Sylvia Dickey Smith was born and reared in "exotic" southeast Texas, the land of Cajuns, cowboys, pirates and Paleo-Indians. She came into this world feet-first, and spent the first half of her life making it up to her mother. After marriage, she lived on the Caribbean island of Trinidad for seven years before returning to Texas. At 41 she took her first freshman class and fought her way to a BA in Sociology and a Masters in Educational Psychology while raising four children. After that, she worked with non-profit and for-profit organizations within the human services field before embarking on a career as a novelist. Her books have achieved winner status in numerous writers contests.