Author Bio

Joanne Brand has led an active and adventurous life from childhood in South Dakota up to the present in Colorado. Her many experiences have given her insight into what and why life is different for each individual she meets, and why each person in her stories comes from that knowledge. Brand writes from the heart of her character and puts history into the equation to help understand different situations or different eras. Life, reading, and meeting people have been her best education.

Born in South Dakota and moved to Colorado in the late 1950s Joanne worked at Security Life and Accident Company and then at Kassler Mortgage Bankers. After marriage, she moved with her family to Elk Mountain Lodge in Aspen, Colorado, and later to Montrose, Colorado as the broker of their real estate firm.  She retired with her husband to St. George Utah. After her husband’s death in 2000, she returned to Colorado and her beloved Rocky Mountains. She volunteered for approximately six or seven years in an organization that helps those in need.  She also volunteered for nine or ten years on her condo building board, and she was a leader in grief support facilitating in her community.

Brand is an accomplished author and continues to write every day. She began to write in earnest after her husband died. Her first publication was her memoir, Ten Miles from Aspen. It tells of her hectic and unusual life at the family guest ranch in the 1960s and ‘70s outside of Aspen, Colorado. Since then, she has continued to write and publish her works She writes about the strength of women in historical situations.

The author published her free-verse poems as Life and Nature Poems. She continued writing and penned her mystery novel Acute Justice about wife abuse, murder, and the trial of the accused. Following that novel, she wrote about her parents in Dancing to Memories and the Great Depression. Later she penned her grandmother’s story, A Daughter’s Wages. In 2018 she published Molly's House about Colorado women's suffrage. The Last War brings more knowledge of women in WWI as well as prisoners. Her most recent work, Capes and Crosses, has recently been published. It is about the KKK in the 1920s in Colorado.  Brand always researches her topics to be sure her stories sound and feel real.

In 2002 Joanne joined a Writers Club, and the group has been a tremendous help and support with her works. Also, her beta readers have been an exceptional help. Considerable research and hard work are put into each work and history is essential to each novel to tell the true story.

The author enjoys her book signings and talks with book clubs and talking about writing. Joanne Brand lives a full life in Colorado, near her Rocky Mountains. Above all accomplishments, she treasures her three children, their spouses, her seven grandchildren, and all her many friends. She is an example that it is never too late to write. Life is always interesting and full of stories.