One of the great American writers, Elmore Leonard, has died at the age of 87.
I was a big fan of his unadorned writing style. He just wrote what happened. He didn't bore you with long descriptions of people, places or things, and he didn't tell you what you should think about those people, places or things.
He simply told the story. It was your job to make conclusions.
Back in 1999 I won a national writing contest that was judged by seven or eight best-selling authors, and one of those authors was Elmore Leonard. He chose my essay as the winning entry (out of more than 600 entries). I was always very proud of that.
