Lisa Ks Book Reviews

In the spotlight today is author

Julie Seedorf!

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 of 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 are Granny Hooks a Crook, Granny Skewers A Scoundrel, Granny Snows A Sneak and Granny Forks A Fugitive. Closing her computer business in January 2014 Julie 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 give her grandkids a hint of the young Grandma underneath the wrinkles. Her books are light and fluffy and highlight the fact 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 go to Veteran's Charities.

Visit her website at www.julieseedorf.com . Her blog 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 www.facebook.com/julie.seedorf.author and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/julieseedorf .

Enjoy the moments; they may carry you through a lifetime.

If you love cozy mysteries, and of course you do because you're here...You are going to LOVE Juile's hysterically funny, wonderful cozy mystery series

The Fuschia Minnesota Mysteries

BOOK ONE

Granny leads a secret life in the small, unique community of Fuschia, Minnesota. It’s not just her all junk food diet, multiplying pets, or her shocking bedtime attire that makes Granny one in a million. No, Granny is an undercover cop, charged by “the Big Guy” (the town’s police chief) of preventing theft in local stores. Granny takes her job seriously and daily foils many shoplifters using her trusty spiked umbrella and amazing acting skills. When some startlingly brazen burglaries begin to occur that Granny can’t solve, along with mysteriously appearing bad guys, disappearing clerks, and misplaced Corvettes, Granny begins to wonder if she isn’t ready for the wrinkle farm. Maybe, it’s fortuitous when she accidentally-on-purpose falls in the lap of an attractive older gentleman who is soon roped into her wild adventures, as they try to figure out what’s happening in their little town.

BOOK TWO

Granny has a new addition to her arsenal of crime fighting weapons as Fuchsia, Minnesota’s most colorful detective. Now, along with her famous crook-hooking umbrella, she’s acquired a scoundrel-skewering knitting needle. And just in time! Residents of Fuchsia seem to be dropping dead like flies! First, it’s Granny’s neighbor Sally (who gives up the ghost in her weed-filled front yard), followed by Esmerelda Periwinkle (the squirrel lover on Main Street), and then, Mr. Nail, owner of the local hardware store (who is squashed when dozens of bags of fertilizer fall on top of him). Granny is baffled. Who is behind this murder spree? Granny enlists the help of her sort of boyfriend Franklin Gatsby, the town’s police chief Cornelius Stricknine (or “The Big Guy”), her reality-show loving neighbor Mavis, and her own son Thor. And, of course, the special assistance of her menagerie of pets––including Mr. Bleaty, the goat. Soon Granny is hot on the trail of this dastardly murderer. Unfortunately, when Granny herself is poisoned, everyone insists that she cool her crime solving ways and stay indoors and out of harm’s way. Of course, that’s never going to happen! Not when Granny knows all the secret passageways and tunnels that run underneath Fuchsia. Out she goes––and watch out, you evil doers! Granny will solve this mystery––you can bet your pink undies, she will!

BOOK THREE

Granny may be retired as Fuchsia, Minnesota’s one-woman undercover sleuth for the Fuchsia Police Department, but that doesn’t mean she still doesn’t need a trusty weapon. Her weapon of choice? A pink snow shovel. When Granny runs over a dead body with her snowmobile, she unwittingly sets off a chain of events that involves mislabeled corpses, empty graves, and stolen money––lots of it! Who’s at the bottom of this years old crime? Granny has an idea, but she has little time to investigate, when in just days she’s scheduled to marry the love of her life, Franklin Gatsby, in a post-Christmas ceremony. So, Granny decides to enlist the help of her friends and neighbors. Add in Christmas holiday excitement and the arrival of Granny’s family, who are all there for her wedding, and mayhem ensues. Of course, Granny can always count on her many furry friends to provide her with moral support, but it’s quite possible that Granny––that is, Hermiony Vidalia Criony Fiddlestadt––has a secret or two of her own, which may very well be revealed as GRANNY SNOWS A SNEAK.

BOOK FOUR

Granny has a new weapon––a pink pitchfork! And just in time! A trip to her old farm ends in Granny forking a dead body in her silo. When the body turns out to be Granny’s long lost love Robert Blackford, Granny is flabbergasted. When her devious twin sister, Amelia, the very person who stole Robert from Granny many years ago, shows up searching for her long lost son, Granny reluctantly agrees to help her find him. Of course, Granny’s fiancé, Franklin Gatsby, is concerned for Granny’s welfare and doesn’t like it when she goes out sleuthing––one of Granny’s favorite activities. So, Franklin starts to follow Granny everywhere she goes to protect her. But Granny is determined to find out who killed her former boyfriend, so along with her gal pals and her menagerie of pets, she sets a trap and soon––GRANNY FORKS A FUGITIVE

BOOK FIVE

Granny is at it again! When Granny accompanies her friend Mavis to the Next To The Last Resting Place nursing home to visit Mavis’ sister, Beulah, both women are shocked to find the new resident dead. Granny, being the amateur detective she is, suspects foul play, and soon she and her entire family concoct a plan to investigate possible shady doings at the nursing home. Granny will enter the home incognito and attempt to determine how Beulah met her suspicious demise. All this happens while Granny’s new husband Silas is entangled in his own dangerous mess. Someone has just blown up his house and Silas (a former detective) is out to discover the culprit, even as he worries about Granny’s safety in the home. As more nursing home residents fall victim to a strange and sudden “memory loss virus,” Granny engages the aid of her friends to get to the bottom of what turns out to be a very complex and complicated plot.

Other fantastic books by Julie

BOOK ONE

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!

BOOK ONE

Abby had her fingers full of chocolate cookie dough. She was putting her fingers to her mouth to sample a taste while no one was looking. Maggie had her back turned to Abby. She was sneaking a couple of chocolate chips out of the bag and into her mouth before she gave the bag to Abby so the chocolate chips could be added to the cookies. Both of them had their hands halfway to their mouth when the phone rang. Both Abby and Maggie jumped and quickly dropped their hands to their sides as Brady ran into the kitchen and snatched up the phone. *Brady, Brady, all of you have to come quickly. I need your help.* screamed Grandma. Yes Grandma is in trouble again and the four cousins scramble to her aid. What they find when they look for her is a ransacked house, a missing Grandma and clues they don't understand. What they learn about Grandma leaves them wide eyed and open mouthed.

BOOK TWO

“Stop!” Abby yelled. “I have news.”
Maggie stopped by Abby, but Jake and Brady were having too much fun playing Annie Annie Over with the pen they had whisked off the table where Maggie had dropped it when she was going to chase Jake and Brady. It flew over the girls’ heads with ease. The look of concern on Abby’s face was enough to get Maggie’s attention, leaving her to ignore the pen that was flying over their heads.
Once Brady and Jake saw that their sisters were not paying any attention to their antics but whispering seriously about something, the boys put down the pen.

“What’s going on?”

Yes, Grandma was in trouble again and the four cousins had to rescue her. Following her trail, and figuring out the clues, lead the cousins to secrets Grandma had not told them about her past. The fun they find along the way makes this a book for young readers and also the young at heart.

From selling her family on a popular website, to protecting an imperfect evergreen tree with five tops in her back yard, (What would happen if they cut down imperfect human?), author Julie Seedorf's Something About Nothing is a collection of writings from her column of the same name that debuted in 2006. In everything that we speak to our friends and neighbors, there is a something hidden deep in the recesses of our hearts - silent, wanting to come out when we greet one another. We feel no one cares if we hurt or need a little bit of kindness to make us smile each day, and so we spend our conversations on nothings. "How's the weather?" "How are you?" The answer is always, "Fine." We don't always answer with what is hidden below the surface. This collection of columns is full of inspiration, silliness, and heart. Laughter and dreams keep the soul alive. They are the something needed in our nothings of life.

Bryndis Palmer, owner of The Neglected Word bookstore, invites her fourteen-year-old niece Frida to visit her so that the precocious, Jane Austen-loving young girl can accompany Bryn to the “Midwest Booklovers’ Convention” being held in nearby Saint Louis. Never mind that Bryn has just broken up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Holt Furst, or that said boyfriend has suddenly disappeared from his apartment above her shop––possibly in a violent kidnapping. Bryndis dutifully heads to the airport to pick up Frida, only to discover that Frida has also disappeared––reportedly swooped up by a chauffeur and whisked away in a limousine. Who would kidnap her niece? Where could they have taken her? Where could Holt be? Brynn is an amateur sleuth from her childhood days of reading Nancy Drew mysteries, and she barges ahead with her own investigation, certain that the local police and the airport authorities will bungle the job, and fearing the wrath of her sister Lia if anything happens to Frida. Of course, Bryn doesn’t know that the disappearances of Holt and Frida are actually connected, and as she begins her search, a mystifying tale starts to unravel––introducing her to a host of strange characters, all more unusual than those in the murder mysteries she’s accustomed to reading. Along the way, she discovers that she herself is somehow at the center of it all, and swirling around her are other strange curiosities––a missing Bible, a famous frontier hero, and a hidden secret code. Will she find Frida? And Holt? How does it all connect? And how is Bryn involved? It will all be revealed in CHASING THE CODEX.

Here’s a different kind of book: This cozy mystery was written by 24 of Cozy Cat Press’s 40-some authors, with each author penning their own individual chapter or chapters. How did we make this happen? Easy! We started at the top of the alphabet with Amy Beth Arkawy and moved down the alphabet through Diane Weiner (with a few detours along the way). None of the authors had any idea where the next author would take the story; they only knew what they wanted to do with the characters and the plot in their own chapter. We think you’ll find the results amazing––and exciting! So, be prepared for quite a ride, as we go CHASING THE CODEX!

The poems and stories included in this anthology, written by various authors, tell of veterans outside of war, of how their sacrifice of service changed their lives long after the war was over. Although some of the messages of the sacrifices of war are sadly timeless, they speak of unsung heroes, and I say unsung because nothing we could ever do for them would ever be enough to say thank you for all they gave. With that said, with these poems and stories, we will give what we can. 100% of the profits made will go to charities for veterans.

To all who have served and to all of those who love them, we offer our undying gratitude because it is all we truly have to give you for your sacrifices, told and untold. So, we give what we can to honor you, to say thank you, and to, in some small way, give back. Although it could never be enough, a million thanks or a million dollars, we pray we can help some of the many who have given so much, so selflessly, and then suffered even as they fought another battle, the battle to go on…