Ask the Author: Paul Levine
Answered Questions (8)
Paul Levine
So sorry Christine that I just saw your question. Well, there will be another Jake Lassiter novel in 2026, but my next book is "Midnight Burning" (September 16, 2025). Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin vs. fascists in 1930's Hollywood. A departure for me. Historical fiction set against a true background.
Paul Levine
I am happy to report that I'm alive and well and working. "Midnight Burning," my first historical thriller, will be released September 16, 2025. In a nutshell, Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin vs. fascists in 1930's Hollywood. Based loosely on real events. Hope you like it!
Paul Levine
BUM DEAL involves a murder trial where a surgeon is accused of killing his wife, but there's no forensic evidence, no witness, and no body. There was such a case in New York a while ago, and I took that "impossible" trial and gave it to Jake Lassiter as a PROSECUTOR. At the same time, his symptoms of the brain disease CTE are growing worse. I believe in turning the heat up on my protagonist. I think here it's boiling.
Paul Levine
Same as the answer about writer's block. The bills come due; inspiration follows. When all is said and done, it's a job, not a hobby.
Paul Levine
BUM DEAL, the 13th and final entry of the Jake Lassiter series, just came out. I've taken a breather and now I'm researching a book that's neither in the Lassiter nor Solomon/Lord series. It's a period piece set in Hollywood. All I can say.
Paul Levine
Keep your ass in the chair. Avoid the internet during working hours. Write, write, write. And rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
Paul Levine
You get to work in your underwear. True story: Thirty years ago, I was living alone in Coconut Grove, FL. The FedEx driver was a young woman who had a package or two for me every week. I routinely opened the door in my bathrobe, unshaven and hair uncombed. One day, she delivers a small box from Random House and I grabbed it from her and started opening it at once. "Look!" I said, pulling out a copy of TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, my first book. She studied the cover then said, "Oh, that's what you do! All this time, I thought you were a bum."
Paul Levine
Writer's block cures itself the instant the mortgage bill shows up in the mailbox.
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