She was the eldest daughter of Maggie Eloise Cliatt, a nurse and also journalist, and William Olin Spaeth, a college professor.
She graduated summa cum laude from Piedmont College, Demorest, Georgia, in 1995 with a major in history and a double minor in Archaeology and Spanish.
In addition to her writing projects, she was working on her master's degree in history at California State University, where she plans on specializing in Native American studies.
She was a member of the Native American Rights Fund, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Cattlemen's Association, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Planetary Society, The Georgia Conservancy, the Georgia Sheriff's Association, and numerous conservation and charitable organizations.
In 1980, she wrote The Morcai Battalion, a science fiction novel as Susan S. Kyle, continued under the pseudonym Diana Palmer 28 years later.
In 1998, a Japanese Harlequin reader poll gave her Silhouette Desire novel, The Patient Nurse, its favorite book of the year award.