Bestselling novelist Loren Estleman is well-known for two fictional characters: Los Angeles “film detective” Valentino, and Page Murdock, a U.S. deputy marshal featured in Estleman’s classic historical westerns. In his latest book, Shoot a Valentino Mystery (Forge), he merges both popular series as Valentino investigates a blackmail scheme involving fictional versions of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and the discovery of a “blue” film Evans made before striking it big in Hollywood.Since first being published in 1976, the prolific Estleman has written more than 70 books, including standalone novels, short stories, and essays, in 23 languages; received 22 writing awards, and was nominated for the National Book Award. Although considered an authority on both the American West and criminal history, Estleman’s interest in film and Hollywood history overrides everything else. “Movies are my life,” he says from his home in rural Michigan, which sits just across the road from the farm where he grew up.
Although Estleman would be a natural for writing screenplays, his one experience with that literary form left him content to stop there. “The late Elliot Kastner, a veteran producer, once asked me to consider writing an original screenplay featuring Amos Walker, my Detroit private eye,” says Estleman. “I met with him in New York, bought several books on the subject when I got back home, and wrote a couple of dozen pages before the deal fell through, as they do most of the time. I’m glad I tried it, though. I learned that screenplays and novels are almost identical art forms, observing most of the same rules, so they’re easier to write than I’d suspected.” But he does counsel beginning writers against starting with screenplays unless they’re already a Hollywood insider or are approached by someone in the industry. “Hollywood is an impossible market to crack,” he adds.
Estleman’s fans may not know about his collection of manual typewriters, 50 in all, that date as far back as 1896. “I became a collector by accident. Before I learned that the old ones never wear out, I started buying them in junk stores and at Kiwanis sales for parts,” he says. “After a while I started acquiring older and rarer machines for fun.” The collection, which is popular with visitors to his house, is on display in Estleman’s basement. Until he was forced to use a computer some years ago, he wrote entirely on manual typewriters; his favorites are a 1923 Underwood and a 1960 Olympia. “I still use them for first drafts and correspondence,” he says. It helps, of course, that he types 75 words per minute and makes very few errors. No matter the machine, Estleman will always be able to deliver the goods.
Estleman signs copies of Shoot today, at 2:30 p.m., at the Macmillan booth (1958–1959), where he will also be promoting his next Valentino mystery, Brazen, on sale in December.
This article appeared in the May 13, 2016 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.
