Carmen grew up the third child in a large Irish-Italian family on Long Island, New York.

She went to London as a student in 1979 and stayed. She now lives in a Scottish village with her husband, daughter and two stepchildren. At the moment she juggles her writing with working part-time as a classroom assistant in a small rural primary school. During the 1980s and 90s she worked for the BBC in London and then freelance in Scotland, giving up work in television after the birth of her daughter.

Carmen started writing seriously when she was at home with her young daughter. In 1999 her short story ‘Dicing with Life’ won first runner up in the Good Housekeeping/ Waterstones Annual Short Story Competition and was published in the magazine later that year. Carmen decided to develop the characters from this story into a novel. This book is entitled ‘Flotsam is the Stuff that Floats’, which subsequently won the West of Scotland region in the ‘Undiscovered Authors’ Competition.

The novel develops the family who first appeared in the short story and expands the character of Bernadette, a disturbed child, who disrupts life for her parents, brother and sisters. The novel explores the dynamics of everyday family life, never straightforward, in a human and humorous way. It is set in a coastal community similar modeled on the environs of Long Island and Fire Island where Carmen grew up. It is to be published early in 2007.

Carmen has submitted short stories to a number of competitions and the story 'Hidden Treasure' was short-listed for the Real Writers 2004 short story competition. It is one in a collection of short stories about the fictional village of ‘Laredol’.

She is currently adding finished touches another novel, ‘BurgerMass’, which tells the story of a year in the lives of group of high school girls in the early 1970’s and is also working working on a new novel presently entitled ‘Pretending to be Elvis’.