Velda Brotherton - WILLA Finalist Literary Award
Velda writes 'Shadows of the Past' for Life In The Ozarks.

A native of Arkansas, Velda Brotherton has been writing for 20 years. Her first articles appeared in local newspapers, then she became features editor for a weekly paper near her hometown. Out of that grew a weekly historical article, Wandering The Ozarks, which she continues to write today for The White River Valley News in Elkins, Arkansas.

Her first non fiction book was published in April of 1994 and her first novel under the pen name of Elizabeth Gregg was published in October of that same year. She has a total of six novels and four non fiction books published. Recently, one of her early western historical romances, Images In Scarlet published under the pen name of Samantha Lee, was issued through the back-in-print program with Authors Guild and iUniverse. A total of eight of her short stories have been published in anthologies. Two more are upcoming. Four of her entries are online in the Arkansas Encyclopedia and one in Arkansas Biographies published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004 a documentary, Velda Brotherton: Living Among the Shadows of Time, about her efforts to preserve Ozark history, was filmed and shown at the Arkansas FilmFest and on AETN.

Velda Brotherton is a member of Women Writing the West, Ozark Writers League, Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc., Missouri Writers Guild and Northwest Arkansas Writers Workshop. She helped begin a Friends of the Library organization in her small hometown and served as its president for three years. She speaks at conferences and holds writing workshops regionally. Velda is currently finishing two novels and a memoir of her nine years working for a small weekly newspaper.

Her website is www.veldabrotherton.com.