Jack Ryan

Created by Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) With a few notable exceptions, Elmore Leonard didn't really write series characters, or even private eyes, for that matter. Still, his books are full of recurring characters who seemed to randomly wander in and out of his fiction, sometimes only briefly, and sometimes making themselves right at home. And a … Continue reading Jack Ryan

Elmore Leonard

(1925-2013) ". . . I don't think of them as bad guys. I just think of them as, for the most part, normal people who get up in the morning and they wonder what they're going to have for breakfast, and they sneeze, and they wonder if they should call their mother, and then they … Continue reading Elmore Leonard

Frank Ryan’s 10 Golden Rules For Successful Armed Robbery

From the Elmore Leonard novel Swag In Elmore Leonard's 1976 novel Swag (more appropriately retitled "Ryan's Rule" in paperback), we first meet Frank Ryan, an "almost honest" used car salesman from Red Bowers Chevrolet in Detroit, who decides NOT to testify  against small-time car thief Ernest "Stick" Stickley, Jr. Instead, he ropes the would-be felon into … Continue reading Frank Ryan’s 10 Golden Rules For Successful Armed Robbery

Writers Say the Darnedest Things

"They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talk about writing or themselves." -- Lillian Hellman "All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, … Continue reading Writers Say the Darnedest Things