Sunday, April 3, 2011

I Want To Write Like Walter Mosley


I really do. I fell in love with his writing with the Easy Rawlins series, a crime series set in LA after World War II. Hard-boiled and socially aware, a perfect series for an ideal college boy who grew up in the 'burbs.  The rough, tough world kept me interested but the use of language inspired me to try writing myself.

Walter Mosley has written several series (Fearless Jones, Socrates Fortlow) and stand-alones.  He's dabbled in other genres such as science fiction(Blue Wave).  But it's the crime fiction that enthralls me.  His character interaction is par excellence. His prose succinct and so specific, so telling of character.

That's why I'm jealous again of his new series with Leonid McGill, a P.I. trying to be a better man to himself and his family. The new book is "When The Thrill Is Gone".   Mosley's is  a masculine world with Leonid balancing the need for violence and the need for reason. Here is a short example:

"If you're lucky, I said before he could announce his own undoing, "you will one day get to be old enough and infirm enough to have some young man yellin' at you to hurry it up. If you're unlucky you'll lay hands upon me."
I want to write like Walter Mosley.

Movie: The Lincoln Lawyer-Pretty good interpretation of Michael Connelly's novel. Except the "awright" voice of Matthew Mcconaughey.
Musick: Jessica Lea Mayfield- She keeps hitting me over the head with her black songs of bad love. Coming to Louisville April 9th.