Candace credits her husband, Joe, and her innate love of writing with starting her on a career as a romance author. It was Joe's comments on a letter describing a trip to New Orleans that made her realize she might actually have the talent necessary to write something other than office memos and computer manuals.
When her first book made number seven on Waldenbooks' Romance Bestseller List at about the same time her second novel was contracted, Candace decided to chuck the nine-to-five business world in favor of a freelance writing career. It turned out to the best decision she'd made since marrying Joe.
"Most of the time," she says, "I get to work at home with the cat sleeping in the sun on the window ledge above my desk, and the dog curled up in her bed beside it. What could be better?"
Candace was born in Santa Cruz, California, but spent most of her childhood years on a farm in Hayward (a little town across the bay from San Francisco), where she milked a cow and fed the chickens every morning before going to school.
Since meeting and marrying Joe - after a two-month whirlwind courtship! - Candace has lived in almost every corner of the United States. Places she called home include a schooner anchored in Hawaii's Ala Wai harbor, a loft in New York's Greenwich Village, the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, D.C., and the foot of Mount Bachelor in Oregon. She's also resided deep in the heart of Dallas, Texas, and in the home of Thoroughbreds and blue grass in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as the heart of California's wine country in the beautiful Sonoma Valley.
Currently, home is the frequently frozen tundra of Minnesota, where she and husband Joe live with one outrageously spoiled cat and an 80-pound Doberman who thinks she's a lap dog. Candace and Joe have also traveled extensively, visiting many foreign and exotic locales.
In between packing and unpacking, Candace has written 26 contemporary romance novels and kept up a thriving career as a freelance technical writer. She has also written a cookbook (as yet unpublished) based on her father's 50-plus years of experience as a professional chef.
When she's not writing or traveling, Candace enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, hosting dinner parties, and going to plays, concerts, and movies. She also likes to attend classes and seminars. "The more offbeat, the better," she says, "because you never know when some interesting bit of information will come in handy for a new book." Among her more memorable classes were: How to Be a Private Detective, Limousine Driver Training, Handgun Use, Chinese Cooking, and Past Life Regression.
"All subjects," she says, "which have - or will - come up in one of my books. For me, research is one of the special joys of a writing career. I love really digging into a subject and learning new things."
Candace also loves to hear from her fans and makes it a point to answer every letter and email. You can reach here through her web site at www.CandaceSchuler.com
