I swapped a fast-paced career as a magazine editor for a life writing fun, feel-good fiction. I live on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia with my husband, daughter, and a menagerie of animal friends.

I've always loved reading, telling stories and delving into relationships so I guess it was inevitable that I'd become a writer!

Born in Sri Lanka to expat parents - an Australian mother and an English father working for an American oil company - I lived my early years in Sri Lanka, India, England and Ireland before settling in Sydney, Australia. The legacy of my childhood is a relentless lust for travel and I'm on a plane out of here whenever I can!

A precocious reader, from a very young age I was devouring not only the books in the local library but also my mother's and grandmother's books and magazines. My mother loved literary fiction but also introduced me to Georgette Heyer, Anya Seton, Daphne du Maurier and Agatha Christie as well as Harlequin romances. So I can truthfully say I've been immersed in romance and popular fiction for most of my life.

An early passion was also for animals. Living in India as a child we were not allowed to pet animals for fear of rabies. I was desperate for a cat or dog of my own. At last, living in Sydney suburbia, I got my wish and have since never been without at least one pet. I sincerely believe my life is not complete without an animal to love. A fortune teller once told me that in every one of my "former lives" I was surrounded by animals!

Writing was always a love but I wasn't too sure just how I could follow it as a career. Journalism seemed the answer. I've always been a magazine addict and have been fortunate enough to enjoy a marvelous career in women's magazines. I worked my way up to be editor-in-chief of several mass-market titles in Australia and England, ending up as editorial director of a major magazine publisher.

But what of fiction? Barely out of my teens I had my first short stories published in women's magazines. Talk about beginner's luck! Then I got sidetracked into magazines - a career I loved. But the urge to write fiction - like an addiction - wouldn't go away. I kept plodding away in the time I could snatch between a challenging job, a family, those numerous pets and, of course, the dreaded housework. The only real time I had to write was late at night when everyone else was asleep, even the cat on my lap and the dog curled at my feet were snoring gently away as I typed.

There were numerous rejections along the way. Finally I got published again, first with short stories, then a category-type romance with a small Australian publisher. But it wasn't until I joined first Romance Writers of Australia and then Romance Writers of America that I began to understand the market. And when I got feedback from editors praising my "comedic voice" I realized angst might not be my forte!

I was thrilled beyond belief when Berkley wanted to publish Love Is A Four-Legged Word. I enjoyed writing this book more than any other because of quirky Maddy and her yummy recipes, gorgeous Tom and most of all, Brutus the millionaire mutt. I'm a sucker for a book with a dog or cat on the cover. I hope you'll enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

And the romance in my own life? After a brief early marriage to my high school boyfriend ended in divorce (why don't 19-year-olds listen to their mothers who tell them it's too early to settle down?) I had a few years on my own before meeting my own real-life romance hero. Within a week we decided to spend our lives together; within a year we were married. Many years later and blessed with a wonderful daughter, we're still in love. So yes, I do believe in love at first sight!

The most important thing I've learnt over the years is to be true to your own vision. No matter how off-the-wall your idea might be, persist. When I wrote Love Is A Four-Legged Word, some people told me it was an unbelievable scenario. Then hotel magnate Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble. And Trouble had to go into hiding to escape death threats…

That said, try not to fall in love with your own words. Be prepared to slash, rewrite and hone until your work is as good as it can be. Find critique partners you respect and be prepared to listen to them, while at the same time retaining confidence in your own voice.

Join Romance Writers of America and/or a writer's group in your own country. The company and support of other popular fiction writers who "get" what we do is invaluable.

Always. I could read before I went to school and was scribbling stories from virtually the time I learned how to form letters with my pencil. When I graduated from elementary school, I remember my grade six teacher asking me to send her an autographed copy of my first novel. Hmm, it was a long time ago but I must see if I can track her down!

I had beginner’s luck when the first short story I ever submitted was accepted and published in a teen magazine. It was about a girl who had an embarrassing mishap with her dress at her first school formal. I was so excited I wanted to frame the check but of course I spent it instead. Several more short stories were published in women’s magazines but then I got a rejection and gave up. The writer’s ego is notoriously fragile and I took that as a sign that I didn’t have a future as a writer. If only I knew then what I know now about rejections from publishers! That is, learn from them what you can and keep writing.

Luckily, I had another love to follow – working first as a journalist and then an editor on women’s magazines. A fantastic career followed. But that creative urge never went away. I realized that although I loved every minute of my magazine life, the need to write was like an addiction and it wouldn’t be satisfied with non-fiction feature stories. I started to write again in the time I could snatch between the “day job” and the joys and duties of family life. More short stories were published, which gave my confidence a real boost, and then a category length romance with a now-defunct Australian publisher. Then nothing for several years except a collection of rejections.

There was a lot of soul searching where I wondered if I was wasting my time when I could be relaxing in my spare hours instead of spending them locked away inside my head in front of a computer screen. But I honestly don’t think a story-teller can give up, even when it would be so much easier to do so!

I could not get an agent interested in Love Is A Four-Legged Word so I bravely sent it off myself to Berkley (you know what they say about the odds of being picked up from the “slush pile” of a major New York publisher). When I got “the call” from my editor (well, it was actually an email) I was jumping around the room with my teenage daughter so excited I was scarcely coherent.

I studied drama at university as part of my journalism degree. I longed to play those juicy, dark, dramatic roles but somehow I always ended up on stage being cast in comedy and enjoying the laughter of the audience. Same with my writing. Even when I started writing something angsty, humor just kept on pushing its way center stage in a quirky character or turn of phrase that demanded a place on the page. When editors started praising my “comedic voice” I knew that was the natural path for me.

When I look back on even my earliest attempts I see that they always contained an element of romance and humor – and I love a happy ending. If readers smile when they read my books, I’ll be happy.

Funnily enough, in a writer’s workshop at a Romance Writers of America national convention. We were brainstorming heroes. A classic “hook” in a romance novel is the millionaire. Much to the consternation of my workshop group, I questioned the status quo and asked why did the millionaire hero always have to be a man – couldn’t he be a millionaire mutt? The idea for Brutus was born.

While my fictional, Heinz-57-varieties doggy hero is purely a creation of my imagination, his name was borrowed from my neighbor’s dog, a feisty little silky terrier. I had such fun writing about Brutus and am so glad he is on the cover of my book. I adore animals and they sneak their way into everything I write as they are such an important part of my life.

In a twist that proves that fact can indeed be stranger than fiction, a real-life millionaire dog hit the headlines after I had finished Love is a Four-Legged Word and the manuscript was already with Berkley. In her will, hotel magnate Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble. And Trouble had to go into hiding to escape death threats.

By the way, I also came out of that workshop with the idea for a billionaire bull – I’m working on a story idea for him…

I think I love to cook as much as I love to write! When I was growing up I read cookbooks as voraciously as I read novels. In fact in the book I give my heroine Maddy Cartwright one of the influential cookbooks of my childhood, an ancient The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book circa 1943 that belonged to my mother. I still look to this book for inspiration. It makes me smile when I see the notes I wrote on the recipes when I started reading it around age eleven.

In my “day job” as a magazine editor, the titles I worked on included homemaker and food magazines and I still work as a consultant editor on a food magazine. I’ve been fortunate to work with some wonderful food editors, stylists and photographers. So I’m very familiar with Maddy’s world. Recipes for many of the dishes Maddy creates in Love is a Four-Legged Word can be found on my recipes page.

I love San Francisco and visit there as often as I can. I felt that a novel featuring a quirky young chef and an eccentric dog couldn’t be set anywhere else. My next novel for Berkley – Home Is Where The Bark Is - is also set in San Francisco. It takes up the story of Serena who is the best friend of Maddy, the heroine of Love Is A Four-Legged Word. Did you know there are more dogs than kids in San Francisco?

Everything and better. I could not imagine anything more satisfying than creating my fictional people and the worlds they inhabit and know that readers will get to know them too. The team at Berkley are marvelous to work with – didn’t they give me a beautiful cover? I’m hoping my readers will find Love Is A Four-Legged Word a fun, feel-good read. I’m looking forward to hearing from them at kandy@kandyshepherd.com

Not really – except to grow a tougher skin a bit earlier. As a writer actively seeking publication you’ll need it. But I believe everything happens at the time it is meant to happen. Life and all its various experiences are a writer’s raw material. The more you engage in life, the more you have to write about. The most important thing is to be true to your vision, develop your own voice and don’t give up. Oh, and keep butt on chair!