The Early Years
Romance and Women's Fiction author, Rosalyn
Alsobrook, spent the first eighteen
years of her life in Daingerfield,
Texas, under the loving guidance of her
parents, Dr. and Mrs. L. E. Rutledge, who encouraged her
liberally in all her early endeavors, including a weekly
newspaper column for a local newspaper, which she created and
wrote during her senior year of high school.
(see a special tribute to Dr.
L. E. Rutledge, M.D.)
Soon after marrying high school sweetheart, Bobby
Alsobrook of Pittsburg,
Texas early in 1971, she and her husband moved to
Longview, Texas, where they lived for five years. During their
first year in Longview, their older son (Andrew)
was born. Even so, Rosalyn attended Kilgore College and became
feature editor of the college newspaper (The Flare) for
two years. Soon thereafter, she joined the frantic world of
working mothers. Also during that time she sold short articles
to magazines and did some technical writing in the medical
field.
In 1976, she and Bobby moved to Gilmer,
Texas, where they established and operated their
own auto parts business for ten years. Shortly after moving to
Gilmer in 1977, second son (Anthony)
was born. In that time, Rosalyn not only did the office work
and helped on the counter of the auto parts store, she wrote a
weekly newspaper column called "The Shade Tree Mechanic"
and continued to freelance magazine articles but soon gave that
up for bolder endeavors. At the encouragement of her husband,
she started her first book in 1979 and by 1981 had the pleasure
of seeing THE THORN BUSH BLOOMS on the shelves. She's
been addicted
to book writing since.
More Current Information
Presently, this "bestselling" author has twenty-nine books
published and four others in different stages of production.
Her most recent novel, TOMORROW'S TREASURES, is a
contemporary single title that is sixth in the St. Martin's
Press "Seascape Romances" that she co-created. The
Seascape Novels are the result of a project she and
fellow author, Vicki Hinze (aka Victoria Barrett) put together
"online". The pair met via Genie Electronic Network's "RomEx"
and found they worked well together in crafting a complete
"series concept" with individual novels set in a quirky seaside
village in Maine inside a quaint bed and breakfast haunted by
"meddlesome and friendly" ghosts. This was unchartered
territory for authors. The series launched in March of
1996.
At last count Rosalyn Alsobrook has over two million copies
of her works in print and her books have been translated into
seven languages and circulated in eighteen countries. She has
won both reviewer awards and research awards, the most recent
having been nominated for RWA's most prestigious Lifetime
Achievement Award. She's also been selected for Who's Who In
U.S. Writers, Editors, & Poets, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92,
1993-94, and 1995-96. She was also selected for the 1994
and 1996 and 1998 International Author's and Writer's Who's
Who.
Locally, she won an award at the first East Texas Arts and
Entertainment Banquet held January, 1991: Favorite East
Texas Author. Nominations for the award came from the
general public and the winners were selected by a national arts
and entertainment council. She won again in 1995, which was the
fourth and final year the award was given. Also, in 1994, she
was nominated for The Outstanding Achievement Award
presented by the national review magazine Affaire de
Coeur. She has also earned the coveted 1995 NOLA
Climbing Rose Award for the author NOLA feels has earned
the greatest achievements in the previous year. A year later,
she won the 1996 RWA-ETC Sandy Award, for excellence.
Most recently, she's earned career achievement nomination from
the trade publication, Romantic Times.
In addition to novel writing, she has been an associate
editor of a regional magazine, The Host, has sold
fillers to medical magazines, and is an active member of a
national critique service and judges contests for various
writing groups. She continues to freelance feature style
magazine articles to both national and regional magazines when
time allows. Her most recent articles were in the Writer
Magazine, the New Writer's Magazette, the Romance
Writer's Report, and the 1996 Writer's Digest's GUIDE TO
LITERARY AGENTS. She has also been a newsletter editor for
both the East Texas Writer's Association, RWA-ETC (Romance
Writer's Association--East Texas Chapter), and PASIC,the
published author chapter. She has also sold humorous short
stories to local and regional magazines and has given workshops
and done fee-based critiquing and tutoring online.
Because she loves to encourage others to write, she has been
involved in several school writing projects, including the
"Write Right" program in her local high school and the
gifted/talented programs in various Texas schools. She enjoys
giving motivational and instructional talks to students,
encouraging them to see the importance of the written word and
has been a judge for the Texas UIL Ready Writing contests many
times.
Rosalyn is a charter member of (Romance
Writers of America (RWA) formed in 1980 as well as a
member and twice past-president of East Texas Writers'
Association of Longview, Texas. She is also currently active in
Romance Writers of America--East Texas Chapter;
(RWA-ETC) a charter member of Maine Romance
Writers; and a long time member of North Louisiana Romance
Writers; North Texas Romance Writers of America, and RWA-PAN.
In addition to all that, she is treasurer for the
PASIC chapter
for published authors, which she helped found in 1996. She has
also been a president of the Gilmer Elementary PTA, and both a
secretary and vice-president of the Gilmer Lioness Club.
Presently, she is secretary and voting member of the Gilmer
City Planning and Zoning Commission.
When time allows, Rosalyn also talks at various writer's
conferences and at various schools, which includes adult
continuing education courses.
Rosalyn is an author, freelance writer, speaker, critiquer,
teacher, a wife and mother; and in January of 1990, she became
a grandmother when Christina Nicole Alsobrook (to
meet Crissy, click
here) was born. Roz spends her
day taking care of her family, the house, their pets, her
mother's business and health concerns, and her latest novel.
Although presently branching off to try her creative hand at
producing web pages, and
although dabbling in screenplays
with author friend, Trana Simmons, writing romance novels will
always be important to her. After all, romance writing seems
the natural thing for her since she firmly believes that true
love can and will conquer any adversity. "How else could Bobby
and I have survived twenty-eight years of marriage?" It is also
why personal relationships play such a strong role in her
writing, even in her time travels and in her Australian
Sagas.
Adoption and orphaned children also play an important role
in many of Rosalyn's books, a reflection of the fact she
herself was adopted at birth. In 1989, she began her search for
her biological parents and within months had learned her
biological mother grew up with the last name Stickrod, and her
biological father was a man by the last name Owen. It wasn't
long after that she met both and was able to establish a
friendly relationship with her biological mother and three of
her half siblings. Her biological father was cordial enough,
but Rosalyn has yet to be granted the privilege of meeting her
three other half-siblings, on her biological birth father's
side (a brother and two sisters--one brother died at an early
age), and she regrets that they have never even been told she
exists.
When writing novels, Rosalyn strives to make her readers
feel a wide range of emotions: "I always want my readers to
laugh right along with my characters, many who tend to have my
same warped sense of humor. I also like the reader to cry at
least once, whether out of sheer joy or deep sadness; but
mostly, I want to make my reader think--to make him or her sit
back and contemplate the unique philosophy hidden behind each
story."
(updated
2/99)