Lea Wait

About Lea



Lea when she was 10

What I remember most about growing up was wanting to learn everything.

I read historical novels and went to auctions and antique shows with my grandmother, who was an antique doll and toy dealer, and pretended I lived in the past.

I built a tree house with Charlie, who lived two houses away, and we studied the patterns of airplanes flying to and from nearby Newark Airport and imagined being on them. At night we looked at the constellations and dreamed of being astronomers discovering new universes.

In the summer I looked into Maine tide pools, identifying sea creatures who lived between the tides and collecting shells and rocks. I would be a marine biologist.

Until I saw my first political convention on television, and visited the Senate in Washington. Then I wanted to be a senator, or maybe even president.

So many possibilitites.

But I always knew that whatever else I did, I would also be a writer.

I majored in drama and English at Chatham College in Pittsburgh. Later I did graduate work in American Civilization at New York University at night while I wrote speeches and films and did strategic planning for AT&T.

I adopted four girls born in Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. When they came home they were the ages of the characters in the books I now write for young people. I wrote about the joys and challenges of single parent adoption. In 1977 I started an antique print business.

In 1998 I left corporate life to live in Maine, run my antique print business, and write fulltime.

I’m still excited about learning, and about sharing what I learn. With every book I write, I learn more. I hope there are many books, and many more things to learn, still ahead of me.


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