Craig McDonald

Craig McDonald is an award-winning journalist, editor and fiction writer. In 2008, his debut novel, Head Games, was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Gumshoe and Crimespree Magazine awards for best first novel.

His new book is Print the Legend.

From his Q & A with Rod Norman at Signs & Wonders:

If you could sit down to dinner with one person (living or deceased) to pick their brain. Who & Why?

(A) Joseph Campbell, I think. I was heavily influenced by his work, even before the Bill Moyer’s interviews made him a public guru. I feel I could still learn much from him about narrative form and symbolism…about the stuff the unconscious part of your brain somehow invests in a work of fiction.

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer & what writers have had the most influence on your writing?

(A) I was trying to write fiction at the age of nine. I tried to write a crime novel while riding in the back of a car for a weekend trip to Lake Erie. As to fiction influences, I think the ones that matter most come earliest. So Lester Dent, Ian Fleming, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury and Ernest Hemingway. The only living, contemporary novelist I can say deeply influenced me as a mature fiction writer is...[read on]

Learn more about the author and his work at Craig McDonald's website, blog, and Crimespace page.

The Page 69 Test: Toros & Torsos.

The Page 69 Test: Head Games.

Read more about Print the Legend.

--Marshal Zeringue