PAL SPOTLIGHT: LORI MORTENSEN
Lori Mortensen is an award-winning children's author. Her books, which reviewers have praised as “stellar” “as good as it gets” and “begs to be read aloud,” have been published by such notable publishers as HarperCollins, Henry Holt, Abrams, Bloomsbury, and Peachtree. Popular releases include, ARLO DRAWS AN OCTOPUS, illustrated by NYT bestselling author/illustrator Rob Sayegh, Jr., IF WENDELL HAD A WALRUS, illustrated by NYT bestselling author/illustrator Matt Phelan, COWPOKE CLYDE RIDES THE RANGE, a Bill Martin Jr., Picture Book Award Nominee and the sequel to Amazon bestseller COWPOKE CLYDE AND DIRTY DAWG, and picture book biographies NONSENSE! THE CURIOUS STORY OF EDWARD GOREY and AWAY WITH WORDS, THE DARING TRUE STORY OF EXPLORER ISABELLA BIRD. When she’s not out on her morning walk, baking her next crusty loaf of sourdough, or sticking her nose in a mystery, she’s tapping away at her keyboard, conjuring, coaxing, and prodding her latest stories to life. She currently lives in the foothills of Northern California with her family.
What genre(s) do you write?
Fiction and nonfiction picture books.
What are the links to your socials?
www.lorimortensen.com, IG lori.mortensen, Pinterest lorimortensenbooks, @lamortensen.bsky.social, and FB
Tell us about your writing journey.
Interestingly, I wasn’t one of those writers who was born with ink in their veins. Although I was an avid reader growing up, writing never occurred to me. It felt like whoever wrote those childhood favorites must have lived far, far away from my ordinary home in Pleasant Hill, California.
I didn’t begin writing until I was a stay-at-home mother of three. Before the kids came along, I’d typed mountains of documents for attorneys, accountants, and engineers. When I was reintroduced to children’s literature through my children, I wondered what I could write. I’ve been writing ever since.
What was your road to publication like?
For me, the road to publication was a series of stepping stones. When I began writing, I focused on the magazine market. It was a great fit as a beginner. Magazines need content every month and it was challenging to study what they published and see how I could create stories and articles they would want to buy. I liked the variety of tackling fiction, nonfiction, poems, puzzles, and even rebuses.
As my sales increased, my confidence grew and I contacted school and library publishers for writing assignments. It was a huge plus to be able to include magazine credits in my cover letters. I was thrilled when KidHaven Press published my first book BASILISKS in their Monster series. At the time, writing this 5,000-word book was a huge learning curve. But with each book assignment, my skills improved. Along the way, I began writing picture book manuscripts for trade publishers—the most satisfying and tantalizing goal of all. But it all began with magazines.
Tell us about your latest picture book release
My latest picture book release is ARLO DRAWS AN OCTOPUS illustrated by NYT bestselling author and illustrator Rob Sayegh, Jr.
I got the idea for this story when I remembered how my sister and I used to spend hours drawing at the kitchen table. Since she was nearly three years older than I was, I’d often get frustrated that her drawings were better than mine. This memory turned into a story about an equally frustrated artist named Arlo. I was tickled to come up with the surprise ending that let him see his drawing in a new way and realize that his drawings were actually wonderful all along. I was thrilled when the Department of Education in Pennsylvania selected ARLO DRAWS AN OCTOPUS as their PA One Book for 2025 that was distributed to schools all over Pennsylvania earlier this year.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Persistence! One of the most meaningful comments I heard was at an SCBWI writing conference many years ago from the fantastic writing team of Judith Enderle and Stephanie Gordon, published as Jeffie Ross Gordon. They once said, “If you only knew how many times we’ve been rejected.” When I heard that, I instantly knew several important things. I knew they hadn’t pinned all their hopes on a single manuscript. They were writing a lot of manuscripts to be rejected so many times. I knew that rejections weren’t the end because even successful authors are rejected. And that gave me hope.
What has SCBWI meant to you?
I’ve been a member of SCBWI for more than 20 years. During that time, SCBWI has not only improved my writing and jump-started my publication success through regional and national conferences, it has also been the source of encouragement, information, opportunity, and life-long friendships.