WAY: Did you expect your first novel to be a best seller?
Briscoe: Not at all! I never thought it would take off the way it did and that I would be able to leave my job.

WAY: Who are your role models?
Briscoe: My parents. I could do whatever I wanted, no matter what it was.

WAY: Where did you grow up
Briscoe: I grew up in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. I had a typical black middle-class upbringing. My family believed getting an education was important.

WAY: Where did you go to school?
Briscoe: I went to Hampton University.

WAY: Did you have an interpreter in college? Briscoe: No. Also, I did not even wear a hearing aid... Hampton being a rather small school, the classrooms were small...so it was not a problem.

WAY: How long have you been hearing impaired?
Briscoe: I grew up with mild hearing loss. I lost most of my hearing in my twenties. I wear a hearing aid now.

WAY: How many copies of your books have sold?
Briscoe: Sisters and Lovers has sold 105,000 in hardback and 250,000 in paperback, Big Girls Don't Cry has sold over 90,000 in hardback.

WAY: How do you communicate on your book tours?
Briscoe: For radio and television, especially live, I have to use an interpreter. For newspaper and magazine reporters, I have used an interpreter and done interviews without an interpreter. At book signings, I have an interpreter if there is background noise and people's voices are high.

WAY: Do you sign?
Bricoe: I don't sign my readings. I am good at receiving signs since I've always been a lipreader... My expressive skills are weak.

WAY: Do you write on the computer?
Briscoe: I do everything on the computer... ideas, character sketches, final copy. If I am away from the computer, I jot down ideas. I keep paper and a pen near my bed. When I am working on a novel, I often wake up and write down ideas first thing in the morning.

WAY: What advice would you give future young deaf writers?
Briscoe: Learn the English language like the backs of your hands. After you've mastered the English language if you want to twist it around or write in Ebonics that is fine. The only way to master the language is to practice writing.

WAY: What's next?
Briscoe: I'm working a third book that involves historical research.