Renate Krakauer's career included senior roles in education, and municipal and provincial governments. She retired as president of a Health Sciences educational institution. She has published short stories in literary among them Parchment, The Storyteller, and Foliate Oak; essays in the The Globe and Mail, journals and two anthologies; a memoir But I Had a Happy Childhood; and two plays. Only By Blood is her first novel. Renate lives in Toronto with her husband. She has three adult children, two stepsons, and six grandchildren.