Woven throughout these seemingly disparate careers was the written word. Nevada wrote and presented campfire stories, taught storytelling and was a travel writer and restaurant critic. Her first novel, Bitterweet was published in 1983. The Anna Pigeon series, featuring a female park ranger as the protagonist, started when she married her love of writing with her love of the wilderness, the summer she worked in west Texas. The first book, Track of the Cat, was brought to light in 1993 and won both the Agatha and Anthony awards for best first mystery. The series was well received and A Superior Death, loosely based on Nevada's experiences as a boat patrol ranger on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, was published in 1994. In 1995 Ill Wind came out. It was set in Mesa Verde, Colorado where Nevada worked as a law enforcement ranger for two seasons.

The fourth book in this series, Firestorm, was set in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It won the prestigious French Prix du Roman award and was nominated for an Anthony award for Best Novel of 1996. The fifth, Endangered Species, set on Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia, was published in the spring of 1997. The sixth in the Anna Pigeon series, Blind Descent unfolds deep in Lechuguilla Caverns in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, was published March of 1998. Liberty Falling, out in 1999 features Anna in the unusual world or New York’s Urban park: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Islands National Monument. Deep South, the next in the series and set on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, hit the New York Times best seller list in spring of 2000 and won the prestigious Barry Award for 2001 Best Novel. Blood Lure, published in early 2001, is set in Glacier/Waterton National Peace Park on the Montana-Canada border. It was three weeks on the NY Times Best Seller list.