Craig McDonald - Art in the Blood: Crime Novelists Discuss Their Craft

ART IN THE BLOOD

Crime novelists discuss the craft

Craig McDonald

a division of F+W Media, Inc.

For Debbie McDonald, &

For Ken Bruen, without whom

Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,

The Greek Interpreter

The Art of Craig, by Ken Bruen

Blood & Thunder, by Craig McDonald

James Ellroy: The Tremor of Intent

Ken Bruen: The Mean Streets of Galway

Michael Connelly: The Trouble With Harry

George Pelecanos: Murder Capital, U.S.A.

Liza Cody: On Being Hitlers Hairdresser

Walter Mosley: Fearless & Easy

Dennis Lehane: Boston Uncommon

Ian Rankin: The Rebus Puzzle

Karin Slaughter: Southern Discomfort

Dan Brown: Indiana Jones Meets Joseph Campbell

Lee Child: The Reacher Chronicles

Steve Hamilton: Up In Michigan

J.A. Jance: After the Fire

Peter Lovesey: Blood(y) Bath

Peter Straub: What Made Milwaukee (In)Famous

Ridley Pearson: The Art of the Thriller

Tami Hoag: First Steps In the City of Angels

Tim Dorsey: Miami Mayhem

David Corbett: Lawyers, Drugs & Money

Charlie Stella: Charlies World

THE

ART

OF

CRAIG.

By Ken Bruen

There are

Lies

Damn lies

And

Interviewers.

90% of the latter are chancers.

They give truth to the chestnut

Enough about me, lets get back to me.

The past two years, Ive done over a hundred interviews. By rights, you should get good at it but mostly, you get wary. The tabloid that had the bannerCrime Writer Raped In South America.

That was a fun day.

Two interviews in that period were outstanding.

The first with Craig McDonald, the second with Duane Swierczynski, forHardluck Stories. Duane, the Philly boy, conducted the interview over 5 weeks.

Long . Right?

An e-mail a day. Fun, revealing, leisurely, agonising. Resulting in a New York meet, post-Edgar. A friendship was begun through print, sealed in Sam Adams.

Then Craig.

The finest Mystery interviewer/profiler in them there United States.

And prepared?

Phew-oh.

He had read parts of my work Id forgotten, and, horror, had unearthed my role as a Roger Corman actor. He was the dream interviewer

Sharp

Learned

Darkly humorous

Emphatic

Probing but not intrusive tricky balance.

And hey, guess what?

Nothing about Craig in the interview.

The omens were not encouraging. Id arrived from The Sydney Writers Festival, 24-hour flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles, Homeland Security in full force. Got to New York, irritable, tired, testy. Met by a writer who offered me a spliff and his new work. I no longer do dope or dopes least not with any tolerance. My agenda was Jameson, even Bourbon and sleep, in that order preferably and no talk.

Three fitful hours of ZZZs, punctuated by Jonathan Franzen (at the festival, Id be teaching him Galway English) Koalas and snatches of my time as guard at the Twin Towers. Not exactly nightmares but no picnic either.

I got to the Flatiron Building, home of St Martins, to sign 200 books for Ben Sevier, my editor.

Did I want to do that?

Did I fuck.

David Honeybone, Crime Factory supremo in Australia had arranged for me to talk with Craig David is one of those guys Id do most anything for, even profess a love of his awful football team, Liverpool.

For a Man U. supporter, thats sacrilege. I know, I know.

Ben handed me a phone, piss-weak coffee, all froth and no substance, and the first of the books. I heard on the receiver

This is Craig McDonald.

Two hours later, I was

Exhilarated

Exhausted

Electric

Not the coffee.

Craig.

Putting the phone down, drained finally, Ben, apprehensive, asked

Howd it go?

Id signed the books, Ben sliding them along the table as I talked. And talked..

Multi-functional or plain demented

I answered

Fucking rocked.

It did.

When the interview appeared, I printed it out, ran to 35 A4 sheets. Straight up?

I loved it.

Still do.

Ive hated interviews since that tabloid headline .

One of the many bonuses from the interview was that through Craig, I hooked up with Eoin Colfer. Forget Harry Potter, he is the deal.

Craig and I stayed in touch, like I was going to let an intellect like that go?

He is on my top 10 of e-mailers. They include

Donna Moore, James Sallis, Reed Farrel Coleman, Al Guthrie, Ray Banks, Patrick Milliken, you get the drift.

How many Mystery reviewers apart from Sarah Weinman, Marilyn Stasio, James Clar are not only burning with smarts but have whole other areas of expertise?

Sarah Forensic Science

James Theology, music

Marilyn Literature

Patrick Irish language

And Craig.

His knowledge of mid-Twentieth Century poets and his taste in music make me downright ignorant I read him, mutter the hell do I know?

In Irish we use the word CLISTE means bright as be-Jaysus. Its the ber-Celtic compliment.

Here at his scintillating, awesome best is Craig McDonald

Cliste indeed.

Ken Bruen,

Montmarte,

July 2004

Call it a panoramic snapshot of the crime fiction world at the dark dawn of the dangerous new millennium.

Call them chummy colloquies; effusive evening or morning rambles. Time passed with a favorite author a half-an-hour or so of unguarded conversation with the man or woman behind your favorite character or crime series.

The roster of writers interviewed in the following pages includes those who have won Edgar, Shamus, Anthony and Macavity awards.

These are New York Times and internationally best-selling crime fiction authors.

A couple of these writers are toiling at mid-list, gradually working their way up the charts.

Some still work second or day jobs in order to support themselves or their families while establishing their careers in fiction. Some do so just to pay for health insurance. And rare is the publishing house that offers its authors 401-K programs.