Cylin Busby


Cylin Busby is an author and screenwriter, known for the best-selling true crime memoir, The Year We Disappeared, written with her father John Busby.
WWW Official Site

Early life

Born the youngest of three children, Cylin grew up in Falmouth on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1979, her police officer father, John Busby, was seriously injured in a shooting. During the resulting investigation, the family was relocated and lived in hiding for five years. Cylin and John co-wrote a memoir about the experience which went on to become a best seller, placing at #3 on the nonfiction lists for The Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly. The book also earned #1 best seller placement on Amazon's nonfiction list. Their memoir was featured in 2009 on the CBS television program 48 Hours in an episode titled Live to Tell: The Year We Disappeared and was optioned for a motion picture in 2014.

Education and career

Cylin graduated from Hampshire College. Her publishing career began at Random House. She would later work at HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster as a children's book editor. In 2000, she relocated to Los Angeles where she began working as the Senior Editor of Teen Magazine. She has written more than 20 books for young readers and is published in 15 countries.

Personal

Cylin lives in Los Angeles with her family. Her latest novel is the YA thriller, The Stranger Game. HarperCollins announced the publication of her next picture book, The White House Cat, for January 2022.
In 2022, Cylin had an unexpected encounter with P-22, a famous mountain lion from Griffith Park in Los Angeles, who showed up on her front porch.

Awards and recognition

For The Year We Disappeared
  • Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2008
  • An IndieBound Next Pick
  • Cybils Award, Nonfiction, 2008
  • Georgia Peach Book Award For Teen Readers Nominee
  • IRA/CC Young Adults’ Choice
  • Texas Taysha Reading List
  • Iowa High School Book Award
For Blink Once
For The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs
For The Stranger Game
  • Junior Library Guild Selection
  • Rights sold in: US, United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, France

Works

Fiction

The Chicken Fried Rat Blink Once The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs
  • ''The Stranger Game''

Nonfiction

Getting Dumped…and Getting Over It Pajama Party Undercover
  • ''Dream Journey''

Picture Book

The Bookstore Cat Illustrations by Charles Santoso The White House Cat Illustrations by Neely Daggett

Memoir

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir, John and Cylin Busby.

Series

Date Him or Dump Him?
  1. The Campfire Crush
  2. The Dance Dilemma
  3. ''Ski Trip Trouble''

Anthology

  • ''First Kiss, Then Tell''

Short Story

The Homestake Project

Audio book

The Year We Disappeared, John and Cylin Busby,
  • ''The Stranger Game''

Film and television

48 Hours "Live to Tell: The Year We Disappeared"
  • Optioned: The Year We Disappeared
  • In development: The Stranger Game
Screenplay: Rebecca and Quinn Get Scared
  • Sold to New Line Cinema. Trish Sie attached to direct. Donald DeLine producing.
  • Austin Film Festival Finalist, Semifinalist, 2017
  • Script Pipeline Screenplay competition, 2017
  • BlueCat Screenplay competition, 2017
Screenplay: Extremophile
  • Finalist, The Writers Lab
  • Based on short story, The Homestake Project
Screenplay: A Tale of Two Christmases
  • 2022
Screenplay: Weekend to Die For
  • 2024