Cynthia DeFelice: Hello, my name is Cynthia DeFelice.

No one has ever called my Cynthia, especially when I was a child. The only people who ever called me Cynthia were people who didn't know me, or maybe a new teacher at the beginning of the school year, before I set her or him, straight.

My name was Dee Dee, not Cynthia, now that's my nickname but that's what I've always gone by. We don't really know how that name came about but we think it was because my brother, who was only 11 months old when I was born, was trying to say Cynthia, or maybe, baby and said Dee Dee and it stuck. And I was glad, because I liked it. I didn't feel like a Cynthia, I felt like a Dee Dee.

My last name is Carter. So, Dee Dee Carter. Great name.

When I was 21, I fell in love with and married Ralph DeFelice and suddenly my name was Dee Dee DeFelice. It was awful. I tried to get used to being Cynthia. And when my first book came out, I didn't have to think very long about what name I wanted on the front. I knew I couldn't publish a book under the name Dee Dee DeFelice, so Cynthia DeFelice I became.

And now I'm pretty used to it. Sometimes I even answer when people call me Cynthia.

Cynthia means moon goddess and DeFelice is Italian and it means, of happiness. So I guess my name means moon goddess of happiness. Which is pretty nice. I'll take that.