Author Elmore Leonard Dead at 87

NewsMax ^ | 08/20/2013 | reuters

[WayneS]

Author Elmore Leonard, whose ear for gritty, realistic dialogue helped bring dozens of hard-bitten crooks, cops and cowboys to life in nearly 50 novels, died on Tuesday several weeks after a stroke. He was 87.

link: http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/obit-elmore-leonard/2013/08/20/id/521297?promo_code=13E39-1&utm_source=13E39Boston_Herald&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1

[WayneS]

One of my favorite authors.

[Paladin2]

Elmore James still dead.

[Billthedrill]

RIP.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

I have had a good life and written a many a book, he said.

[Standing Wolf]

One of my favorite authors.

Yep. Mine, too. He could say more in fewer words than I've ever even been able to imagine.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of 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.”

[DemforBush]

I hadn’t realized so many of Leonard’s stories ended up as films, or that he had written the screenplay for Joe Kidd.

RIP.

[tsomer]

Many of the best films.

Sad day.

[Rummyfan]

Damn. Great writer. I have read just about everything he has written and there was never a bad read in the bunch. RIP Elmore Leonard. Maybe Detroit going broke contributed to this. Anything I know about Detroit - Greek Town, Eight Mile and Woodward - comes from him.

[Rummyfan]

He also did some great Westerns, Ulzana’s Raid and Hombre to name two.

[RedMonqey]

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather.

"It was a dark and stormy night"

Snoopy and Charles Schultz diagree ....;-)