Bettye Griffin has written over 13 romances and contemporary women’s fiction that feature strong African American characters.

Her books include At Long Last Love (1998); A Love of Her Own (1999); Prelude to a Kiss (2001); Straight to the Heart (2004); The People Next Door (2005) as well as A Love for All Seasons and If These Walls Could Talk which will be appearing in May and June of this year, respectively.

Since fall 2006, she has been writing Chewing the Fat with Bettye, a blog where she posts regular commentaries on current issues and events.

In a recent interview, Bettye Griffin spoke about her writing.

What are the biggest challenges that you face? And, how do you deal with them?

Trying to come up with fresh ideas is a challenge, because I’d prefer not to write anything that’s been done a hundred times before!

I keep on plugging at it until I come up with what I want. Just like Thomas Edison with the electric light and Alexander Graham Bell with the telephone. Except I don’t work in a laboratory, and what I’m doing isn’t going to change the world.

Inspiration is everywhere, so I stay on the alert, listening to those human-interest stories on the news and in women’s magazines, and others. I have a couple of special sources I use in particular, but that’s a secret I will carry with me to my urn. Gotta protect my sources, as they say in the news biz.

What are you working on at present?

The working title (the publisher’s marketing department may choose to change it) is The First Fifty Years. It’s about four friends from childhood turning 50, and the life-altering events for each that stem from a tenants’ reunion of the Chicago public housing project where they grew up.

It is due to my publisher, Dafina Books, by July 1st and will be published sometime in 2008.

After The First Fifty Years I will probably write another romance. I’ve got a number of story outlines completed. I’m also working on the plot-line for a combined sequel to The People Next Door and Nothing but Trouble, because so many readers have asked for one. I can’t make any promises about when it’ll be ready - the process from idea to completed plot to proposal to publication can take quite a while.