Awesome Romance Author Doreen Alsen

Looking for a great romance author to read? 

This week my guest is fellow Wild Rose Press author Doreen Alsen. I have know Doreen for a long time. She is a member of my romance writing chapter and has been very supportive in my own writing career. Doreen has written over 12 romance novels. How she does that along with everything else she does is just amazing!

Please welcome, Doreen…

What do you do when you are not writing?

All kinds of things: I started my adult life as a music teacher (private and public school), opera singer, and choral conductor and those things are still a large part of my life, though I no longer teach public school. I teach water aerobics, which is a blast! I love to cook, and I am learning to play the folk harp.

What has influenced you as a writer?

When I was a child I was a devoted reader of the Happy Hollister mystery series, which totally gave me a love of reading and writing a series. I loved Louisa May Alcott, in particular Little Women and the following books. While most people love Jo, I loved Meg and John Brooke.

Then I discovered Victoria Holt and all bets were off. My goal was to write a book like hers. I especially loved The Curse of the Kings (if we’d had a boy, I’d have talked my husband into calling him Tybalt!) and On the Night of the Seventh Moon.

Authors I admire now, who write in my genre, are Suzanne Brockmann (Kiss and Tell), Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Heaven, Texas), Susan Andersen (Exposure), and Jennifer Crusie (Fast Women).

Tell us about your newly released book.

Worth A Thousand Words is part of both my At The End Zone series from The Wild Rose Press and part of TWRP’s Lobster Cove series. The story: Disgraced and disfigured supermodel Angelique Durand has moved to Lobster Cove, ME to recuperate and decide what she wants to do with the rest of her life. All she knows for sure is that she never wants another picture taken of her ever again. Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Tim Baldwin returns to his family’s summer home in Lobster Cove after being kidnapped by ISIS and barely escaping death. The kidnapping has robbed him of many things, his ability to take pictures being one of them. Imagine his relief when he finds he can take photos again – of Angelique, but he has to keep that fact a secret. Angelique comes from the fourth book in my End Zone series, A Taste of Hope. We meet Tim in the very first book of the same series, Mike’s Best Bet.

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Worth a Thousand Words by Doreen Alsen

Angelique Durand had it all, beauty, a flourishing career as a super-model, and a fabulous existence living the high life in Europe. All that came to a crashing halt when she was arrested for a crime she didn’t commit and had a tragic accident that left her face disfigured. She’s come to Lobster Cove to hide and rebuild her life. Nothing in her future is certain except for one thing – she will never, ever stand in front of a camera again.

Tim Baldwin, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, was kidnapped by ISIS and held hostage. Rescued just before his scheduled execution, Tim returned to his family’s summer home. Suffering from PTSD, he has also lost his ability to take pictures. Things change when an intriguing woman moves into the beach house next door and she is the only subject Tim can photograph.

Can these two battered souls come together to find everlasting love?

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Excerpt

This was going well, Angelique thought. The Oysters Hope tasted pretty much the same as they did when Lucien made them. And she had double-checked. There wasn’t a single piece of shell or grit in any of the oysters. She hoped she hadn’t messed up the gumbo.

Although, could you call it gumbo if it didn’t have any okra in it? Even so, she kept her fingers crossed. At least she’d been able to find Abito beer here in the great wild North, the only thing to drink with gumbo.

“It smells great.” Tim sniffed into the air, like he was Chester scenting hamburgers cooking on a nearby grill.

She put some saffron rice into each bowl then ladled the gumbo over it. It smelled pretty much like Grand-mère’s.

“Go ahead,” she told him. “Let me know what you think.” She held her breath.

He dipped his spoon into the soup then brought it slowly to his mouth. He blew over the spoon and slid it past his lips. His faced turned red and he started wheezing. He looked like he was having a heart attack.

Oh my God! What did you do for someone having a heart attack? She had no idea, so she went with the basics. Call 911. She scrambled back into the house to get her phone. She punched the numbers.

“This is 911. What is your emergency?”

“My friend is having a heart attack! You’ve got to come quick!” Angelique started to hyperventilate.

“Please calm down, ma’am. What is your address?”

“Fifteen Seagull Lane. Hurry!”

“The E.M.T.s are on their way.”

“Okay! Thank you!” She clicked the phone off and turned to run back to the patio and try to keep Tim from dying out there.

She froze. Tim stood in the door from the deck.“What are you doing there? You’re supposed to be dying of a heart attack!”

“Sorry to disappoint you. It wasn’t a heart attack.”

“It wasn’t?” she squeaked.

“Nope. That gumbo is pretty spicy.”

“Spicy! Spicy? I thought you were having a heart attack! I called 911!”

“Um, about that…are those sirens I hear?” He coughed. It might have been to cover up a laugh.

Since he wasn’t having a heart attack, she might have to kill him with her own bare hands. “Oh, no,” she groaned. “Can they put you in jail for calling in an emergency when there wasn’t one?”

He grinned. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Great. Just great. Lucien can never, ever find out about this.”

The E.M.T.s were pounding down her door. “I’m coming,” she hollered as she went to let them in. They burst into the room lugging a small fortune in electrical equipment and a gurney. “Where’s the victim?”

Tim waved from the door. “Right here.”

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Buy Links

TWRP ~ Amazon ~ AllRomance

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Visit Doreen at