Today, I am honored to have Velda Brotherton visiting.  Velda is prolific, varied, helpful to others, and always ready to adjust to the day’s needs.  I think you’ll like her.

JRC:  I understand you didn’t start writing until 1994.  What prompted you to start then?  Had you a desire to write long before that?

Velda:  Actually, 1994 is the year my first two books were published. I began writing for the second time in 1985, writing mostly newspaper and magazine articles, profiles, columns and feature stories. In my 20s I wrote for a few years, but life got in the way, working and raising two children, and I put it away until I had more time. I’m addicted to writing so badly that I’d sit up all night, then go to work the next morning. That was not good for me or my family or my boss.

At the time I took up writing again, it was 20 years later. We had moved from New York to Arkansas, and I was working part time for a local Craft Outlet. They asked me if I would write a weekly column featuring profiles of local crafts people which would be published in three newspapers. Once I began doing that, the desire to write novels and nonfiction books reared its lovely head once more, and I’ve been at it ever since.

JRC:  So it was sitting there dormant, just waiting for the right time.  You’ve now published in historical, regional non-fiction, romance, mainstream paranormal, and more, I’m sure.  What is your favorite genre?

Velda:  Whichever one I’m writing at any given time. You might well have asked which ones I find the most difficult to write, because that would be an easier question for me to answer. Nonfiction books with lots of photos have always proven terribly difficult. Assigning the pages, keeping the cut lines straight, placing appropriate text around each photo, are much harder tasks than the writing. Though I enjoy interviewing people and taking my own photos, my favorite books to write are still fiction. Probably because I’m free to let my imagination soar to whatever heights it desires. Besides those books I’ve had published, I’ve also written three books classified as women’s fiction, which I hope to have published soon.

JRC:   What is your next book to be published?  Can you give us a little hint of what it is about?

Velda:  A book making it’s way through editors at an indie publisher now is A Savage Grace, which is in the horror genre. But as with all my books, the heroine is a tough woman who stands up to adversity, in this case a possessive demon, and wins the battle. A demon gone rogue targets her for his next earthly body, but she’s having none of it. With the help of a priest and an ancient secret, she sets out to send him to hell.

I also just submitted another western historical romance to my publisher, The Wild Rose Press. It’s the beginning of a series about three girls from England who move to America to live in Victoria, Kansas, where George Grant has set up an experiment to bring life in Victorian England to America.

JRC:  That sounds pretty interesting. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I saw that you were planning on forming your own publishing company. Tell us what brought you to that decision?

Velda:  Yes, that’s something I hope to do, but it will be strictly for my books. Because I have so many different genres still in print and coming out, I thought it might be a good idea, since I don’t want to use pseudonyms, but rather my own name on each of them. By forming a publishing company, I can separate the genres for easier promotion. It’s difficult to promote books from so many genres, but I’ve always enjoyed the diversity of writing romances, paranormal, horror and mainstream fiction.

JRC:   You have co-chaired a critique group for 25 years. How did that get started?

Velda:  I met some local writers, among them the prolific western writer, Dusty Richards, and we began to look for a writer’s group. We didn’t have much luck. None we visited fit our needs, so we decided to form our own. We began with about six of us and we met in business offices, people’s homes and churches, wherever we could get a free room. We decided right away there would be no business meeting, no officers, no dues. That has worked out just fine for us. Dusty and I are the only ones remaining active of those who began back around 1985, and we manage to keep order amidst approximately 20-25 members in attendance each week. There are about 45 enrolled, but they don’t all show up at once. We have only a few rules and it’s worked out well for us over the years.  Seven of our current members have been published recently.

JRC:  Seven published.  Sounds like the group is working well.  Do you present your work to the critique group?

Velda:  Only rarely. We have so many who need help that Dusty and I hate to take the group’s time. Occasionally I will ask someone to read a manuscript for their input and I’ll do the same for them.

JRC:  You also give two all-day workshops each year.  Tell us a little about those.

 Velda:  These are usually aimed at beginners, mostly those who wish to write family stories. As an historical writer, I feel writing down family stories is so important, that I want to teach as many writers as I can how to do it. It’s one thing to record family facts, but quite another to write down the stories so that the coming generations will actually enjoy reading them. I teach creative nonfiction most of the time, but occasionally I will be asked to teach something, like publishing to Kindle. I’ve held three workshops on formatting manuscripts and getting the books uploaded to Kindle.

JRC:   With all of that going on, how do you find time to write?  Do you have a set writing schedule or what?

Velda:  I have a schedule, yes. I can’t always adhere strictly to it. I like to devote Monday to promotion which includes blogging and posting to marketing sites, that sort of thing. Tuesday is for short writing. I write both fiction and nonfiction for anthologies. For instance, right now I have a request for a story about my mother who was a “Rosie the Riveter,” during WWII, and a story about a “big foot” sighting for an anthology being used to promote one of our group member’s latest books. A writer’s organization I belong to publishes one to two anthologies a year featuring Ozark authors and I try to be published in each of those. That’s what Tuesday is for. Wednesday through Saturday is for working on books. Could be fiction or nonfiction, whatever is in the works. Might be writing, editing, formatting, whatever is needed.

Like I said, though, stuff can come up that skews the schedule a bit, but I try to adhere to it.

JRC:  I was going to ask what you did in your spare time, but I think I’ll pass on that.  There is not spare time. With all of these books behind you, what bit of advice can you give to us who have not published so broadly or often as you have?

Velda:  First, if you can stick to one genre, do so, but follow your bliss. Network because the days of a writer spending his days in a garret all alone, are long gone. Don’t write to the market, and if you truly love to write never, never give up. But if you’re writing because you think you’ll get rich and famous, you might consider another career.

Thanks so much, Jim, for having me here on your blog.

JRC:  The advice in that last paragraph is spot on.  You can visit her website at:  www.veldabrotherton.com and find her books on Amazon at:  http://amzn.to/NbdLFR