Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla Winters) is already a best-selling author. In 2008, her memoir, The Women Who Raised Me, ranked as one of the New York Times' best-selling books. The book chronicles her life growing up in foster care, and looks at the women who played a part in shaping and transforming her life.

Now, Rowell takes on fiction with her latest release, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva. The novel, released under Simon and Schuster's Atria Paperback banner, offers an intriguing look at the politics of daytime television. It's a true must-read for anyone who has ever devoted any of their time to watching "the stories."

The focus of Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva is Calysta Jeffries, the hottest Black actress in daytime, who is known for her work as Ruby Stargazer on the popular drama, The Rich and the Ruthless. Jeffries has been a member of the R&R cast for 15 years. In that time, she's returned from the dead three times, suffered two failed pregnancies, been abducted by aliens once, and overcome retrograde amnesia. Through it all, Calysta Jeffries has never won daytime's highest honor, the Sudsy.

This was to have been her year -- the year the long-time soap vet finally won her Sudsy. But she didn't. In a backstage interview, Jeffries lets loose with her true feelings about her co-star, Emmy Abernathy.

At 384 pages, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva is a fictitious work, but Rowell leaves fans wondering if there was any real-life inspiration for the characters and stories contained in the book. Readers need not be soap opera fans; the book tilts more towards the mystery side of fiction, so it's a good read for anyone with sleuth tendencies.

Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva is available now for purchase in bookstores and from online retailers.

Fans may also want to check out Rowell's first-ever single, "Stink of Blood with a Pinesol Chasah," available on iTunes.