Cozy Wednesday with Julie Seedorf – Author of The Penderghast Puzzle Protectors – #Giveaway too!

I am so pleased to welcome Julie Seedorf to Escape With Dollycas today
as part of her Great Escapes Book Tour! 

Thank you Lori and Escape with Dollycas for having me on your site today. You are awesome. I also thank you for all you do for authors.

I still have a hard time when asked what I do, meaning my career, answering that I am a writer or an author. It seems too much of a dream and though my column in newspapers was born in 2005, I feel I haven’t earned the accolades to call myself an author or a writer. I fear it happens to all of us–we have a hard time believing in ourselves. We also have a hard time knowing what to share about ourselves and often times the only thing we end up sharing is asking people to buy our books.

It is risky letting our readers know who we are and what makes us tick. We want to be liked and not get zinged in the media. I like to know my readers and I like to have my readers know me, know my heart and understand why I write what I write.

I grew up in a family in southern Minnesota. I was a spoiled only child. We took care of family, meaning elderly grandparents and uncles and aunts. I played outside at night with my friends playing the simple games of ball and tag and red rover. We could camp out in our yards at night and we could roam the community. Everyone watched out for everyone else. Looking back it was the idyllic childhood. Isn’t that what happens sometime with our memories? It had it’s ups and downs and childhood strife. We weren’t rich but we weren’t poor, but I don’t think rich or poor was anything I ever thought about. I don’t think my friends did neither. Looking back now after experiencing life’s ways as an adult and the stresses kids have now it was a simple childhood.

My childhood shaped who I became and the people in it, kids and adults, built my character. As an adult I got married, had kids and it was a good life though it wasn’t and isn’t perfect. There have been many sorrows and many hardships and problems along with joy and love and fun. I hope I have grown out of that selfish spoiled child into a caring adult. Everything I have experienced in my life has made me who I am today. I am a package of the good and the bad and the unexplainable.

I like to think I bring that experience to the characters in my books. Let’s start with Granny from the Fuchsia Minnesota Series. People love or hate the series because that series is silly, unbelievable and makes fun of many of the things we deal with in real life today. But the character of Granny has real depth but she hides behind her crusty exterior and her willful ways. All readers see in the first book is the exterior of her character. As the series continues if readers look underneath the humor and the craziness, they will find an explanation of life that made her who she became and as that life continues, she changes and evolves, yet somethings can never change because her past is so deeply rooted into who she becomes. I believe if you look past the plot in many books and feel the characters you will feel the authors heart.

In The Penderghast Puzzle Protectors, Jezabelle Jingle, is the ringleader of the group. Jezabelle is a single woman, lives alone in the oldest neighborhood in Brilliant and is the longest resident in the Penderghast neighborhood. She keeps an eye on her neighbors but only because her neighbors are strange and her love of a mystery has her spinning tales in her mind about their curious habits. Jezabelle has at times a no-nonsense attitude but has a quick wit and a mischievous quirk to her personality.

Little do the residents of the Penderghast neighborhood or the residents of Brilliant know the Brilliant Brothers have left all the residents of Brilliant a puzzle and a legacy hidden in their houses and their community. All is not what it appears to be with the Penderghast Puzzle Protectors personalities or the town.

We all have hidden aspects of our personalities. We all have hidden secrets shared with no one. We have secrets we may not acknowledge because if we do it will reveal another facet of what made us who we are that we would like to keep hidden. Letting our friends and family know who we are may help them understand why we behave the way we do, why we act the way we act, and why our lives have shaped us into who we are today.

Take a chance on the Penderghast Puzzle Protectors. It is the first book in the Brilliant Minnesota Series. Over time and the next books you will see why Jezabelle chose her own last name of Jingle. You will know what makes the characters hurt, angry and sad. You will learn why laughter is sometimes easier than crying. This book is only the beginning of the heart of Brilliant Minnesota and it’s residents. And if you look closely in all my books you will see my heart too.

~Julie

About The Author –

Julie Seedorf is a Minnesotan. She calls dinner, supper, and lunch, dinner. She has had many careers over her lifetime but her favorite career was that as mother to her children. In later life she became a computer technician, opening her own business. In 2012 Julie signed a contract with Cozy Cat Press for her Fuchsia, Minnesota Series. Books included in that series areGranny Hooks a Crook, Granny Skewers A Scoundrel, Granny Snows A Sneak and Granny Forks A Fugitive.

Closing her computer business in January 2014 Julie has transitioned to becoming a full time writer adding free-lance work for various newspapers, along with continuing her column Something About Nothing, which is now in book form in a book of the same name released in early 2015. Her children’s series, Granny’s In Trouble gives her grandkids a hint of the young Grandma underneath the wrinkles.

Her books are light and fluffy and highlight the fact that in the midst of life we have to find the humor in bad situations to keep us going. “We all take ourselves too seriously and we need to have a little fun.” Julie secretly yearns to be like the Granny characters in her books.

In February 2016 the first book in the Brilliant Minnesota Series was released titled the Penderghast Puzzle Protectors. She also is part of a group mystery by Cozy Cat Press Authors titled “Chasing the Codex.” Julie’s serious side is revealed in a story included in the Anthology, We Go On – Anthology for Veterans where the proceeds will go to Veteran’s Charities.

Visit her website at http://www.julieseedorf.com.

Her blog http://sprinklednotes is a little scattered like Granny but lends itself to wisdom and occasional flip flops about life.

You will also find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/julie.seedorf.author and on Twitter at julieseedorf@julieseedorf and her character Granny has her own Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/GrannyFromFuchsiaMinnesota. Enjoy the moments; they may carry you through a lifetime.

Author Links

Webpage     Blog     Facebook 

Twitter     GoodReads    Amazon Author Page

 

 

 

Jezabelle Jingle and her neighbors in the Penderghast section of Brilliant, Minnesota, have a mystery on their hands. Someone is stealing sections of hardwood floors in their homes and the thefts may be connected to a long-hidden treasure left by the founders of Brilliant. Not only that, there’s a dead body in a basement to add to the mix. Can Jezzy and her quirky friends figure out the puzzle and find the treasure before some other, unknown person–maybe the murderer–beats them to the punch? Or will the town’s Chief of Police, Hank Hardy, prevent the group from their sleuthing? Anything can happen in the strange little town of Brilliant, Minnesota. After all, brilliant minds create brilliant finds!

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Tour Participants

May 23 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW
May 23 – T’s Stuff – SPOTLIGHT
May 24 – The Girl with Book Lungs – SPOTLIGHT
May 25 – Lori’s Reading Corner – GUEST POST
May 26 – Island Confidential – INTERVIEW
May 27 – Omnimystery News – INTERVIEW  
May 28 – A Holland Reads – GUEST POST
May 29 – Shelley’s Book Case – REVIEW, GUEST POST
May 30 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & , Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT
May 31 – LibriAmoriMiei – REVIEW
June 1 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – COZY WEDNESDAY – GUEST POST
June 2 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW, GUEST POST
June 3 – Author Annette Drake’s blog – INTERVIEW
June 4 – Book Babble – REVIEW
June 5 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”