Author Interview with Karen E. Osborne
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Welcome Readers to another installment of our author interview series. Today we have the pleasure of chatting with the lovely and talented Karen E. Osborne, a multi-genre author with an amazing podcast. (More about that later!)
JMR-Welcome to the Books Delight, Karen.
Tell our readers where you live, what you do for fun and what does the perfect
day look like?
KO- Thanks so much for having me. I’m a native New
Yorker living in south Florida – a cliché. New Yorkers often call Florida the
sixth borough. My husband Bob and I date once a week. Breakfast or lunch out,
bowling, movie, or theater. We love going to parties with lots of dancing. I
play cards with friends. My perfect day starts with my gratitude list and is a
mix of writing, reading, movement, volunteering, and chatting with our adult
children and grandchildren. But I never get to do all these things in any one
day.
JMR-What’s your favorite historical time
period? Why?
KO- The roaring twenties is number one. In the 1920s
women fought for, and won, the right to vote, threw away their girdles, lifted
the hemlines, sought more freedom and independence. It was also the time of the
Harlem Renaissance. Jazz, art, literature, and poetry by Black artists came to
the fore. Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Huges, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis
Armstrong, artist Romare Bearden, to a name a few. Madam Walker started a
successful business and taught other Black women how to do the same. Yet, the
period was also marred by crime, corruption, prohibition, and suppression.
Women and Black folks still had to deal with misogyny and racism. It was a rich
era of change, contradictions, and possibilities.
JMR-Who is your favorite historical
figure? Why? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?
KO- I’m a Shakespeare nut. I’ve read, studied, and
watched every one of his plays numerous times. They’re timeless, entertaining,
and instructive. “May I sit with you and ask questions all day?” One question
wouldn’t be enough.
JMR- You’ve written several contemporary
fiction books. Why switch genres to historical fiction?
KO- I read a LOT of historical fiction and I try to
write what I enjoy reading. But I shied away from it because of all the
research required and because I like making things up. But I found, as I wrote True
Grace, a family drama set in 1924, that I enjoyed discovering details and
understanding the era. Surprised myself. Plus, I wanted to write my
grandmother’s story. The time had come.
JMR- Did you visit any of the places in
your book? Where did you feel closest to your characters?
KO- Yes. The book is set in the Congo, England,
Jamaica, Harlem, The Bronx, and Pelham, NY. I’ve visited all but the Congo. As
a young girl, I visited my grandmother often when she lived on Sugar Hill, in
Harlem--a famous area of the city. That was where I felt closest to her.
Visiting her father’s home in Cornwall, UK, and the school she attended in Kent,
England brought me closer.
JMR- Karen, tell us about your new book,
True Grace.
KO- As I
mentioned, it is historical fiction, set in 1924, and inspired by my
grandmother. When the story opens, Grace, a mixed-race immigrant woman and
mother of five, comes home to a harrowing event. Over the course of seven months,
she must make wrenching decisions, fight misogynistic and racists courts,
banks, the child welfare system, and bad actors to save her family. One
reviewer wrote she found herself praying for Grace, forgetting she was reading
fiction. It’s a suspenseful, page-turner rich with historical details. My
source material included books written about my great grandfather, three
hundred pages of Grace’s handwritten letters, journals, stories she told me,
plus research via the web, libraries, and other books about the era.
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JMR- You write about a lot of social issues. From where does that spring?
KO- Personal experience. #Metoo, sexual assault, and PTSD are all part of my background and for far too many people. Every 68 seconds another American is sexually assaulted. Bob and I adopted our daughter when she was two and part of the foster care system. So that shows up in my writing as well. On any given day in America, 400,000 children are in the system. Sixty-two thousand a year age out, never finding a forever home, and their subsequent statistics are heart breaking. I like exploring what it means to be family. All my novels are multi-racial.
JMR- Is there a thread that’s goes through all your novels?
KO- All four of
my published novels, and my work in progress (WIP), feature strong, flawed
women who must overcome great odds. Some of their struggles they brought on
themselves, and others come from the outside or from within their families. The
women must dig deep and tap into strengths that surprise them and allows each to
accomplish more than she ever dreamed with grit, grace, and resilience. We live
in such intolerant times, so I also write about the coercive nature of secrets
and lies, the power of forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption.
JMR- Your weekly
video podcast is three years old without missing a week. What drives you or
inspires you to keep at it?
KO- Thank you for
asking. It started with the pandemic. Places for writers to connect with
readers shrunk as we all stayed home. In response, I started a video podcast – What
Are You Reading? What Are You Writing? A place to feature authors and
connect with readers. You graciously became my 16th guest. And now
I’m passed 174 creatives who joined me. Through the podcast I’ve met so many outstanding
writers and, as a result, read books I might have passed up in a bookstore. The
writing community is generous and inspiring, supporting and helping each other.
Like you do. And readers are among my favorite people.
JMR-What projects do you have in the
pipeline?
KO- I love trying new things -- pushing myself in
different directions. My current WIP is both historical and present day, a
mystery about two murders that happened 50+ years apart. It also has some
romance. All but one of my protagonists, in all five books, find or renew love.
JMR- Tell our readers how to find you on
social media and the web.
KO- My website is www.KarenEOsborne.com
There you will find info about my books, episodes of the podcast, and listings
of upcoming events. Plus, book clubs can find discussion questions for each
novel. My other links are:
Karen E. Osborne (@kareneosborne) /
Twitter
(20+) Karen E
Osborne, Author | Facebook
https://www.instagram.com/writerkareneosborne/
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/karen-e-osborne
JMR- What question were you hoping I’d
ask but didn’t?
KO- Your questions were spot on.
JMR- Thank you, Karen, for stopping by. Your books
look really great! Readers, I’ve included a link to Karen’s books below. Please
be sure to check them out.
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