Pelletier displayed exceptional aptitude as a student and, consequentially, was advanced two grades (the 6th grade and her senior year), graduating high school at the age of sixteen. Pelletier distinguished herself by wearing brash clothes that she claimed were "an outlet for her creativity." At 17 she was expelled from the University of Maine at Fort Kent for breaking curfew and pulling a fire alarm. Following her expulsion she began to hitchhike across America . She returned to her Alma Mater long enough to graduate with a baccalaureate before departing to Nashville in pursuit of a career as a songwriter. Pelletier moved to Tennessee where she rented an apartment from an undertaker until she met the country music star Jim Glaser and moved in with him. The two cohabited for years until they separated. She then married hotel manager, Tom Viorikic, three months after they met in Canada.

While living in Tennessee Pelletier wrote her first novel, The Funeral Makers which was very well-received in the literary community. Since then she has penned a number of works, some of which were published under her pseudonym, K.C. McKinnon. In 1998 Pelletier made international news after receiving a million-dollar advance from Doubleday for her novel Candles on Bay Street, a work that was translated into ten languages and recently made into a film . Recently she has been the recipient of the New England Book Award for Fiction and the 2006 Paterson Prize. Pelletier has acted as the literary agent for several published books.

In addition to her literary triumphs, she has had songs recorded by David Byrne, Texas Tornadoes, Glaser Brothers.