Cylin Busby

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

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 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.

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.

Cylin lives in Los Angeles with her family. Her latest novel is the YA thriller THE STRANGER GAME. In 2019, HarperCollins announced the future publication of a picture book titled THE BOOKSTORE CAT. No publication date has been announced.

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

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 illustrations by Charles Santoso (2020)

Memoir

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

Series

• Date Him or Dump Him? (2007)

1. The Campfire Crush
2. The Dance Dilemma
3. Ski Trip Trouble

Anthology

• First Kiss, Then Tell (2008)

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" (airdate: 2/14/09)
• Optioned: The Year We Disappeared (feature film)
• 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