Quilt Alphabet

Lesa Cline-Ransome grew up in Malden, MA, a suburb just outside of Boston, the daughter of two nurses and the youngest of three. By the time she reached middle school, she decided that she wanted to be a real writer, a journalist. She wanted to sniff out stories, conduct interviews and write in-depth articles for a newspaper in New York City. After she attended a summer workshop for teens interested in journalism at Suffolk University in Boston, she realized that a career in journalism was the last thing she wanted. She was too shy to conduct interviews, hated working under tight deadlines and did not enjoy factual writing. She wanted to create her own stories or at least be able to put her own creative spin on the stories she wrote. By the time she finished high school, she had given up on the idea of any type of writing career.Though her mother started me on my writing journey, it was her teachers in school and throughout college that sustained it. With encouragement from her professors at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, she began writing for the college paper and her passion for writing was renewed. After she graduated, she took my first job in the advertising department at Lord & Taylor but soon realized that writing ad copy for catalogues would not be enough of a creative outlet.She became interested in children's books the year she married. Her husband, James was working on illustrating his first book which allowed both of them to look at picture books in a new way. She eventually completed a graduate degree in elementary education and through her coursework became truly immersed in children's literature.When she was home after the birth of their first child, James would constantly suggest that she start writing for children. He had tons of ideas for books (none of which she liked), but then he showed her a collection of stories about champion athletes. When she read the section on Satchel Paige, the Negro League pitcher, she was hooked. In between her daughter's naps and another pregnancy, she read and researched and wrote for nearly a year before an editor decided to take a chance on Satchel. Four years, four books (and four children) later and she is still writing. Lesa lives in New Jersey with her husband James, and their dalmatian, Clinton.Cline-Ransome, Lesa is the author of 'Quilt Alphabet', published 2001 under ISBN 9780823414536 and ISBN 0823414531.