When Oprah Calls …

… It’s all about the back cover of The Missing Five.

It is a beautiful sight when professional women come together to support one another. That is exactly what happened at my “second” signing hosted by Sophie Dunbar, owner of Creative Hands, on December 21 for my debut novel, The Missing Five.

This first day of Winter, which displayed a record-breaking temperature of 72 degrees, was a wonderful backdrop for us to discuss five middle-aged African-American men, missing without a trace, in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

One newly met fan, Claretta, adamantly said, “Well, I’m buying a book because I need to find one of these missing men for myself.” She went on to say, jokingly, that there is already a black man shortage in DC and now they’re disappearing! No wonder black women can’t find a man.” We laughed.

Another fan, Patricia, said she loved the cover, especially the back of the book. She wanted to know who created the cover. I’m proud to say that I created the cover.

Angie, a former coworker, turned my novel over and said, “DAMN! Who is that glamorous woman on the back?”

A secret about the photograph that I will only disclose here on my blog (wink, wink). The picture was taken in 2002 at a corporate holiday function. It’s the best picture I’ve ever taken and I’ve always loved it.

So, when I started writing my debut novel, The Missing Five, this photo was my inspiration of what my protagonist, Jackie Trumpleton, would look like–a confident, middle-aged African-American woman who was stunning when she got dolled up.

I love repeating the conversation I had with my oldest girlfriend when she first saw the cover. “You don’t look like that right now!” she exclaimed. My stock answer. “Yeah, but I will look exactly like that when Oprah calls and invites me on her show.” Everyone at the signing laughed. My friends know, without question, it’s a fact that’s easily fulfilled when I get the call. Note that I didn’t say “if” I get the call.

Last Saturday was another successful signing. We, the professional women, had loads of fun networking and bonding with one another.

To find out what happened to these middle-aged African-American men, buy my debut novel at:

Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobel.com, or for your eReader at Smashwords.com.