Her first professional sale came from "Eustace," a ninety-word vignette at the age of 21 in 1968. She continued to work in various jobs for almost another decade, due to rejection of her books. Her first novel (for children) was "The Dragon Hoard", published in 1971 by Macmillan. Her career really took off with the acceptance in 1975 by DAW Books USA of her adult fantasy epic "The Birthgrave" – a mass-market paperback. Many British publishers rejected "The Birthgrave" thus she wrote to DAW Books. Lee subsequently maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing. "The Birthgrave" allowed Lee to be a full-time writer and stop doing "stupid and soul-killing jobs." During the 90's her books were not published due to the changes in publishing. The style that made her whole career met strict objections from publishers at that time.