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.
She 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Her writing has been published in
Music News, Metropolitan
Magazine, National Catholic
Reporter, Edible Chesapeake, Coastal Living,
Suite 101.com, the Daily
Times, the Star Democrat, the
Worcester County Messenger, the
Somerset Herald, and Clever
Magazine. She has discussed her
writing on local
television and radio, and Internet
radio stations, the
The Edge - a national radio and
television station focusing
unexplained, and most recently on
2BoomerBabes radio broadcasting out
of Easton, MD.
In 2009, Mindie wrote Haunted
Eastern Shore: Ghostly Tales from
East of the Chesapeake,
published by History Press and
released for sale on October 1st.
The book sold out its first printing
in six weeks and continues to sell
well having a facebook fan page with
over 2200 fans.
2009 was also the year that
Mindie resurrected her speaking
platform launching it with heavy use
of social media. She now gives
presentations on how to use social
media networks to grow a business
and has adapted her presentations to
fit various business types including
writers, retailers, travel
consultants and public relations
professionals. Additionally
she gives talks on touring haunted
and mystical sites and serves as
tour guide for many "on-site" talks.
Mindie continues to write with a
focus on destination marketing,
travel and spirituality. She
operates three websites that feature
her writing (