Guest Author Luba Lesychyn

Question for you!!  What’s better than a good mystery?  Well, if you are like me, then it would be a good mystery and chocolate!!  And those were the 2 words I saw when Carissa contacted me about today’s author.  Plus there will be two (2) separate giveaways, a Grand Prize, which the publisher, Attica Books is sponsoring and a giveaway here!!!  Make sure to follow all directions for both!!  So have a seat, grab your box of chocolates and please help me give a warm welcome to author,  Luba Lesychyn!

LUBA LESYCHYN

Soon after finishing her graduate studies in history, Luba landed on the doorstep of Canada’s largest museum, the Royal Ontario Museum where she worked for more than 20 years. Moving from positions in the education and programs departments to the museum’s consulting branch, she concluded her career in the office that managed the museum’s recent controversial architectural renovation. After leaving the museum, Luba worked for several years in an administrative and research capacity for a private museum consulting firm with offices in Toronto and London. She currently works in the educational sector and teaches yoga in her home town of Toronto.

Theft by Chocolate is Luba’s debut novel though she has been amusing people with her writing since the age of eight. Her love of chocolate precedes this age and she has been in and out of chocolate rehab for most of her adult life. When not writing or looking for her next chocolate fix, Luba can be found in dance classes, trekking to remote waterfalls in the mountain rain forest in Puerto Rico, running through the streets of Paris or any other number of calorie-burning activities that help offset her chocolate intake.

GUEST POST

Inspired by True Events – Really!

            I had long completed the first draft of Theft By Chocolate when I had a chance encounter with an individual that would send me back to my computer to completely reconfigure the plot of my sassy museum mystery about a capricious woman of a certain age looking for chocolate, love and an international art thief in all the wrong places. While working as an executive assistant at a city college in an office that was managing the construction of a new campus, I happened to mention my writing to a security consultant working on our project.

In particular, I brought up the fact that I had worked for the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto for the greater part of my career and that I had drawn on my experiences at the museum for inspiration for the story that revolved around a heist. The consultant’s eyes widened almost to the size of saucers and he whispered to me, “We need to have a chat about this.” Somewhat taken aback, but intrigued to the max, I suggested we get together sooner than later to have our “chat.” I was already a third of the way into a major rewrite of the novel and I did not want to delay our discussion.

Within a week we sat down at a table of a retro diner where “my informant” proceeded to tell me his family had worked in the security industry for decades and that he had insider information about the infamous opal collection theft that had taken place at the Royal Ontario Museum in the late 1980s (my employment at ROM started after the theft had taken place). It was common knowledge that the thief was never identified nor apprehended and that the jewels had eventually turned up in a black market in Hong Kong.

What was not common knowledge, as the security consultant continued to share with me, was that the thief had used an ingenious technique that stunned the security industry around the world. The culprit managed to circumvent what was considered state-of-the art technology in its day, a technology that was being used universally, not just in museums and art galleries, but in banks and businesses. International law keepers realized it wouldn’t be long before thieves around the world heard about the daring robbery and how it was executed. Basically, the planet’s riches, both great and small were suddenly at risk.

It was this piece of information and some additional material gleaned from rare newspaper articles about the theft that formed the crux of the final version of Theft By Chocolate. My work is fiction and includes characters derived from my imagination, but the real events provided a strong backbone upon which I was able to add imagined flesh. Still, the mysterious and unique real-life theft continues to haunt me. I may just have to put on an investigative journalist’s hat some day to determine whether, after more than three decades, some new information might be uncovered which could shed new light upon the events that shaped Theft By Chocolate.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mystery, Mayans and Mayhem: looking for chocolate, love and an international art thief in all the wrong places.

Chocolate addict Kalena Boyko wasn’t prepared for this. Heading to work at Canada’s largest museum as an administrator, she hoped for quiet and uninterrupted access to her secret chocolate stash. Instead she’s assigned to manage the high-profile Treasures of the Maya exhibition with her loathed former boss Richard Pritchard.

With no warning, her life is turned inside out and propelled into warp speed as she stumbles across an insider plot that could jeopardize the exhibit and the reputation of the museum.

After hearing about a recent botched theft at the museum and an unsolved jewel heist in the past from security guard and amateur sleuth Marco Zeffirelli, Kalena becomes suspicious of Richard and is convinced he’s planning to sabotage the Treasures of the Maya exhibition. Her suspicions, and the appearance of the mysterious but charming Geoffrey Ogden from the London office, don’t help her concentration. The Treasures of the Maya seem cursed as problem after problem arises, including the disappearance of a key artifact – the world’s oldest piece of chocolate…

THANKS TO AUTHOR, LUBA LESYCHYN, I HAVE ONE (1)
EBOOK EDITION TO GIVE AWAY. OPEN TO ALL.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO THE
CMASH BLOG GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY SPONSORED BY ATTICA BOOKS:

Theft By Chocolate Giveaway at Every Blog Stop

Please leave a comment below and your email address to be entered to win an ebook copy of Theft By Chocolate, the new release by Luba Lesychyn. In five days, a winner will be chosen at random and notified via email. Available in any ebook format. Remember to write your email address in the comments so that you can be contacted if you win!

$150 Gift Certificate Giveaway of Grand Prize on July 31st

Do you love chocolate as much as Kelana, the heroine in Theft By Chocolate? Here’s your chance to indulge in $150 US worth! The Giveaway Grand Prize is a gift certificate to a delectable chocolate online retailer. Winner chooses from one of three sites: http://www.chocosphere.com/, http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/ , or http://www.dlea.com.au/. To be eligible for the Grand Prize, enter the Rafflecopter below. Remember to sign up for Luba’s email announcements (worth five entries). On occasion she’ll send out exclusive announcements for special events, blog posts, giveaways and free swag! On July 31^st, the winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.