers a penny for every story they wrote and sold copies of the paper for 25 cents each.

A few years later, she was hired to do pen and ink drawings of historic buildings in and around Litchfield. Believe it or not, if you visit Litchfield today, you can still buy mugs, coasters, and things of that sort with Cindy's drawings on them. That same year, her wonderful 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Schulz, called the Torrington Register (as it was called then) and arranged for Cindy to work after school as a newspaper reporter. Many of her stories and even some of her photographs were published and Cindy felt very famous for someone in middle school.

In high school, she always looked for opportunities to write, draw, or take photographs. One year, as a surprise, her dad turned a big, spooky closet nicknamed "The Secret Place" into a darkroom so that she could develop her own photographs. She got lots of photography jobs and saved the money she made for college. After high school, she went to Smith College, which was a wonderful place, but she missed her family a lot and there were days when she wanted to turn back and be a kid all over again because it was a very joyful time.