This month, The Booking Biz is interviewing a couple who are as brilliant individually as they are together. Lesa Ransome-Cline is the award-winning author of numerous biographies, including the GAME CHANGERS: THE STORY OF VENUS AND SERENA WILLIAMS and JUST A LUCKY SO AND SO: THE STORY OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG, the historical picture book LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS: A STORY ABOUT HOW SLAVES LEARNED IN SECRET, and the verse biography BEFORE SHE WAS HARRIET, which was nominated for an NAACP image award. Her debut middle-grade novel, FINDING LANGSTON, received five starred reviews and was listed on three best-of lists for 2018.
Lesa’s husband James E. Ransome is the illustrator of more than 60 books and received the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration for THE CREATION, as well as Coretta Scott King Honors for many of his books, including BEFORE SHE WAS HARRIET. James has written and illustrated his own books (GUNNER: FOOTBALL HERO and THE BELL RANG) and illustrated books written by award-winning authors Carole Boston Weatherford (BE A KING: DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S DREAM AND YOU), Jacqueline Woodson (THIS IS THE ROPE: A STORY FROM THE GREAT MIGRATION), and, of course, his wonderful wife.
What’s behind the scenes of all this talent? We asked…
Booking Biz: What does your average day look like?
Lesa: This will probably be the most boring answer ever uttered, but, I have found I’m most productive when I have a lot of structure in my day, so each day I stick to a pretty strict routine. I begin with morning exercise, either walking with a friend or at my gym. I then make breakfast and begin my work day. The night before I try to write out a schedule and to-do list for the day, so I tackle that first and then begin writing. When working on a novel, my goal is to write 1,000 words a day. It’s boring, but it works for me. I try very hard, and often unsuccessfully, to not watch news or peek at the Apartment Therapy blog or I could lose half a day.
James: I break my day into three parts: My mornings begin at 6 am and go until 10, and during that time, I eat breakfast and I usually focus on paperwork and preparing for my day. From 11 till 3, I spend that stretch of time painting until I stop for lunch. I then continue painting until dinner around 6. If I am in a crunch, I go back into the studio, but if not, I spend the rest of the evening, catching up with Lesa and the many shows we watch.
Booking Biz: When you’re not writing, what do you like to do best?
Lesa: When I’m not writing, I am reading, or at my book group or at my political group or getting together with friends and family or begging James to dance with me, or rapping (yes rapping), or trying a new recipe or screaming very, very loudly while watching football (go Pats!) or talking/texting to one of our four children. Some combination off all of these things nurture my soul.
James: Even when I’m not illustrating, I love to work on my studio art paintings, listen to music, mainly jazz and blues and play chess. Sundays are devoted to football and my fav team, the Dolphins.
Booking Biz: Where do you get the inspiration for your books?
Lesa: As a child, history was my least favorite subject. Somehow along the way, I have become incredibly interested in stories from history. Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns has inspired my debut novel, Finding Langston, a story about a young boy who migrated from Alabama to Chicago in 1946 after the death of his mother, and discovers himself in the Chicago Public library, poetry and the works of Langston Hughes. I am currently at work on two sequels for that title. Wilkerson’s book also inspired a picture book entitled Overground Railroad. Historic figures have also been at the center of many of my books including Before she Was Harriet, a poem about the many lives of Harriet Tubman and Words Set me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass. I have become a person rooted in the past while writing for a better future.
James: When I say inspiration comes from everywhere, it literally does come from everywhere–books, movies, and especially music. Several of my books, Just a Lucky So and So, Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson and Before There was Mozart, feature the fascinating lives of musicians and stem from my love of jazz and performance.
Booking Biz: Did you always want to write books for children, or was there another career you wished for as a child?
Lesa: I’ve always loved writing, though as a child I dreamed of becoming a journalist rather than an author. The problem was, I felt I was too shy to conduct interviews. Through my other lives as a proofreader, fashion copywriter, publicist, teacher and stay-at-home mom, I eventually made my way to what I love most.
James: As a child, I never knew a career as an illustrator was possible. But, in college, once I discovered illustrating books was an option, I knew this was something I could do for the rest of my life. I loved the sequential imagery and the narrative storytelling of creating books.
Booking Biz: If you ruled the world, what would it look like?
Lesa: I would ensure everyone had a library card and access to a library in their community to enjoy the gift and power of literacy. Oh, and eating chocolate, every single day.
James: I would make art museums affordable for everyone so that art can be accessible to all and not just the wealthy.
Booking Biz: Yes! Books, art and chocolate? The Booking Biz would vote for you two for President!
Learn more about Lesa Ransome-Cline and James E. Ransome on their speaker pages.