American crime writer Elmore Leonard is revered for his snappy dialogue, so how exactly does he come up with it? By watching the television game show Wheel of Fortune.
The 85-year-old Leonard, who published his 44th novel this week, said famed writer Ernest Hemingway may be his literary model, but that he turns to the US game show for a window on the American vernacular.
"I listen to the contestants on 'Wheel of Fortune," he told Reuters in a telephone interview from his Michigan home.
Leonard's new book, Djibouti, is set in the Horn of Africa and is populated by pirates, al-Qaeda operatives, an eccentric billionaire, a truth-seeking journalist and her sassy assistant.
"I liked the idea of the pirates that get high on [the drug] khat and take hold of a merchant ship and then hold it for ransom. I thought, 'These guys are having a good time'," he said.
And there was the name of the country, whose port is located near an area where Somali pirates have been hijacking ships.
"Djibouti has been one of my favourite words for a long time. It just has a marvellous sound to it," said Leonard, described by The New York Times this month as "a national treasure" and as the most widely imitated crime writer.
Leonard is already several hundred pages into his next book and showing no sign of slowing down.
"I've always had a good time," he said. "I've been doing this for nearly 60 years and it's always been fun because I got to a style that I liked and I'm very comfortable with. I let the characters tell the story in their voices and I keep my nose out of it."
'I like a book'
Leonard, who does not use a computer or own a mobile phone and still writes novels in longhand, said he does not understand why anyone would want to read Djibouti as an eBook, or digital book, although it is available in that format.
"I like a book," he said. "I love books, that's why I started to write. I like to own books.
"The eBook to me is not much better than a manuscript. I don't think there's any life to it at all, there's no glamour to it, there's no colour in it," he said. "At least a book has a cover."
Leonard takes a different view of films. There have been 21 feature films, seven made-for-television movies, and three television series and two short films based on his books.
Leonard's current project is Justified, a collaboration with the cable network FX that centres on Leonard's US marshal character Raylan Givens from his short story Fire In The Hole.
He is writing the next instalment in the Givens story, which will be adapted for the FX series, he said.
Leonard said he hopes Djibouti will be made into a film. He said he sent a copy of the manuscript to Katherine Bigelow, whose film The Hurt Locker won the Academy Award for best picture this year, but has not yet heard from her.
"The book is kind of written as a film," he said.
Djibouti was published by HarperCollins imprint William Morrow.
