Now it’s time to learn more about the authors we read. . .

Why do you write the genre that you write?
I used to want to write something more in the vein of the early Oprah books, but after a while I realized many of the women characters were victims. In the late ‘80s, a friend gave me a Sara Paretsky novel, and VI Warshawski showed me that in contemporary crime fiction, strong female protagonists kick ass and take no prisoners. That completely changed everything for me.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?
In Hidden, when Nicole gets onion rings, she pulls the onions out of the breading. That’s the best I can do. My characters seem to be remarkably quirk-free.

How did you come up with your pseudonym?
No pseudonym, but I wanted to keep my middle initial since it was part of my reporter byline.

Tell us how you got into writing?
It’s a bit of a cliché, but I read Little Women when I was 9 and decided I wanted to be a writer like Jo March. It wasn’t long after that, that I wrote my first “book,” about a family who adopts a lion named George on a trip to Africa and brings him home on the airplane. Hilarity ensues.

What jobs have you held before, during and/or after you became a writer?
I was a cook in a nursing home, cleaned houses, been a waitress at Friendly’s, worked at an advertising agency, spent years in newspapers as a reporter and then copy editor, edited a medical journal and worked in the acquisitions department of a university press. Oh, and I was a cocktail waitress for one night.

How many books do you have published?
An Inconvenient Wife is Number 13

Where do you write?
Wherever I can. Mostly in my office in my house or on my porch. I love to bring my laptop to my pool club in the summer. I’ve written five books there.

What is your favorite deadline snack?
Pretzels and a glass of iced water with lemon

Who is an author you admire?
Hilary Mantel. Her Wolf Hall trilogy is so brilliant in so many ways.

What’s your favorite genre to read?
For fiction, I read mostly crime and historicals. Nonfiction usually has something to do with the Tudors.

What are you reading now?
Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack; The House of Dudley by Joanne Paul; and The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill on audio.

What is your favorite beverage to end the day?
I have come to appreciate a small glass of tawny port after dinner. There’s something quite civilized about it.

What is next for you?
I’m working on a sequel to An Inconvenient Wife

Where can we find you?
My website, kareneolson.com, and I’m on Facebook, Instagram and Threads

Now to have some fun . . .

Chocolate, vanilla, or another flavor
Chocolate

Ice cream or cake
Ice cream (I have an odd affinity for Carvel ice cream cakes)

Fruits or vegetables
I like them both, especially any kind of berry and Brussels sprouts

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Breakfast

Dining in or dining out
Dining in; my husband is an amazing cook.

City life or country living
When I was younger, I would have said city, but now definitely country.

Beach or mountain
Despite growing up near the beach, I’m not really a beach person. Too much sand. So, mountains.

Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall
Summer, hands down.

Extrovert or introvert
I was an introvert before I became a reporter, but now I’m an extrovert because I was forced to actually talk to people and ask questions. Now I ask questions all the time because it’s the only way to find out about things I don’t know about and to understand people and the world.

Early bird or night owl
Definitely early bird. I turn into a pumpkin at about 10 pm!

And even more fun . . .

What’s your favorite movie?
The Palm Beach Story with Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert. I’ve seen it a million times and I laugh as much now as I did the first time I saw it, but it’s also an amazing social commentary.

You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
If there’s one thing I’ve learned by watching Survivor, I would absolutely need a flint to make fire and boil water; fishing equipment; and a sharp knife.

My bio:
Karen E. Olson is the author of the Annie Seymour and tattoo shop mysteries and the Black Hat thrillers. Her new book, An Inconvenient Wife, is a modern retelling of Henry VIII and his wives as a crime novel. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and a cat named Seamus.