Author Andrea Alban and artist Lisa Burnett Bossi met auspiciously over a photocopier in 1993 and became fast friends. For several years they shared a studio in San Francisco where they ran a marketing and design firm and daydreamed of writing and illustrating picture books together. They launched Ambledance Pictures and Verse in 1998 with the publication of their first parenting book, Mother’s Nature. It was soon followed by a baby collection, journals, calendars and a line of greeting cards. Ambledance went bi-coastal, when in 2000 Lisa left the Bay Area for the rocky shores of Maine. The duo, still joined by phone, email and often telepathy continued business as usual, building an international fan base for their inspirational work. Their first two children’s picture books published in 2007. Their latest collaboration, The Happiness Tree, is their long awaited tribute to trees - an idea planted early in their friendship. Often the 3,000 mile distance is bittersweet, but each relish trips to visit, and enjoy sharing reports of what’s in bloom, how much snow may still be on the ground and, of course, how remarkable their children are!
Andrea is a native San Franciscan and was raised in a neighborhood teeming with big backyards and adventurous children. She discovered her appreciation of nature during solo summer walks in the Ponderosa pine forests of Lake Tahoe. When she was six, she self-published her first poetry book, a parchment scroll tied with red ribbon. She attended UC Berkeley and SFSU, taking 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 college to finish her Creative Writing degree and graduated with honors. Her debut novel, Anya’s Echo, will publish in Fall 2009. 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 the sequel.
Lisa’s enchanting illustrations and designs are inspired by dreams, the details of nature, and wishes for a more colorful and compassionate world. Growing up along the shores of Cape Cod and Maine, she spent much of her childhood outside - observing, pretending and collecting. She studied fine art and art history at Bowdoin College, where she also cultivated her love of singing and acting. Her travels across the country led her from Santa Fe to San Francisco, where she did a several-year stint as Snow White in that city’s beloved Beach Blanket Babylon. She now lives (more quietly) in Brunswick, Maine, where her husband, Adrian, built their house in a favorite old neighborhood. She shares her cozy home studio with two black cats, a dog with funny ears, and most often her two beautiful, creative daughters, Lila and Clara.