As a child, Dorene carried around Little Golden Books and pretended to read them to her younger siblings. She was initially struck by the writing muse at the tender age of nine, when she stayed up past her bedtime for the first time ever to finish a short story. That attempt resulted in her teacher reading her work aloud to the class, then submitting her story to Highlights magazine. Unfortunately, Dorene took the magazine’s request to shorten the story as a flat rejection.

Over the years she followed the muse from time to time, but didn’t get serious about writing until after the birth of her third child. Even then it took about five years of juggling husband, children, nonprofit work, and her writing before she finally mastered the art of rejection and landed her first sale in September 2001. Over the following twelve years she published six Blazes and two Superromances with Harlequin. Then in 2019, she published her memoir, Passing Rain.

Currently, she resides in Jonesboro, Georgia, a suburb of metro-Atlanta. Now in 2023, she finds herself in the happy position of being able to pursue her writing full time. When not on the lake kayaking, or hanging with family and friends, you’ll find her exploring her creative nature, and, of course, writing.