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NILES -- Lissa Gromley is a local writer of two fantasy books, and a designer of a coloring book of wolves and wolf-type dogs. Gromley delivers newspapers and does commissioned digital artwork to supplement her calling to write.
Gromley was born in 1979 in Youngstown and the family did a lot of moving when she was very young, eventually settling in the Niles area by the time she was a young teen.
"One time, when I was about 7, we were staying temporarily in a homeless shelter while waiting for our car to get fixed on the way to Texas. In the basement of the building was a small laundry area. I was a very literal child, and I happened to notice the fire alarm where it said to 'pull down' so I pulled it. It evacuated the whole shelter. My brother got blamed for it and I didn't have the guts to speak up and say it was me. He was 11," Gromley said.
She is one of five siblings all residing in Ohio with two sisters in Niles, one in Bristolville and a brother in North Lima. Her father, Joseph Gromley, was born in Pennsylvania. He worked at a steel mill and died in 2010. Gromley helped care for her dad before he died.
Gromley's mother, Lora Irvine, was born in Youngstown and died last year. Gromley's mother worked at a manufacturing company called Gold Star Industries. Her husband, Gromley's stepdad, was a truck driver for the same company. He died in a truck driving accident on May 4, 2000.
As a teenager, Gromley was able to go with her stepdad a few times as he drove truck. She relates one vivid memory from a time they stopped in New York, "We were walking across this bridge between two buildings and it was almost all glass, and I remember standing there looking down in awe at all of the traffic going by underneath."
Gromley graduated from a home school, Thompson High School in Scranton, Pa. She earned a writing degree from Full Sail University and earned an online degree from the University of Phoenix for web development and management information systems, and an accounting degree from Kent State University at Trumbull.
"I've been drawing since I was about 5. I really wasn't very good at it for a long time, but now enjoy digital drawing and painting. When I was about 12, we lived in New Matamoros, Ohio, and when I was working with a speech therapist, I would make up stories and she told me I should be a writer," Gromley said.
This was how Gromley caught the "writing bug." Like many people, Gromley began work in the food industry and has worked a variety of positions to find her niche and supplement her passions of writing, art and caring for animals.
In her early 20s, Gromley had a scare with her dog.
"I was always an animal lover. One time after letting my dogs back in, I noticed that one of them had an injured paw. The dog's paw was bleeding profusely. I wrapped socks around it and threw him in my car and started driving around hoping to find an open vet office. I stopped at an all-night cafe in Niles and a police man was there and told me of a vet that was open," she said.
When Gromley got to the vet's office, someone was there whose dog was having surgery.
"He led me and my dog out to his truck where he had bandages and treated my dog until I could get him to a vet," she said. "He was in the service."
One of Gromley's dreams is to open a kennel where she could board dogs while their owners are away.
To suggest a Saturday profile, contact Features Editor Burton Cole at bcole@tribtoday.com or Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com.