Author Interview—Cayce Osborne

I have been deep into travel planning lately, including a trip to visit my daughter in Idaho next month. I’m also planning a trip to Norway next summer to see the polar bears, fjords, glaciers, and other pretty scenery. Seeing polar bears has been at the top of my bucket list for some time and you know how I love to travel, so I’m really excited for this adventure trip.

This week you can read about someone else who loves to travel, Cayce Osborne. Cayce is the author of I Know What You Did, a suspense thriller. I love a good suspense thriller, so this one is definitely going on the reading list. Enjoy the interview!

About the Author

Cayce Osborne is a writer and graphic designer. When not writing, she spends time being a mom, cooking, traveling, stalking the shelves at her local library, subscribing to way too many streaming services, and attempting arts and crafts of all kinds. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband Mike, two crazy boys, and one goofy Australian shepherd named Confetti.

Interview

Who or what inspires you to write?

Reading great books is always inspiring. But also the place I grew up, the places I travel, the people I meet. A story or a book idea can come from something as small as a conversation I overheard in line at the DMV, or even an interesting outfit someone is wearing that makes me wonder: now why did they select that from their closet today? A plot point in I Know What You Did (my debut novel, just published in July) came from something creepy my younger son said on the way home from daycare one day—but I can’t tell you what it was because of spoilers!

Now I am totally intrigued and can’t wait to read it. What is the best thing that has happened because of your writing?

It has to be the people I’ve met. I’ve connected with people from all over the world through writing and publishing, and they are so supportive and encouraging. I’ve found beta readers and cheerleaders and excellent advice-givers. There’s so much rejection that comes with putting your writing out into the world. I don’t know if I would have kept going without my fellow writers.

Writers are incredibly supportive, encouraging—and interesting. They definitely help us get over the rough spots. What is the most difficult thing you have experienced about writing or publishing?

I’m sure a lot of people would answer rejection. And, yeah, it’s not great. But I was prepared for that going in. I would say it’s the learning curve. First, learning about my own writing process—am I a plotter? A pantser? What do those even mean? How do I approach editing? How do I know when my book is finished? No one can answer those questions for you because every writer is different. We all have to fumble our way through. But also, learning about the publishing process. How do I write a query? What agents do I approach? OK, I got an agent, now what? The list goes on. Thankfully, there are lots of resources out there (I recommend Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum and, online, janefriedman.com). But nothing will teach you faster than making your own mistakes.

You’re so right that the learning curve is huge and the list of things to tackle seems unending. Was there anything you didn’t do during your writing or publishing journey that you wish you had?

I would’ve slowed down. Every time I neared the finish line with a manuscript I was in such a rush to get it out the door to agents. I’m not sure why. I think I was excited for the next step, and anxious that … I don’t know, someone else had written the exact same book as me and would beat me to the perfect agent? It sounds silly, but I think the idea of having a good book idea stolen or scooped plagues a lot of writers. A good story idea, one that a writer is willing to commit to for eighty thousand words, doesn’t come along every day. It gives even the steadiest among us a panic attack to contemplate someone else getting there first. But in reality, no one is ever going to write the exact same book as another writer. And it’s in our own best interest to give it the time it needs to be the best book possible.

Slowing down to make a book the best it can be is such good advice. Do you have a publisher and/or agent, or are you an indie (self-published) or hybrid author?

I don’t have an agent at the moment. I’ve burned through two in my quest to get a novel published. The first left the business, and the second declined to represent my latest book—and this is the book that sold. I submitted it (unagented) to a smaller publishing house and my editor plucked it out of the slush pile. Both agents I worked with were encouraging and wonderful, but the earlier books of mine that they represented just didn’t sell. It happens. At the time these felt like failures, but I learned so much from each book—and these agents—that now I see them as stepping stones that got me where I am now.

With so many books being written, finding a publisher is a great accomplishment. Congratulations! Which genre(s) do you like to write in, and why?

I’ve done a lot of experimenting. Story contests are great for that, where you are assigned a genre and prompts—my favorite is NYC Midnight. It has let me try on a lot of different writing styles. I found a love for mystery and for comedy, and I think that’s where I’ve settled: suspense/mystery with a few sprinkles of comedy thrown in. I think that’s certainly where my debut, I Know What You Did falls. And my work-in-progress is also a mystery.

I hadn’t considered using story contests as a way to test out different writing styles—what a great idea. Do you outline your books before you write them?

Would my high school English teacher approve of my outline process? Er, no. But I do jot down some plot points before I start writing in earnest. I usually start with a what-if question—in the case of my debut: What if my name, and the secret I was hiding, appeared in the pages of a bestselling novel? I spend some time thinking about where the plot might go, maybe come up with a possible first line so I can find the tone I’m going for. Then I kind of blurt out all the bits and bobs I’ve thought of in a bulleted “outline” document, and write from there. It was during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) that I first found success with this method. Before that, I was truly a pantser, writing and seeing where things would go.

That sounds like an outlining strategy I could get behind. How do you define success as a writer?

Most of all, enjoying the ride. Can writing be frustrating? Yes. Can rejections feel crushing? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, if I want to keep doing it, that’s a success. Achieving goals feels good, and they can be a measure of success, but once you reach them there’s always something new to reach for. I want to feel like I’m getting better as a writer and that people are enjoying what I write.

That’s the first time I’ve heard that definition of success from another writer and I love it. If you could have lunch with any author, who would it be?

Ooh, hard question! There are so many writers I admire. It’s a tie between Sara Gran and Kevin Wilson. Can all three of us go to lunch? I think they’d get along. I love Gran’s voice and her take on the detective novel and the way she writes women. Wilson’s ideas and his writing blow me away, I want to crawl into his brain. (That sounded creepy. Sorry, Kevin.) They’ve both been huge influences on me. Lunch conversation would include: their favorite writers, what influences their books, the weirdest way they’ve ever gotten a story idea, where they like to write, and what they’re working on next.

Those authors are new to me so I’ll have to check them out. Tell us about a great adventure you’ve had.

Does parenthood count? It’s for sure the wildest, weirdest, biggest adventure I’ve ever had. But I love to travel as well, and there’s always an element of adventure in that. A few highlights: I once flew to Las Vegas for twenty-four hours and watched my recently divorced coworker throw her wedding ring in the fountain at Caesar’s. My husband and I took the kids on a train trip from Chicago to Albuquerque and I fell in love with train travel. I went to Myrtle Beach with a friend for spring break when we were seventeen because we were obsessed with the movie Shag—I love a good road trip. But I hope my biggest adventures are still to come.

Parenthood is definitely an adventure! And you’re singing my song with road trips. Cayce, thank you so much for sharing some of your story with us!

Readers, you can find out more about Cayce and her book on her website, www.cayceosborne.com.

I Know What You Did

Petal Woznewski is content with her quiet, introverted life in New York City: she has her junk food, her movies, and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Gus. That peace is shattered when her name appears on the dedication page of an anonymously written thriller with a cryptic note: “I know what you did, Petal Woznewski. And now everyone else will, too.”

As she reads, Petal realizes the story is rooted in a secret she buried thirty years earlier, when she was fourteen. A secret involving the tragic death of her friend, Megan. A secret that only one other person knows—their old friend, Jenny. Armed with a copy of the book and her own suspicions, Petal returns to her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. There, she discovers more questions than answers. Jenny has disappeared, and Petal’s old high school crush, Ben, doesn’t know anything about the book—at least not anything he’s telling.

As sinister clues pile up, and the thriller’s plot detours dangerously from the facts, Petal has no choice but to confront her past and solve the mystery of who wrote it—before her very real life ends as tragically as the novel.

Readers, have you done any train travel? Let us know in the comments!