Tonya lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, son, a spoiled Labrador, and several rescued horses. Although she dreamed of writing novels at a young age, she was diverted away from that path years ago and built a career as a Contracts Manager in the Washington, DC area. She resurrected her dream of writing in 2013 and hasn’t stopped since the first words of The Sunset Trilogy were unleashed. Shadows at Sunset, Book 1 of The Sunset Trilogy, is her first novel. Check out the series here
Author’s Personal Note:
I remember the exact moment I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was eight years old in the third grade learning to use quotation marks when writing conversations. Throughout high school, college and even after college, I wrote countless stories. There are several dust-covered boxes packed with these stories in our basement, most of them unfinished and all of them unpublished. When I realized writing and publishing was a bridge too far, I went back to school for my MBA and pursued a business career.
I had all but forgotten my dream of writing until 2012. That was the year I discovered the young adult paranormal romance genre and I was hooked right away! That was also the year I was diagnosed with a growth on my pancreas and underwent a horrendous surgery that took over six weeks to recover from. Fortunately, all tests came back negative for cancer and I was told I was cured. I learned a very important life lesson from that surgery. Life isn’t forever. If you have a dream, don’t wait. Do it now! And so, my dream of writing was reborn and I haven’t been the same ever since!
I began writing The Sunset Trilogy in April 2013. The beginning events were inspired by my adventurous son who was four years old at the time. I had no idea where I was going with this story when I started it, but I loved the idea of being able to talk to animals and having a wolf, not so much as a pet, but as a best friend, an ally and a confidant. I wrote every day once I started, determined to finish. I can’t say how many times dishes piled up in the sink and laundry waited for days. At least I had plenty of Barney and Mighty Machines videos to keep my son out of trouble while I used every spare minute I could find to bring this story to life.
Tonya has always loved animals. It's no surprise that her first book series includes wolves, bears, and moose. She is currently working on a new story with a plot that involves horses.