Blog Tour: Guest Post by HEATHER HAVEN, author of The CEO Came DOA

Today it is my pleasure to have Heather Heaven   as my guest, talking about her writing and the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery series...

Let me share a bit about my career as a writer, the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series, and why I tend to write funny. Back in the Punic Wars, when I was in my twenties and thirties, I spent my New York City writing career concentrating on the creation of short stories, comedy acts for performers, humorous plays and television treatments, and funny ad copy and commercials. I even ghost-wrote a book once about working at an employment agency. I was unemployed at the time, so you can appreciate the irony.

If it’s humorous, I’ll write about it. I’ve written many articles, editorials, blogs, sketches, and short stories on the foibles of humankind. Most of the time what I read is on the funny side, too. If I want a good cry, I can pick up a newspaper and read the real estate or financial sections. I live in the Bay Area, so tears will spring to my eyes immediately.

Not surprisingly, when I decided to write a murder mystery series it had to be funny. The first of the Alvarez Series is Murder is a Family Business followed by A Wedding to Die For, Death Runs in the Family, DEAD….If Only, and now The CEO Came DOA.

I’ve been lucky. Others seem to enjoy reading the series and I’ve picked up a few awards along the way. Mainly, though, I just plain love writing it. A writer lives inside her or his head and if I have to be in there 24/7, I’d like to have a few laughs along the way. Plus, I get to be all of the characters, including the cat!

My protagonist, Lee Alvarez, is a combination of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Janet Evanovitch’ Stephanie Plum. That’s my branding, folks. This 34-year old divorcee works in the family business, Discretionary Inquiries, a successful Silicon Valley agency that normally deals with the theft of computer software, hardware, and Intellectual Property. Lee doesn’t go out looking for dead people or murderers, but seems to fall over one or the other much of the time.

Her beautiful ice-princess mother, Lila Hamilton Alvarez, is head honcho of the family’s investigative business. L. H. Alvarez believes what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to accessorize. Lee’s younger brother, Richard, is the head of Research and Information Technology. He eats peanut butter and sauerkraut sandwiches, so is rarely invited to board meetings. Her Uncle Tío is a retired head chef of a well-known Mexican restaurant. Tío gives unconditional love, while making the best tortillas in town. Even her cat, Tugger, seems to be head of the household of Lee’s small, two-bedroom apartment over the family garage.

Lee isn’t head of squat, thank you. But she’s got the heart of a lion, eyes the color of twilight, and the instincts of a first-rate ferret, which is good, because she’s always getting herself in trouble.

The CEO Came DOA, Book Five, takes place in Silicon Valley’s, with the startup industry as its background. I knew it would be a challenge to write about a business of which I knew zilch. But this is a world where technological discoveries garner billions of dollars every year, so I was willing to do the research. Frankly, these innovators are modern day explorers, much like Lewis and Clark. Only these guys wear torn t-shirts, faded jeans, and carry a laptop. I will never look at my smartphone in quite the same way again.

Heather Haven

Blurb

Someone is trying to sabotage the Initial Public Offering of 'Read-Out', a small Silicon Valley start-up, and Lee Alvarez has been hired to find the culprit. Meanwhile, the first Alvarez grandchild is about to be born while Lee is planning her very own Christmas wedding; or rather letting her mother plan it. When Lee finds the CEO hanging by the neck in his boardroom wearing nothing but baby blue boxer shorts, she has to ask herself, was it suicide? Or was it murder? If so, was the saboteur responsible, one of his business partners, or even his famous rock star ex-wife? There are too many suspects and the bodies start piling up just in time for Christmas. Ho, ho, ho!

IPPY Award Winner, Death of a Clown

Multi Award-Winner, Alvarez Family Mysteries

The Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries

Best Historical Mystery Novel Lefty Nomination, 2016

About The Author

After studying drama at the University of Miami in Florida, Heather went to Manhattan to pursue a career. There she wrote short stories, comedy acts, television treatments, ad copy, commercials, and two one-act plays, which were produced, among other places, at the famed Playwrights Horizon. Once, she even ghostwrote a book on how to run an employment agency. She was unemployed at the time.

Her first novel started the Silicon Valley based Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series. Murder is a Family Business, Book One, won the Single Titles Reviewers’ Choice Award 2011, followed by the second, A Wedding to Die For, 2012 Global and EPIC finalist for Best eBook Mystery of the Year. Death Runs in the Family won the coveted Global Gold for Best Mystery Novel, 2013.DEAD….If Only won the Global Silver for Best Mystery Novel, 2015. Her fifth novel of the series,The CEO Came DOA, debuts September, 2016. She loves writing this series mainly because she gets to play all of the characters, including the cat!

Heather’s other series, The Persephone Cole Vintage Mystery Series, is set in Manhattan circa 1942, during our country’s entrance into WWII. The Dagger Before Me, Book One, was voted best historical and mystery novel by Amazon readers in October, 2013. It was followed by Iced Diamonds. Book Three, The Chocolate Kiss-Off, is a 2016 Lefty Award Finalist Best Historical Mystery.

On a personal note, her proudest award is the Silver IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Awards) Best Mystery/thriller 2014 for Death of a Clown. The stand-alone noir mystery is steeped in Heather’s family history. Daughter of real-life Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus folk, her mother was a trapeze artist/performer and father, an elephant trainer. Heather likes to say she brings the daily existence of the Big Top to life during World War II, embellished by her own murderous imagination.

Heather gives lectures, speaks at book clubs, and moderates author panels in the Bay Area, as well as teaching the art of writing. She believes everyone should write something, be it a poem, short story or letter. Then go out and plant a tree. The world will be a better place for it.

Author Links

Web – http://www.heatherhavenstories.com/
Amazon – Heather Haven
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/HeatherHavenStories
Twitter - @HeatherHaven

Purchase Link For The CEO Came DOA

Amazon – http://amzn.to/29WQyfr

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