Bio

Sylvia Dickey Smith’s creative writing focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of middle-aged and older women finding their way and developing a strong identity of their own. Her stories delve into social issues and often point out the tragedies that pious religion and bigotry can wrack on our society. She also allows that there can be good even in the people who are perceived as being narrow-minded zealots.

Her best-selling debut novel, Dance on His Grave, won writing contests before it even reached publication. In it, her protagonist Sidra Smart is no young babe dashing about in a flashy car and solving mysteries between manicures. She's the fifty year old ex-wife of a preacher who left him and his guilt-and-fear-based religion to find herself. Now, with the death of her brother she's inherited a detective agency called the Third Eye and that puts her in the position of working as a private investigator. Smith’s fiction embraces the possibility of help from spirits beyond this world without hitting the skeptical reader over the head with it. She skillfully employs humor to delight her readers and create memorable characters. View all of the author's books.

Smith brings Southeast Texas to life spotlighting the marvelous melting pot of Cajun, Creole, Scots-Irish, African-American, and Dutch descendants who live and work there today. She brings small town America to life with colorful characters and the rich history of the area, along with the delicious food indigenous to that part of the country. View the Spun Fun Area to catch a glimpse of the lighter side of Sylvia.

Born in Orange, Texas, she grew up in a society where women had few options other than the patriarchal, traditional roles ascribed by men and spent the first half of her life bound by those roles. At mid-life her dogged determination to expand that world for herself and others led her attend university for the first time. Five years later she had earned a B.A. in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. She holds licenses as a professional counselor and marriage and family therapist, working in that field for several years before taking early retirement. Shortly thereafter she found her passion and her voice in the written word. In 2008 she co-founded the Georgetown Library Writers College in Georgetown, Texas and is on staff teaching writing and marketing classes. She organized the Williamson County Coroners, a critique group that supports and aids other writers. She has written several short stories  and essays for anthologies such as A Death in Texas, and The Story That Must Be Told: True Tales of Transformation. She is a member of the Writers' League of Texas, and serves as president of the Heart of Texas chapter of Sisters in Crime. She is the proud mother of Jim, Jon Mark, Anissa, and Russell, and is married to William M. Smith, Colonel, U. S. Army (Ret.).

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