Karen E. Osborne

K ARE n E. o SB o R n E

I’ve been writing since the age of twelve and making up stories for as long as I can remember.

As a kid on the block in the Bronx, I kept my friends enthralled with fake adventures I pretended to experience. In middle school (junior high back then), I submitted book reports on fiction I created in my head. Gave them titles and authors. Never got caught. Under my photo in my high school yearbook next to

“Ambition” it read “Writer.” For forty-three years I worked first as an academic administrator and then, in partnership with my husband, Bob, as co-owner of The Osborne Group consulting and training firm. Together and a part we traveled the United States and the world helping nonprofits raise money, build great boards, and manage effectively. I wrote the first draft of Getting It Right (Akashic Books), on airplanes, in the Delta Sky Club, and in hotel rooms. The book tour was amazing. Friends hosted me in their homes, clubs, events, conferences, and book clubs. Independent and Barnes & Nobel bookstores across the country welcomed me. I’m looking forward to sharing Tangled Lies (Black Rose Writing), with new and returning readers when it launches July 22, 2021. A native New Yorker, Bob and I have two grown children and three grandsons. We live in Port Saint Lucie, FL.

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Welcome to Karen E. Osborne

Welcome to Uncaged! Tangled Lies will release July 22. Can you tell readers more about this book?

I like this quote from one of my early reviews

— ““Gritty and gripping, Tangled Lies is a murder mystery with a tender heart at its core.” Author Jenny Jaeckel captured the tone of the book with that quote. murdered. Three months later she is involved in a suspicious hit-and-run car accident, witnessed by Dani, who is on the run from the train-wreck of her own life. As circumstances throw Vera and Dani into an unlikely alliance, the two find themselves embroiled in a web of truths and lies that imperils them both, but also may bring Charlie’s murderer to justice. The story is, at its core, a tale of two women from different cultures and generations finding their way to forgiveness and redemption as they solve a murder together.

On your blog, you have a series of videos with other authors called, “What are you reading? What are you writing?” How did this get started? How often are you surprised by the other authors you talk to?

I believe in writers helping writers and I enjoy video conversations that are short, fun, and engaging. The vlog gives the interviewees an opportunity to meet different audiences and potential readers and provides me with the same opportunity. I have so much fun doing them. And, yes, I’m often surprised. One of the authors writes children’s books — Jason Lady. I purchased his book for my 10-year-old grandson, Aidan, an avid and discerning reader, who pronounced it “the best book I’ve ever read.” Jason sent him a signed copy of his second book and offered to speak to class. Other authors have helped me with marketing ideas, offered to be beta readers for my third novel, shared encouragement. Most I met for the first time right before the interview. Writers are generous.

What is the most difficult scene for you to write? What is the easiest?

It depends on the characters. In Getting It Right, I cried through my protagonist, Kara’s, confrontation with the father who abandoned her. In Tangled Lies, I wanted Dani, who is 25, a hot mess and in love, not to come off too needy but I also wanted the reader to feel her hunger.

What behind-the-scenes tidbit in your life would probably surprise your readers the most?

I began writing at age 12 and declared being a writer as my career ambition in my high school graduation yearbook. My debut novel came out when I was 69. Poets & Writers magazine did a two-page spread on me in their 5 over 50 series. I’m living proof that one is never too old for dreams to come true.

Which comes first, the plot or the characters in the planning stages?

Always the characters. One of them starts talking to me. I can see and hear her. I ask her questions. She lets me know she wants her story told. Then I think through the plot. Sometimes, the characters take the plot to places I hadn’t considered. I write about strong, complex women and they can be bossy. LOL

What are some things you like to do to relax when you aren’t writing or working?

My husband Bob and I are serial volunteers. We serve on nonprofit boards, help feed those with food insecurities, and pitch in when others need a hand. We also date at least once a week and we’re both deeply involved with our family.

If you could have one all-year season, which would it be and why?

Spring. The weather is lovely, the flowers and trees showy, lots of birds and animals busy with new families, and people often feel hopeful. Some days I write for four or five hours, others I can only squeeze in 15 to 30 minutes, but I try to write every day. It takes me about a year to complete a first draft. And then years of editing!

Do you prefer ebooks, audiobooks or physical books? Are you reading anything now?

Yes, yes, and yes. I love books. I read on my tablet and listen when I’m working out. I own stacks of physical books and my “to read” list is long! I just finished Four Winds by Kristin Hannah and before that Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby and A.J. McCarthy’s new book Faux Friends. My vlog introduces me to so

many books, it is hard to keep up, but I enjoy trying. One can’t be or become a good writer without being a constant reader.

What would you like to say to fans, and where can they follow you?

Thank you. Thank you for reading Getting It Right and Tangled Lies. Thanks for following me, sending me notes, hosting me at your book clubs and conferences. For those who are meeting me for the first time please visit my website — www.KarenEOsborne.com, subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and on Amazon.

| KArEn E. OSBOrnE |

Enjoy an excerpt from Ancient Dreams Blood and Shadows

Tangled Lies Karen E. Osborne Mystery/Thriller Releases July 22

On an ice day in February, Vera Moon arrives home to find her grown son, Charlie, brutally murdered. Three months later, she is involved in a suspicious hit-and-run accident, witnessed by Dani, a twenty-five-yar old on the run from the train-wreck of her own life. As circumstances throw Vera and Dani into an unlikely alliance, the two find themselves embroiled in a web of and truths and lies that imperils them both, but also may bring Charlie’s murderer to justice.

Excerpt

Chapter 1 Vera Disquiet hung in the air. It filled Vera’s lungs, traveled down her spine, and spread by tingling nerves to her limbs, fingertips, and toes. She stood still and concentrated. Wintry gusts chilled her cheeks. She listened. Nothing. She hoisted her re-usable grocery bags and struggled across the parking lot, careful to step around the ice patches from the recent February storm. The cold converted her breaths to fog-puffs. Already low in the sky, the pale sun made it around four. She promised Charlie dinner by seven — chicken again, but she planned to dress it up. Glazed carrots, scratch biscuits, and brownies for dessert. All three of her adult children loved chocolate. The unmistakable stench of fresh urine assailed

her nose. Vera pressed the elevator button. What a place. Her late husband, Vincent, would be sick if he saw her here. With the fat of her thumb, its cuticle ragged, she pushed again. Something else she gave up. No more manicures or pedicures. No more trips to the hair salon to straighten her curls. Charlie had to find a proper job soon.

Six months without steady pay, only a contract here and there. He paid the rent and insurance, but Vera’s Social Security covered everything else. Charlie apologized for how and where they lived and sometimes, she hated to admit, for the unsavory-looking people who dropped by. What could she do? She was a guest with no options. A positive person, she focused on the minor pleasures of her life instead. Dancing in the living room to Motown, The Brian Lehrer Show on public radio, and novels she borrowed from the library. Although Charlie decorated the apartment using inexpensive pieces he scavenged, he had made room for some of her favorite things — the walnut bookcase, her hand-knotted Persian rug, an antique floorlength mirror, and two wing chairs covered in plush mocha. There were days, however, when she cringed at the trash-edged grass and the hall’s vexing brown stains. For the third time, Vera hit the elevator’s upbutton. Please God, send it down. She stopped. How selfish to pray for a working elevator while children starved in Somalia. She took the prayer back and waited. No creak or bang. The super had promised to fix it more than a week ago. Never mind. She was not too old to climb four flights. She started up the narrow staircase. By the time she reached the third-floor landing, her breathing became audible. God created elevators for a reason. She pushed on and made it to her front door anticipating comfort and peace. She imagined the lavender scent of her bath, heard the water’s undercurrent, and the soundtrack provided by Smokey and Gladys, easing tired muscles before she turned her attention to dinner. One bag still in her hand and the other on the welcome mat, Vera inserted her key.

The door swung open. Silence.

“Charlie?”

Brandy’s yelps pierced the eerie quiet.

Cold air stung her ankles.

Charlie’s writing desk lay crippled, almost halved, wood splinters scattered across the Persian rug. Her treasured bookcase sat face down next to the desk. Papers, books, and shards of glass spiraled out from the epicenter. The grocery bag slammed to the ground. Coffee and canned tomatoes thumped onto the hardwood floor. A dozen eggs puddled around her feet, oozing over a bloody footprint.

She stepped inside.

Brandy, her bark almost a human wail, strained against her collar and leash, bound to something outside the opened living room window. Blood smeared her matted coat.

Angling around the debris, right hand pressed against the wall, Vera followed the blood smears to Charlie’s bedroom.

The stench of raw meat, vomit, and feces filled her nostrils. A metallic taste made her gag. Splattered blood streaked the walls, dark red, almost black. His head faced her on a blood-soaked mattress. Huge brown eyes, always amused, stared opaque and blank. His opened mouth seemed to call to her. Cocoa-brown skin stretched over sunken cheekbones. Her legs sagged. A weight crushed her chest.

She forced her gaze away from his.

Only then she saw the rest of his body, two feet away, severed from his head.

This is Murphy. I didn’t pick him. He picked me. We got him when he was a just a little bitty thing. He took one look at me and started trying to climb the kennel wall to get to me. We got him out, he curled into my lap and stayed there contented as he could be. He then walked over to sniff my husband, give him a lick, and came right back to me and snuggled in again. This was HUGE. My husband is like the dog whisperer. They never love me more than they love him. So I knew, that was it. Murphy was my meanttobe-baby.

ZOLA BLUE & Xena

Xena and I. She’s like my own daughter. Captain in my series The Adventures of Owl, is a vampire attacking Mau and Owl’s constant companion through any and all antiquities chasing adventure. While Captain is a fictional creature, he is shamelessly based off my very own sock-eviscerating Ragdoll, Flash.

WILLIAM GENSBURGER & Dinkerson

I’ve attached a photo of Dinkerson, our cat. She plays fetch, is very affectionate, not nocturnal, and wakes us up at 6 am each morning (on the dot) by knocking my wife’s reading glasses off the bedside table.

KRISTI CHARISH & Flash

AUTHORS AND THEIR PETS

Pets and companions come in many shapes and sizes. From furry to feathered to hairy and scaley - there is a place for all of them. Authors have a special relationship with their pets - whether they remind them to get up and take a break or they inspire their writing. Meet the critters that share their love and devotion to Uncaged Feature Authors.

LEN BOSWELL & Shadow . I’ve attached a pic of one of my dogs, Shadow. He’s a bit of a goofball now, but his early days were far from fun. His previous owners kicked him, shattering his femur. My wife and I were lucky enough to rescue the little guy, who is now an 80-pound lapdog.