I began my professional life in 1979 as a nervous intern writing live news breaks at WNET, New York City.  After, I worked for many years in magazine publishing, assigning stories, line editing, writing cover lines, and doing hundreds of book excerpts. I was a frequent speaker on industry panels and wrote regularly on tight deadlines. All of which evolved into a freelance writing  career spanning 30 years. I've written for or worked on staff at the New York Times (the Magazine, Styles, The Book Review, Arts and Leisure, Education, City), GQ, Elle, Vogue, Bazaar, New York, Newsday, Redbook, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Ms., People, US, Diversion, Geo, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Real Simple, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and others. For a time I lived in LA and began writing and doing coverage of feature film scripts. I have a writing credit on Mannequin: On the Move.

I am a longtime resident of Manhattan, was born there, and grew up on Long Island. I lived for decades in the Village and now live on the Upper West Side. I have been married for many years to film and TV lawyer Ezra Doner and have two grown children who live nearby.