ABOUT TAWNA FENSKE

If you’re looking for my official author bio to use for promotional purposes, just scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see it. But if you’re looking for a longer narrative to answer the question of how the hell I became a romantic comedy author in the first place, it goes something like this . . .

When I was six, my mom caught me thumbing through The Joy of Sex while watching Saturday morning cartoons.

When I was ten, I got summoned to the principal’s office for making anatomically-correct clay models of Huck Finn and Jim during a unit on Mark Twain.

When I was 22, I celebrated my English Lit degree by filling a giant black trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until I’d read them all.

When I was 32, my cat died, my publisher canceled the line scheduled to release my debut novel, and my employer threatened to fire me for refusing to wear pantyhose—all on my birthday—and I sat down on my back deck with a glass of wine, smiled at the sunset, and thought, “if I can find this funny, I can find humor in damn near anything.”

In a nutshell, that’s how I became an author of quirky romantic comedy.

I traveled a career path that meandered from newspaper reporter to English teacher in Venezuela to medical marketing geek to PR manager for my city’s tourism bureau.

I have a degree in English Lit, a membership in Romance Writers of America, and a habit of spilling food on my boobs. When I’m not writing, I’m usually busy sipping wine, reading, experimenting in my kitchen (either on gourmet meals or as research for one of my risqué scenes), hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, or contorting myself into odd positions (either for yoga or for the aforementioned research).

An avid globetrotter and social media fiend, I routinely overshare on Facebook, and can be found making tasteless jokes in 140 characters or less on Twitter. I still don’t understand Instagram, but you’ll find me there sometimes, too.

My debut romantic comedy with Sourcebooks, Making Waves, was nominated for Best Contemporary Romance in the 2011 RT Book Reviewers’ Choice Awards, and the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Fenske’s wildly inventive plot and wonderfully quirky characters provide the perfect literary antidote to any romance reader’s summer reading doldrums.” I hit the USA Today bestseller list for the first time in 2016, and in 2017, my rom-com Now That It’s You was a finalist for the RITA Award (kinda like the Oscars of the romance industry). Sergeant Sexypants became my second RITA Award finalist in 2019, and I’ve now published more than 40 rom-coms with translations in more than half a dozen languages.

I currently live in Bend, Oregon with my husband, kiddos, and more pets than I can admit to without frightening my neighbors.

 OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO
(for official use and promotional crap)

When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA Award finalist, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”

Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.