Cynthia Tocci was born and raised in Massachusetts, graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Hotel Administration.

After a stretch in dinner theater and independent film, where she acted and produced numerous semi-professional dramas and improvs, Tocci moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in scriptwriting.

Her subsequent disillusionment in “creating by committee” introduced her to fiction writing and an exploration in Native American mythology, on which her first novel, STONE VOICE RISING, forthcoming from Harcourt in April 2009, is based.