GO CONNIE!

[Relentless Aaron]

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — With a sea-green sleeveless shell showing off first-lady-worthy biceps, Connie Briscoe could be Michelle Obama's older sister-in-arms.
The author of five best-selling novels about black women's lives and loves, Briscoe is a serene presence in the family room of her spacious home in semi-rural Howard County.

Fifteen years ago, Briscoe struck publishing gold with her debut, Sisters & Lovers. Like Terry McMillan with her 1992 sensation Waiting to Exhale, Briscoe introduced America to an invisible woman — people like Briscoe.

Instead of the abused, impoverished heroines of novels such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Briscoe's page-turner starred middle-class black overachievers who were hungry for love and the American dream.

"Readers were starved for these kinds of novels," says Briscoe, 56. "Ones with universal themes — themes like finding a good man, having a girlfriend be supportive, getting along with your mother and sisters — but featuring African-American characters."