CANR

PERSONAL

Born November 12, 1956, in New York, NY; daughter of Thomas and Phyllis (a photographer) Sternau. (with honors), 1979.

EDUCATION:

University of Chicago, B.A.

ADDRESS

• Home - New York, NY.

CAREER

Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., New York City, promotion assistant, 1980-81; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., New York City, began as sales assistant, became manager of advertising and special sales, 1981-84; Barnes & Noble, Inc./Marboro Books, New York City, marketing and publishing manager, 1984-87; Outlet Book Co., editor, 1987-91; Barnes & Noble, Inc., Barnes & Noble Books division, senior editor and executive editor, 1991-94; writer and composer, 1994—.

MEMBER:

International Alliance for Women in Music, American Music Center, Opera America, Harvestworks.

WRITINGS

• (Editor, under pseudonym Lois Hill) Aesop’s Fables (juvenile), Children’s Classics, 1989
• (Editor, under pseudonym Lois Hill) Poems and Songs of the Civil War, Fairfax Press, 1990
• (Under pseudonym Lois Hill) 365 Great Cookies You Can Bake, Weathervane (Walnut Creek, CA), 1991
• (Editor, under pseudonym Mary Atkins) Bret Harte: Tales of the West, Avenel Books, 1991
• (Under pseudonym Lois Hill) 365 Great Pies You Can Bake, Weathervane, 1991
• (Editor) The Bells of Paroquia: Poems by David Mazer, privately printed, 1992
• (Editor with Martin H. Greenberg) The Secret Prophecies of Nostradamus (science fiction), DAW Books (New York City), 1995
• (Editor) Civil Society: Japanese Experiment and American Experience, a Report on Japan Society’s Study Mission, Japan Society (New York, NY), 1999

Contributor to books, including As a Man Thinketh, Egyptian Magic, Magic and Healing, and The Mummy. Some writings appear under the pseudonym B. L. H. Masterson. Composer of vocal and instrumental works.

SIDELIGHTS

Cynthia Sternau is a composer, poet, editor, and writer of novels, short stories, cook books, and books on music theory who publishes under several pseudonyms. A graduate of the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she had worked in the publishing industry in promotions and editing. She also worked for Barnes & Noble in marketing and in the books division as an executive editor.

Sternau was trained as a classical violinist and pianist. As a composer of both vocal and instrumental works, Sternau is a member of the International Alliance for Women in Music, American Music Center, Opera America, and Harvestworks. Her musical productions include albums of electronic operas: The Tablets of Destiny, The Age of Gold, Meditations & Elegies, and The Hall of the Fisher King. She also contributed to the albums The Bells of Paraquia: Songs from the Poems of David Mazer, The Fall of Atlantis, and Jorinda & Joringel. Sternau told CA: “At the beginning of 1994, I began a self-financed sabbatical devoted to creative goals in electronic music composition and writing, with a view to completing at least one electronic opera. This represents a substantive change for me.”

As Editor Lois Hill

Under the pseudonym Lois Hill, Sternau edited several books, including the Children’s Classics title Aesop’s Fables in 1989. She also edited the 1990 Poems and Songs of the Civil War, a collection of works, each with an introduction that puts the poem into historical context. Sections covering various themes are entitled Deeds of Valor, Soldiers, Gettysburg, Brotherhood, Enemies and Friends, and Heritage. Poems commemorate the secession of South Carolina, the battle at Fort Sumter, General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln’s assassination, and Reconstruction.

Hill also published cookbooks, such as 365 Great Cookies You Can Bake in 1990. Tempting recipes include various types of cookies, such as bars, drop cookies, macaroons, sandwich cookies, holiday cookies, gaufrettes, and sugar-free cookies. Tips and suggestions help cooks with measuring, mixing, baking, using tools, and working with special ingredients. Hill followed up with 365 Great Pies You Can Bake in 1991. Kitchen-tested recipes include sweet, savory, fruit, traditional, modern, quiche, cream, ice-cream, chiffon, lattice-top, and sugar-free pies. Various pie crust recipes and tips are provided.

Editing as Mary Atkins

As editor Mary Atkins, Sternau published the 1991 Bret Harte: Tales of the West, a collection of short fiction by Frances Bret Harte, a writer from the mid-to-late-19th century who wrote about the spirit and romance of the Old West, the California Gold Rush, miners, gamblers, and survivors. Throughout his travels in the United States and Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters he met into his stories. During his career, Harte also wrote poems, lectures, book reviews, and magazine articles.

Under her name Sternau, she collaborated with famed science fiction editor Martin H. Greenberg to publish The Secret Prophecies of Nostradamus in 1997, a collection of 11 short stories based on modern day interpretations of the prophetic 16th-century writer’s predictions. The most innovative minds in science fiction provide stories on themes described in Nostradamus’ predictions for past and future events, including World War II, nuclear war and nuclear disarmament, the power of unchecked leaders, and the end of civilization. A reviewer in Library Journal commented that the grouping of stories was less cohesive than in other anthologies, nevertheless, science fiction and fantasy fans would appreciate the diversity and “the overall quality of the stories.”

Sternau also edited Civil Society: Japanese Experiment and American Experience, a Report on Japan Society’s Study Mission, a 1999 collection of writings by contributors Ruri Kawashina, Betty Borden, and others on the Japan Society, which for nearly a century established a cultural and intellectual partnership with the United States, along with business and economic relations.

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Library Journal, review of The Secret Prophecies of Nostradamus, March 15, 1995, p. 101.