Christmas Trifle (A  Snow Lake Romantic Suspense Mystery)
Romantic Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Wives of Bath Press (September 1, 2019)
Number of Pages – 322

Synopsis

When chefs Charly and Cliff Harding divorce, she gets custody of their upscale restaurant and its namesake, Felix, the cat.  He gets custody of their dog, Oscar.  What they both still have custody of is each other’s heart. But they seem to be the only two people in the small ski resort town of Snow Lake, Nevada, that don’t know it.

When Cliff opens his own restaurant in direct competition with Charly, bad things start to happen. Death threats, accidents, and murder are now on the menu. Their ‘if-you-can’t-take-the-heat-then-get-out-of-the-kitchen’ battles are backfiring, and regrets consume the two of them. But can they find their way back to each other?  Or is it too late? Because they just might spend the rest of their lives in prison unjustly accused of killing someone. Or can love triumph over even murder?

Guest Post

In Christmas Trifle, Book One of the Snow Lake Romantic Suspense Novels, I had to create a whole ski resort town. Yup, I was the city planner, architect, and mayor. I designed the roads, businesses, and even the ski lifts. Pretty daunting. As I am a writer and don’t know much about anything previously mentioned, I had to ‘borrow’ from other sources, like the Internet.

I also drew from my own memories of ski resorts from my checkered youth, which wasn’t so checkered and not so youthful. I remember Copper Mountain, Heavenly Valley, Squaw Valley, and Sun Valley. Sonja Henie, an Olympic ice skater, skier, and movie star, made Sun Valley famous. They continually run her movie called “Sun Valley Serenade” in some sort of ice hut. Be sure to bring a hot toddy with you if you’re there and going to watch it. I remember it being a very cold affair, but I was born and raised in South Florida. Anything under seventy degrees is cold.

Now you may ask, what is a woman from such a tropical clime doing writing about a ski resort in the mountains of Sierra Nevada? Like most things, it was a case of one thing following another. I knew I wanted to write about love and murder in a romantic but challenging setting. As romantic is the keyword, I stayed clear of hurricanes where everyone endures gale-force winds and deserts where everyone sweats. I was left with a ski resort.

Let’s face it, there’s nothing more romantic than snuggling with your honey before a warm fire while looking out at the falling snow and sipping a hot buttered rum. Or hot toddy. Both perfect for a snowy night.

I also wanted a lake. And not just any lake. I wanted a special lake alive with charm and whimsy. So I created a thermal lake, with warm currents rising off it year-round. When it’s colder and it snows – and it snows five-months out of the year at Snow Lake – the falling snow hits the warm updrafts. Each flake seems to dance above the lake before they melt. The sight is captivating, especially when there is a full moon.

What inevitably happened was Snow Lake and the ski resort became as real to me as all my other characters. That’s the most wonderful part about being a writer. We get to imagine and create. And sometimes we get paid for it.

About the Author

Heather Haven, in the midst of writing her fourteenth novel, has also written short stories, comedy acts, television treatments, ad copy, commercials, and plays. She has won numerous awards for her Silicon Valley-based Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries; Manhattan-based WWII Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries; Ringling Brothers’ Circus mystery noir, Death of a Clown; and Corliss and Other Award-Winning Stories. She has two romantic suspense series: Love Can be Murder Mystery Novellas with Lee Alvarez and Gurn Hanson, the Nick and Nora Charles of Silicon Valley, and the new Snow Lake Romantic Suspense Novels, of which Christmas Trifle is Book One.

She and her husband of thirty-four years are allowed to live with their two cats, Ellie and Yulie, in the foothills of San Jose, California.

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