Born in rural Appalachia, multi-genre author Lisa Mathisen dreamed of traveling the world after seeing the Venetian canals on television. After working every type of menial job one can imagine, she took off backpacking through Europe while her peers went to college. Inevitably falling in love with Scandinavia and marrying a Dane, she attended business college in Copenhagen, delivering newspapers at night and studying all day. She graduated as the first woman in Denmark to achieve a Business Innovation degree, shocking even herself.

Raised in a family of educators, she was always a fan of writing. Her father, also a published author, taught her to be as concise as possible. Her sister's expert-level editing was also a strong influence.