Crystal's first published work, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, an oral history of the life of her former husband and lifelong friend and co-conspirator, has been widely acclaimed by critics across the country. Perhaps most notable is Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times, her CBS appearance touting the book as one of the best summer of 2007 reads and inclusion in Maslin's list of Top 10 books of 2007.

Crystal started writing her first novel when she was 9 years old inspired by her grandmother's tales of how her family traveled in a covered wagon. She has written all her life and has file cabinets full of unpublished manuscripts. She set aside her aspirations to become an author when she met Warren Zevon in 1970. When her marriage failed in 1979, she devoted herself to mothering their daughter, Ariel, and to political activism around issues of human rights, environmental concerns and media bias. Later, she counseled disenfranchised youth through the criminal justice and school systems.

In the late 1980's, she began writing screenplays and has one film credit, "My Little Assassin", based on the story of a mistress of Castro who was recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.

Crystal lives in Barre, Vermont near her only daughter, Ariel, and her twin grandsons, Max and Gus. She shares her daughter's passion to promote local foods and local economy and works at Ariel's new businesss - Local Agricultural Community Exchange (LACE) and her Farm Fresh Market and Cafe. Simultaneously, Crystal is working on a screenplay based on her book and she has two new book proposals in the works.