Sneed was born in Texas and never got over it, despite a peripatetic childhood that landed her in California. She earned a BA and an MA in English literature at UC Berkeley, raised a son, managed IT systems for a San Francisco law firm, and had a successful second career as a tutor for writing and Spanish—all the while working on her own writing. Though she began as a poet, she loves complex historical stories that require a lot of research.

Before We Turn to Dust is Sneed’s first novel. It was acquired by Blue Handle Publishing and published in December 2024. Her non-fiction account of the same events, Because This is Texas, was originally published in the 1999 Panhandle Plains Historical Review and republished by Blue Handle in June 2025.

Sneed and her husband split their time between Berkeley, California and Milam County, Texas..