A day in Candace's life

This is a picture of my desk as of 12:07 pm today. I am in the middle of four...no, five projects. And, no, they are not all books. I am not nearly that prolific! What you can't see in this picture is the stacks of research (tidy stacks, I swear!) on the floor behind my desk chair. Why all this research if not for a book, you ask. Well, in addition to writing novels, I am a freelance business, marketing, technical, development, and whatever writer for both corporate and charitable clients. It keeps me pretty busy.

My current projects include two different funder research projects for two different charitable organizations; this means I do the research that helps them find the foundations or corporations that might want to help them pay for their programs. I'm working on a series of marketing and sales brochures for one of my corporate clients. I am also writing a proposal for a local school to get funding to help them build new classrooms. All of this is due by the end of this month.

The actual writing is sometimes the least of it. For instance, this morning I had an appointment with a possible new client who is looking for money to put on a kids' art and education festival. Later this afternoon, I have an appointment with an established client for whom (who?) I am writing a business plan--in this case, it entails a lot of translating what I call "geek speak" into plan English.

And, somewhere in amongst all that, I am also working (s-l-o-w-l-y) on my next book. It's about an ex-debutante turned society caterer and the hot, hunky bartender who's supposed to be her walk on the wild side and turns out to be...well, that's as far as I've gotten, actually. When I left them to get back to the grant proposal on the need for more classroom space, they were doing the wild thing on the floor behind the bar. I figure that will keep them occupied until I can figure out what happens next.