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.