Say hello to… Lisa Hodorovych

Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?

Hi! My name is Lisa Hodorovych. I am a Jersey girl, born and raised, an author, and a small business owner. I hate to sound boring, but nothing really inspired me to write. Ever since I was little, I always loved telling stories. I clearly remember family being over my house and I just kept on telling story after story, to the point where they were like, “Okay, Lee, you can stop now.”Then I started going to school and the elementary school I attended had a parent-run “publishing company” in it. Not only did I send stories that I had to write for class, but extra ones because I wanted to. I guess you can say I have been an author since kindergarten! You can even look back at my fifth-grade yearbook and under my photo, next to “Future Goal,” I put “Author.” It’s like a knew what my destiny was.
However, there was a point in time that I wanted to work with animals, because I love animals, especially dogs. But when I had to put my dog down during my junior year in high school, I realized I don’t have a strong enough heart for it. If I were to get close to an animal and then had to put it down, I would be distraught for days and that wouldn’t be fair to my job. Plus, I also realized that working with animals involved math and chemistry – two of my weak points – so I decided against it. It didn’t take long, though, for me to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I immediately went back to writing.
I guess you can say it was ingrained in me from birth.

Describe your desk / writing space.

HA! How about…organized chaos? I think that’s the best way to describe it. I have a tall, dark wood standing desk – to help with my lower back pain – that has a picture of my husband and I from our wedding; a small Lego Big Ben that my husband got for me for one of our anniversaries and I built it immediately; a coffee mug with a picture of my late furry niece on it that says, “I love my aunt!” and it’s filled with pens, pencils, and highlighters; a glass jar filled with scissors, a letter opener, and more pens and highlighters because, you know, we writers always need extra pens and highlighters; a picture of my nephew from when he was born; a picture of my niece from when she was born; and a plethora of other tchotchkes adorn my desk.That’s the “back half” of my desk. The “front half” has my laptop, a notebook, a notebook…another notebook, my agenda book, and papers galore. On the walls in front of my desk and to the right of it, I have paintings that my dear friend, Sean Wolfe, made; pictures of Godzilla (because I’m a massive Godzilla fan); a desk calendar; a wooden sign that reads “Haters are my motivators;” and a picture signed by Josh Gates and Erin Ryder from Destination Truth.
Like I said, organized chaos surrounded by my personality.

Do you have a writing routine or do you write when inspired?

I definitely write when I’m inspired. I would love to have a writing routine (and I’ve tried), but sometimes my muse is just not in the mood.

How do you come up with the title to your books?

Oh, great question! Um…they kind of just came to me. I mean, I think The Disappearance came to me easier than He’s Here! did. It took me a really long time before I came up with He’s Here! for the title of my second book, which is the sequel to The Disappearance. I was just spewing out names to my husband and we both kept on looking at each other, saying, “Nope, that’s not it.” Then, one day, it just came to me, “How about He’s Here!?” And he agreed it was the perfect title.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? Which scene was your favorite to write?Oh! Let’s see here! How do I answer this without giving too much away? Haha!For The Disappearance, there’s one scene toward the end that as I wrote it (and every time I read over it), I cried. Again, I don’t want to give anything away, but they were happy tears. That was the hardest scene for me to write. My favorite has to be when my main character, Ashlynn, is taking a drive to ease her mind and she comes to this white building that has been utterly haunting her since the beginning of her vacation with her brother, Glen, and two best friends, Roman and Kaden. She finds it ransacked and goes to see if anybody needs help. Well, she finds more than what she bargained for.
For He’s Here!, the scene that was hardest for me to write is when Ashlynn is abducted by a creature who wants her. It was just so hard to write the dialogue and describe what was going on; it sent chills through me. Ironically, though, the scene right before it was one of my favorites to write as well as the scene in a grocery store and the climax toward the end. I went darker with this one and I’m sorry, but I really enjoyed doing so.

Who is your favorite character from your book and would you get along?

Oh my goodness, I think my favorite character from my books has to be Mr. Ned Scarlo. He was such a fun character to create. I made him eccentric; I made him funny; I made him loving. At first, I wasn’t going to bring him back in my second book, but then I realized I had to. There’s no way he couldn’t be in the second book. He (and his tea) just had to make an appearance. Absolutely. I think we would get along famously.
What inspired your book/series?

So, The Disappearance was actually my college thesis I wrote back in 2009. I went to Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ, majoring in creative writing. My senior year, for my thesis, I needed to write a story, obviously. When I got the assignment, I had no clue what I was going to write about. I guess you can say I had a bout of writer’s block. But then one night, I had a dream that my friends and I were being chased by a grotesque creature and well, The Disappearance was born.At the time, it had a different title (that definitely wasn’t as catchy) and it was only maybe 30-40 pages long. Thankfully, as the years went by (and with fellow writers looking at it, telling me what needed to be added, deleted, and what should stay), it grew to the 200-page novel that is available today.After The Disappearance was first published in 2020, which is another story in itself, I knew it was going to have a sequel and slowly the story came to me until last year (2022) when it flooded into my mind.
I do have to say, though, that the underlying inspiration for these books would be my
What are you working on next?

Currently, I am working on an assassin series that I came up with probably about a decade (or less) ago. It’s going to be a two-book series, with the possibility of being a trilogy, but nothing is set in stone yet. I’m hoping to have the first book out by 2024 or 2025.
What authors or books have influenced your writing?
You know, I hate to admit this, but there was a long period of time where I proudly proclaimed, “I’m a writer who doesn’t read!”Yeah, I wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the bunch during that time.
However, back in 2019, I started working on a blog where I would do book reviews (among other things), so I started to read more. I have to say, doing that – reading more – has truly opened my eyes and has truly helped me become a better writer. You get to see how others build their worlds and it helps you in building your own. I would have to say reading books like Frostblood from Elly Blake, Entwine from Tracey Shearer, and Decagon from Capes have really helped me with my writing.

And then, of course, there’s On Writing from Stephen King and Bird by Bird from Anne Lamott that have helped, as well.
If you could live anywhere, in this world or fantasy, where would you live?

I mean, I wouldn’t mind living at the cabin I created in Lake Minnetaha, Washington. Haha! But in all seriousness, my home is Salem, Massachusetts. I may have been born and raised in New Jersey, but every time I go to Salem, my heart feels at peace. I feel like that’s where I belong.
What is your favorite meal?

Oh, boy! I’m definitely a BBQ girl, so give me some hamburgers (or cheeseburgers), hot dogs, and ribs and I’m happy. I also have a massive sweet tooth, so put some chocolate in front of me, and again, I’m happy.
Coffee or tea? Wine or beer?

Definitely tea! I’m actually on a “tea journey,” if you will, reviewing different teas from different brands and coffee shops. You can see my reviews on my Buy Me a Coffee site. And definitely wine, but I don’t like anything dry. I prefer a sweet wine, like Moscato. 
Describe yourself in three words.

Fun-loving. Loyal. Weird.