Denene Millner has been a force in the literary arena for more than 25 years as an award-winning journalist, author of 31 critically acclaimed books, creator of prestigious award-winning children’s book publishing company, Denene Millner Books, podcaster, parenting expert and more.

At every level, Denene has thrived, reaching NY Times best-selling plateau and, more importantly, a revered place as a respected voice of Blackness, Black women’s empowerment and an advocate for Black girls.

Now, her first novel will be released in later this summer, One Blood, and it is exactly what you’d expect from Denene: a searing and powerful story about three women who are tied by blood, love and family secrets over generations, written in a style the author honed as a journalist in New York.

“It is a very New York snappy, snarky kind of voice that I learned how to write,” Denene said to Madame Noire. “That’s something that I’ve been doing since I was in the halls as a political reporter and entertainment reporter for The Daily News in the ’90s. So that’s my background. . . I think folks will be really surprised by the storytelling and the level of writing that I’ve done in One Blood.

“It was scary to let go of something that came really easy to me and exchange that for something that is a bit more challenging. One Blood was challenged. It was not easy to do. It was not easy to tell that story, and it was not easy to employ the writing that I did for it. . . I always knew that I had this writing in me. . . And so, it was a matter of sitting down and saying to myself, ‘You got to trust that you got this.'”

And she had it all right, beautifully, as One Blood has been lauded as something special by a special literary talent.