We asked Craig McDonald, author of the Hector Lassiter series and also of two books of interviews with American and European crime novelists, to interview the mysterious Hadley Colt, author of PERMANENT FATAL ERROR. They each have new novels centered by authors and informed by the craft of fiction writing. Hadley and Craig engaged in … Continue reading Hadley Colt and Craig McDonald in a conversation about the challenges of writing about writers
ONE TRUE SENTENCE: The Vince Keennan interview with Craig McDonald
“Cities, Bars, and Crime” by Kevin Stevens
“My Literary Neighborhood” by Kevin Stevens
There ought to be a room in every house to swear in. Mark Twain
I live near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass, in a “Harlow buidling.” These beautiful brick structures were designed by Hamilton Harlow in the early decades of the twentieth century and were designed to blend in with the features of Harvard University buildings – red brick, elegant ironwork, and leaded glass windows.
It’s a cool neighborhood. A really cool neighborhood for a writer, partly because so many famous authors lived nearby. Two doors up from my building is where William Dean Howells lived in the 1870s, when he was editor of the Atlantic Monthly.
There is a great story in Justin Kaplan’s biography of Mark Twain which details Twain’s visit to this house in April, 1876, and the ill-fated attempt of Howells and Twain to get to Concord by train for centennial celebrations presided over…
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Publisher’s Weekly praises Craig McDonald’s new novel FOREVER’S JUST PRETEND!
Publishers Weekly on FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND: "Entertaining...a must read for series fans and a solid introduction for new readers." http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-9926552-9-7
Craig McDonald about his participation in the Iowa City Book Festival
Craig McDonald at Iowa City Book Festival!
Craig McDonald's books next to James Ellroy's at their joint signing at Iowa City Book Festival last night.
HOW I CAME TO WRITE “ROLL THE CREDITS”
Craig McDonald about writing "ROLL THE CREDITS" (AKA HECTOR LASSITER & WWII). A fascinating insight: http://craigmcdonaldbooks.blogspot.ie/2014/09/how-i-came-to-write-roll-credits-aka.html
“The Great Pretender” and “Roll the Credits” now available as e-books!
THE GREAT PRETENDER by Craig McDonald available here: getBook.at/TheGreatPretender_eb ROLL THE CREDITS by Craig McDonald available here: getBook.at/RollTheCredits_eb
THE (IM)PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY by Craig McDonald
Retcon. That’s a relatively newish term that’s a contraction for “retroactive continuity.” Typically you’re going to run into this when a long-running print or film series reckons it’s time to inject fresh blood or your lead actor has to be recast. Take the current Bond flicks as voguish example: Daniel Craig enters as a tyro, … Continue reading THE (IM)PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY by Craig McDonald
Book Trailer for ROLL THE CREDITS by Craig McDonald
Watch the book trailer for ROLL THE CREDITS by Craig McDonald here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQv1zTw0Ksw
Excerpt: Roll the Credits
FRANCE: 1940 In the old days, if a horse stumbled three times you shot it in the head. As far as I was concerned, our driver had just made his second stumble. Well, arguably it was his third if you counted a certain slip of the tongue earlier in the late-morning. I’d wondered at Billy’s … Continue reading Excerpt: Roll the Credits
Excerpt: The Great Pretender
1 THE STRANGER “Perception is reality, that’s how the saying goes, isn’t it, Hec?” Hector Lassiter, novelist, screenwriter, and for the moment, literary executor, looked down at all the chilly pedestrians scurrying through the autumn wind tearing along Fifth Avenue. The fierce wind made eyes water and noses run down there. Up here the wind cut to bone. He … Continue reading Excerpt: The Great Pretender
Book trailer for THE GREAT PRETENDER by Craig McDonald
Available soon, THE GREAT PRETENDER by Craig McDonald: Orson Welles, voodoo curses, Nazi occultists, the War of the Worlds Panic Broadcast of 1938, the secret history behind the noir classic, THE THIRD MAN, and a search for the Spear of Destiny. Watch the book trailer here:
Father figure: the man behind Hector Lassiter
"Con men: I love them dearly, and in an admittedly wrong-headed way. I have since I was a kid." Craig McDonald about the man who raised Hector Lassiter. Read more: http://craigmcdonaldbooks.blogspot.ie/2014/08/father-figure-man-behind-hector-lassiter.html
TOROS & TORSOS: surrealist art and murder in our time?
The Hector Lassiter series is all about secret history — a blending of fact and fiction that aims to get at something like the hidden truth. "Toros & Torsos" spins on the premise that surrealist art may have informed or inspired several bloody, unsolved crimes of the 20th Century. Life imitating art… art imitating death, … Continue reading TOROS & TORSOS: surrealist art and murder in our time?
Excerpt: Toros & Torsos
NO GOOD DEED 1 “Can I sit with you for a time, sir?” A silky voice — alto, but strained. The young woman said, “I think a man in this place may mean me harm.” Hector Lassiter looked up from his notebook. She was 23, maybe 24. Pretty, poised and flustered. Hector had seen her … Continue reading Excerpt: Toros & Torsos
Excerpt: One True Sentence
PARIS: FEBRUARY 1924 “It is the fate of every myth to creep by degrees into the narrow limits of some historical reality, and to be treated by some later generations as a unique fact with historical claims.” — Nietzsche Snow falling on the Seine. It was half-past-two and it was quiet as it gets … Continue reading Excerpt: One True Sentence
The Rap Sheet competition: Forever’s Just Pretend
"While no overt historical personages haunt the pages of Forever’s Just Pretend, the crimes that drive the plot are based on a real cycle of murders and arsons that rocked 1920s America. Now, here’s a challenge to all you Lassiter series readers: the first three people who can correctly identify the inspiration for the “Key … Continue reading The Rap Sheet competition: Forever’s Just Pretend
For Hector Lassiter’s fans: the first chapter of RHAPSODY IN BLACK
Over the years, Craig McDonald has been asked if he would write a Hector Lassiter novel in the sense of creating a novel BY Hector Lassiter. Here, for the first time, is the first chapter of Hector's OWN debut novel, RHAPSODY IN BLACK, a novel that we see Hector drafting in ONE TRUE SENTENCE: http://bit.ly/1kUhCe6
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