[1] From that point she began to work as a journalist, getting her first job with the Santa Rosa Republican newspaper and learning the writing and publishing trade.

[3] Colburn was assistant secretary of the Associated Savings Banks of San Francisco, and had spent time in a variety of businesses including publishing, import and export, and being president of the California Business College.

[3] Before editing the Overland Monthly, she contributed articles to it, and wrote books such as the futuristic Yermah the Dorado, published by W. Doxey in 1897 and republished by Alice Harriman in 1913.

In a sampling of the 1928 issues (Volume 86, numbers 1 through 8), she wrote a short story,[7] two non-fiction essays,[8][9] an obituary,[10] and several book reviews.

Yermah the Dorado is an adventure story about an Atlantis, in a place that will become San Francisco 11,000 years later.