A lot of people ask me where I get the ideas for my books, and I'm never sure how to answer because no two have been inspired the same way. Right now, I’m working on a novel titled Baggage Claim (in stores 2009), about two Atlanta women who seem to have nothing in common except similar suitcases, which they accidentally switch upon landing in Houston. Their first meeting spirals into unlikely friendship and eventual life changes.

The spark for this idea?

My four year old became hysterical one afternoon when it turned out that the Hello Kitty!^TM lunchbox she brought home from church camp was another girl’s identical lunchbox. (You’ll be relieved to know that the lunchboxes have been returned to their rightful owners and that everyone has overcome the emotional trauma.)

Tanya set Necessary Arrangements in the metro-Atlanta area, where she lives. Even though Tanya's a Georgia transplant, her love for Gone with the Wind and Coca-Cola™ products brings her one step closer to being a native.

In addition to Margaret Mitchell's aforementioned masterpiece, Tanya enjoys reading Jane Austen, Jennifer Crusie, George R.R. Martin, Jane Graves, Bailey White, Shana Abe, Laura Kinsale, the Southern short stories of Maureen Hardegree, and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Not only does Tanya have eclectic reading habits—everything from short stories to epic romances to sci-fi—she has eclectic writing habits! She pens poignant women's fiction novels under her real name Tanya Michna and funny, heartwarming romances as Tanya Michaels, as well as nonfiction essays about pop-culture topics like "Grey's Anatomy" and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books.