About Mindie Burgoyne
author, blogger, musician, trainer, government worker

Mindie Burgoyne, a native Marylander lived most of her life between Baltimore and Washington DC, but moved to Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore seven years ago.

FIRST PUBLISHED AS A MUSICIAN - AGE 16
Mindie was first published at age 16 when she was contracted to compose a musical score for a 20 minute feature film promoting Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile, Alabama. Music from that score was featured on NBC’s The Today Show and also used in the America Junior Miss pageants.

As a trained musician, Mindie spent twenty years serving as a Music Director in several Maryland churches prior to her move to the Eastern Shore. Her involvement as a choir director in church ministry inspired her to compose liturgical music, and to begin freelance writing about pastoral ministry, spirituality, travel and business.

SALES LEADER, MANAGER AND FRANCHISE OWNER

Pastoral music was a second job for Mindie, as she spent 15 years in direct sales moving from sales rep to owning a direct selling franchise and operating a warehousing / distribution facility in Beltsville, MD.  It was all about Tupperware.  At age 19, Mindie began a career as a Tupperware lady doing home parties and soon navigated the ranks becoming a top sales manager in the nation - recruiting, training and motivating sales reps, and finally serving as a Tupperware distributor responsible for training and motivating over 300 sales reps, 40 sales managers and a running an office and warehouse staff.  She operated the distributorship from 1988-1995.

PUBLISHER OF CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE

In 1994, Mindie started a publishing company – Trinity Music, Inc. - that published liturgical music, primarily for the Catholic Church. In 1995 her company purchased the assets of The Pastoral Press, a Washington, DC book publishing house that published theological and scholarly texts.

Once Trinity Music and The Pastoral Press were merged, Mindie Burgoyne became the only woman publisher of a sizable Catholic publishing house in the United States. As publisher she led an effort to get ten out of print top sellers back in the market, and then moved on to acquire new works from notable U. S. theological scholars. The publishing house expanded from U.S. markets into Europe, Asia and Africa. Mindie later sold the company to Oregon Catholic Press (OCP), who has continued to grow and expand the company and become a world leader in Catholic publishing.

FREELANCE WRITER / PUBLISHED AUTHOR

Books on Local History
After selling the publishing company, Mindie continued to work as a freelance writer and business consultant before moving to the Eastern Shore in 2002. In 2006 she wrote Snow Hill: Images of America, a book charting the history of a small town in Maryland, for Arcadia Publishing. In 2007 she wrote a second book for Arcadia entitled Easton, Then and Now.

National Geographic Television Network
In 2007, Mindie served as an advisor to National Geographic Television Network for an episode of Is it Real? The episode was based on an article she wrote about a haunted house in Snow Hill, MD.

Freelance articles and photography published in:

• CBS News - Baltimore market
  Music News (Oregon Catholic Press)
• Metropolitan Magazine
• Maryland Life Magazine
• The Irish Fireside (online)
• What's Up Eastern Shore
• National Catholic Reporter
• Notre Dame Magazine
• Edible Chesapeake
• Coastal Living
• Suite 101.com
• The Daily Times (Salisbury MD)
• The Vancouver Sun
• The Baltimore Sun (online)
• The Star Democrat
• Worcester County Messenger (weekly column 2002-2003)
• Somerset Herald
• Mid Shore Life
• Clever Magazine (online publication).

RADIO / PODCASTS

• The Irish Fireside - interview on Thin Places
• Metaphysical Minds - Thin Places, mystical sites, paranormal
• The Edge - a national radio and television station focusing unexplained
• 2BoomerBabes - interview on Haunted Eastern Shore

BEST SELLING BOOK

On October 1, 2009, History Press published Haunted Eastern Shore: Ghostly Tales from East of the Chesapeake, written by Mindie. The book sold out its first printing in six weeks and went to its third printing on the one year anniversary.  The book reached as high as #16 on Amazon.com for regional books and tt continues to be a best seller for History Press - now in its fourth printing. Haunted Eastern Shore has it's own Facebook fan page with over 7300 fans.

SPEAKING / TRAINING PLATFORM
Mindie Burgoyne has established a speaking platform and gives talks on local history, the paranormal, writing, publishing, marketing with social media, travel, Ireland, and a host of other subjects. A Calendar of Events at Where's Mindie? for a list of upcoming (and past) events. Organizations who have asked Mindie to speak or train include:

Associations / Organizaitons
The Maryland Writers Association (Annual Conference)
Bay to Ocean Writers Annual Conference
Cecil County Historical Society (Keynote speaker)
Charles County Economic Development Summit
Maryland Economic Development Association (Annual Conference)
Rotary District 7640 (Annual Conference)
CareFirst (Young Professionals)
Verizon
Delaware Association of Realtors (Annual Conference)
Eastern Shore Volunteer Network (Annual Event)
Nelson County VA Economic Development Authority
Queen Anne's County Excellence in Business (Keynote)
MCCACET Annual Conference
Eastern Shore Writers Association
Electric Cooperatives of Maryland, Delaware & Virginia
State Farm Regional Annual Conference
Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development
Shore Leadership of Maryland
Kent County, DE Convention and Visitors Bureau
Caroline Office of Tourism
Talbot County Free Library (Speaker Series)
Salisbury Arts & Entertainment District

Colleges / Universities
Salisbury University
College of Southern Maryland
Allegany College of Maryland
Chesapeake College
Anne Arundel Community College

Chambers of Commerce / Business Organizations
Queen Anne's County Chamber
Talbot County Chamber of Commerce
City of Cambridge Economic Development
Princess Anne Chamber of Commerce
Crisfield Chamber of Commerce
Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce
Caroline Chamber of Commerce
Worcester County Chamber of Commerce
Maryland Small Business Development Centers

ON THE WEB - blogs and sites by Mindie Burgoyne

Mindie continues to write with a focus on destinations, especially ones with have a mystical quality. She operates several websites / blogs that feature her writing:

Writing the Vision
Who Cares What I Think?
The Travel Hag
Thin Places - Sacred Sites
Thin Places Mystical Tour of Ireland

FUTURE PROJECTS

Mindie is currently working on a new book, Thin Places: Celtic Doorways to the Otherworld which will focus on mystical sites in Ireland.  She has a large following on both Facebook and Twitter that includes over 20,000 followers, fans and blog subscribers.

LIFE IN GENERAL

After Mindie moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore she took a full time job with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development serving businesses and local governments in Maryland's rural areas. Her work includes business assistance and aid to local jurisdictions including help with heritage tourism, destination marketing and community development. In her free time, she is still writing, speaking and traveling.