Leopold Borstinski's Blog, page 7

When will Hollywood land in my email?

I thought I’d let you know that I am currently aiming at having Hollywood Bilker ready for sale by October, although I will do my level best to beat that date if I am at all able.

At this point, I have sent Alex into the heart of the Bay of Pigs crisis and he is facilitating party time between Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. So that makes for an interesting time for Alex Cohen. And that’s only the first third of the book.

I was going to give you some more details but the news has just broken that George Floyd’s killer has been given a 22.5 year sentence and somehow talking about a work of fiction at this moment seems a little shallow.

BLM.

Leo

Knock-knock

I thought I’d let you know that The Bowery Slugger is now available in a hardback version. Right now it can only be purchased from Amazon US or Amazon UK but I may widen that to include other websites in due course. You can also buy it direct from my web site, as ever.

To be honest, I am a little bit excited as I wasn’t expecting to be able to offer this kind of book on such a significant sales platform, but I’m not going to lose my head over it either. Put it this way, if you haven’t bought it yet or fancy having a more ‘permanent’ copy to place on a bookshelf, feel free to consider making the purchase. If not, then no worries.

Enjoy.

I know it’s been a while

First of all, apologies for not putting out a newsletter for quite a while. I had some personal matters that needed to get sorted out that had an impact on my ability to type words. I am hoping that is behind me now.

So, I’m still writing book six in the Alex Cohen series about the Hollywood Bilker. At this point in the story, Alex is involved in the Bay of Pigs and when I finished the chapter, I realized the research source I used as the basis contained elements which contradicted two other sources I found. Long story short? I’m having to rewrite the chapter to make it match what actually happened. Not happy. Very annoyed. First world problem, I know, but still…

During this time, the blog tour for Cuban Heel took place and I know that I promised to give you some feedback on the reviews. Well, I will still do that but I’ll wait until my next post. (Do you like the cliffhanger I snuck in?)

eBooks going cheap

A change of pace this week as I have not offered newsletter subscribers any free or cheap eBooks for a while. On this occasion, I’d like to introduce you to a service called BookRaid.com , which is a site that offers heavily discounted books at, say, 99c so they are worth picking up if you are looking for a bargain.

In the interests of transparency, I should let you know that I have provided an affiliate link ie I will get cheaper promotions through them if you sign up. Irrespective of that situation, I think it is a good site otherwise I wouldn’t use it myself–or suggest that you check it out either.

Fill your boots.

Leo

Discount available

Starting from the launch of Cuban Heel, anyone who buys direct from my website will receive a 20% discount promo code to use with the next book you buy from me.

As you can imagine, this code only works on my site–you can’t use it on Amazon, Kobo etc–but it is one of the ways I am saying thank you to anyone who is kind enough to purchase one of my novels (and yes, the 99c novellas will not get you the promo code).

And while all this launch activity takes place, I am typing away at book six in the Alex Cohen series. I’ll give you a flavor of what’s happening there at some future point. When I mentioned the Kennedy’s a few posts ago, I received a flurry of response. All I am prepared to say at this point is that there will be no grassy knoll featured in the story.

Enjoy

Leo

Download Cuban Heel now

I am pleased to announce that Cuban Heel is now available for sale at all good retailers (Amazon from April 3, for the record).

This is the fifth book in the Alex Cohen series and follows Alex’s life as he relocates to Havana and helps Meyer Lansky fulfil his dream of building Las Vegas in Latin America.

Suffice to say, the course of casino heaven does not run straight and Alex soon finds he must deal with rival Italian gangs and the threat of Fidel Castro. On top of that, he also must take account of his family as they head towards him seeking safety and protection “like flies to a midden”.

Grab a copy today from the usual providers or even make a purchase on my website.

Thanks for your kind attention

Leo

PS If you want a cheap way to catch up on everything that’s happened in Alex’s life before you read Cuban Heel, then buy Alex Cohen Books 1-4 which is only available from my site.

Cuba is nearly ready to launch

I’m a week or so away from launching Cuban Heel, book 5 in the Alex Cohen series, onto a suspecting world. I’ve received the manuscript back from my editor and I’m putting the finishing touches to it as I type (not literally as I can’t use two keyboards at once, successfully).

If you want to pre-order a copy so you get the book as soon as it is available then head over to my web site or go to your favorite major sales platform and place an order today. As you can imagine, I’ll let you know when it has gone live, rest assured.

Leo

And so we begin again

I thought I’d announce that I have started writing my twelfth full-length novel. As I implied only last week, it is book six in the Alex Cohen series and is called Hollywood Bilker. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail right now–suffice to say that it takes place in the 1960s, the Kennedy clan is involved and Alex is far from retirement.

Soon I shall enable pre-orders for the book, although I am not expecting to be completed until August–earlier if I am lucky.

That’s all. Just to say I’m stoked about getting to this point in the series and that I have written the final scene of the next book in my head. I know exactly where we are going and it shall be one hell of a ride.

Enjoy.

Leo

Jack Ruby

I’ve been doing a little bit of research into Jewish gangster involvement in the 1960s US and found out that Jack Ruby was a fan of JFK because of the president’s attitude to the Jews. The guy who eventually killed Lee Harvey Oswald also knew Sam Giancana, a well-known Mafia kingpin who had invested in Cuba before the revolution.

Why am I doing this–apart from the desire to fuel my interest in assassination-based conspiracy theories? Let’s just say that Jack is going to appear in Alex Cohen book 6, Hollywood Bilker.

Leo

PS There’ll be other stuff too.

Discount available

I thought I’d let you know about a new offer I’m running on my website from now until the end of time–or a bit earlier if needs be.

If you buy an e-book or paperback from my site that costs more than 0.99 then you will get a 20% discount off your next purchase. And each time you buy a book, you’ll be given 20% off again for the following one. The way I figure it is that loyal customers deserve to be recognised and that’s what I am going to do.

Enjoy

Leo