RIP Elmore Leonard

I have learned something very sad today: Elmore Leonard passed away. At 87, it was to be expected, but it is still sad nevertheless. I have to confess, I was disappointed by Djibouti, but he wrote so many great crime novels. I still remember discovering him with Glitz and being blown away. Elmore Leonard had such... I was about to say talent, but this is such a cliché and so ridiculous to say this about a veteran writer, especially such a prolific writer. Leonard has mastery, skills. He was a maestro of crime fiction. I had wanted to quote his ten rules of writing, I didn't know when, then sadly tonight became the occasion. It sums up why he is so admired:

"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."

He also added one to sum up the ten: "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." A maestro's words. He will be missed, but his work is immortal (and he wouldn't have forgiven me for this cliché).

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.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/movies/Elmore-Leonards-10-Rules-of-Good-Writing.html#hWkWuKiGWjQv6eMg.99

Pirates of today and yesteryear

Summertime is not quite coming, nevertheless, I have decided to read something that would be appropriate for summer. Which means mainly crime fiction. Violent, nasty crime fiction. I had not read the prolific Elmore Leonard in a long while, I have decided to read (one of?) his latest: Djibouti. I chose this one for a number of reasons. Among them, I was curious about such a contemporary novel, set in a contemporary time, with contemporary issues and background, written by... a 85 year old writer. I also chose to read this novel because it is about pirates. Modern day pirates. And I LOVE pirate stories, which I think go hand in hand with summertime. I used to play pirates a lot as a child, during summer. They were the traditional ones of folklore of course, but sometimes we did have make belief games that were modern high sea adventures too.

I also borrowed from the library a book about the history of piracy, from antiquity to today. I intend to blog more about it another day. So expect to see and read about pirates a lot on Vraie Fiction. I am very jealous of Elmore Leonard. Not only because he is a great crime writer (and remaining great as a prolific one!), but because he managed to be original again. One of my dreams was to write a book about contemporary pirates. And Elmore Leonard just did it! I envy him, but I will still enjoy the novel. Of course I will, it is about pirates.