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WORK TITLE: You Slept Where?
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WEBSITE: https://www.brendapratersellers.com/
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PERSONAL
Daughter of a farmer; married Ed Young (an investigator and military intelligence); children: Dustin.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Company executive and writer. Chroma ATE Inc., Irvine, CA, president.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Brenda Prater Sellers worked as the president of a manufacturing company before deciding to write her first book. She has travelled widely around the United States and to scores of other countries. Sellers has climbed Mt. Everest, slept in a death room, and flew to Iceland just to hand out signed copied of her first book on the street corner.
You Slept Where?: Calamities of a Clumsy Businesswoman is a mix of memoir and travelogue that relates Sellers’s experiences travelling for work and also her quest to get one of her photographs published in National Geographic. Working as an executive for a manufacturing company, Sellers was required to travel around the United States. She decided to take advantage of her new locales and what each place had to offer that gave her either unique experiences or stunning photographs. In the book, Sellers discusses having spent a night or two in a range of places, from an underwater lodge in Florida to a beagle-shaped inn in Idaho. She also writes about her experiences looking for wigwams along Route 6, riding a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and taking a chocolate bath in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Sellers also writes about her husband and parents in the account.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked that the book’s “mixture of obscure travel locations and harsh truths about aging makes for a distinct and highly personal combination.” The same reviewer admitted that “whatever the topic, however, a sense of humor often shines through.” The Kirkus Reviews critic concluded by calling You Slept Where? “an offbeat but affecting set of remembrances.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2024, review of You Slept Where?: Calamities of a Clumsy Businesswoman.
ONLINE
Brenda Prater Sellers website, https://www.brendapratersellers.com (October 22, 2024).
Daily Times, https://www.thedailytimes.com/ (August 15, 2024), “Checked off the List: Author Brenda Sellers Completes First International Signing.”
Literary Titan, https://literarytitan.com/ (February 13, 2024), author interview.
My Name is Brenda Sellers
Hey. I’m a farmer’s daughter, mother, wife, businesswoman, and a detailed list maker. I’m a Southern, Mountain-Dew driven, M&M’s eater, adrenaline-seeker adventurer, and climber of Mount Everest (although I didn’t do so well).
My book is a bizarre collection of many, but not all, the kookiest places I’ve stayed while pursuing a childhood dream of obtaining a photograph worthy of publication in National Geographic. To fulfill the goal of an award-winner, these calamities occurred while multitasking life; running businesses, and staying focused on family. Mostly, I’ve dedicated my first book to my parents’ legacy of their resilient journeys.
I’m married to Big Ed, the foil of the story, without giving away spoilers, he is a military intelligence veteran and undercover investigator. I never really knew what he did and I didn’t ask, but is a story within itself. He accompanied me on some, not all, of these wacky escapades which changed our lives forever. I have one son, Dustin but also helped raise fifteen other “kids” I call my own. Chasing my photography fantasy resulted in me being a 2 million+ miler, traveling to sixty-nine countries, and a pending application for Guinness World Record for the most photo albums in a single household. Through all of life’s juggling, I’ve learned to laugh, mostly at myself.
From the farm to corporate America, from a receptionist to president of a global manufacturing company, explains some, but not all, the worldwide licensed brands which are peppered throughout my book including logos printed on my pajamas.
As a bonus, in the appendix I’m sharing lessons learned the hard way as well as cost saving travel tips. Hopefully, you’ll discover ideas to save enough pennies to at least offset the cost of my book. My goal is to inspire readers to make their own “To Do” list or at least laugh at my expense.
I’m humbled, honored and usually hungry,
Blog Archives
Laugh More Often
Feb 13
Posted by Literary_Titan
Brenda Prater Sellers Author Interview
You Slept Where?: Calamities of a Clumsy Businesswoman shares with readers your journey to find the perfect photo for National Geographic and the memorable situations you found yourself in. Why was this an important book for you to write?
With so much sadness, sickness, and sorrow in the world, I wanted to make a difference and make readers laugh out loud at my calamities and usual predicaments.
At the time I was writing this book, I was dealing with my mother’s dementia, running businesses, balancing life, and trying to achieve professional and personal goals. More importantly, I NEEDED to laugh as an escape. 😊
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
No matter how tough life is or what situation (or place) you find yourself in – it is a positive attitude that makes a difference.
What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you were younger?
Laugh more often.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your story?
Live every day like it might be your last….
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok
As a little girl, author Brenda Prater Sellers traipsed around Prater Flats in Louisville, Tennessee, thinking she was Ansel Adams with her first, clunky, black-and-white Polaroid that didn’t work half the time. The love of that camera and the unknown turned her into not only an overzealous wannabe photographer but into a Southern, Mountain Dew-driven, M&M eating, adrenaline-seeking adventurer, skydiver, and climber of Mount Everest.
In You Slept Where? she shares her story about a businesswoman who is also a wife, mother, and a farmer’s daughter pursuing a childhood dream of being published in National Geographic, while coping with life’s struggles of her parents’ eldercare. Sellers also tells about her experiences and mishaps in bizarre locations and staying at the world’s most unique places: an underwater hotel, an ice hotel, sleeping with polar bears, or sleeping in wigwams along Route 66. Imagine the movies Miss Congeniality meets National Lampoon’s Vacation in her version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
With cost-saving travel tips and other advice included, You Slept Where? provides insight into one woman’s crazy adventures while encouraging others to create their own bucket list.
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Checked off the list: Author Brenda Sellers completes first international signing
Melanie Tucker melt@thedailytimes.com Aug 15, 2024
For one of her book signings, local author Brenda Prater Sellers once rolled a cart full of her first novel to the end of her driveway in Maryville and asked readers to come to her. She had pen in hand.
And show up they did. It was a lovely drive-thru affair.
But this past July, Sellers topped that with an even more surprising tactic — she flew to Iceland, 3,000 miles away, to sign her book on the street corner of Reykjavik, even giving the books away for free. The first-time author stood for two hours outside in the brisk air to meet Icelanders and put books in their hands.
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The book, “You Slept Where?” Calamities of a Clumsy Businesswoman” now has international traction, something this author knows is key if she wants to reach her next goal: to turn the pages of her book that’s part travel guide and part family story, into a movie for the big screen. Forever the optimist, she’s even chosen an opening night location — the Capital Theater in Maryville should the grand plan become reality.
“I was literally on the sidewalk peddling books,” Sellers described her Iceland experience. “That was my first international book signing.”
The native of Louisville with nine generations of roots here, will travel near and far for the opportunity to share the stories she has amassed while stepping foot in more than 65 countries. Her mantra has been to not simply seek out the poshest or more popular of places to lay your head. She’s out to experience what most of us couldn’t have imagined.
Like spending the night in a 1959 Cadillac and an underwater hotel. She’s spent the night in a silo, Idaho potato, ice hotel, wigwams on Route 66, in a death room and the list goes on. A seasoned traveler who spent years on the road as head of Chroma in Maryville, Sellers used her sense of adventure and curiosity to take us along to places we might someday dare to visit, all thanks to her.
Becoming a 2-million miler with Delta Airlines is an indication of how far she will go to get what she wants. Her gigs have also included ladies book clubs in Johnson City and a community gathering in Citico. An assisted living facility in Maryville was one of her first stops.
“You Slept Where?” is 425 pages of such adventures as she also weaves her family’s tale of love and loss. She lost her mom to vascular dementia in 2017. Her dad passed away in 2012. Sellers retired from Chroma in 2019 to get this book written and define her next endeavor. She’s had husband Ed Young at her side for many of these epic travels; he is a veteran and gifted photographer willing to go the distance.
And while she was in Iceland to create goodwill and gain readers, Sellers and husband Big Ed as he’s often called, got the chance to see some spectacular displays of nature, including the Blue Lagoon, several waterfalls, glaciers and a volcano. As for sleeping quarters, it was up a steep hill for a night in the Bubble Hotel.
“Iceland is like both Alaska and Hawaii,” Sellers said. “It’s very volcanic and it’s lush and beautiful.” She especially loved the Blue Lagoon and spending the night in the Bubble Hotel despite the steep climb.
As Sellers explained, she is one and done with Iceland, so she made the best of her time discovering the zany, whacky and unbelievable sites. Sleeping in the bubble was one for the books. Maybe literally since “You Slept Where? Part II” might become a reality.
The first book came out in 2022; she’s been on plenty of adventures since then, some bound to generate more travel excitement and book fodder. For instance, Sellers is sure her readers will want to know the details of her stay inside a bourbon barrel and the site of an axe murder. She’s also visited the Field of Dreams and spent the night in the farmhouse there.
To find even more places to visit, she’s offered a challenge: anyone who tells her about a place she ends up visiting will get a prize. “I’ll have to start keeping a spreadsheet to keep up,” Sellers admitted.
She presented a program to Rotary Club of Maryville earlier in the week, giving travel tidbits and handing out a book or two. She invited 11 of her own guests to the presentation. And to rack up those needed book reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, she provides a hang tag with each book featuring a QR code.
Icelanders love Americans and they love to read, this author said. The bookstore where she signed copies of “You Slept Where?” had posters of Elvis, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. And while Sellers said she won’t be going back, she is one step closer to global exposure.
Just days ago, she was even contacted by PBS in Memphis about participating in a Tennessee authors production. She doesn’t know all of the details yet, but this savvy businesswoman seizes such opportunities. Obtaining an agent and testing her skills at writing a screenplay are focuses now.
“I have to take baby steps to get to a movie,” Sellers said.
Sellers, Brenda Prater YOU SLEPT WHERE? Archway Publishing (NonFiction Nonfiction) $28.46 1, 26 ISBN: 9781665722773
This part-memoir, part-travelogue ventures to quirky locations and discussions of serious topics.
Sellers, the president of global manufacturing company Chroma, has a lot to share about her travels over the years--particularly about offbeat places she's spent the night, including an underwater lodge in Florida and a one-room inn shaped like a beagle in Idaho. These locations were not happenstance, but selected with the careful planning of a dedicated voyager. The author, who often had to travel to faraway places for work, explains that she had an extensive to-do list that encompassed a wide range of potential destinations. Sometimes she visited these places with her husband, Big Ed, and at other times she was alone. Throughout it all, she has, more often than not, taken photographs with a dream of one day having a credit in National Geographic. Readers follow along as the author looks for wigwams on Route 6, indulges in a chocolate bath in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and takes a mule ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Amid the fun, though, she also details the deteriorating health of her parents. She tells of how her father, a lifetime farmer and a practical sort, liked to point out such things as how she need not pay to sleep in a former grain silo in Akron, Ohio, when she could sleep in a silo on his farm for free. Despite her dad's lifetime of vigor, the pressures of old age eventually took their toll. She also describes how her mother suffered from dementia, which led to difficulties in her later years. As her mother's memory faded, she says, a great deal was lost, including family recipes that vanished "like writing on a chalkboard that had been erased."
This mixture of obscure travel locations and harsh truths about aging makes for a distinct and highly personal combination. Readers can never be sure if the next chapter will be about staying in a house where Lizzie Borden once lived or about the author's father playing down the seriousness of a health issue. Whatever the topic, however, a sense of humor often shines through. When her dad apparently developed a crush on one of his nurses, he decided to bring a picture of his younger self to the hospital--a recollection that readers may find both funny and touching. The laughs in some of the travel pieces sometimes feel forced, however. The author's account of her attempt to "build a rapport" with a police officer after being pulled over on Route 66 is lengthy and without much payoff; after she recalls singing him a Bruce Springsteen song, she follows up by stating that it "didn't seem to be helping me bond with the officer." Overall, though, the book presents well-developed accounts of people and places--including some locales that the average person may never have visited. By the end, readers will not only have new ideas for travel destinations, but also more empathy for aging loved ones.
An offbeat but affecting set of remembrances.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Sellers, Brenda Prater: YOU SLEPT WHERE?" Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332749/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c151c5df. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.