Baker's Oven

Unlucky no. 13 claims another novelist

Elmore Leonard sits at his old-school typewriter in this undated Associated Press photo.
Elmore Leonard sits at his old-school typewriter in this undated Associated Press photo.

James Herbert, Richard Matheson, Rick Hautala, Vince Flynn, Jack Vance, and lastly Elmore Leonard have one thing in common: they stopped bashing at the keyboard in 2013.

Permanently.

As a writer whose dream is to be a published novelist, some of these names have had a profound impact on me. Leonard and Matheson are atop that list.

The one thing that has impressed me the most about Elmore Leonard’s passing is people are actually paying their respects to an author who was so ambivalent about Hollywood, a town that seemed to gobble up his books and turn them into movies like Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Killshot and Out of Sight.

It also shows that people still have an appreciation of writers, and books for that matter.

For me, the ultimate dream would be to complete a novel, get it published and have it interpreted into a major motion picture. That’s a dream, and if you work hard at it, there’s more of a chance you’ll achieve it.

Leonard did. Matheson did. Herbert did. And unfortunately Flynn won’t see his books developed into films.

I will miss Elmore Leonard, and the characters he forged into existence like Karen Sisco and Raylan Givens. He is very much a part of pop culture and his works will continue to live on after his death.

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