Derek Ryan Jensen was born in Redwood City, California June 27, 1976 and grew up under foster care until leaving on a church mission in 1995.  Derek wrote short stories and poems before graduating from Moorpark High School in 1994. He met the legendary Ray Bradbury his Senior year in High School who motivated him to become a writer.

As a teenager until in his twenties, Derek went on many backpacking trips in the high sierras across over four hundreds of miles of back country between Mt. Whitney, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Zions, Bryce, the Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest and others.

Derek lived in the Dominican Republic for seven years where he married the elementary school teacher Miledy Lopez, and worked as an English teacher.  He also worked providing fundraising and purchasing assistance to local medical centers and hospitals for supplies and medical equipment upgrades, dedicating most of his time to centers treating patients with broken down or below standard equipment.

During his years in the Dominican Republic, Derek wrote “The tiny Life of Lucas Fern” on an old-fashioned typewriter along with thousands of pages of other poems, short stories and other works.  He was appointed Branch President where he lived, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the age of twenty-three during the worse crisis the country had seen in decades.  Soon after the devastation of Hurricane George, a category 4 hurricane, he managed the administration of food and rebuilding supplies donated by the church to the local members, helping rebuild the homes of members and non-members.  

During his foster years, Derek's last name was changed four different times before the age of eighteen. Other last names include Bush & Bolingbroke.  Between 2006 & 2015 Derek legally cleared up issues with his last name, legally changing his name to Jensen. 

He camps with his family for a week in Yosemite every year (a family tradition), and other National Parks as time permits.  He missed the visit of President Obama in Just of 2016 by two weeks, but has included part of the visit in his latest book "Paul Bunyan & Me in Yosemite."  

The father of two boys and two girls, Derek finally published his first book, “The tiny Life of Lucas Fern” in English and Spanish, and has completed the first book in his National Park series, “Paul Bunyan & Me in Yosemite.”