About
Ellen L. Ramsey's Biography
I am a collector of stories. I love to listen to stories and to make up stories. I've always been a reader and a writer. I love humorous stories, fantasies, and mysteries.
I started writing early—and to a very receptive audience. I wrote letters to my grandparents. They always responded with praise. They never sent rejection letters.
I had an early fondness for books and bears.
I liked to show off my books. I took them with me everywhere and loved to read, even in the backseat of the car. Fortunately, I didn’t get car sick.
When not being read to, one of my bears loved to climb trees. Fortunately, when he toppled out of trees, he didn’t get hurt. My bear was a skillful tree climber and a very good listener.
No matter how much I asked, I was never allowed to have a real bear. But we did have cats! One spring, my mother, sister, and I showed off our three new kittens that I’d named Sugar and Spice and Nice. As you can tell, I’ve always loved alliteration and rhyme.
One of my first acting roles was as an angel. My parents and sister reported it didn’t inspire me to become more angelic.
With a degree in English drama from Mount Holyoke College, I became a junior high and high school English teacher. To enliven spelling tests, I made up humorous stories using the spelling words for the week. Not Pulitzer-prize stories, but the spelling tests were punctuated with laughter. To indulge my dramatic side, I directed high school plays and musicals.
With a degree in Technical Communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, I made a career change and worked as a technical writer for an environmental conservation agency. I now work as a technical editor for an environmental firm. My days are filled with editing reports about solving environmental problems and preserving natural resources.
Evenings and weekends, I write and revise humorous picture books, poems, stories as well as nonfiction articles. Like many authors, I write about what I know and love. Books and bears, bees and butterflies, dogs and dragons, libraries and bookstores.
My husband and I live in a house filled with thousands of books, several teddy bear families, and lots of laughter (in addition to being a biostatistical programmer, my husband thinks he’s a standup comedian).
As an author, I’m represented by Liza Fleissig of Liza Royce Agency (LRA).
And as you might have guessed, “book” and “bear” are two of my favorite words.
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