Karen Randau

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve always loved to write and have processed all my life’s milestones by writing about them, but I never thought I had the creativity to write a novel. One day I was confessing some disturbing thoughts to a co-worker and asked if she thought I was crazy. She said she thought I had a novel inside me that was screaming to get out. A few years later, I have 13 books, including my Rim Country Mysteries about a woman whose husband died in an Arizona theater shooting on their thirtieth wedding anniversary and later marries a small-town police detective and solves crimes with him, the Frankie Shep suspense series about a young widow who runs a Wyoming ranch and finds a human bone one stormy night only to become stalked by a serial killer, and the Kayla Walsh mystery-suspense series about a young woman who walked in on a deadly home invasion and is now on a quest to bring the man who murdered her parents to justice.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Nowhere to Hide is the first book in my Kayla Walsh mystery-suspense series. As with all of my books, my goal is to show that we are stronger than we think. As someone who has forever struggled with outlines, I usually have a book only about half planned before I start writing, sometimes knowing the ending and sometimes not. This time, I just wondered what it would take to get an athlete back to peak condition after a long coma. I wanted to show in this series that hard work pays off.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a house full of people, and that includes an active 7-year-old. I often get up in the middle of the night to write because that’s the only time I have peace and quiet.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love fast-paced books with intricate plots, so that’s what I write. I enjoy Kendra Elliot, Willow Rose, and several authors of clean romantic suspense.

What are you working on now?
I’m taking a crack at clean romantic suspense. My work in progress is about a couple who both served in Afghanistan and, thus, have PTSD. They meet when they’re caught in a tornado in Oklahoma. Together they solve the kidnapping mystery of a friend, and they fall in love in the process.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I primarily use multiple social media, BookBub, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn your craft, join writer groups in your genre, go to writer workshops and conferences, network with other authors, and produce a professional product before you start either pitching it or decide to self publish. That includes having your manuscript professionally edited and, if self-published, a professional cover design. Know that promotion takes a lot of effort – your books won’t sell itself.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep at it.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading Deadly Hunt by Margaret Daley, interspersed with a few other clean mystery romances.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m working on promoting all my books at the moment. I can’t seem to promote and write at the same time. They must use different parts of the brain.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m not sure what I’d take, but I sure wouldn’t take anything scary! Probably beach reads, all with a happy ending.

Author Websites and Profiles
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Karen Randau Amazon Profile

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