Leopold Borstinski's Blog, page 30

January 17, 2019

Powder is in competition

I am pleased to announce that Powder is in a novel competition and I’d really appreciate you taking a minute out of your schedule to head over to the TCK site and vote for it in the Thriller section (on page 9 of 16).


This is the first time one of my books has been entered for such a prize and it is down to readers to vote for the winning entry. So the more people who vote for Powder, the better chance it has of winning,


As the third sequel in the Lagotti Family series, the book stands on its own as it moves the saga to a couple of years after the robbery at the First Bank of Baltimore. One Goodreads review said: “Amazing mob story, equal to the Godfather. Once you’re part of it, there’s no running away.”


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Published on January 17, 2019 13:54

January 11, 2019

Happy New Year

I thought I’d give you a break from this newsletter over the holidays but now we are  deep inside January, I thought I’d start up again.


The first thing I’d like to mention is that The Heist is going to be on sale January 19-22 at only 99 cents, which is cheap, I must admit. And if you have access to Kindle Unlimited then it is free to you every day of the year. Nice.


The second thing is to remind you that Mama’s Gone is on pre-release and will be available on March 18. What better way to celebrate St Patrick’s Day could there possibly be than to spend the following day reading about heroin deals, prostitution, gaming and mob wars? I don’t know either.


Oh, and by the way, as the year incremented in the usual pattern, I decided to update the covers on The Heist and The Getaway. I am mighty proud of the work. Check it out when you can.


Enjoy!


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Published on January 11, 2019 14:42

December 9, 2018

Will the UK carry on taxing books?

The bitter battle between eBooks and hardcopy novels contains in the UK where consideration is being given to scrap sales tax on eBooks. To be clear, I am based in the UK and have some skin in this game.


I believe books should not be taxed as they contain knowledge and ideas. And I think there should never have been VAT applied to eBooks, whatever their format.  This does have the consequence that, should it be removed, online retailers will find their prices fall as they should be pricing net of VAT. This in theory will create a level playing field – not that the field is truly level.


Online platforms in the UK enjoy tax benefits by not having to pay high levels of business rates compared to retailers who do need high street space. Some of them also have unusual corporate structures where billed sales don’t appear to land in the country common sense indicates they will.


So, let’s start with sales tax and then the UK government should put a lot more effort to deal with the other tax issues. Right now I only sell online in part because bricks-and-mortar book sellers are few and far between and reducing in numbers all the time. And I don’t think that’s right.


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Published on December 09, 2018 12:08

December 2, 2018

Bad sex? Yes please, say male writers

People

The results of the shortlist for the annual literary bad sex awards have been announced. And this year, it is full of men.


The awards have been running for 25 years and there have only been three female winners. James Frey and Haruki Murakami get special mention and we don’t even know if they’ve won.


I mention this vital news story because I must admit to be concerned when I write sex scenes. Of course, mine might be dull or expressed from too male a perspective but at least I don’t overstate the volume of semen generated  Ahem to Murakami.


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Published on December 02, 2018 11:16

November 25, 2018

Books vs Films

Reviews

I thought I’d add to the debate about whether books or films are in themselves better during the recent Powder blog tour and here is my contribution.


There was a point in my life when I tracked down the books upon which my favourite films were based – and many of them were by obscure writers or were substantially different from the final story that appeared onscreen. That was to be expected. When a producer buys the rights to a story, they can do what they want with that property.


What did surprise me was how bad several of those books were. Not just the language used but how  the stories were flat and how unsatisfying were the endings. Once Upon a Time in America, for example, as a film contains a haunting set of flashbacks to reposition the meaning of the storyline and a killer ending. None of that was in the novel. In the movie, a Cool Hand Luke, we have a metaphor for Jesus buried just below the surface of all of Luke’s actions. Not so in the book, which I found one of the most tedious to read – and I so wanted it to be great.


Conclusion? Gotta be kidding, right? The great thing about a good book is that you, the reader can fill in the gaps left by the writer – the internal monologues, how the characters look or the way they behave. The great thing about a good film is that you connect emotionally almost from the get-go. I’ve cried at several movies (Silent Running, The Elephant Man, Godfather Part 3) but I have never shed a tear with a novel in my hand. Go figure.


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Published on November 25, 2018 01:34

November 18, 2018

Powder is with us

And finally after an interminable wait, Powder is set to hit the world. Monday November 19 is the first day you can buy it in Amazon.


For the past week – and for the next week too – I’ve been on a virtual blog tour promoting the novel and discounts will be available for the first week of the launch. On Amazon, that is.


And the writing carries on as I’m just about to start my next first draft and this time it’s a new series featuring a female investigator and set in the financial world in the UK. Becky Greene is the lead character with five books in the series. I’ll tell you more at a later date.


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Published on November 18, 2018 11:51

November 11, 2018

Powder is about to take off…

Exciting news is that the blog tour for Powder is set to kick off on Monday for 10 days.this is th first time I’ve ever been involved with a book tour, so I hope it all goes well, naturally.


Halfway through the tour, Powder launches on Amazon – that’s on November 19 – and that is the same day I am officially launching the Readers’ Club, which is only available to people who have bought one of my books. I am busy curating some material and will be including the original version of The Heist containing the original cover and title, as well as my preferred version of the book, although the beta readers disagreed – and I totally understand why.


The pages are starting to go up but there won’t be any place to get the Invite Code to enter the Club until November 19. Then you can fill your boots.


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Published on November 11, 2018 14:49

November 4, 2018

The holidays are comin’

Powder

If you live in the US then it won’t be long before you celebrate your freedom from the yoke of British oppression – and happy Thanksgiving to you. While I may be tempted to kick off a major rant about the state of American politics and freedoms, I shall not.


Instead I’m going to tell you about two things that are happening the same week as the British give thanks for having got the American continent out of the empire

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Published on November 04, 2018 09:53

October 28, 2018

Frederick Forsyth abridged

People

Thought I’d share an amusing article ripping into Frederick Forsyth’s latest oeuvre.  While it is cruel and funny – unless you are the author – I would be devastated if someone did that to my writing, although I’d love to be well known enough for someone to attack my writing with love and hate in equal measure.


Now I’m not advocating being nasty to writers and I am not promoting an anti Forsyth campaign, but as a review technique, it is mighty powerful way to make a point.


Enjoy.


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Published on October 28, 2018 15:57

October 21, 2018

Milkman of human kindness

The biggest book news this week was that an Irish woman won the Man Booker prize and I can honestly say the story left me cold – not because I don’t care that a woman has won the accolade for the first time in quite a few years or that I don’t care that an Irish person has won the trophy either.


The reason I don’t care is that I haven’t won it – and I doubt that I ever will. Yes, it is very churlish of me to say this, but I thought I might as well be honest with you. I am sick and tired of people pretending to be happy at other people’s success. The emotional falsity of the applause and smiles is a bookish version of fake news.


So well done to Anna Burn’s Milkman. Hooray.


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Published on October 21, 2018 13:09