A *Deadly* Interview with author Nike Chillemi–And a Giveaway

It is both an honor and a pleasure to welcome “Crime Fictionista” Nike Chillemi back to Whispers in Purple to give us an interview ans spend a little time with us.

Welcome to Whispers in Purple, Nike. So glad to have you here.

Let’s start with some ‘Getting to know you’ questions:

Tell us five random things about you

1) I think I have a pretty good sense of humor. 2) I like food, am a good cook, and spend a fair amount of time transforming my own personal favorites and beloved family recipes into healthy fare (cutting down sugar and fat). 3) I was a pet rescuer and still have a house full of pets. 4) I was a foster mom. 5) I love Montauk, NY on the tip of Long Island. It's "the end."

Ha  What is your ‘typical’ day like?

I try to start my day with some sort of Bible study/prayer. Right now I'm following a teaching on prayer, the different kinds of prayer, what they're for. The study is going deeply into the prayer of petition for oneself and for others.

Oh, that sounds very interesting. What’s the #1 thing on your ‘bucket list’?

In the past this wasn't high on my list. I'm wary of traveling to areas that might be unfriendly to Americans or risky. But recently I feel a deep urge to go to Israel. I want to walk the streets where Jesus walked.

Me, too! You mentioned above that you were once a pet rescuer. Tell us more about that. 

I'd always loved animals and met a Christian gal who ran a rescue agency. We had great times rescuing animals together, feeding the ones we fostered, and hanging out listening to Christian tapes (before CDs ruled). I still have a house full of pets. In that day, sometimes Christians would sort of angrily say to us, "Why are you rescuing animals when there are human babies to save?" The Lord gave me an answer. "I've been called to do this in this season. If we all do what we're called to do it'll all get done."

What a great answer!

Fun question: Money being no object, where would be your dream vacation, or writing retreat?

It would be a beach house in a warm climate. Not necessarily a tropical climate, but probably semi-tropical. Maybe a cozy little cottage on one of the islands off northern Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina.

I’m with you there! Sounds heavenly.

Now let’s talk about your writing and your books. I know you’ve written a number of books over the past several years (see ** below) but it’s your current detective series I want to focus on here.

Why a detective series?

I love to read detective stories and natch, it was inevitable I'd write one. Then I fell in love with the characters, not only the main characters, but the secondary ones too. I didn't want to let go of them. So, a series was born.

What made you select Texas as your original setting?

Ah, well, it all started with a short story writing challenge to place my heroine in a locale and a circumstance where she would be uncomfortable. I thought I'd be writing a few thousand words, at the most. I placed Brooklyn born private detective Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels in west Texas and had Dawson Hughes, the handsome and stalwart deputy sheriff, suspect her of killing her cheating husband. That was HARMFUL INTENT. They went on to search for a missing little girl who might've been kidnapped by terrorists in book two, DEADLY DESIGNS.

How did you choose your main characters’ names?

I like strong names. Ronnie's name has significance in terms of the plot. She's plagued by bad dreams in both novels, but in DEADLY DESIGNS we learn someone distasteful in her past called her Veronica. That's why she prefers her friends call her Ronnie.

Tell us a bit about your main characters. Who did you have the most fun writing?

I absolutely love Ronnie and Dawson, but I had the most fun writing secondary characters Hoot Dagney and Bertha. Hoot owns a local diner, has a beard, and wears a beat-up prospector's hat making him resemble Gabby Hays. Bertha is his waitress and baker. While Ronnie is a fledgling seeker at this point, Bertha and Hoot are committed Christians and funny as all get out. I enjoyed creating their 'seasoned citizen romance'.

What else would you like to share about this series, the individual books, and what’s coming up next?

As I mentioned, book one, HARMFUL INTENT, was set in west Texas. In book two, DEADLY DESIGNS, Ronnie and Dawson find themselves in the northeast. The last book of the trilogy, BLOOD SPEAKS, brings them to western Maryland where I bring back beloved characters from the first and second books. In BLOOD SPEAKS it's Bertha Dagney (now married to Hoot) who is accused of murder.

Share your social media links where readers can find you:

• Blog: Nike N. Chillemi ~ Crime Fictionista https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/


• Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Nike-N.-Chillemi/e/B0050ZD44O/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1


• Twitter https://twitter.com/NikeNChillemi

***DEADLINE EXTENDED TO jAN 29!!

THE GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment, ask Nike a question, or answer this question: Do you like crime/detective-type fiction? to be entered in a random drawing for Nike’s first book in this series, Harmful Intent. Giveaway ends one week from today, January 20, at midnight, Central time. Winner will be drawn via random.org – and notified via email.

About Nike:



Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (colored might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. 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 is its Chair, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 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, set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. HARMFUL INTENT released under the auspices of her own publishing company, Crime Fictionista Press, won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Thriller/Romantic Suspense/Historic Suspense category. Her new release is DEADLY DESIGNS. 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. http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much for visiting with me today, Nike. It’s been fun getting to know you and learn about your current writing projects.

♦♦♦♦

**Purchase links for Nike’s Books:

• 
  
  The Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels/Dawson Hughes Trilogy: Harmful Intent, Deadly Designs


• 
  
  Sanctuary Point Series: Burning Hearts, Goodbye Noel, Perilous Shadows, Darkest Hour 

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Writing Talk Tuesday with Nike Chillemi: Are Christian Heroes Too Wimpy?

Are Christian Crime Fiction Heroes Too Wimpy? by Nike Chillemi

Are we creating a bunch of Dudley Do-Rights? Are these guys so good they're boring? Are they too saccharine? I've read Amazon reviews and heard a few whispers (even a few grumbles) stating the hero is so perfect, he's one dimensional. It's a Christian novel, so there can be angels in it, but the flesh-and-blood hero should not be angelic.

They say nice guys finish last, and I think that's true in crime fiction. The hero has to be as much fun or more fun to watch in action than the villain or antagonist. The hero has to have a backbone. When the hero is set upon by the villain, it can't be that he overcomes the obstacles and wins the day as a clueless wonder who accidently stumbles through. He's got to have the fortitude and law enforcement skills to overcome the villain, or he's not very compelling.

If the hero is a Christian character, the author has some limits in that the reader will expect the hero to live by certain principles. Of course, that is as it should be. No quarrel there. Yet in life, we know real Christians have faults, some of them major. We know real statistics show a little over fifty percent of all Christian marriages end in divorce, a good number of them due to infidelity. In real life, we know most of those couples do not reconcile. Although it's changing, we still don't see too many divorced heroes in Christian fiction. We do have tons of nearly perfect widowers who have become nearly perfect single fathers.

If the author creates a wimpy hero, the only way it works in crime fiction is when the plotline shows him morphing into a forceful protagonist who can meet and defeat the villain. In this way, all of his goody-two-shoes traits can grow into some type of competent strategy to stop the evil deeds of his enemy. This is the type of storyline I can sink my teeth into.

Last, but not least, there should be some fireworks. This is especially true if the story is a romantic suspense. If there isn't any chemistry between the hero and heroine, it leaves me flat. Those romantic fireworks don't have to be physical. There can be an intense lingering gaze...even a hostile one, or witty repartee. Although physical magnetism on some level is a plus as far as I'm concerned. Christians do have bodies and those bodies do respond when there's attraction. There might be some type of mystery to the guy. The hero has something lurking in his past, which functions as the catalyst for this chemistry and his actions in the story.

♦

Dawson Hughes, my hero in DEADLY DESIGNS is a highly competent lawman, compassionate, and wildly attracted to my heroine, Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels. He's got some personal tragedy in his life, and he's also well-read and highly intelligent. Readers today have no tolerance for a dumb hero. In addition, a great hero isn't predictable. The author is able to reach within him and pull some response out that creates unexpected plot twists. Dawson finds himself in this situation soon after he re-commits his life to Jesus and the only one he can share this with is heroine Ronnie Ingels.

♦

Purchase Link: ebook

 

 

♦

ABOUT NIKE:

Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (colored might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. 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 is its Chair, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 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, set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. HARMFUL INTENT released under the auspices of her own publishing company, Crime Fictionista Press, won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Thriller/Romantic Suspense/Historic Suspense category. Her new release is DEADLY DESIGNS. 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.

Check out her website at: http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/

♦So, writers, what kind of heroes do you write? And readers—if you’re here—what kind of heroes do you like to read?

Join the conversation!

TWEETABLE:

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