Guest Post- Julie Seedorf

Guest Post with Julie Seedorf. Welcome Julie, so glad you can be here today. Julie is the author of A Fuschia Minnisota Mystery series.

Hi Shelley,

Thank's so much for having me.



I would like to thank Shelly for having me as a guest on her blog. I always love to meet my readers and talk about my series of books, especially the Fuchsia Minnesota Series.

Fuchsia Minnesota is a fictional town in Minnesota. I never state exactly where in the state it is. I like to leave it to my reader’s imaginations where in the state they would like to put the zany community. The reason I created Fuchsia was out of frustration for the rules and regulations which strangle us in our everyday lives in this era.

In our real communities, I call it the beiging of America; houses appear to be the same color and the same shape. Covenants and HOA’s govern people’s lives in the colors they paint their houses to what they can put in their yards. I grew up in a time when houses were colorful and building permits were few. We could have the tree house of our dreams in our yards and no one would care. The one thing I do remember is people letting other people live and shape their property to their own personality. Fuchsia is like that to a point.

Fuchsia leans toward colorful houses, unique buildings, creative businesses, along with creative names. The characters in Fuchsia community fit right in with their quirky personalities.

My main protagonist is Granny, Hermiony Vidalia Criony Fiddlestadt. She is over the top, quirky and many say, unbelievable. It depends on what you believe about old age. I never mention Granny’s real age. I leave it to my reader’s imagination. The number of a person’s age occasionally color the way people treat those in their advanced years. It also colors how people see themselves. Advanced aging comes with a variety of thoughts and many of them have to do with declining health.

I didn’t know it at the time when I created Hermiony Vidalia Criony Fiddlestadt, but in a way she is modeled after my mother and other older people in my life. My mother never thought of herself as old. She had me at the age of 42. I never gave it a thought that many of my friend’s grandmothers were her age. My mother, when I was three, was diagnosed with arthritis and had a hard time moving, but she made a point of moving and being a hard worker and she kept going. She could do anything she set her mind to learn. She was a school teacher, a business woman running a busy shoe store, a caretaker of her family and she loved to garden, could run a table saw and a chain saw with the best of them, and didn’t think anything of the fact of crawling on the roof of her house when she was 90 to fix it.

I, on the other hand, always wanted her to be different in her advancing years. She was old and she shouldn’t be doing the things she was doing. What I have realized since my mother’s death is I want to be like her. She was redefining old age before my generation decided it needed to be done. In spite of her crooked fingers and toes, in spite of her stiffness and pain, she kept going and she didn’t complain. She had things that she did to take care of herself. That is who Hermiony Vidalia Criony Fiddlestadt is. She is crusty-- my mom was crusty. There is nothing Hermiony won’t try. She is an innovator-- my mom was an innovater. Hermiony doesn’t give up. She is a little deceiving when dealing with her children-- mom didn’t give up and she was deceiving when dealing with me, her only child.

The difference between my mom and Granny is that Granny solves murders. She watches out for Fuchsia and she loves her quirky friends and characters in this unusual town. There is nothing she won’t do to protect it. And….Granny is not so old that she doesn’t like a little romance, a little spark and a little risqué behavior in her life. Plus she has a cast of characters young and old to add to the sparkle of Fuchsia.

Granny in the first book, Granny Hooks A Crook, is a little forgetful, a lot crabby and worried about her kids putting her in the wrinkle farm. She is silly and there might appear to be no depth to her character as she solves Fuchsia’s kidnappings.

If you follow Granny and her friends throughout the series you will see why Granny is the way she is. What happened to her in her life that made her the zany woman she is today? You will see what makes her love, makes her hurt and makes her crazy. And there is crime in Fuchsia. You will find her Skewering A Scoundrel, Snowing A Sneak and Forking A Fugitive. She will leave you laughing along the way. Watch out though, in each book there is a clue for the next book in the series.

When I write, I put a little part of myself in my characters. Like all people, I have the good, the bad and the ugly inside of me. In my Fuchsia series I let the silly come out, it fuels the good and makes the bad and the ugly go away. I hope it does that for you too.

http://www.julieseedorf.com
http://www.sprinklednotes.com
http://www.facebook.com/julie.seedorf.author julieseedorf@julieseedorf




Giveaway:Leave a comment by the 23rd for the chance to win a copy of Granny Firks A Fugitive and a audiobook of Granny Hooks A Crook.. Winner will be notified within 48 hours after giveaway closes and you will have three days to respond after being contacted or another winner will be selected.