Lisa Mattson

With a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s in heartache, Lisa Mattson’s fate to write a book about bad romances was sealed in elementary school when a snowball fight with her first boyfriend landed him in the hospital. He dumped her the following day.

Raised in rural Kansas, Mattson’s childhood was filled with cheap beer and fried chicken—an ideal foundation for a career promoting prestige wineries. Many nights spent raccoon hunting also prepared Mattson for her first journalism job writing obituaries for a daily newspaper. She escaped to Florida during college, where she chased boys and caught rays while waiting tables. Not long after taking her first wine class at Florida International University, Mattson was sipping Malbecs and editing stories for a wine magazine.

Twenty years and 50 ex-boyfriends later, Lisa Mattson is considered a thought leader in content marketing of luxury wines, juggling the roles of strategist, publicist, writer, videographer and photographer. Taking the not-so-straight-or-narrow road to finding her dream job and her dream guy was the most fulfilling—and humbling—journey of her life. The Exes in My iPod: A Playlist of the Men Who Rocked Me to Wine Country is her first novel.