Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar but never doubt thy love

Shakespeare, “Hamlet”

Out Now!

Lise’s first foray into penning romance was an ill-fated one. At a tender age she poured out her longing for a certain handsome senior in youthful (read: turgid) poetry. Soon she was melodramatically “outed” and her love withered, unrequited. Being a tough coal miner’s granddaughter with the staunch blood of her Scottish forebears running in her veins, she forged on, romantically bloodied, but unbowed. She continued to write strange, evocative tales, including her first attempt at a “real” romance novel (involving an oceanographer and a bloody shark attack), which no doubt nestle somewhere in the dark recesses of her house. 

Beyond those early literary fumblings lay many other stops for Lise on her creative journey. After graduating from Skidmore College, she plunged into a mind-boggling series of jobs. She first worked as a “garmento” in New York City’s fashion industry, then segued into such diverse careers as bartender, apprentice gemstone grader, a gig working on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and magazine marketing, including a brief stint at Rolling Stone. (She now enjoys a more stable work experience, as a legal assistant at an entertainment law firm, where she meets and fetches coffee for famous rich people.)  

Lise’s creative urges, however, would not be denied. While holding down her day jobs, she studied acting and voice at night, performed in several off-off-Broadway productions, wrote plays, and had a few stints as a day player on “The Guiding Light”.

As an actress I used playwrights’ words as the catalyst to breathe life into my characters. Working on such diverse roles as Mary of Scotland, Serafina in “The Rose Tattoo”, Lady MacBeth and May in “Fool For Love”, left me with a thirst for creating equally charismatic characters in my own novels.

In addition to acting, Lise was an award-winning cabaret performer, working in one-woman shows and revues in some of Manhattan’s most well-known nightclubs.

There is nothing quite as magical as seducing an audience with magnificent songs of love and longing; drawing them into the story and making their hearts yearn right along with yours. These ‘stories’ set to the music of luminaries like Cole Porter, Noel Coward and Duke Ellington offer a romantic experience beyond compare. Those years helped fuel my desire to create and share stories of love and passion – albeit sans melody – as a romance author.

Lise is newly published, with a debut novel to celebrate, and feverishly at work on a variety of literary projects. Both under her own name, and under her erotica pseudoym, Lydia Hill, this Gemini embraces numerous romance genres, from urban fantasy and combustible erotic thrillers, to romantic suspense, spicy category novels and intriguing paranormals. 

She currently lives in her childhood home in a suburb of the Big Apple where she eschews housework in all its forms. Thus her abode is filled with books, dust bunnies, and her best friend, Mom, along with rescued greyhounds Scout and Angus, and a diva feline, Hedwig. Always irrepressible, Lise frequently bursts into song, quotes movie dialogue in character, and performs strange comic mime routines with her favorite brother, who lives nearby with his “crew” in a group home for mentally challenged adults. When not writing, this bibliomaniac is obsessed with reading, but still finds the odd moment to indulge in her other creative loves of cooking, gardening, quilting and knitting.