Biography
Lisa Cerasoli grew up in Iron Mountain, Michigan, graduating from Iron Mountain High School. She initially attended Michigan State University, where she was accepted into the Lyman Briggs School of Science as a pre-med major. However, she soon realized that her hypochondria made the medical field unsuitable, so she left school during spring break and moved to Arizona. There, she enrolled at Arizona State University and, after four years, earned a practical degree in theater. She then drove to Los Angeles in a Honda Accord, which was stolen twice within her first year in the city.
Los Angeles proved fruitful for Lisa. Within nine months, she landed her first series role on Acapulco Bay, followed by over two years as a regular on General Hospital, portraying the quirky character "V." She also secured guest roles on shows like Oh, Grow Up, Diagnosis Murder, and Pensacola, along with recurring parts on The Pretender as "Zoe" and Boomtown. In fall 2002, Lisa and her manager, Sandra Siegal, met Ken Atchity of Atchity Entertainment, International to discuss her screenplay, On the Brink of Bliss and Insanity. Ken suggested it could become a novel and lent her a book as a model. Inspired, Lisa wrote three chapters and became hooked on novel writing.
Shortly after, Lisa’s father was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. She returned to Iron Mountain to care for him until his passing, all while finishing her first book. Two months later, she married her high school friend Peter Weaver, with her mother as maid of honor. Over the next decade, they, along with Peter’s son Brock and their daughter Jazz, cared for Lisa’s grandmother, Nora Jo, who suffered from progressive dementia. During this period, On the Brink of Bliss and Insanity was published in January 2009, earning the Silver Award for Romance of the Year from ForeWord Magazine and being named a top pick for New Fiction by Midwest Book Review. Her memoir, As Nora Jo Fades Away, detailing life with her grandmother, was published in 2010 and won awards at the Paris, London, Los Angeles, DIY, and Hollywood Book Festivals. She also wrote a pilot based on the memoir called Weaverville, which is currently being pitched in Hollywood.
As of 2018, Lisa lives in Marquette, Michigan with her daughter Jazz (age 13) and operates 529 Books, a full-service editorial and book design company. She is also a ghostwriter for several books, including Lucky Number 9 (with Rina Tham, 2015), Through Fire and Rain (with Joseph and MaryAnn Anselmo, 2016), and Educating Marston (with Christine Weiss, scheduled for 2019). Additionally, Lisa serves as Vice President for Ken Atchity’s Story Merchant Books, based in Los Angeles. The company focuses on publishing books and selling their movie rights. Together, Lisa and Ken coauthored Tell Your Story to the World and Sell It for Millions, released in mid-2018, a comprehensive guide on writing a compelling story and successfully selling it to Hollywood.
