How Living In Coastal NYC Has Affected My Writing by Nike Chillemi

Anyone who knows me knows I love the Atlantic Ocean and have to be near it. I live about two miles from that volatile body of water, but not on its shore. No, never that! I'm wary of the sea's destructive power and keep a nationally protected salt marsh between it and my home. When hurricane Sandy hit, I was grateful for the protection of that salt marsh, as the twelve-foot tsunami-like wall of water didn't reach and destroy my home. 
But we did have water damage and sewer problems. Water seeped through the brick wall and into our basement right behind our fifteen-year-old backyard deck. So, we had to tear down the deck to fix the leak in the brick. Truth be told, that deck probably should've been torn down several years earlier. We also had to get a professional sewer and drain team out here to unclog our front drain where it meets the city's sewer line. Since Sandy and more recently Winter Storm Nemo, the city's pipelines have been overstressed. Like most New Yorkers, I consider myself one of a sturdy breed. I also feel blessed that our family was spared some of the destruction so evident elsewhere on the city's coastline. 

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I believe this tough New York attitude shows up in my writing. You'll never find a shrinking violet heroine in any of my stories. In addition, my entire Sanctuary Point series (1940s, whodunit with romance) is sent on the southern shore of Long Island. In my latest release, DARKEST HOUR, the Atlantic is an adversary to the heroine and her family. Lucinda Byrne lost her sport fishing boat captain husband to the sea. In addition, her mother and father also went down on that final voyage. Although an excellent swimmer, Lucinda now has a great fear of the water. It's been said the heroines in the first three books of the series were spunky, feisty, and a bit out of the box. Lucinda's strength is quieter and is demonstrated in how she handles her responsibilities with dignity and poise in the face of great evil. Perhaps she grew spiritually into this type of seemly deportment as a single mom and also as the sole support of her elderly grandparents.

Some have asked how I kept writing through all this storm chaos. Well, I had DARKEST HOUR coming out in February, which meant edits. So, I guess I had no choice. We do what we have to do.

Still, I think it's fair to say, I'm a very disciplined writer. I have a lot of fun writing and I tend to write what I'd like to read. I'm blessed that Desert Breeze has let me do that. But, I put in the work...and I've put in the work over the years and built up good writing habits. I started out six years ago taking the wonderful writing course Harlequin offered. I still use a shortened and modified version of the detailed character information sheet from that course. I take research very seriously, looking up hairdos, clothing styles, automobiles, and every day products from the 1940s. I don't write every day, but I do something to further my writing career every day. I could be writing a scene or chapter, or research, or marketing. I commit to doing something every day.

I have a few irons in the fire for the future. I'm working on a novella and two full length novels. The novella features a female private investigator who winds up in Texas as a suspect in a murder. The two novels feature an NYPD female detective in an elite squad. The novel is set one year after hurricane Sandy and the residents of Sheepshead Bay,
Brooklyn refer to the storm in the story and 
the hardships they encountered recovering. One of the things I did when researching the novel was drive around Sheepshead Bay after the storm and take pictures of the area where the two novels will be set. It's been months since the storm and these lower level stores and restaurants have still not reopened. The damage to the property was too severe. I try to reflect some of this in the novels as I work on them. 

Dora here. Are you writing through chaos or adversity? 

What has helped you keep writing?

Nike Chillemi has been called a crime fictionista due to her passion for crime fiction. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers (Ning). She was an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the 2011 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories. She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She writes monthly book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. Burning Hearts is the first book in the crime wave that is sweeping the south shore of Long Island in The Sanctuary Point series.

Writing Through Tragedy By Faith by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

So many people say that writing is therapeutic. For years I worked a full-time job and managed a schedule of writing in my spare time, as well as being a mother to a special needs child and a wife. I agree that writing is therapeutic, but this past year, I have been tested on that concept. Back then even though my schedule was quite hectic, I still had no deadlines or pressure to promote book sales. In spite of the fact that I longed for publication and worked hard to make it happen, a tiny piece of me feared the day it would happen.

You see, I knew my responsibilities would grow, and I was right.

For my debut novel, Highland Blessings, my book launch went well. I received favorable reviews, had several book signings, and it won the 2011 Holt Medallion Award for Best First Book. Still, I didn’t have many deadlines since the book was already written when we contracted it. The only deadlines I really needed to worry about were the macro edits and copy edits.

A year later my second book, Highland Sanctuary, was set to release. When I signed the contract, only the first three chapters were written. A few months before my book launch, my father-in-law’s health began to decline. He was dying of lung cancer. At about the same time, we learned that my mother had a very aggressive breast cancer. While Hospice came in to help my mother-in-law, my mother was going through surgery and a month later began radiation treatments.

Two weeks before my book released, my father-in-law passed away. Our family was grieving, and I still worried for my mother. By this time, I had signed contracts for four more books and two novellas. I ended up missing a conference where I was scheduled to speak and a major book signing where I had done well the year before. I got behind on blogging, emails, social media posts, and campaign mail outs. Four weeks after my father-in-law passed, I became very sick. A month later my daughter was hospitalized at fourteen for severe migraines. Six months later, she began having Tonic-Clonic seizures. We began a long series of MRI and EEG testing, and medication trials and adjustments. She could no longer be alone and we began fighting the school system to make sure she received necessary resources for her safety. Through all of this, I had to keep working my full-time job and writing to meet my deadlines.

When you sign a contract for an unfinished book, you are signing your name in faith that you will be able to meet your obligations, regardless of the circumstances that might befall you and your family. In a regular job, you might have someone cross-trained to back you up when you are out to keep your company from getting behind, but an author doesn’t have that luxury.

I don’t have answers that will work for everyone, and at times, I don’t know how I did it. All I know is that prayer and faith gave me strength when I had none. When worry wanted to consume me, God prevailed and I was able to find a few moments here and there when my characters took me to another place in time. I mentally escaped.

• When I couldn’t sleep, I wrote.
• When I couldn’t concentrate, I put on earphones and lost myself in music that helped me escape to my time period.
• When I was too tired to write, I slept, and ignored the guilt.
• When my house became too suffocating, I went outside and wrote.
• When my desk became the wrong place, I changed my environment by writing in the closet in the wee morning hours, on the steps, and wherever I could find a corner.
• I didn’t worry about edits, writing with perfect research, or getting it perfect. I merely wrote and concentrated on getting the first draft down.
• When the pain and confusion was too much, I prayed and cried out to God.

Remember, God is THE answer to everything—even writing through tragedies.

Jennifer Hudson Taylor is an award winning multi-published author of historical Christian fiction set in Europe and the Carolinas and a speaker on topics of faith, writing and publishing. Her debut novel, Highland Blessings, won the 2011 Holt Medallion award for Best First Book. Her work has appeared in national publications, such as Guideposts, Heritage Quest Magazine, Romantic Times Book Reviews, and The Military Trader. She serves as the in-house Publicist at Hartline Literary Agency. Jennifer graduated from Elon University with a B.A. in Journalism. When she isn't writing, she enjoys spending time with family, long walks, traveling, touring historical sites, hanging out at bookstores with coffee shops, genealogy, and reading.

Jennifer's fiction is represented by Literary Agent, Terry Burns with Hartline Literary Agency.

Path of Freedom (1858, North Carolina)

Quilts of Love Series, Abingdon Press
Tentative release date: Jan 2013

When Quakers Flora Saferight and Bruce Millikan embark on the Underground Railroad, they agree to put their differences aside to save the lives of a pregnant slave couple. With only her mother’s quilt as a secret guide, the foursome follows the stitches through unknown treachery.

As they begin their perilous journey, they hope and pray that their path is one of promise where love sustains them, courage builds faith, and forgiveness leads to freedom.