About

My name is Lise Fracalossi; I’m a front-end web developer and aspiring fantasy author, living in Central Massachusetts with my husband, three Maine coon cats, and extensive collection of ridiculous hats.

Front-end Web Developer

I have been slinging HTML since I was 17 as a hobby. In 2009, I began doing this on a freelance basis for digital agencies. From 2010 to 2020, I was a front-end web developer for the tech publisher IDG US Media, working on the websites for brands such as Computerworld and Macworld.

I recently accepted an offer at Fishtown Analytics — the makers of dbt — where I’ll be starting October 5th, 2020. It perfectly fits my requirements, and I’m excited for my career growth opportunities at this company!

As a front-end web dev, I fill the niche between design (which tells you what a website should look like, with pretty pictures) and back-end development (which builds the noodly data structures and complex logic underlying most sites). I work primarily in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

I’m not looking for new opportunities, freelance or otherwise, at this time.

Writer

I have been writing since I knew what words were. I still have a story I wrote in second grade in scratch & sniff red marker called “The Burglar and the Bear.” I finished my first novel when I was thirteen, and it was… exactly what you’d expect from that age.

For most of that time I’ve been writing speculative fiction, i.e. fantasy and science fiction. (Mostly fantasy). In 2013, I got serious about doing this professionally, and applied to the Viable Paradise writing workshop. I got in, and had one delightful, liminal week with some of my favorite authors, and made lifelong friends in the VP17 cohort.

You may also wish to read more about my ongoing projects and the writing communities I’m involved in.

I blog here fairly frequently about larp, gaming, web development, writing, and just general nerdery.

Scientist, Researcher, Stats Nerd

I studied cognitive science at Vassar College (class of 2003), and my first job out of college was managing data for an NIH-funded grant on cognitive aging at Brandeis University. In the process I learned a lot about statistics, and went on to work as a research analyst for an educational marketing company for three years.

I don’t currently do any professional work as a researcher, but I’m still the sort of person who geeks out over infographics and fangirls Edward Tufte.

SFF Fangirl

I’m a big ol’ nerd, from long before it was cool. My interests range from fantasy fiction to vampire anime to H.P. Lovecraft to the Elder Scrolls video games. They’re well represented by my collection of plush toys, which includes Disher the moon-beast, a stuffed lobster named Chatturgha, and Citizen Snips, a plush mudcrab — to name just a few. I can sometimes be found at Boston-area fan conventions, especially literary ones, such as Readercon.

Roleplayer

I larp, which means I play live-action role-playing games. I have my roots in the New England Interactive Literature/theater-style school of larp, but I’ve also been doing boffer (foam sword, live combat) larping since 2015.

I’ve written two one-shot larps in the theater larp style: Cracks in the Orb, a 4-hour, 23-player larp in the world of Steven Brust’s Dragaera novels, and League of Extraordinary Hogwarts Students, a 4-hour, 25-player larp set at a Victorian-era Hogwarts, with characters from Victorian literature and history.

In the Before Times, I was PCing Shadowvale, NPCing for Madrigal 3, and was preparing to PC for Cottington Woods 2 (all boffer games), and I regularly made it to Intercon and occasionally Consequences in the UK. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve mostly gone back to my high school hobby of playing tabletop games — this time, virtually.

Gamer

I like vidya games, and I write about them a lot. I’m slightly obsessed with the Elder Scrolls series and its deep lore, but I enjoy lots of open-ended, sandbox-y games. Lately I’ve been playing through the Itch Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality and spending too much time walking The Trail (the mobile version).

Since I have ADHD, my dopamine receptors are all messed up, which means I need to be careful about addiction and obsession when it comes to things like this. I generally fare better with single-player games than with MMOs in this regard, although I’ve played quite a few MMOs in the past (roughly in order, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Star Wars: the Old Republic, and Elder Scrolls Online). It’s an area I’m still trying to find balance around.

Anything else?

I’m 40 and I live in Central Massachusetts. I’m married to my BFF Matt; we are childfree by choice but have three cats. I have an unfortunate predilection for getting stuck in bathrooms. I lived in France for a year when I was 16. Smell is my favorite sense. Seventeen is my lucky number. I really do have a collection of fabulous hats, though I’m equally notorious for not wearing them.