Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard

Get Shorty is an Elmore Leonard crime novel where Miami loan shark Chili Palmer, tired of his job, chases a deadbeat client to Los Angeles and becomes an aspiring Hollywood movie producer by pitching the gangster's story as a film idea. As Chili navigates the movie business, he becomes entangled with a scream queen and various shady characters, all while his past life and the realities of his new career begin to catch up with him