Interview with Lorhainne Eckhart, author of The Family Secret

What can you tell us about your new release, The Family Secret?

Lies, deception and love, a big family secret that turns into a tangled web that affects everyone in the family. The Family Secret is a family story about a crime surrounding the six O’Connell siblings and their mother, about a father who disappeared 18 years ago, and questions arise about what really happened to Raymond O’Connell. This family has deep dark secrets and when a body is found and circumstantial evidence is manufactured, the DA is out for blood and it seems it doesn’t matter whose as long as it’s O’Connell blood as small town politics come into play and lives are destroyed. Although part of a series, each book can be read as stand alone, but like all series it contains references to situations from earlier books in the series, their changing relationships and how the O’Connell family lives continue to unfold.

What books are currently on your nightstand?

My kindle is usually beside my bed, and although I just finished Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls, I’m now currently writing The Return of the O’Connells, so my current nightstand reading is on hold. I do not read other authors when I’m writing, as soon as I’m done, I take a few days and binge read, I don’t have one favorite author and I tend to read a lot of different genres. I do prefer series especially about families, romance, suspense, mystery and prefer a mix of all.

What advice would you give your teenage self?

If only I could go back and have a redo, in all honestly, I have reminded myself I wouldn’t be who I am today if I did. So even though I’d love to go back and give advice to my teenage struggling misfit I likely wouldn’t, all because as hard as it was, going back and changing anything with the kind of advice to make things better, easier, wouldn’t have me being who I am today. But having said that my advice then would have been to love me and who I am, and it doesn’t matter what people say or believe about you. It only matters that you love you, no one else’s opinions matter so stop worrying about what people think of you. You have a great smile, look in the mirror and love everything about you, because your perfect and there is no such thing as failing or mistakes, because not doing anything is failing, trying and not succeeding is you’ve just learned something and move on and hold your head up high and try something else, try again. That’s what I would say to the teenage misfit who struggled for years trying to find her footing never realizing that, I am enough.

If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?

First, I would remind myself that the extra hour is not for working. I would spend it likely outdoors with my kids having some fun, in my garden, playing some super competitive game with my kids, maybe do some family time fun dinner together. Because working all the time writing books, promoting is a seven day a week career, and balancing family life, fun and the life of a career author for me easily slips to more hours in a day. But just as important is reminding myself to make that me time and have some fun. Family, friends and anything outdoors. Considering since covid, the super-competitive dragonboat racing team we’re part of has been has been put on hold. We’ll hopefully see everyone back on the water next year.

What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?

You mean other than being an author, which is my dream job. Seriously every morning it feels like Christmas to me as I put my feet on the ground because I love everything about being a career author. My kids who are now early twenties to late teens and they are a ton of fun and then there are early mornings which is my favorite time of the day, my life. Seriously I love who I am, where I live, morning coffee outside, the forest, the outdoors, the trees, my cat. The peace and quiet and the occasional bear that is sitting on my front lawn in the morning. It’s the little things too that I really appreciate and love, the wind on my face and then the storms. I seriously love when a big windy rainstorm blows in.

What scene in The Family Secret was your favorite to write?

There were a few pivotal scenes, including the last chapter, which I really really enjoyed. But it was one destructive moment in the O’Connell family where Iris’s home had been turned upside down, the destruction from law enforcement, the very personal violation that was done in such a cruel and thoughtless and deeply violating manner that had the family rallying and then one of their own showing up and forced to arrest a woman whose life was being destroyed all because of circumstantial evidence. It was the reaction of all the family, their desperation, and the fact their worlds were turned upside down. It was the reaction of the community, the spotlight and the cruelness that the family suddenly found themselves on the other side of the law and very much in the court of public opinion.

Lorhainne Eckhart is the author of the new book The Family Secret.

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