Author Spotlight - Excerpt from Burning Hearts

Chapter One


Long Island, New York
September 1946

Erica Brogna hurried down Hill Street, eager to sketch her new design, a forest green taffeta dress with a swirling skirt for a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary -- her first significant assignment. She paused to inhale the salt scent on the ocean breeze, and her gaze lingered on a copse of red, rust, and gold maples near Ada's house and dress shop.

She smiled, pulling her cardigan tight around her, and dropped the newspaper Poppa asked her to bring to her mentor and employer. She retrieved the paper and saw Bess Truman smiling as she entered Walter Reed Army Hospital. With the war over, the First Lady visited broken soldiers in long-term care. Erica slapped the paper closed before rage and depression overtook her. So many boys had not come home.

Chin jutted out, she smoothed the pleats of her skirt and marched toward Ada's house. She'd think on pleasant things and hand the paper over without a fuss as she did every morning. Nothing would ruin this day.

She climbed Ada's wooden front steps and opened the door.

Smoke filled the living room Ada had turned into a fabric shop. Erica waved a hand in front of tearing eyes. Gray vapors, like swirling fog, partially obscured bolts of fabric stacked against the opposite wall.

"Ada! Ada, answer me please." Dropping the newspaper, Erica rushed toward the stairs, trampling Bess Truman's image. "Ada can you hear me?"

Coughing, she grabbed on to the cutting table in the middle of the room, steadied herself, and reached for the phone -- no dial tone. Perhaps the fire melted the line.

She yanked the collar of her blouse over her nose and mouth against the smoke. The stairs loomed before her, seeming as impossible to scale as Mount Everest. She lunged forward, gripping the baluster, and thrust herself up two steps. Since Ada wasn't outside, she had to be upstairs.

As Erica climbed, the smoke thickened and swirled around her. It was darker with each step.

One hand clasped the rail and pulled, and she advanced a few more steps. Heat blasted against her skin from above, and soft crackling sounds drew her gaze to the upstairs landing. Squinting into the smoke, she lost her grip on the banister, missed the next step, and fell backward tumbling to the bottom.

The back of her head smacked against the baluster, and wooziness followed sharp pain. She tried to stand but couldn't get her bearings.
Will triumphed over ability. She hoisted herself, ignoring the dull throb at the back of her skull. Her palms stung, the skin scraped off during her fall. She took a deep breath, and a coughing fit seized her. Shallow breaths were the better alternative.
Planting her penny loafer on the bottom step, Erica began her climb again, shaken but with new resolve. If she could reach the top of the stairs, she could also make it to Ada's bedroom.

Halfway up, the scratches on her palms pulsated as the temperature rose. So did her knees -- must've scraped those, too. The pungent smoke shrouding her darkened, and grit clung to her skin. She couldn't see the banister or the top of the stairs and each breath took effort.

Poppa's lectures on fire drills flashed into mind -- stay low in a fire to get fresh air. She dropped to her knees and crawled, ignoring her pain. A sickening smell made her stomach lurch.

Inch by inch she crept, now three quarters of the way up. Hot, putrid air assaulted her windpipe, and she doubled over, her insides trembling.

Heaving herself forward, she maneuvered up one more step, but the smoke pushed back, choking her. She sobbed, knowing she couldn't make it to Ada, and scrambled down, hoping she could find help.


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Author Spotlight - Nike Chillemi shares her favorite authors

I have a lot of favorite authors. As pretty much everyone knows, I read crime fiction. I wasn't aware of too much in the crime fiction department in Christian fiction for a good long while. I guess it took me awhile to catch up to where some Christian authors were going in terms of grittiness. So, I pretty much read secular authors.

For two to three years, every time I ventured into reading what I was assured was a seat-of-the-pants Christian suspense; it turned out to be the same-old, same-old romantic suspense story with many implausible elements and the police procedure really off the mark.

During that time I read everything I could get my hands on by Michael Connelly, the former crime beat reporter for the LA Times. He writes the infamous Harry Bosch homicide detective series. Connelly has got another intriguing character, Mickey Haller. THE LINCOLN LAWYER, one of the Haller books, was recently made into a movie that did very well in reviews and at the box office. In the beginning years of my writing, Connelly influenced my writing more than any other writer in terms of what cop culture really is. He gets his police and court procedure really right.


Then I discovered Robert Liparulo, and began to see how faith issues could be interwoven into the inner turmoil a character was experiencing. I went totally berserk over Liparulo for about a year. Every time I opened my mouth it was Liparulo, Liparulo.


Now if anyone thinks my writing is going to be anything like Connelly's or Liparulo's, they're going to be sadly disappointed. Hey, first of all, hey, I'm female. Like most ladies, I like a goodly dose of romance in the story. I've been told that my break out novel BURNING HEARTS has suspense, action, and romance in equal measure with a bit of humor thrown into the mix.

Other Christian market favorites are J. Mark Bertrand, Steven James, Sibella Giorello, James Scott Bell. My other general market favorites are Robert Crais, Barbara Parker, J.A. Jance.

Author Spotlight - Nike Chillemi talks about her passion for writing crime/romantic suspense

Without getting too philosophical, long ago I discovered the murder mystery genre originated in the Christian west. From the very beginning murder mysteries, who-dun-its, and detective stories have been about the fight between good and evil. The history of the murder mystery has been that of solving a moral dilemma (a deadly crime) -- and the guilty party, no matter how smart or cunning, is caught and punished.

Mostly I read hard-boiled mysteries, where the villains are indeed vile. Many call this noir fiction because of it's darkness. I think an author can go over the top with darkness and it can get, as my daughter would say, creepy. There has to be a balance.
I try to make my heroines and heroes into capable, three-dimensional characters, who are not dummies. I want my main characters to show some brainpower and have the ability to deal with different situations. They need a worthy opponent for a bad guy who's really bad. Otherwise, Barney Fife could solve the crime. My villains are serious contenders, often demented, always shrewd.

In my debut novel, BURNING HEARTS, the most difficult character to craft was Erica Brogna, my heroine. I had to make her spunky, capable, smart, obstinate, and determined enough to have her go after a truly demented killer. She's the youngest of my three heroines in the Sanctuary Point series, so she also had to be cute, vulnerable, and sweet. She also had to be independent enough to get into trouble, yet be able to love and depend on others, especially that hunk of a hero I created for her, Lorne Kincade.

I present pretty heinous crimes in my novels, but what I'm trying to get across is that Love, with a capital "L" always wins. There is a love imbued in the human soul that comes from God. It makes people better than what they are, makes them capable of doing greater things than they can do. It's this Love that triumphs over evil. All people are capable of feeling and acting on this type of love, but the closer in relationship we come to God, the more we are able to Love as He does.

Purchase links…
Desert Breeze. http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-167/Nike-Chillemi-Sanctuary-Point/Detail.bok
Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Sanctuary-Point-Book-One-ebook/dp/B0050PJSTY/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Barnes & Nobel. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Sanctuary-Point-Book-One/Nike-Chillemi/e/2940012411747/?itm=1&USRI=nike+chillemi