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Andrea Alban Gosline

Andrea Alban Gosline

About

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)

Divided against Yourselves (Spell Weaver)

Divided against Yourselves (Spell Weaver)

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Description

<h2>Taliesin Weaver thought that he had saved himself and his friends when he defeated the witch Ceridwen. He was wrong.</h2><h3><i>He always thought of evil as embodied in external threats that he could overcome in combat. Soon he will discover that the worst evil has been inside of him all along....</i></h3><p>Tal’s girlfriend is in a coma for which he holds himself responsible. A close friend, suffering from a past-life memory trauma similar to Tal's, is getting worse, not better. Morgan Le Fay is still lurking around and has an agenda Tal can’t figure out. Supernatural interruptions in his life are becoming more frequent, not less so, despite his expectations. In fact, Tal learns that something about his unique nature amplifies otherworldly forces in ways he never imagined were possible, ways that place at risk everyone close to him.</p><p>Tal and his allies must face everything from dead armies to dragons. As soon as they overcome one menace, another one is waiting for them. More people are depending on Tal than ever; he carries burdens few adults could face, let alone a sixteen-year-old like himself. Yet somehow Tal at first manages to handle everything the universe throws at him.</p><p>What Tal can’t handle is the discovery that a best friend, almost a brother, betrayed him, damaging Tal’s life beyond repair. For the first time, Tal feels a darkness within him, a darkness which he can only barely control...assuming he wants to. He’s no longer sure. Maybe there is something to be said for revenge, and even more to be said for taking what he wants. After all, he has the power...</p><p> </p><h2><u>Can Tal stop himself before he destroys everyone he has sworn he will protect? Scroll up to buy a copy and find out!</u></h2>

Story Behind The Book

Since the age of seven, Andrea Alban Gosline has befriended a forest of favorite trees. There was the flowering plum in the front yard that burst in April with tart little stone fruit she ate until her stomach groaned, a Ponderosa pine she watched grow from sapling to towering tree, and a Pom-Pom that showered her with a confetti of petals as she daydreamed on the lawn. Her father, annoyed by the impossible-to-rake mess, would shoo her inside so he could vacuum the grass with a Hoover upright! Andrea vowed to write a thank you poem to her tree friends and grew up to become an inspirational parenting and children’s book author who moonlights as an environmentalist. A San Francisco mother, she believes that many of our children suffer from &quot;nature deficit&quot; and her mission is to ensure that no child is left inside!

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Reviews

I just wanted to tell you how much my son and I love the book The Happiness Tree.  We first found it at our library, then had to buy it.  We read it every night before bed and he has just about every tree memorized.  The story is so sweet and the illustrations are fantastic.  I can’t wait to order additional books for you and to order prints once you get them online.  I just wanted to let you know as a mom, I really love this book and so does my boy. Many blessings! — Misty Hendon<br /><br />I wish I could have videoed Annalise's reaction when we were reading  <br />The Happiness Tree. She loved all the little hidden details (like the  <br />earthworms, the shape of the hearts on the tree of love) and with wide  <br />eyes she kept saying: &quot;I LOOOOVE this book!&quot; It was so cute when I  <br />read her the promise, and she enthusiastically and resolutely said, &quot;I  <br />promise!&quot; We had to go back through it a couple of times - she was  <br />captivated. It was lovely to see your magic at work and I hope for all  <br />the best for the book's success. — Kristin Waters<br /><br />... &quot;gorgeous jewel-toned illustrations featuring anthropomorphized trees are sure to be pored over by young readers, who will be taken in by their fairy-forest quality.&quot; (Kirkus Reviews) Included are tree poems, state tree index and tree bios.<br /><br />And blogger, Amanda Lorenzo (of the Gifted and Talented Child blog) writes, ' ... this is a book that sings! The rhyming text is unique and musical and the illos are vibrant and melodious. This is not your average picture book. In it trees are associated with individual great virtues. I can totally relate to the Magnolia tree as the embodiment of generosity, or the 100 foot tall White Pine as the image of courage. The Dogwood beautifully holds sway as the emissary of Peace. In all, ten trees join together to make this one absolutely stunning and endearing book for young and gifted children. At the end you will find a 2 page spread of detailed information on each tree, a page naming the official state trees of each of the fifty United States and information about Arbor Day. It’s my understanding that each of us should plant at least 10 trees to replace the oxygen we will breath in one lifetime. With this book we can also plant some quality ideas and images in the minds of the children we love. Oh yes, and this book is printed on 50% post consumer waste content paper, so it is kinder to the very trees we love.'<br /><br />... beautiful ... As the rhyming text extols the virtues of trees and describes the planting and growth of a group of seeds, the jewel-toned illustrations of the natural world immediately draw the eye. ... inspirational ... may find a home in Arbor Day celebrations and in Sunday school classrooms.<br />–School Library Journal, Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD<br /><br /> Andrea, You and Lisa have done it again.  The Happiness Tree is a work of art with such beautiful colors and such beautifully written verse. I love the theme of trees (my son got interested in the environment when planting a tree on Arbor Day when he was 8 . He now works for the DEP in NJ.)and of course, you always include all the wonderful attributes we want children to learn and aspire to when they grow up.  I wish you much luck with the new book and continued success.   — Dorothy Rinaldi