[2] Raised on the coast of New Hampshire, she struggled with alcoholism—a period during which she made the ill-advised decision to attend law school—sobered up in 1987, quit her job as an attorney, and converted to Catholicism in 1996.

[2] She has written and recorded several slice-of-life commentaries for National Public Radio's All Things Considered and is the author of numerous essays[3] and several memoirs.

[5][6] Her essays in Magnificat, among them "The Sacred Heart of Jesus," have won many awards from the Catholic Press Association [CPA].

[5] Since May, 2014, she has written a weekly column on arts, culture, faith and life called [ "Desire Lines"] for ANGELUS, the archdiocesan newspaper of LA.

[7] Her subjects range from noir crime novelist Raymond Chandler to classical pianist Glenn Gould, outsider art, the secret staircases of Silver Lake, obsessive gardeners, opera, ballet, tightrope walking, and coke-addicted figure-skaters.