Photographer: Patti Bose

Before becoming a full-time writer, Ms. Lovett worked as a legal researcher for the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General, an executive director of a non-profit theater, a jazz dancer, a playwright, a gas station attendant, an upholstery assistant, and a bartender. It was her experience working in the New Mexico State Penitentiary and the exposure to prison life that led her to create fictional forensic psychologist Dr. Sylvia Strange.

Lovett has a degree in criminal justice. A native Californian, she lives in Santa Fe with her husband Michael Mariano, their daughter Pearl Xing, and two pooches.

Bookseller and web maven Maggie Griffin (of Partners & Crime, NYC) and Lovett awaiting nourishment in Santa Fe , NM. Photography: Sarah Shankman, crime novelist

Author's note:
"In the process of researching and writing this series over a period of several years, my life has come to mirror that of Dr. Strange.

I've worked inside a penitentiary, I've studied forensic psychology and psychiatry; I network with experts in the field, and I've been a speaker at criminal justice meetings.

It's all a step away from my creative roots in theater, dance, and writing. In a way, the more closely my life paralleled Dr. Strange's life, the more freedom and autonomy she gained. I've relaxed my grip on Sylvia- she has more fun and takes more risks. But one thing hasn't changed: we're both intense, we've both come close to the edge, and we both share a psychic hot-spot, a fascination with psychopathology or, more fancifully said, the'dark side' of human nature."