Her first volume of poetry, Wintering with the Abominable Snowman, was published in 1976 by the avant-garde press, 'kayak,' run by George Hitchcock in Santa Cruz, California.
Here she falls in love with a charismatic count, the occultist and amateur archaeologist, Federigo del Re, who materializes and disappears into the Etruscan landscape.
The novel draws inspiration from the literary gothic novel, Jungian archetypes, fairy tales,[2] and from DH Lawrence's Sketches of Etruscan Places.
Lappin's third novel Signatures in Stone, published by Caravel Books in 2013, is set in the Monster Park of Bomarzo, and draws inspiration from the early twentieth century British writer, Mary Butts.
Lappin's fourth novel is the critically acclaimed Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne (Serving House Books, 2020).