CYNTHIA TYLER

Author of Descanso and Shadow Work

I grew up in Southern California. My mother is a second generation Angelino. Her father was a police officer in Los Angeles in the 1930s. After WW II, and at my mother's encouragement, my father left a job at a dish making factory to work in the burgeoning television industry. He had more fun at KTLA and KNBC than he had supervising the folks who painted flowers on dishware. He'd come home at night and entertain us with stories about meeting everyone from Richard Nixon to Woody Allen. I've never known anyone who loved their job so much. The neighbors were always bringing him gifts as a way to bribe him into sneaking them into Tonight Show tapings.

I always wished he had a job at Disneyland, or as the grounds keeper at Dodger Stadium.

15, on a train to Stonehenge, UK 

I hated school and spent many years dodging truant officers. I hoisted on a backpack and traveled to Europe with a friend when I was fifteen years old, which was also the year I spent refusing to listen to anything at all on the stereo but Bob Dylan. My favorite author in high school was Kurt Vonnegut, although I spent a lot of time reading the poetry of Anne Sexton. My favorite novel as a teenager was Kerouac's On The Road, pages of which were so exciting that I would stand up or pace around the room while reading.

I held a number of odd and low-paying jobs growing up. I
sold movie theater popcorn, camping equipment, and books. I spent an intense summer working as a copy person for the Daily News in L.A. The worst job I ever had was as a security guard for a game show at KNBC. My job was to “guard” the prizes and carry around the big wad of cash that the tanned and toothy host would count (One hundred! Two hundred!) into the sweaty palms of the winning contestants. It’s difficult to convey how boring this was. I kind of liked the uniform, though.

20-something, Ketchum, Idaho

I was determined to study psychology, probably influenced by the positive experience I had in psychotherapy as a young adult coming out (thank you, Jan). For what it's worth (probably not much these days), I have a BA in Psychology and an MA in Family Therapy. I spent many years employed as a bureaucrat because it was stable and it paid the bills. I've volunteered at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Youth Services Division as well as the June Mazer Archives in West Hollywood. Both experiences were more interesting and rewarding than any of my paid employment.

In 1992, I met my wonderful partner, an LCSW who works with hospice patients. We are owned by two spoiled dogs and a mortgage.

Someday we hope to permanently relocate to the Pacific Suite at the Post Ranch Inn at Big Sur.

A girl can dream.  

Pride weekend, with cigars.