Elmore Leonard on the wireless
Okay, a bit off-message for The Sharpener, a public service interlude. Elmore Leonard, the Best Storyteller since St. Paul, will be interviewed by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5Live, just after 3 p.m. UK time today. Listen live on the web, or I’ll post the podcast link later. [here]
Not just a perfect antidote to my unhealthy James Ellroy obsession, Elmore also taught me to write. His ten rules transformed a semi-literate social scientist into the honed* hack you’re reading now. Enjoy.
* Please, no comments about my writing abilities in the comments box. My hand is hovering over Delete.
The first one of his I read was “Freaky Deaky”. The next 13 books I read were by him as well.
They go down so easy. Why? “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
Both men are consummate crime writers in their own differing ways. But for pure, sordid, rotten-underbelly brilliance, Ellroy shades it for me. The man’s a twisted, twisted genius.
Pity the poor folk for whom the ‘ten rules’ read like personal admonishment.
Yeah, but only Leonard writes cowboy books. They’re great.