An Interview with Author Karen E.Osborne
Episode 80
Award-winning author Karen E. Osborne joins Authors Talking Bookish for a conversation about writing suspense and social-issue fiction, creating complex female characters, and exploring family, power, and moral choice through story. Karen shares insights into her novels, including Getting It Right, Justice for Emerson, True Grace, Reckonings, and Tangled Lies, as well as her journey as a writer and her experience hosting the weekly author-interview podcast What Are You Reading? What Are You Writing? Join us for a thoughtful conversation about storytelling, the writing life, and creating fiction that both entertains and makes us think.
SHOW NOTES:
Biography
Current Novels
On the Author’s Journey and Writing Life
Host to Host
Road to Publication
Rapid Fire Questions
Biography
Karen E. Osborne is an award-winning author of suspense and social-issue fiction, best known for writing mysteries and dramas centered on strong, flawed women navigating family, power, and moral choice. Her novels include Getting It Right: A Psychological Thriller, Justice for Emerson, a dual-timeline murder mystery; True Grace, historical fiction; Reckonings, suspense family drama; and Tangled Lies, a murder mystery.
Karen hosts the weekly, award-winning, author-interview, video podcast What Are You
Reading? What Are You Writing? She is an Elder in her church, volunteers for organizations supporting nonprofits and serves those in her community facing food insecurity and housing instability.
A native New Yorker now living in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, Karen shares her life with her
husband, Robert. They have two grown children and three grandsons.
Tangled Lies (2021) – A murder mystery thriller centered on complex family dynamics.
Reckonings (2022) – An award-winning indie drama focusing on moral choices and corporate power.
True Grace (2023) – A historical fiction family saga set during the Harlem Renaissance.
Justice for Emerson (2025) – A dual-timeline mystery that won Best Mystery of the Year.
Getting It Right October 15, 2026
Current Novels:
You describe your work as a blend of suspense and social-issue fiction. What do you find is the biggest challenge or the greatest opportunity in weaving serious social commentary into the high-stakes structure of a suspense novel?
Your novels often center on strong, flawed women. How do you balance giving a character strength while ensuring their flaws remain realistic and impactful to the plot?
In novels like Justice for Emerson, you utilize a dual-timeline structure. What does this format allow you to explore in terms of character development and mystery that a linear narrative might miss?
When writing about moral choice and power, how do you determine the 'breaking point' for your characters? How do you know when a character has been pushed far enough to make an irreversible decision?
Can you give us a sneak peek into Getting it Right, due out in October?
On the Author's Journey & The Writing Life:
You’ve written across a few different genres, from psychological thrillers to historical fiction. Does your research process change significantly depending on the genre, or do you have a core 'Karen E. Osborne' method that you apply to every book?
You’ve written almost a novel a year, how do you balance your writing time with life?
You are deeply involved in your community and church. How has your experience serving those facing food insecurity and housing instability influenced the social issues you choose to tackle in your fiction?
Host to Host:
You host the award-winning podcast What Are You Reading? What Are You Writing? Has interviewing other authors changed the way you view your own writing process or your relationship with your readers?
As someone who balances a writing career, podcasting, and community volunteer work, how do you protect your 'writing time' from the demands of your other passions?
Road to Publication:
What was your road to getting your first book published? Did you face any surprises along the way?
What was different the second time around? Third, etc. with each book
What does your typical day look like as a writer/author?
What is something, as an author, that you learned the hard way?
RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS
SOURCES & LINKS
Website: https://www.kareneosborne.com/
Video Podcast: https://www.kareneosborne.com/blog-1
Facebook: (20+) Karen E Osborne, Author | Facebook
YouTube: Karen E. Osborne - YouTube
Instagram: Instagram
LinkedIn: Karen E. Osborne | LinkedIn
Authors Talking Bookish https://www.authorstalkingbookish.com
Hope Gibbs, author of Where the Grass Grows Blue https://www.authorhopegibbs.com/
Donna Norman-Carbone, author of All That is Sacred & Of Lies and Honey https://www.donnanormancarbone.com
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