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Excerpt

Prologue

The Conover Agency,

Century City, Los Angeles

December

“Alfred, this is a terrible idea.” Helena Parker gripped the armrests of the plush chair as she gazed imploringly at her agent, Alfred Conover, from across the vast expanse of his glass desk.
“What’s not to love? The money’s great, and you can keep that penthouse condo of yours.”

Helena gazed out through the plate-glass window behind her agent’s head and sipped her herbal tea. “I’m in no position to argue—”

“Hon, you sure got that right.” Alfred chortled as he thrust a packet of papers across his desk toward her. She picked them up with trembling hands. “Your last two specials have bombed, and Channel Twelve is re-visiting your contract. They may fire you.”

“I know.” She studied the copy in her hands and shuddered. A Year with the Hot Alaskan Doc. “Al, this sounds so … salacious.”

“Helena, it’s a good offer. One that you can’t afford to turn down. You only have to work there one week out of every month, at a terrific salary. And if this show does well, they may offer you a second season.”

She opened the pack, and leafed through it. She recognized the names of celebrity spokeswomen who’d been enlisted to work on different continents. One was with a veterinary practice in Iceland and another was with a nurse practitioner in Australia. The producer represented a new streaming service. They wanted to build-up content, and they wanted it fast.

Why did she get the job offer with a doctor, of all people? She hated medicine. Hospitals and doctors and blood frightened her.

She studied the name of the remote village in Alaska where she’d be based, “Hoonah? Did I pronounce that properly?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Clearly, Al couldn’t care less how she pronounced the name of the village. His only concern was that she’d get some terrific footage. Oh, and burnish her fading star. That would be nice.

“You’ll be working with this doctor who’s running a small, hardscrabble practice in a remote part of Alaska.”

“I thought all parts of Alaska were remote.”

She studied the offer page and swooned. Yes, they were offering her a pile of money, and if she were careful, she could live off this money for years. And oh yeah, she could also resurrect her failing career.

Eight years earlier, her prospects had shone as golden as the California sunshine. Her first documentary was on the plight of Eastern European women, who emigrated to the United States with the promise of employment—only to find their passports seized, their identities and their bodies held hostage as they were forced into prostitution. It had turned her into a media star overnight. She was pretty, smart, and as Alfred put it, she had it, a beguiling quality, that was part of her conservative, midwestern upbringing, which made viewers want to identify with her.

She immediately landed a contract filming documentaries. The first show she produced under this lucrative contract did not inspire, nor did the second, and the third was canceled before filming finished. Her hopes of becoming a renowned international newswoman faded.

Author Bio Denise Gwen's mother once kept her up half the night to share with her the sublime joy of all that is Jane Austen. Denise was thirteen when her mother gave her her first copy of Emma, complete with weird spelling, such as connexions for connections. Nonetheless, Denise did fall in love with Jane Austen, and this may have fueled her love of reading and writing.