Ottmar Leibert on culture and its fringes.
Warren Ellis on Jesse Armstrong's MOUNTAINHEAD
“Hollywood assignments had already kept him from new fiction for nearly a year and a half. Since then, Leonard had devoted himself exclusively to screenwriting, considering penning a film’s companion novel—or 'novelization'—only if the money was right. As a result, Leonard had little time to experiment with his fiction, to apply the lessons learned from his year and a half toiling with The Big Bounce. He expressed his growing concerns on the matter to Swanson. Leonard later recalled, '[Swanson] called to ask if I’d read a recently published novel called The Friends of Eddie Coyle. I told him I hadn’t heard of it and he said, ‘This is your kind of stuff, kiddo, run out and get it before you write another word.’ Leonard took Swanson’s recommendation and breezed through George V. Higgins’s critically acclaimed 1970 debut in one sitting, later claiming '[I] felt as if I’d been set free, [thinking] so this was how you do it.'” — COOLER THAN COOL: The Life And Times of Elmore Leonard by C.M. Kushins at CrimeReads.