[I cannot think of a name]

His writing was totally “Justified.”

[corkoman]

Gifted writer - so many stories with real characters.

[UB355]

I read Pronto and Riding the Rap after getting caught up to all the seasons of Justified. Fun books.

[circlecity]

RIP Elmore. One of the best crime novelists out there and he wrote the best dialogue evah.

[Prospero]

I almost cannot believe it. Last night, on Turner Classic Movies, following a whole day devoted to Randolph Scott movies, they topped everything off with some real greats, including the Randy's last, which happened to be the big screen debut of Sam Peckenpah, and another, I'll have to look up, written and based on a story by none other than Elmore Leonard. The living room was amazed when I related this motion picture more than fifty years old to the series "Justified," along with his series of fantastical, edgy novels based on the underside of Michigan.

What a body of work.

[Tanniker Smith]

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything of his, other than maybe one short story or an introduction to a book. I should remedy that.

[gura]

Good article:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/elmore_leonard_rips_off_justified/

[Larry Lucido]

A favorite of mine. RIP.

[Liberty Valance]

Rest in peace Mr. Leonard.

"At first we thought it was just a thunderstorm coming ... and then all hell broke loose!!!"

[JT Hatter]

Elmore Leonard set a new standard and a new style for mystery/thriller/action writers. His 10 Rules for Good Writing* has helped a lot of us fledgling writers avoid mistakes and improve our writing. My personal favorite is #4.

*Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he’s written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously by the literary crowd.

What’s Leonard’s secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you’ll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing: *

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

* Excerpted from the New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and
Especially Hooptedoodle”

[Guenevere]

I haven’ read an Elmore Leonard book....is his writing simiar to Lee Childs?.....I really like Childs novels.

[a fool in paradise]

Whodunnit????