Cyndee Schaffer, published author of “Mollie’s War” and editor of the monthly Midwest Writers Association newsletter, received a BS in math education from Northwestern University and a MS in curriculum development from DePaul University. Cyndee’s work experience has taken her into three divergent careers. First, she worked as a high school mathematics teacher in the inner city of Chicago. She co-wrote and edited several mathematics textbooks for McDougal Littel Publishers and Quantum Scientific Publishing. Her next career led her into the “human side of computers” as an IT consultant. She wrote training materials, conducted corporate training and tested computer systems for the City Colleges of Chicago, Underwriters Laboratories, Kraft Foods, All State Insurance, and International Paper. In 2008, she decided to change careers again and collaborated with her 92-year-old mother to write a book based on the letters that her mother sent home to her family while serving as a WAC stationed in Europe during WWII. “Mollie’s War” published by McFarland Publishers in 2010 is the result of this endeavor. Cyndee is sharing her mother’s story by speaking to various groups including veterans groups, libraries, senior living facilities, women’s groups, and Rotary clubs. She discusses the writing adventure she experienced from idea to finding a publisher, to being published and then to promoting her first book.    

Third place in the 2011 Stars and Flag Book Award.
Finalist in the 2011 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award.
First place in Royal Dragonfly Book Awards for memoirs.
Cyndee's presentation, The Journey to Mollie's War: WACS and WWII, has been selected by Illinois Humanities for their Road Scholar Speakers Bureau.