Interview With @VeldaBrotherton
When did you start writing and what inspired you to start?
I was in my twenties, we had moved from Kansas to New York and lived in a tiny upstairs apartment on Staten Island. I began to write short stories and a long involved novel based on my grandparents’ life. There were voices in my head, begging to be heard. Even as a child I would lie in the yard in the summertime and dream up stories which I never wrote down. I thought there might be something wrong with me so I never told anyone that I daydreamed these long stories that might continue for weeks or months. It was only much later that I learned that most writers did the same thing.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I became a member of a small critique group in Arkansas around 1984 and we all wrote something all the time. We attended conferences where I first heard the phrase, “If you write you are a writer.” So I began to tell people who would ask what I did, that I was a writer.
What inspired you to write your first book?
It was in the 80s and I became immersed in news stories about Vietnam vets who were being diagnosed with PTSS. I began to do research to find out what that was all about. Then I grew tired of seeing movies portraying women as weak little things who couldn’t deal with the man they loved when he returned home from the war. I knew then that there were women strong enough to do just that, so I decided to write a novel about one of them. Titled Beyond the Moon and set in Arkansas, the book got me a good agent, but he could never sell it. I’m happy to say that it has been contracted for publication by Oghma, and we are working on edits and a cover. Never get rid of your old manuscripts.
Who are some of the authors you particularly admire or who’ve had some influence on your own writing?
I hate to admit that I had never read a romance prior to writing my six western historical romances, so any influence on my writing there actually comes from western authors. I admire western writer Larry McMurtry and his book Lonesome Dove. Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series, is another western writer I like. He is a student of one of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke, whose mysteries are so much more than that. To write about sense of place as well as he does is my greatest desire.
What is the best advice you could give an aspiring author?
If you love writing, then never give up. However, if you have to force yourself to sit down and write every day, then find something else to do. It’s a long difficult road to travel with little monetary reward, so you have to love it to truly consider yourself a success.
What is the best advice you’ve received from other authors or anyone else?
I’ve never forgotten what my friend Dusty Richards told me when we first formed our critique group and began our long travels together. The road to success is littered with quitters. And I’ve never forgotten that.
List your favorite quotation or words you live by.
I guess I really answered that with the previous question. I write every day, treat it like a job I go to. I have done this since I first began to write and discovered all the rewards of this career. Never have I considered quitting. And it holds so true in anything I might try to accomplish.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Yes. Thank you for all your support over the years. I so appreciate each and every one of you for continuing to follow my attempts to entertain and teach you. Please feel free to contact me anytime.