Road Dawg - 18 January 2012 05:24 PM

[Quoting Elmore]

“But I want to bring Raylan in. I need Raylan in this one”

I can’t see Raylan in Palm Springs.

Look real hard, friend.

Don’t get me wrong, Gregg. Raylan’s been my favorite character since Pronto. It’s just a little difficult picturing Raylan in Palm Springs, as if he’d gone Hollywood or something, which I suppose has already happened with Justified. Still, wouldn’t it be a little unusual for Elmore to put Raylan in two books in a row?

But if it happens, I’m not complainin.

Looks like Sweetmary might have evolved into Blue Dreams? The prison and bull rider/breader elements are still there, its in Palm Springs and it seems Raylan will be getting off a plane.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120308/OPINION03/203080376/Givens-keeps-giving?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Entertainment|p

Awesome!
From Rubin’s piece:

Leonard went to Palm Springs in January, “and as soon as I saw it, I thought, ‘My God. The location.’”

and

In short order, he had characters straining to be turned loose to shape a plot: an actress from vampire movies who lives in the splendor of Rancho Mirage, a bull rider turned breeder amid the date orchards of blue-collar Indio, the warden of a privately owned prison who’s paralyzed during an escape but wants to keep his job because he’d just be sitting down anyway.

I called the date orchards of Indio in the Raylan thread, but wanted the actress to be the poker whiz from Butler and the bull rider turned breeder to be Bob Valdez. Raylan stepping off a plane is a bonus for sure. Can’t wait to read Blue Dreams and see Justified on location in Palm Springs.

This is the best literary news in years.  Early today i finished reading Riding the Rap for the first time where Raylan became my fav EL character. A novel with a better story,more hardcore story than Pronto.

I thought it was a big shame how Raylan waited 1995 to 2011-2012 for a new novel.  Two Raylan novels in a row is wonderful.

I just hope the books are similar to literary Rayland doesnt try to follow Justified.  A very cool tv show with awesome hero but its not Elmore Leonard writing,story great.

The new one, Blue Dreams, will bring Raylan to Palm Springs.  Juatified will stay in Kentucky.  Raylan will be on his own like Riding the Rap.

Gregg Sutter - 02 April 2012 07:48 AM

The new one, Blue Dreams, will bring Raylan to Palm Springs.  Juatified will stay in Kentucky.  Raylan will be on his own like Riding the Rap.

Thats better for me.  I like literary Raylan and EL doing their own thing.  Not to adjust for Justified.  I dont want novel version of Justified, i want literary Raylan on his own.

Justified is awesome tv show but the writing, the characters cant match EL books.

I think the word “adjust” is fair, but the show used Elmore’s ideas.  He let them strip his stories and hang them up for parts.  They did just that.  Elmore in turned added a few show characters that he didn’t create.  Blue Dreams is really Raylan after the show.  Think feature.

The tone of Justified has gotten darker and less quirky,funny alà EL style thats the only thing i didnt want the books to be like that.  The contrast of fun tone along with hardcore hero like Raylan is why i rate Riding the Gap so highly.

I will read Raylan, Labrava next of EL, will be interesting to see how similar or different Raylan book is to the 1995 Riding the Rap. 

I dont even know how many different character POV there is and if Raylan is the main character,POV most of the book.  I have become bigger fan of EL and im just glad to see there is new books coming.  His US marshals heroes are my fav character of his.  Weird a writer known for writing great low life characters.