Victoria Christopher Murray #BBWKN Guest Speaker

Victoria Christopher Murray always knew she would become an author, even as she was taking an unlikely path to that destination. A native of Queens, Victoria first left New York to attend Hampton University where she majored in Communication Disorders. After graduating, Victoria attended New York University where she received her MBA.

Victoria spent ten years in Corporate America before she tested her entrepreneurial spirit. She opened a Financial Services Agency for Aegon, USA where she managed the number one division for nine consecutive years. However, Victoria never lost the dream to write and when the "bug" hit her again in 1997, she answered the call.

Victoria originally self published Temptation. "I wanted to write a book as entertaining as any book on the market, put God in the middle, and have the book still be a page-turner. I wasn’t writing to any particular genre – I didn’t even know Christian fiction existed. I just wanted to write about people I knew and characters I could relate to."

In 2000, Time Warner published Temptation. Temptation made numerous best sellers list and remained on the Essence bestsellers list for nine consecutive months. In 2001, Temptation was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in Outstanding Literature.

Since Temptation, Victoria has written eleven other adult novels, including: JOY, Grown Folks Business, The Ex Files, The Deal, the Dance and the Devil, her newest novel Destiny's Divas and the popular Jasmine Cox Larson Bush series.  In 2012, Victoria joined ReShonda Tate Billingsley to write the collaboration, Sinners and Saints which pits Victoria's Jasmine character against Rachel Adams, a first lady created by ReShonda.

Victoria was a contributor to the first Christian fiction anthology, Blessed Assurance and the Contributing Editor for the Aspire Women of Color Bible published by Zondervan.   Victoria has received numerous awards including the Golden Pen Award for Best Inspirational Fiction and the Phyllis Wheatley Trailblazer Award for being the pioneer in African American Christian Fiction.  Since 2007, Victoria has won six African American Literary Awards for best novel, best Christian fiction and Author of the Year - Female.

In 2008, Victoria’s first novels in her Christian fiction teen series - The Divine Divas – were published.  "I was concerned with what our young ladies were reading.  I decided to do something about that – give them stories full of drama, but with a message."  The Divine Divas has already been optioned to become a television series.

Victoria splits her time between Los Angeles and Washington D.C. In Los Angeles, she attends Bible Enrichment Fellowship International Church under the spiritual tutelage of Dr. Beverly "BAM" Crawford and in Washington, D.C., she fellowships at Metropolitan Baptist Church under Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr.  She is also a member of the Long Beach Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.