Secrets of a soap opera diva

Victoria Rowell, who first became a household name two decades ago in the role of feisty Drucilla Winters on the highly rated CBS daytime series “The Young and the Restless,” is hard at work on several fronts. Not only is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Women Who Raised Me” now promoting her second book, but Rowell is also the subject of a fan-based campaign to bring her character back to the soap opera on which she starred for 17 years. In an interview, the actress, advocate, mother and onetime foster child opened up to Black Image about her work as a writer, the realities of race in the television industry, and why breast cancer awareness has become her personal crusade.