Florida Book Feature

Reckonings by Karen E. Osborne

Aspiring playwright Roxy Quinton has kept a secret for eighteen years. When charismatic Spider Booth comes back to town just before her debut play opens, Roxy fears he will twist the truth, reveal the secret for his own purposes, and destroy her family in the process. With memorable characters, expert writing, and a completely believable plot, this book explores love, family, friendship, community, and justice.

Genre: Women's Fiction

Subgenres: Suspense and Family Saga

Special categories: All my books include multi-racial characters.

My protagonist is Black.

Author name: Karen E. Osborne (the middle E is important. Evidently there are other Karen Osborne's writing away)

Author special category: I'm a Black author. I'm also 75 years old and my first book came out at 69.

Poets and Writers featured it in their 5 Over 50 issue the year

Author location: Port Saint Lucie

Publication Date: July 2022

Book awards: Maxy Award Finalist in Suspense category. Winners to be announced May 2.

Publishing company: Black Rose Writing

Tell us about your book: Roxy is 36 years old, married for 18 years to her childhood sweetheart, and along with her husband Carl works in a beauty salon and school, and lives in a tiny two-bedroom/one-bath apartment with four children and two rescue dogs. Both she and Carl are unhappy with their lives. Added to their worries is Jewel, their oldest daughter who is pregnant and won't tell them who the father is. And Roxy has a secret and a dream.

18 years ago Spider Booth raped her, that's the secret. She never told Carl or anyone except her best friend and now Spider is back in town, a wealthy developer threatening to claim Jewel as his daughter. Her dream is buying a house for her family and she believes, as far-fetched as it is -- that her play which opens in 10 days in the local community theater -- is the answer. During two weeks in hot and steamy August, Roxy tries to keep Spider at bay, stage her play, and save her family.

What was the inspiration for this book? I write about flawed, relatable women, most recovering from trauma, dysfunctional families, and issues around toxic secrets, lies, forgiveness, and redemption. Characters talk to me in my head demanding their story be told. So, I start writing.

What is one thing you would like the reader to know about your book or one of the characters in your book? Roxy makes so many mistakes, at times I just want to shake her. But she is blessed with a good heart, a husband who loves her, and a best friend we'd all like to have.

Was there anything special about writing this book that you would like to mention? Finding an agent and then a publisher for Getting It Right took a long time with lots of rejection. Tangled Lies as well. But once Tangled Lies was published (receiving awards, making the Kindle bestseller list twice), my publisher was eager to publish my next two. Hanging in. Not getting discouraged (mostly) paid off big time.

A unique fact about you: Is being a 75-year-old Black writer unique? Prior to my novelist life, I traveled the world helping nonprofits. I've spoken, trained, and consulted all over the US, Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Canada, and Mexico.

Preferred pronoun: She/her

Author social media accounts:

On Twitter as @kareneosborne

On Facebook as Karen E Osborne, Author

On YouTube as Karen E. Osborne

On Instagram as @writerkareneosborne

Karen E. Osborne on Bookbub

Author website: www.kareneosborne.com

What Are You Reading? What Are You Writing? BLOG | kareneosborne

Other books by the author:

Getting It Right (2017)

Tangled Lies came (2021)