Veda Boyd Jones enjoys the challenge of writing for diverse readers. She is the author of forty-two books: five children's historical novels, twenty-one children's biographies, three children's nonfiction books, three picture books, nine romance novels, and a coloring book. Other published works include over 400 articles and stories in children's and adult magazines (Cricket, Highlights, Humpty Dumpty, The Writer, Writer's Digest, Woman's World, etc.), articles in reference books, and five romance novellas. Veda has taught writing at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, and currently teaches for the Institute of Children's Literature. She and her husband, Jimmie, an architect, have three sons, Landon, Morgan, and Marshall.
Veda is a previous winner of the Writer's Digest Writing Competition in the articles division for a children's profile of Rachel Carson. Her romance novel Callie's Mountain was voted best contemporary in the annual readers' poll by Heartsong Presents a few years ago. Among her awards through the years from the Missouri Writer's Guild are Best Magazine Article, Best Historical Article, Best Adult Fiction, Best Children's Fiction, Best Children's Book, and Best Romance Novel. Quick Facts: Veda Rae Boyd was born on November 30 in a little house next to the railroad tracks in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, population 466. Veda attended school through third grade in the small town until her family moved to Neosho, Missouri, where she graduated high school and from Crowder College, the local community college. She continued her education at Pittsburg State University, earning a bachelor's degree in history with a minor in English, and then graduated from the University of Arkansas with a master's degree in history with emphasis on colonial history, Civil War, and the history of England. Veda married Jimmie L. Jones in 1975. Copyright 2010, Veda Boyd Jones, All Rights Reserved. Photo by Gordon Trice.