Novelists drop pens to chat in TC

TRAVERSE CITY -- Peter Leonard has vacationed enough in northern Michigan to set much of his first novel in Leelanau County -- even if he did mistakenly call Leelanau State Park "Lighthouse Point National Park."

Now Leonard will return to the area in a more official capacity: as the first guest -- along with his famous father, best-selling crime writer Elmore Leonard -- in the new Traverse City National Writers Series. The pair will appear at the City Opera House Sunday in "an evening of conversation, food and drink" hosted by Traverse City's own national writer, Doug Stanton.

Stanton said the series is modeled after readings at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and will feature lively conversations with prominent writers -- from novelists and short story authors to journalists and television writers -- followed by audience q-and-a's. It's a departure from more traditional readings "with the author droning on," he said.

"This is really the wave of the future and the way people enjoy reading writers, not necessarily in bookstores in folding chairs," he said.

Once called the greatest living crime writer by the New York Times, Elmore Leonard has written more than 40 novels, many of which have been made into movies, including "Get Shorty," "Out Of Sight" and "Be Cool." His newest mystery, "Road Dogs," was published in May.

Peter Leonard spent nearly 25 years in advertising before taking his father's advice and trying his hand at novel writing.

"Because he was so good and because he became so famous I just thought that writing books was his career and I wasn't going to do it," said Peter, who attended Eastern Michigan and Loyola universities before settling in Birmingham with his wife and four children. When he finally "novelized" a movie script at age 50, "it was daunting," he said. "I wrote ads, and they're 70 words."

Now, thanks to the success of 2008's "Quiver" -- partly set in northern Michigan -- and this year's "Trust Me," Peter is trusting fate. He quit his job this week in the advertising firm he founded and is offering his third novel, a crime caper inspired by his weeklong stint in an Italian jail while a college student, to multiple publishers.

"It's an exciting proposition for me," he said. "I've written three novels part time and I've been doing a lot of the work at night and on weekends. And I put a lot of things aside. I've been doing it when I'm tired, and I haven't given it my best."

Together the pair will offer an insider's look at the process of writing, with plenty of personal asides.

"We have developed a routine where we ask each other questions and comment on writing, and one thing I have discovered is it's more fun with two people, especially with Elmore Leonard," Peter said. "We talk a little bit about the movie business, actors and actresses -- which is fun -- and how we write. We write longhand first."

"I think it's too personal. You have a story and you don't want someone else getting in the way," he said. "I talk to my father a little and asked for advice with the latest book, but now we each do our own thing."

Stanton said the pair's Traverse City appearance will be one of about six series events a year, along with an annual celebration featuring a panel of several writers and series scholarship winners. In a nod to the help he himself received from a scholarship, he said proceeds from the series will benefit college-bound writing students in Traverse City Area Public Schools and Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools.

"It just enlivens the local culture by having these writers come in and reminds us of the power of great storytelling and great writing," he said. "And I really think that there's someone out there who in 25 years will write something that will change lives and inform and entertain and move people."

Sunday's event at 6:30 p.m. will be followed by an "afterglow" reception in the lobby, where the authors' signed books will be for sale. A highlight of the evening will be a silent auction in which the winners will have their names used in the Leonards' next novels -- an idea Stanton hopes will catch on with other guests.

"There's intense interest in it already," he said. "It's a great idea, and that money goes back into the scholarship fund as well."

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students 21 and under. They're available at the City Opera House, or treatickets.com and cityoperahouse.org.

Photos

Peter and Elmore Leonard

"Road Dogs," by Elmore Leonard AP

"Trust Me," by Peter Leonard