Secrets are revealed here in the Cayce Osborne CONFIDENTIAL Dossier -

Cayce Osborne
I Know What You Did

When a bestselling novel fictionalizes the death of her childhood best friend—and accuses her of the murder—Petal Woznewski must figure out who wrote it and why. Truth and fiction collide in this captivating debut novel by Cayce Osborne.

The Writer’s Dossier 3/31/2025 – The Cayce Osborne interview

DOSSIER: What’s the deal with your silly Australian Shepherd, Confetti? Where did you get that name and what crazy thing has Confetti done that really stands out?

OSBORNE: I purchased Confetti in a rural Minnesota feed store parking lot, in a hand-over-the-money-and-I’ll-hand-you-the-puppy situation.

It was spring 2020, and we’d been looking for a puppy to join our family while we were all stuck at home during COVID. Everyone else had the same idea—all the shelters and rescues were fresh out of puppies. I’d always wanted an Aussie but didn’t want to go through a breeder. I’d troll Aussie fan sites on Facebook during my lunch hour (when I should’ve been writing) and dream. One day, a guy posted about a litter his two pet Aussies had—he was going to keep one and sell the rest. I took a chance and messaged him, and we arranged a time and place to meet. He didn’t ask for a deposit or anything, and agreed to drive an hour east to meet us. We drove the four hours from our house in Wisconsin, and the whole time I wasn’t sure if the guy was going to show up or if I was about to get scammed (or robbed) of the cash that I’d brought to pay him. But he showed up with his young daughter, who was clearly having trouble letting go of the puppy, and the whole thing went fine. On the way home, the four of us (my husband and I have two boys) started shouting out name suggestions. The puppy had black spots all over his coat—like someone had confetti bombed him. The kids liked the name, so the decision was made. His official name, according to them, is Confetti Cannon Osborne. But most of the time we just call him Fetti for short.

Best first line winner

DOSSIER: When I heard a recent live reading of your book, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, my first thought was, “There’s your best first line winner!” What’s one of the big standouts from your book that you had hoped people would take away from it?

OSBORNE: I worked for a long time on that opening scene, and I’m thrilled that readers are responding to it. With this book, the character came first and I knew that she might be a polarizing personality for some people. She’s grumpy, she pushes people away, and she has a troubled past. I knew that if readers were going to keep reading, I’d need to grab them with some sympathy for her, and some humor. So, of course, I decided to open the book in a gynecologist’s office.

I hope people will take away that my character, Petal Woznewski, is ornery not because she’s mean, but because she has reason to be. Inside, she’s quite sensitive. As the story progresses she gets more comfortable with letting her softness show, and some of her defense and coping mechanisms fall away. My general idea with the opening scene was to get people to come for the laughs, and stay for the heart. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s what my aim is for all my books.

All her writing chaos

DOSSIER: Where and when do you like to write? You hanging out in the quad up in Madison? Is Confetti barking at one of your parakeets telling it to shut up?

OSBORNE: Writing amidst the chaos is definitely my M.O. I write on lunch breaks, at my kids’ karate school, in coffee shops, on the couch while my husband watches the Chicago Bears lose. And I’ve learned to do a lot of my “writing” in my head. I’m plotting and planning for when I get those precious hours in front of the keyboard: while I’m falling asleep at night, in the shower, swimming at the Y, chauffeuring my kids around. Just this morning, while in the pool, I hammered out the opening line of a new story I’m working on.

I have a day job, so writing time can be limited, and I often wonder what will happen when I don’t work full time anymore. Will that be better, or worse for my writing life? I have no choice but to make the most of the time I have now. If I have unlimited time, will the drive to write slow? I hope not. Being able to write all day sounds like a luxury.

What’s in a title

DOSSIER: Your novel (I KNOW WHAT YOU DID) shares a similar title with fellow Dossier member K.T. Nguyen’s YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID. Has this caused any confusion or angst for either of you? Where do you fall on picking titles?

OSBORNE: Titles are tough! My publisher had me generate a long list of possibilities. I agonized over them for days before sending it off, secretly thinking they were all terrible. My working title when they bought the book was “I Know What You Did, Petal Woznewski.” We ended up just chopping her name off the end but otherwise sticking with the original.

When I first saw KT post about her book on social media (mine had just come out) I thought it was a funny coincidence. We hadn’t met, but I reached out to her and said if she ever wanted to do some sort of fun cross-promotion, I’d be game. I think, quite rightly, she was like: who is this weirdo and why are they messaging me out of the blue? But we’ve since gotten to meet and laugh about it—especially because there’s a recent release from Carter Wilson called “Tell Me What You Did”. In the book room at the recent Left Coast Crime conference in Denver, our books were right next to each other too, because our last names follow each other in the alphabet.

A potential mystery series? Yes, please!

DOSSIER: Is there anything else you’d like to reveal in your Dossier today? (We like headline-making breaking news and it gives our graphics department something to do other than play video games all day.)

OSBORNE: I’ve been doing a lot of writing since my debut came out in 2023, so right now I’m trying to sell my next novel! No news to share yet, but I’m hopeful. If it works out, the new one could be the first in a new mystery series. I also write short stories when the call for submission intrigues me, and I have one coming out later this year. It will be in an anthology from Down & Out Books called “Better Off Dead: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Elton John and Bernie Taupin”. My story will be in Volume 2, featuring songs from the latter half of their career, which will come out in December. There are so many great songs to choose from, they had to split it into two volumes. I chose “Midnight Creeper” as my inspiration song, purely for the title. It’s set in Madison during the Great Depression, and was inspired by stories my grandmother told me about the summer her brother had polio.

For those interested in keeping up with what I’m publishing next, they can visit my website at cayceosborne.com and check the Books & Stories page. There’s also a link to sign up for my monthly(ish) newsletter.