This is Elmore Leonard.
Though I didn’t personally get into his books until I was in my twenties, now he’s one of my absolute favourite authors. You can pick up any one of his books (the cowboy stories are a great place to start) and know that in a quiet way there will be something stylish and smart and brilliant about it, guaranteed.
Here are his ten rules of writing. Numbers three to five made me nod vigorously. Number six made me blush (though I hope it’s ok to say “all hell broke loose” if, like The Black Tattoo, your story is actually set in Hell). And number ten is just awesome.
03/09/2009 at 4:49 pm Permalink
I’m a BIG Elmore Leonard fan. The guy is a genius at hinting at character through subtle actions and dialogue traits (Chilli Palmer in ‘Get Shorty’, for example, always pronounces the word ‘hundred’ as ‘hunnerd’).
Can’t recommend his books enough.