Denise Dowling Mortensen

Denise Dowling Mortensen is the author of five picture books: Good Night Engines, Wake Up Engines, a board book/flip book of both Good Night Engines and Wake Up Engines, Ohio Thunder and Bug Patrol (all published by HMHCO). While listening to bedtime stories as a young girl she developed a passion for words, especially lyrical verse.

She studied Journalism in college and went on to work at CBS News and the Conde Nast Publications. While raising her five children, she freelanced as a copy editor and proofreader. When her youngest child was a baby, she began writing books for young children.

Now, when she's not writing, reading, painting, drawing, eating ice cream, or traveling, she works as a special education assistant in the district office of a local public school district. She lives in a suburb of Chicago.