American novelist Elmore John Leonard has seen his work turned into a lot of train wrecks during his 86 years.

Justified is not one of them, Leonard says, thanks in large part to Graham Yost, the Canadian-born writer who adapted Leonard's short story, "Fire in the Hole," three years ago, as a full-blown TV series for the U.S. cable channel, FX.

Leonard thought so much of Yost and Timothy Olyphant, Justified's lead actor and co-producer, that he dedicated his most recent crime novel, Raylan, to the pair. Raylan is named for Olyphant's character, Raylan Givens. It may be the first time that a short story spawned a TV series, which, in turn, spawned a novel by the author of the original story.

Leonard can get mighty cranky when he sees a hash made out of his work, but he insists he's strictly hands-off when it comes to screen adaptations of his work. He's listed in Justified's title credits as an executive producer, but that doesn't mean he's skulking around Olyphant's trailer, scowling whenever Yost and Olyphant have the temerity to change a word here and there.

"I do feel part of it, and I'm glad I do," Leonard said earlier this month, in Los Angeles. "But I don't first find out what the writers are doing. I don't intrude on them. I do want to add something, if I think of it. If I'm going to be an executive producer, and get paid for it, I feel I should be working. I should be doing something, so that's what I do.

"I think it's a terrific show. I love all the writing, and I'm amazed that, sometimes, they've got the characters better than I put them on paper."

Leonard's writing career began with the novel The Bounty Hunters, which he published in 1953. He wrote westerns for the most part, including Valdez Is Coming, Last Stand at Saber River, and The Law at Randado, before turning to crime novels in the early 1970s. LaBrava, 52 Pick-Up, Gold Coast, Stick, Freaky Deaky, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, Rum Punch, Pronto, Out of Sight, Riding the Rap and Cuba Libre followed in short order -- 49 novels in all.

Then there were the screenplays: Joe Kidd, The Moonshine War, Mr. Majestyk, and the original story 3:10 to Yuma was based on.

Filmmakers as varied as John Frankenheimer and Quentin Tarantino have taken on Leonard's novels, and some have been more successful than others. At age 86, Leonard is still capable of seeing red when someone messes up his good work, but on this day, he wasn't about to name names.

With one exception: his 1969 novel, The Big Bounce, which was adapted into a feature film starring Ryan O'Neal, and made again in 2004, with Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen and Owen Wilson.

"I don't really remember all the bad ones," Leonard said, diplomatically. "I know The Big Bounce was bad, though."

He thought some more, then said: "Oh, God. And they made it twice. It wasn't bad enough the first time. I don't think anybody in the picture knew what it was about.

"The second time they made it, they shot it in Hawaii. They would cut to surfers when they'd run out of ideas."

These days, Leonard is content to leave screenwriting to the screen pros.

"I haven't written a screenplay since '93. That's when I said, 'I'm not writing any more of these.' It's just work. You're working with a studio executive who really doesn't know much, if anything, about writing, about what works and what doesn't. Why put yourself in that position when you don't have to?"

It's not all bad, though.

"There's one I wrote (and) it's still paying residuals: Mr. Majestyk (starring Charles Bronson). There's always that one lucky one. Bronson's pictures always made money. The picture was OK, but I don't think it was really that good. What's good is that, 35 years later, it's still paying residuals."

Leonard believes he caught lightning in a bottle with Yost. His novels are visual in style -- Leonard cut his writing teeth as a screenwriter, after all -- but that doesn't mean they're easy to adapt for the screen.

Justified, he says, might just be the most incisive screen adaptation of any of his works, and it's all down to Yost and Justified's lead actor, Olyphant.

"Well, they're pros to begin with," Leonard said. "They know what they're doing. Good writing. I think the writing -- I can't believe it sometimes. My God, it's a lot better than what I would have written for that scene," he said.

Justified's third season premieres Monday, Jan. 30, on SuperChannel.

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