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.

Early life Born the youngest of three children (she has two older brothers, Eric Busby and Shawn Busby), 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 in Cookeville, Tennessee 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 (B.A.). 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. Her most recent picture book is The White House Cat (HarperCollins).

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 (2010) Iowa High School Book Award (2011) For Blink Once Junior Library Guild Selection Scholastic Catalog Selection Nominated and Finalist: Isinglass Book Award, 2014 Nominated and Finalist: Grand Canyon Reader Award, 2014 Published in: US, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Germany. For The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs Starred review, Booklist Starred review, School Library Journal Amazon "Best Book of the Month" February 2016 For The Stranger Game Junior Library Guild Selection Rights sold in: US, United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, France

Works Fiction The Chicken Fried Rat (1999) Blink Once (2012) The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs (2016) The Stranger Game (2016)

Nonfiction Getting Dumped…and Getting Over It (2001) Pajama Party Undercover (2003) Dream Journey (2003)

Picture Book The Bookstore Cat (2020) Illustrations by Charles Santoso

Memoir The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir, John and Cylin Busby (2008).

Series Date Him or Dump Him? (2007) The Campfire Crush The Dance Dilemma Ski Trip Trouble

Anthology First Kiss, Then Tell (2008)

Short Story The Homestake Project (2020) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

Audio book The Year We Disappeared, John and Cylin Busby, (2012) The Stranger Game (2016)

Film and television 48 Hours "Live to Tell: The Year We Disappeared" In development: The Year We Disappeared (limited series) In development: The Stranger Game (TV series) Screenplay: Rebecca and Quinn Get Scared (with Nanci Katz) Sold to New Line Cinema. Trish Sie attached to direct. Donald DeLine producing. Austin Film Festival Finalist (Comedy), Semifinalist (Horror), 2017 Script Pipeline Screenplay competition, 2017 BlueCat Screenplay competition, 2017 Screenplay: Extremophile (sci-fi/horror) Finalist, The Writers Lab 2025 Based on short story, The Homestake Project by Cylin Busby Screenplay: A Tale of Two Christmases (written with Nanci Katz) (Crown Media/Hallmark) 2022 (premiere 11/26/22 on Peacock+ and Hallmark Channel ) Screenplay: Weekend to Die For (written with Nanci Katz) 2024