In the past seven days…

Here’s a quick round-up of what’s been going on in the last week.

First, as implied last week, I have finished the first draft of Casino Chiseler, book 4 in the Alex Cohen series. This means it should hit the streets around October time. It pushes forward into the 1940s as Alex moves to Las Vegas and helps Benny Siegel create the casino-hotels for which the city because famous.

Second, I have been looking at the results of the survey I pushed out last week abut whereto after Alex. Thank you to everyone who took the time to express their opinions as to what my next project(s) should be. I need to carry out a little more analysis to reach a fine conclusion but I can easily tell you know the edited highlights. There is a strong voice asking me to continue with Alex Cohen, along with calls for more Jewish gangster stories as well as follow-ups to The Case with a 1940s/50s private eye.

These voices come from different groups and I want to better understand the likelihood of generating sales off the back of heeding these calls. At the moment–and I have a year to make the decision so this is far from final–I am minded to write a couple more Alex Cohen stories to bring the total up to nine. Then I am open to developing two other series, one about a Jewish gangster from Murder Corporation as well as Jake Adkins PI. This might take a couple of years to produce if I go down this route but I am certainly going to focus my attention on these concepts.

The thing which surprised me from the survey, which I’m closing for further input, was how few of you were interested in my Eliot Ness idea, which is something that has been festering inside me for several months. In my research on Al Capone, I discovered that Ness almost lost his badge when he was found DUI after a car accident. The idea of writing a bunch of stories about a drunk Ness who has hit the skids intrigued me–but I don’t want to write into the void. Perhaps I’ll gauge reader opinion again in a few years time and if Ness is still rattling around my skull, I might test the water further down the line.

As I said before, thanks again for your thoughts and I’ll let you know what happens, but don’t hold your breath. We are talking months not weeks.

Leo