My name is Cynthia Nims and I’m a cookbook author and freelance writer focused on food, wine, travel, the good things in life. I’ve authored (on my own, or as a co-author) 12 cookbooks, and have edited or otherwise contributed to dozens of other cookbooks in the past couple decades. The most recent book project combines two loves of mine: great food and playing games! Games are so big around my house that we converted the hall linen closet to our “game closet,” packed to the gills with a slew of games from Tripoley to Balderdish. Growing out of the game night parties my husband and I have hosted over the years, Gourmet Game Night offers a whole bunch of fun recipes, entertaining tips, some cocktails, and information on fun food-lover games that you might want to add to your own game collection.

I’ve authored or co-authored a dozen other cookbooks in recent years, including Rover’s , Memorable Recipes and four books in the Northwest Homegrown Cookbook Series. Other books I’ve worked on include everything from Seafood Cooking for Dummies(for which I was a technical editor) to Château Cuisine (recipe and food styling work while I was living and working at La Varenne’s Château du Feÿ in Burgundy) to Arabella Boxer’s Herb and Spice Handbook (one of many Australian or English publications I “Americanized” for a US printing).

In the world of magazines, I contribute regularly to Cooking Light, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Airlines magazines and Seattle Magazine (where I was the food editor for 6+ years). My work also appears in publications such as Gastronomica, Sunset, Coastal Living and others. I was a contributing editor for years at Cheers magazine, which helped develop my love of cocktails (gin in particular, about which I write and speak with the greatest passion of all spirits). More details at www.cynthianims.com.

I’m a lifelong Seattleite and much of my writing relates to food, travel, beverages and personalities of the Northwest. But I’ve also written about tequila at the Cuervo Family distillery in Mexico, French spa cuisine and won a Society of Professional Journalists award for my profile of Mario Batali in Alaska Airlines magazine a few years ago. Many and varied interests help assure a work life that never is dull. And you can be sure that there’s going to be another game night on the menu sometime soon! You can reach me at cynthia@cynthianims.com.