Lisa Orban was born in Galesburg, Illinois, and immediately began collecting the kind of life experiences that would later make excellent memoir material — though she didn’t know it at the time. After a childhood marked by frequent moves, family shenanigans, and an unexpected detour through foster care, she bolted to Arizona at eighteen, gathered more stories (and a few scars), and eventually found her way back to Quincy, where she’s been ever since.

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Over the years, she raised five kids, earned a degree in psychology, survived several marriages, bought a house, and built the life she always wanted: part circus ringmaster, part author, part soft‑hearted rescuer of stray humans. Her home has always been a revolving door of people who needed a place to land, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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In 2015 she published her first memoir, It’ll Feel Better When It Quits Hurting, and discovered that telling the truth — the funny parts, the painful parts, and the parts most people politely avoid — was exactly what she was meant to do. She hasn’t stopped writing since.

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In 2018 she founded Indies United Publishing House, a cooperative press dedicated to ethical, community‑driven publishing. What started as a simple idea — authors helping authors — has grown into a thriving home for writers who want transparency, support, and a fighting chance in an industry that often forgets them.

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These days, Lisa writes, mentors authors, runs a madhouse of creative anarchy, and does exactly what she wants — happily. Whether she’s crafting a book, wrangling a blog post, or guiding new writers through the publishing maze, she brings humor, honesty, and a lifetime of stories to everything she does.