All Blog Posts Tagged 'elmore' (10)

Where Do Ideas Come From?

I saw Robert B. Parker at a book signing many years ago. He told a story of being on one of those morning wake-up shows all television stations have, sharing a spot with Elmore Leonard. They were sitting in the Green Room, passing the time, and agreed the question they least liked answering was, “Where do you get your ideas?”

Ten minutes later, on camera, the helmet-haired blonde hostess’s first question was to Parker: “Where do you get your…

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Added by Dana King on October 3, 2013 at 1:05am — 4 Comments

The Heart to the Rest of the World: the Writing Life with Tony Parsons

When you ask writers what underpins the greatest books, they may talk about structure, style, character-building. The best of them identify the novelist’s emotional understanding of himself and his ability to translate it to the page. That’s what strikes readers – perhaps without their even knowing it – and gives them an immediate connection to the work. At this, Tony Parsons is… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on April 5, 2011 at 6:01pm — No Comments

Why Movies Suck

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time)

Here's a tidbit from the Trivia page of IMDB's entry for the movie Get Shorty:

MGM didn't want to extensively use Elmore Leonard-inspired dialogue in the

film, and pushed Barry Sonnenfeld and Scott Frank to make many passages

more generic than the book's, but once John Travolta signed on to… Continue

Added by Dana King on August 18, 2010 at 11:26am — 1 Comment

Moore's new Thailand noir

Christopher G. Moore has book 10 in his terrific Vincent Calvino crime series out this week. "Paying Back Jack", which will be out in December in the UK. I love the Calvino series for the way it leads the reader into the underbelly of Bangkok in the company of its Italian-Jewish New Yorker private eye. PBJ gives us that… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on October 7, 2009 at 5:29pm — No Comments

Good Reads for July

(Also posted in One Bite at a Time.)

Swag, Elmore Leonard - John McFetridge cites this book almost as often as Toronto is colder than Miami. Since John is mistaken about such things even less frequently than that, I finally got around to reading it, and he's right again. Classic Leonard, with two criminals who aren't as smart as they think they are. The dialog is spot on, and the story is a little more tightly plotted… Continue

Added by Dana King on August 2, 2009 at 4:47am — No Comments

Gimme a Break Dept. #89: He looked like a movie star!

Earlier this week I noted that I dislike writers describing a character as looking like a particular movie star. I cited a few examples from Elmore Leonard (which touched some nerves among fans of the Great Detroit Coolster) and one from Dan Brown. Now I bring you a real corker from The New Yorker.

The magazine's latest issue (at least the latest one to get through the Israeli postal… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 18, 2009 at 8:52pm — No Comments

Elmore Leonard's 11th Rule of Writing

I’ve always enjoyed Elmore Leonard’s novels and seen him as one of the true stylists of popular fiction. In a review, I even described my pal Christopher G. Moore as the “Elmore Leonard of Bangkok” and I meant it as a compliment. But I have a bone to pick with the great Elmore.

I just read a book of Elmore’s short stories from 2004 titled “When the Women Come Out to Dance.” In many ways it’s superb. The… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 15, 2009 at 10:59pm — 13 Comments

Elmore Leonard in Bangkok

Christopher G. Moore was good enough to send me an advance copy of his 10th Vincent Calvino novel "Paying Back Jack" which will be out in October (December in the UK). I love the Calvino series for the way it leads the reader into the underbelly of Bangkok in the company of its Italian-Jewish New Yorker private eye. PBJ… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on May 24, 2009 at 12:06am — No Comments

Leonard's 10 Rules for Writers

I've been a big fan of Elmore Leonard ever since I read his novel Mr. Paradise. I read his 10 Rules for Writers. Here's my review:

If you read customer's reviews of this hardcover book on Amazon.com you will quickly see that some people feel they were hoodwinked. In truth this "book" is really an article reprinted from The New York Times on the thickest paper I've ever seen between two covers. However, the…

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Added by Richard Krauss on April 18, 2008 at 11:00am — 2 Comments

Genre vs. Lit - everybody's talking about it

Recently on the Elmore Leonard discussion forum, someone posted this about the novel, Pagan Babies:

"I was a bit uncomfortable at the use of a horrific, real-life tragedy within a crime novel."

Of course, almost every crime novel is inspired by some real-life tragedy. In this case it's the scale of the thing.

Pagan Babies opens five years after the Rwandan genocide with a description of forty-seven bodies, "... turned to leather and stains," in a… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on April 11, 2008 at 12:43am — No Comments