Andrea Alban Gosline is the author of numerous children’s picture books and award-winning inspirational parenting titles. Her most recent picture book, THE HAPPINESS TREE: Celebrating the Gifts of Trees We Treasure is a local bestseller and nominee for the Florida Reading Association's 2009-10 Children's Book Award.
A native San Franciscan, Andrea was raised in a neighborhood teeming with big backyards and adventurous children. Her appreciation of nature was cultivated during solo summer walks in the pine forests of Lake Tahoe. She discovered her passion for creative writing on her sixth birthday when, after reading Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne, she decided to “make" her first poetry book —a handlettered scroll tied with red ribbon. By nine, she was writing chapter books in her head inspired by the weekly armload of books her mother brought home from the public library.
Andrea attended the University of California at Berkeley (1977-1980) as a Rhetoric major, where she freelanced as a reporter for The Daily Cal. She transferred to San Francisco State University to pursue her interest in Health Sciences and switched majors, then took what she intended to be a short sabbatical to write a novel before senior year. Twenty six years and two children later, she returned to SFSU to finish her Creative Writing degree and graduated with honors in May 2008. Her debut novel, ANYA'S ECHO will publish in Winter 2011 (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan) about the same time she completes her Masters degree.
Andrea lives in a Tudor cottage in San Francisco with her daughter, Lily and their Irish Setter, Dusty. Most mornings you can find her at her writing desk overlooking the garden, hoping her son, Jake is studying well at UC Santa Cruz, and imagining the next scene of her sequel to ANYA'S ECHO.
Andrea’s company Ambledance Studios is the creator and licensor of a collection of illustrated journals, greeting cards, calendars, inspiration card boxed sets, bookmarks, bookplates, wallet cards, including Welcome Tiny Star: Baby’s First Year Journal (Fairfield, CA: Marcel Schurman, Januray 2001), Mother’s Nature Pregancy Journal: A Sacred Space for Thoughts and Reflections (Fairfield, CA: Marcel Schurman, Januray 2001), Mother’s Nature Inspiration Cards: Calm and Confidence for the Motherhood Journey (San Rafael, CA: Cedco Publishing, March 2001), Times to Treasure Inspiration Cards: Joyful Ideas for Families
(San Rafael, CA: Cedco Publishing, March 2001). Ambledance Studios produced the Welcome Little Love baby collection through Marcel Schurman. (March 2002)
