Early Christmas Excitement Is Good for You ~ Nike N. Chillimi

Early Christmas Excitement Is Good for You 

by Nike N. Chillemi

I've been hearing in news reports that people who put up Christmas decorations early tend to be happier people. I don't know how they measure such a thing, but I do know that Christmas decorating make me happy. I know that as soon as I begin seeing Christmas decorations in the stores, I feel happy. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm like the character in the movie "Elf," or that anyone should be, but Christmas cheer is just that…cheerful.

Looking a little deeper, as a Christian, I think the world is desperate for some light, relief from the darkness. Christmas is that time for many and they want to extend it. They want it to come earlier and earlier. Of course, the real reason Christmas is the season of light, and love is because it celebrates the birth of the Baby Jesus. Jesus is the Light of the world.

It's one of the reasons why I wrote a Christmas detective story/murder mystery. You can read them anytime of year, I suppose, but it's so much more fun to read them when Christmas displays are popping up…even if it's early. I think mistletoe and murder mysteries go together. It's so much fun to cuddle up with a Christmas murder mystery -- early. Why wait for Christmas when you can have the Christmas mystery spirit now. BLOOD SPEAKS is my Christmas novel. It's filled with Christmas decorations, shopping scenes, winter scenes. However, it's most endearing quality is the story's fifty-something character, Bertha Dagney, who thanks God for everything, even when she's framed for murder.

BLOOD SPEAKS in a nut shell…

Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels, Brooklyn gal PI, waited a long time for the solitaire on her finger. When her sometimes boss, a shadowy figure and director of a secret government organization, offers a one-week bridal shopping vacay in Maryland she jumps at it.

Joined by bridesmaids, Sandra Daube and Bertha Dagney, Ronnie sets off for the village of Heritage Cove on Arrowhead Lake, Maryland. Their joyous stay at the rustic yet luxury Heritage Cove Inn is shattered by a murder with tendrils and a clandestine motive stretching back to the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

It doesn't take long for Ronnie and her gal-pals to become targets of the killer. It goes without saying, Taylor County Deputy Sheriff, Lieutenant Dawson Hughes leaves Texas to protect his bride-to-be. He's joined by Sandra's employer, conservative political activist Ben Cohen. No obstacle can keep Gabby Hayes look-alike Hoot Dagney from the side of Bertha, his new bride.

  

Author Bio:

Nike N. Chillemi writes contemporary detective and/or suspense novels with a touch of wry humor, and there's often a national security twist to them. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.

Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and its Chair, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series (out of print), set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award and garnered critical acclaim. 

The first novel in the Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels/Dawson Hughes series HARMFUL INTENT won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense category. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network. Find Nike online at:

http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/
Blood Speaks Amazon purchase link: https://amzn.to/2PR0b2x
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nike.chillemiTwitter: @NikeNChillemi