Says Cindy: "People often say that writing fiction is an escape from reality. I’ve never found that to be true. For me, it’s the opposite — a headlong dive into reality’s deepest waters. Fiction exposes what life tries to conceal. It rattles the bones, shakes the mind, and leaves you raw. It’s not a gentle process. At times, it’s been brutal — I’ve lost hair to stress, teeth to neglect, and sleep to sentences that refused to end.
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It’s taken me sixty-two years to bring my first novel into existence. Nine months were spent typing; the rest were spent living. And what a lifetime that’s been: I’ve been terrible at people skills, operated switchboards, posed as a model, drag-raced for adrenaline, filed papers for a paycheck, and, when I finally grew up, wandered the world with a camera and a notebook.
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Every one of those lives has found its way into my story. Fiction, after all, isn’t make-believe. It’s memory — reshaped, refined, and retold until it reflects something truer than truth itself."
Author
Over the years, Cindy-Lou has written five books — each born from a different chapter of her life.
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The first was a guide for aspiring writers, shaped by the lessons and missteps of her own journey.
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Two followed as coffee table collections, visual stories drawn from her time on assignment — moments of discovery, hardship, and grace captured between photographs and words.
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More recently, her imagination has wandered into the world of children’s adventure books, written in both Italian and English. These stories draw from the rhythms of rural Italy and the animals that share her everyday landscape. They are tales of curiosity, friendship, and small acts of courage — reminders that wonder still exists in the simplest corners of life. All are available in hardcover and digital through Amazon.
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Now, she's deep into her first novel — a story set during the height of South Africa’s brutal apartheid era. It follows a young girl who, burdened by a strict religious upbringing and the unspoken shame of sexual assault, finds the courage to break free from a future chosen for her. Her redemption comes through unexpected kindness: a teacher’s guidance and a domestic worker’s quiet strength.
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The novel does not shy away from pain — it confronts violence, faith, and personal reckoning with unflinching honesty. Yet at its heart lies something luminous: resilience without bitterness, hope without denial. It is, ultimately, a story about surviving the darkest places and choosing light.
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Readers who have found solace or inspiration in Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Wilbur Smith’s Courtney series, or Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight may recognize a familiar thread — a love for Africa’s complexity, and for the people who endure within it.
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© 2025 Cindy-Lou Dale