Candace Pauline Hopcus née Camp is a best-selling American writer of romance novels. She has also published under the pen names Lisa Gregory, Sharon Stephens, Kristin James and under her maiden name Candace Camp. She is mother of the also writer Anastasia Hopcus.


Born Candace Pauline Camp in Amarillo, Texas, she is the youngest of three children born to Lula Mae (Irons) and Grady Camp. Writing came naturally to her, her mother had been a newspaper reporter, and her father was the business manager of the Amarillo, Texas newspaper. Camp began writing down her own stories when she was 10, and often wrote when she needed to relax.

Camp attended the University of Texas at Austin and West Texas State University before becoming a teacher in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. After moving to North Carolina, she took a job in the trust department of a bank.

Camp then began law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the same time, she began reading romance novels and decided to write one of her own. Camp finished her first novel, Bonds of Love while in law school. It was published in 1978 under the pen name Lisa Gregory. In the ensuing years, Camp has published over 43 books under four names: Lisa Gregory, Kristin James, Sharon Stephens and Candace Camp.

Camp married in 1980 with Pete Hopcus, and had a daughter, Anastasia Hopcus, in 1982. Her daughter is a published writer of young adult novels.