Today, I welcome Katie O’Rourke to Five on Friday. Be sure to consider her latest release, Blood and Water, along with all of her other books. She’s a fellow Kindle Scout Winner. Also, follow her on social media.

 I’m a hybrid author. My debut novel, Monsoon Season, was traditionally published along with A Long Thaw, which I later rereleased on my own. Finding Charlie, was chosen for publication by Kindle Scout in 2015 and was recently made into an audio book. I released my fourth book, Blood & Water, in 2018.

I write family sagas with overlapping characters, so there should be some familiar faces. The stories in these books exist on their own and can be read in any order, independently from each other. I don’t write sequels, but because all of my characters live in the same world, there’s an opportunity to revisit the past.

 Tucson, Arizona is a place for runaways. Everyone came from somewhere else and has a story about what they left behind.

Delilah arrives on her brother’s doorstep with a secret. She hasn’t seen him in five years. He ran away from their family long ago for reasons no one talks about and she still doesn’t understand. The stress of raising his teenage daughter alone sometimes makes David envious of his deliberately childless friends, Tim and Sara, but they’re runaways too, harboring secrets of their own. Blood & Water tells their stories and traces the deep connections between this unlikely group of friends.

This novel is about family, in its various manifestations: the one you’re born into, the one you choose and the one you create.

Now, for Katie’s Five selected questions.

If there was one person, real, fiction or fantasy, you could spend time with, who would it be and why?

My friend Debbie who lives on the east coast and I never see. We’ve known each other forever and she makes me laugh harder than anyone I know.

Ann: Good friends are just the best. Time passes, but once you get together, it’s like things take up right where they left off!

Name the last three books you read.

Saints For All Occasions, by J Courtney Sullivan
A House Among the Trees, by Julia Glass
The Baggage Carousel, by David Olner

Ann: I’ve not read any of those. I’ll have to check them out.

Do you have a secret? Something you’ve never told anyone…just answer yes or no.

Yes.

Ann: The record holds. I’ve never had anyone answer “no” to this question!!

What is your favorite book and why?

I have so many favorites, but Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You is one of them. I love stories about dysfunctional families, which is such a redundant phrase. Ng’s book is a beautiful exploration of family dynamics and the struggle to know and be known in spite of miscommunication, secrets and silence.

Ann: You write family sagas so it stands to reason you would love books in that same category. I write romance, so that’s what I love the most!

Do you belong to a critique group?

I have an online critique group that I’ve been part of for several years. I’ve had to drop out a bit from time to time when my life gets hectic, but I always go back. It’s great to get feedback on whatever I’m working on at the moment, but it’s even more helpful to have the support of people who “get” me and know the shorthand of being a writer. Writing can be such a solitary endeavor and it’s important to find that sense of community.

Ann: This is one of my top five suggestions to new writers. Always join a critique group. Without honest feedback, we can never become better writers.

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/katiewritesfiction/
Twitter- https://twitter.com/katieorourke78
Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5806453.Katie_O_Rourke