Angele McQuade.com the online home of author angele mcquade

So, what would you like to know? I was born and raised in sunny Southern California, a climate not exactly suited to my decidedly, um, not Malibu Barbie-worthy complexion. I attribute both that extra-pale skin and my unusual-for-California-in-the-70s first name to my French-Canadian parents, who hated the cold so much they actually fled their country before getting hitched and having a bunch of kids in the good ol' USA.

After graduating from the University of California, Irvine (Go, Anteaters!) with a degree in English, a minor in Women's Studies and a brand-new husband, my surfer boy - er, scientific scholar - and I departed the O.C. (okay, no one actually called it that back then) for five years of the wintry, cheese-centric glory that is Madison, Wisconsin. Yes, my parents laughed that I was making their migration in reverse.

We spent similarly chilly yet charming years in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Ithaca, New York until we (by now four in number) threw down our snow shovels and hit the road for warmer climes. Now badgers have been replaced by alligators and armadillos, hemlocks by Spanish moss-draped live oaks, and omnipresent cloud cover by enormous, nearly blindingly blue skies.

Though you'll rarely find me without a big hat and plenty of sunscreen at hand (ah, the hazards of life in the land of eternal sunshine), I do admit there's something mighty appealing about being able to take our canoe out to the local river the first week of January when all my friends up north are just struggling to get their cars started. (And you're all invited to come visit whenever you'd like, of course.)

During those shivery Wisconsin years, I worked for the syndicated public radio show Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? (my very favorite job other than my current one as writer). While living in Cambridge, I wrote for Investorama.com, producing among other subjects an almost unimaginable number of articles about insurance. Ask me about kidnap and ransom insurance if you're ever curious -- seriously, it's a completely fascinating topic!

I've also published two books about investing (including Investment Clubs for Dummies, one of Barron's "Best Investing Books of 2002") and written more than one hundred articles as a columnist for Better Investing magazine. I've been interviewed on public radio (twice!) and by numerous publications including Consumer Reports, the Chicago Tribune and CBS Marketwatch.

While personal finance and public radio remain great passions, my deepest writing (and reading) love is reserved for middle grade and young adult novels. I'm a long-time member of the Authors Guild and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and more recently joined the Romance Writers of America (RWA), where I'm active in both my local chapter and the national YA chapter online.

When I'm not working on my novels or monthly magazine columns for investors, I keep myself entertained with most things domestic (especially cooking with food from our wonderful local farms) and many things crafty or creative (among them handwritten letters, hand-made bookmarks, hand-carved rubber stamps and hand-bound books). Inspired by the abundance of tricolored herons, snowy egrets, limpkins, ibises and other amazing birds practically (and sometimes literally) in our own backyard, I'm also starting to learn more about both bird watching and photography.

My first job in high school was as a hostess at Cattleman's Ranch restaurant. My original manager encouraged me to wear short skirts and smile widely at the male customers while escorting them to their tables for bargain-priced filet mignon and garlic chicken. He was fired shortly after and replaced by a chain-smoking woman named Faye.

While working at Cattleman's, I learned that "mas papas, por favor" was the best way to ask for more baked potatoes to be brought out from the kitchen. I also learned that my favorite waitress Rhonda was pregnant with my favorite busboy Roberto's child.

Still want more? Okay, here's this: I've visited all but 8* of the 50 states. My most recent conquests? Mississippi, Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina. I still have the whole Pacific Northwest open, though, so that's my next goal.

And there you have it - (just about) everything that's worth knowing about me. If there's anything you think I missed, feel free to ask...

*States still on the "not yet visited" list: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington. And don't ask me how a west coast girl has yet to travel north of Marin. No, really, don't - it's kind of embarrassing, to be honest.