This page is devoted to the individuals from Ozarks Writers League who not only inspire other members, but the entire writing community.
Velda says..."It takes guts to wear a hat like that, someone told me at a conference. So I wear it a lot because my favorite heroines are gutsy."
Velda recently wrote a book about New Mexico and says the whole thing "came as a great surprise." But when she learned the story of a distant cousin and her experiences homesteading in the high desert after WW I, the project took shape. The University of New Mexico has shown an interest in publishing it, so watch for it soon. Velda's also working on a book titled A Savage Grace, more of a horror novel. It's quite a departure for her, but a publisher is interested in this project as well. Velda says, "though she'd always been a fan of horror, she never thought of writing one. The experience was mind boggling, yet fun."
Velda was born in Mountainburg, Arkansas, but was raised in Wichita and even lived in New York for a while. She returned to Arkansas where she lives with her husband in the Ozark National Forest. Velda says that fellow western writer, Dusty Richards, influenced her career more than anyone. "He never let me give up, and there were times I wanted to. He always told me, 'The road to success is littered with quitters,' and I've never forgotten that."
Velda writes historical fiction, fiction, and non-fiction as well as teaches in workshops and seminars far and wide. She's been publishing her work since 1990, when she wrote a weekly historical column for a local newspaper.
The first contest Velda ever entered won her a first place in the Western division, and that book went on to become her first published work, leading to her publishing four western historical romances under the name of Elizabeth Gregg, for Topaz Publishers. In 2002, Velda won the Creme de la Creme award at OWFI for a mainstream manuscript titled Once There were Sad Songs. Velda has an agent that is currently marketing this woman's fiction novel.
Velda, with her Creme' de la Creme' Award in Oklahoma City, May of 2002.
The
Courage of Shiloh
OWL Bookstore
Velda's book,
The Courage of Shiloh, is about the founding of Springdale,
Arkansas that began in 1840 when Jo Holcombe discovered a crystal clear spring
and called it Shiloh. Here he would build the church around which this thriving
city would grow. The Cherokee and Osage had long watered at the spring on the
Springfield Plateau of the Ozarks, and when the white man was allowed to settle
after the removal in 1828, a few hardy souls homesteaded the area. It
would be ten years before the charismatic Joseph Holcombe christened the place
and set about building a city.
The coming of the Butterfield stage line, the Frisco Railroad, a through highway
and a huge trucking industry guaranteed the settlement a permanent place in
history.
The book tells the story of those early settlers and their descendants and
contains 125 old photographs from the files of Shiloh Museum.
Excerpt:
“But what is civilization? Is it a practical knowledge of agriculture? Then I am
willing to compare farms and gardens of this Cherokee nation with those of the
mass of the white population in the Territory...Does it consist of morality and
religion? Our people have built, wholly at their own expense, the only meeting
house in the Territory...” Cherokee Nu-Tah-R-Tuh (No Killer) The place of which
Nu-Tah-R-Tuh spoke was his home, land of the northwest Arkansas Territory. And
his people, known as the Western Cherokee, were about to lose that home, as had
the Osage and Choctaw before them. Yet another treaty would be broken to open
this rugged, remote country to the white man, whose need to settle land west of
the Mississippi appeared insatiable.
Velda,
writing her name fast and furious at a book signing.
Velda wrote on her blog page..."I would rather write than eat." She says she started late in life, not finishing her first novel until she turned fifty. Well, Velda sure made up for the late start. She's won many awards, had short stories published in several anthologies, and her articles have often appeared in newspapers and periodicals. Most of her work is based on regional history from the Springdale area. After having six western historical romances published, she turned to other pursuits, including creative non-fiction.
Photo by Lynn Carney
Velda, and Jodi Thomas participated in an OWL panel discussion for the organizations May meeting..
In March of 2006, Velda was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in Springdale, Arkansas.
Filmmaker, Jim Lukens, filmed a 28 minute interview with Velda in 2003, titled Living Among the Shows of Time. Velda said, "All the stories in the world are worth nothing if they don't affect people. It's the characters in a story--their motivations and emotions, more than their actions that makes us care." In this personal conversation, Velda discusses stories and community and the role stories play in maintaining the community.
This isn't a real clear picture, but Velda is on the far left of the "Great Success" panel that took place last October at the Ozark Creative Writers conference held annually in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Max McCoy, author of novels and screenplays, is at the far right.
You can also read Velda's interview with Max McCoy in a current issue of Surreal Magazine. Surreal Magazine
Wandering
In The Shadows of Time
OWL Bookstore
Review by W.C. Jameson
The story speaks in the words of its author, who was born in a log cabin as the Great Depression had only begun to loosen its hold on the country. It also speaks in the voices of those who recall other hardships and earlier days. Stories of the Civil War, of hanging trees, of settlements long lost to time, of love stories that have withstood misfortune and the passage of years, of the simplicity and drudgery of life when a handful of coins was a rarity and music and the spoken word were the main source of entertainment.
This book is not your run-of-the-mill collection of interviews. You know the
kind I'm talking about; those drab ramblings where the author simply transcribed
whatever was recorded on the tape machine.
No sir. This book is a fascinating journey into the rural Ozarks conducted by a
skilled writer with a keen sense for the important, the unusual, the esthetic.
The reader feels as though he is being personally escorted by Brotherton into
the often remote domains of the people written about in this book. Entranced is
the word that comes to mind when I recall her sensitive descriptions of the
landscape, the culture, the people. It is a journey during which I grow excited,
eager to encounter more of the people Brotherton seeks. It is a journey from
which I don't care to return for a while and my only disappointment comes when I
have finished the book: I wanted it to go on; I wanted more.
Review by
W. C. Jameson, Log Cabin Democrat.
Velda
and Radine Trees Nehring at a recent booksigning.
Velda hardly restricts her interviews to the people. She listens to whispers along the roads themselves, and pens poetic images of the country through which she wanders: "Dancing pollen laces the air where sunlight breaks through the canopy of leaves that close in on me as I go higher and higher up the mountain. I don't quite make it to the top...After meandering through the trickles of a wet weather creek and sweeping around in a gentle curve, the road flattens off a scant moment. On my right, nestled into the south slope, is a log and rock house."
Velda
herself is a child of the rugged hills of the Ozarks, as well as a victim of the changes
wrought upon them. The back roads she travels are as familiar as the lane to the
houses she visits, and she is welcomed into the homes of these folks not as a
newspaper writer, but as one of their own.
Her compassion for the Ozarks and her people is so great that it cannot be
contained.
It has to be shared in "Wandering in the Shadows of Time: An Ozarks Odyssey"
Review by
Jim Hamilton, Buffalo Reflex
Velda gets audience attention every where she goes!
Velda
spoke to the Tulsa Nightwriters in September, 2005. She told the group how
you can milk your past history to create both fiction and non-fiction.
Velda said that she was born in a log cabin just as the Great Depression began
to loosen its hold on the country, and she drew from those life experiences to
craft her book, Wandering in the Shadows of Time. Velda's advice to
the group was, "No matter who says no to you, or why they say it, continue to
write and learn your craft. If they are saying yes, then learn from them
as well. The only failures are those who quit."
louturn@aol.com