She majored in English literature at liberal arts college, Vassar, in New York State, where she became friendly with Esther Friesner and Jane Bishop.
Together, they wrote at least one film script for student production, Lavinia: a Girl of the Street, which demonstrated Volsky's trademark tongue-in-cheek style.
Before writing fantasy, she sold real estate and also worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
[1] After releasing novels regularly for nearly twenty years, Volsky published no new work for nearly a decade, even though Locus had reported her sale of a "new fantasy trilogy" to Bantam Books in mid-2000.
[2] After a long delay, the publisher announced that the final volume had been completed, and that it would issue the books beginning in late 2011.