Growing up an Army Brat, Tanya moved around a lot and learned early that books are always your friends, especially if it's your first night in a new town and you don't know anyone yet. Her favorite childhood Christmas gift was a nine-hundred page collection of fairy tales, and her favorite high school teacher was the one who gave Tanya a copy of Gone With the Wind—Tanya still has both of these books, or, at least, the rubber-banded remains of them. Tanya got her first writing-related job at the University of Houston-Victoria, where she worked in the Academic Center helping students with papers and later graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history.

Tanya married soon after college and sold a number of business articles and short stories; it was her husband who suggested looking for a professional organization that could help her achieve her dream of selling a book. She joined Romance Writers of America in 1999 and served as their National Conference Workshop Chair in 2007. Now, Tanya has an extensive list of publishing credits, including the September women's fiction novel Necessary Arrangements, and essays in the "Smart Pop" books Perfectly Plum: The Life, Loves and Other Disasters of Stephanie Plum, Trenton Bounty Hunter and Grey's Anatomy 101: Seattle Grace Unauthorized.

She lives in Georgia with her husband, two kids, and a book collection that takes up several rooms.