Katie's World Outside Writing

Katie’s World!

What’s Katie’s world like outside of writing and what does she do when she’s not writing? Well, as her Personal Assistant (and husband), I’ll do my best to describe it.

Romance Author Katie O’Connor’s world outside writing revolves around two things: Her grandchildren and her land. She spends as time as she can with her grandchildren aged 8, 6, 5, 3 and 3. Three girls and two boys. The best part of being a grandparent is you have all the fun and none of the headaches. You can spoil them rotten and treat them like gold. The parents have the tough job. All we grandparents do is try to pass on our wisdom. There’s a lot you learn in the first rodeo that can be modified and improved in the second. We try to pass on what we learned in the first go around, and we usually learned it the hard way.

Katie is young enough to enjoy her grandchildren to the max. Whether it’s skating (and yes, the 8 year old is very good skater), swimming, riding quads, hiking, or dirt biking, Katie does it all. It’s often an enjoyable distraction from her writing. As her PA, I have to keep her time with her grandchildren in balance or Katie wouldn’t get her words in.

Katie’s Retreat

This is where Katie’s land comes into play. She calls it Sanctuary and has it in preparation for what she calls the inevitable “Zombie Apocalypse”. No, Katie’s not a tinfoil hatter (a mad hatter maybe) but always likes to be prepared. One of her favorite quotes is from an old Segal movie: “luck favors the prepared” (send her an email if you can name the movie…and yes, I know, you can google it…be honest). Sanctuary is her fortress of solitude. Her place of comfort and peace. Well, not too comfortable as she has to use a poop bucket but, hey in time she will improve the “facilities”.

Sanctuary is also the place where she will teach her grandchildren to drive a quad, drive a truck, shoot a rifle, shoot a bow, use a chainsaw, wield an axe, swing a machete or anything else Katie can think of. It’s a place where Katie can look away from her computer and see mule deer, white tails, foxes, and the occasional elk. She can sit outside and read or just enjoy the sun and the wind. If the weather turns, she can sit inside and listen to the thunder and watch the lightening. She can go for a long walks or jump on her quad and ride.

Katie’s Camp Fire

At night, Katie enjoys sitting by the camp fire. That’s where the Fire Bug in Katie comes out. She loves a big fire. I mean BIG. She built her her fire pit using 7 patio blocks and surrounding that with rocks that had to be pulled with the truck. She’s always telling me to add more wood. I spend a lot of time bucking dead trees to keep her fire happy.