EVENTS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE NEXT NOVEL: ONE TRUE SENTENCE Murder is a moveable feast: The fourth novel from Craig McDonald will be ONE TRUE SENTENCE (Minotaur Books, February 2011). The new novel is set during one week in 1924 Paris—a historical thriller that surrounds crime novelist Hector Lassiter with a cast of historical characters including Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, William Carlos Williams, Ford Maddox Ford, Syliva Beach, Aleister Crowley and Ernest Hemingway. Look for sample chapters, book trailers and more to come. PRINT THE LEGEND NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO The unabridged audio recording of PRINT THE LEGEND read by the superlative Tom Stechschulte is now available at libraries exclusively from Recorded Books. Ask your librarian for more information. You can also download the recorded version of PRINT THE LEGEND from Audible.Com. APPEARANCES Craig will be the final speaker at The Thurber House Silver Anniversary series of Literary Picnics in July. Before that, he will be appearing in June in Chicago at Printers Row. More on these events here. Look for more appearances to be added later this year. BLOOD, GUTS & WHISKEY The new anthology from Thuglit, edited by Todd Robinson is now available in stores. Craig's contribution is a short story called "These Two Guys" that was shortlisted for Best American Mysteries. Max Allan Collins provides the collection's introduction. Others with stories include Eddie Bunker, Sean Doolittle, Derek Nikitas, Tom Piccirilli, Scott Wolven, John Kenyon and Jedidiah Ayres. Interviews to appear in Conversations With... Series Craig's interviews with James Ellroy and Walter Mosley have been selected for inclusion in forthcoming volumes of the University of Mississippi's renowned Conversations With... series. The interviews will appear in the forthcoming volumes, Conversations with Walter Mosley and Conversations with James Ellroy. More about the literary interview series here. NEW CONTEST To celebrate the Feb. 16, 2010 launch of PRINT THE LEGEND, a weekly drawing is being held through mid-February in which winners are randomly selected from among newsletter subscribers. Prizes include limited edition hardcovers of TOROS & TORSOS, signed hardcover and trade paperback books and ARCS, and collectible chapbooks of The Last Interview, the short story that introduced Hector Lassiter. To be eligible, simply sign up for the newsletter. TOROS & TORSOS Now On Audio The unabridged audio recording of TOROS & TORSOS read by the superlative Tom Stechschulte is now available at libraries exclusively from Recorded Books. Ask your librarian for more information. PRINT THE LEGEND will also be available on audio from Recorded Books. You can also download the recorded version of TOROS & TORSOS from Audible.com. HEAD GAMES Available In French Translation LA TÊTE DE PANCHO VILLA (THE HEAD OF PANCHO VILLA) is now available from Belfond Noir (translation by the great Pierre Reignier). TOROS & TORSOS and PRINT THE LEGEND are also forthcoming in translation from Belfond Noir. Craig Interviews Ellroy for Mystery Scene After conducting definitive interviews with the Demon Dog of American Literature appearing in ART IN THE BLOOD and ROGUE MALES, Craig once again interviews James Ellroy for the September/October edition of Mystery Scene. Look here for more details. Also, Craig recently conducted interviews with Ken Bruen, Reed Farrel Coleman and Allan Guthrie regarding the release of TOWER by Busted Flush Press. The interviews are also gathered in the advance reader copy of TOWER. Follow Craig on Twitter, Facebook, elsewhere You can get updates and previews on coming books and projects by following Craig on Twitter, Facebook, Red Room, LibraryThing and Crimespace. Also, be sure to sign up for Craig's newsletter for exclusive materials and first information including "lost chapters" and chances to win signed copies of Craig's books. You can sign up here. Two New Interviews First up, John Kenyon interviews Craig at Things I'd Rather Be Doing regarding ROGUE MALES and the Hector Lassiter novels. Next, Brian Lindenmuth's full-scale, wide-ranging discussion with Craig appears at Spinetingler. New Interview Brian Lindenmuth reviews ROGUE MALES and gives a substantial preview of a new interview he conducted with Craig here. Hardboiled Wonderland Interview Jedidiah Ayres interviews Craig about PRINT THE LEGEND, ROGUE MALES and Hector Lassiter here. ROGUE MALES Blogs Craig is blogging about each of the 16 authors featured in ROGUE MALES (now available from Bleak House Books). Check them out here. Crimespree turns 5 Craig's newest column in the fifth anniversary edition of Crimespree Magazine focuses on the anniversary of the birth of author William Lindsay Gresham and his classic noir novel, Nightmare Alley. Award Finalist Craig McDonald's debut novel, HEAD GAMES, was a finalist for the Edgar®, Anthony, Gumshoe and Crimespree Magazine awards. HEAD GAMES has also been adapted for a graphic novel from First Second. Its sequel, TOROS & TORSOS, was released in fall 2008 from Bleak House Books. The third and fourth novels in the Hector Lassiter series are forthcoming from Minotaur Books. New Interview Bleak House editor Alison Janssen interviews Craig for the Scottish crime site, Pulp Pusher about TOROS & TORSOS, the forthcoming PRINT THE LEGEND and the art of "one true sentence.". Also check out a link here for a video preview by Alison of ROGUE MALES: Conversations & Confrontations About the Writing Life, coming in May from Bleak House Books. Special 2008 Holiday Offer Bleak House Books is making a special and historic holiday offer on its line of books including trade paperbacks of HEAD GAMES and TOROS & TORSOS. More about that, and Craig's first two novels here. Tom Stechschulte IS Hector Lassiter! The unabridged audio version of HEAD GAMES is now available in libraries across North America in an exclusive recording from Recorded Books. The audio version of the novel is offered in three formats: cassette, CD and Playaway Digital. A downloadable version is also forthcoming from audible.com. Check it out from your local library or ask your librarian to order. According to Craig, "Tom Stechschulte—The Road, No Country for Old Men—was my first choice to read the novel and provides masterful, passionate performances capturing Hector Lassiter, Bud Fiske, Alicia, Emil Holmdahl, Orson Welles, "George W." and so many others who populate the novel." Signed Copies of TOROS & TORSOS More venues will be added to this list as they become available, but for now, signed copies of all three states (softcover, hardcover, and limited edition hardcover) of TOROS & TORSOS are available from Heirloom Books and Mystery Mike's. Thank You/T&T: What's Real? From Craig: "A special thanks to all those who said hello, who attended one of the panels on which I participated, who stopped by to have a book signed, or who just took the time to say hello at the Baltimore edition of Bouchercon. Thanks also to all those who cared enough to share their reaction to Head Games and its follow-up, TOROS & TORSOS. Reviews of the latter are just beginning to show up. But for those who have already read TOROS & TORSOS and peppered me with questions about what's real and what's fiction in that novel, I refer you to a wonderful review/analysis by Corey Wilde that delves deep into T&T, even providing links proving the authenticity of those crazy surrealist torture cells in Spain in 1937. See "The Drowning Machine" take on TOROS & TORSOS here." New Column Debuts Craig's continuing column in Crimespree Magazine debuts in the September/October 2008 issue. More details here. Short Story Honored Craig McDonald's short story, These Two Guys... has been selected as a "Distinguished Mystery Short Story for 2007" by Otto Penzler and Guest Editor George Pelecanos, as noted in The Best American Mystery Stories 2008. The story originally appeared in the November 2007 edition of Thuglit and can be read online here. Anthony Nomination HEAD GAMES is a finalist for an Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Anthony Awards will be presented at Bouchercon 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland. New Publisher Books three and four in the Hector Lassiter series have been sold to John Schoenfelder of St. Martin's Press/Thomas Dunne Books for publication under the Minotaur imprint. The first of the two novels, PRINT THE LEGEND (autumn 2009), finds Hector traveling to Ketchum, Idaho in 1965 to investigate the circumstances of Ernest Hemingway's apparent suicide. The second novel, GNASHVILLE, MON AMOUR (autumn 2010), is set against the 1958 Country Music scene and reunites Hector with several pivotal characters from the Edgar(R)-nominated HEAD GAMES. New Interview Novelist Tony Black interviews Craig for Shots Magazine about the Edgar(R) nomination, HEAD GAMES, the current state of U.S. crime fiction, the craft of interviewing and TOROS & TORSOS. Read the interview HERE. Gumshoe Award Nomination HEAD GAMES has been nominated for a 2008 Gumshoe Award for Best First Novel. The Gumshoe Awards are presented by Mystery Ink each year "to recognize the best achievements in the world of crime fiction." The winners will be announced on April 21, 2008. Learn more HERE. Mystery News Interview Craig is profiled by Stephen Miller in the February/March edition of Mystery News, talking about HEAD GAMES, and its coming sequel, TOROS & TORSOS. More HERE. New Short Story A new short story, "Wolf" is now available from Amazon Shorts. The story is a sequel to "Rope-A-Dope," that appeared in the anthology Dublin Noir, edited by Ken Bruen. "Wolf" opens seconds after the Dublin Noir story closes, with the murderess Mell Mulloy in flight somewhere among the taverns and pubs of Dublin as an obsessed and ailing cop is closing in on her. Although "Wolf" was conceived as a sequel, it stands alone as a kind of twisted noir love story. More information HERE. Head Games Nominated For Edgar Allan Poe Award® The Mystery Writers of America announced the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Awards® nominees on Jan. 18, 2008. HEAD GAMES was selected as one of five nominees in the category of Best First Novel By An American author. The Edgars are named after MWA's patron saint, Edgar Allan Poe, and "are awarded to authors of distinguished work in various categories of the genre." The awards will be presented May 1, 2008 in New York City. More information about the other nominations HERE. SFC Top 10 The San Francisco Chronicle's Eddie Muller has picked Head Games as one of the top ten crime books of 2007: "Craig McDonald, a genuine expert on the history of crime fiction (with a wonderful book of author interviews, Art in the Blood, to prove it), gives free rein to all his obsessions in a debut novel that's a berserk 1957-based caper running roughshod through the politics and pop culture of the latter half of the 20th century. ..Whipped into a violent, frothing frenzy.... Strap in, hold on, enjoy the ride." CHUD Interview Cameron Hughes of CHUD.COM offers a new interview and review tied to Head Games. The interview covers the importance of story in fiction, myth and history, new voices in crime fiction and the art of interviewing. Then check out Cameron's own take on Head Games. New Short Story at Thug Lit A new short, entitled "These Two Guys" is now available from Thug Lit. The story closes out a cycle of shorts that began at Philadelphia City Paper and touched base at HardLuck Stories. New Interview John Kenyon of Things I'd Rather Be Doing interviews Craig regarding Head Games and the upcoming interview collection, Rogue Males (Spring 2008) in the Monday Interview. Also first details on the second Hector Lassiter novel is contained in the interview. Chicago Tribune Review The Tribune's Paul Goat Allen gives Head Games a rave review, declaring it "A triumphantly twisted first novel...one of the most unusual, and readable, crime-fiction releases to come along in years... Crime-fiction fans looking for an original voice should check out this exceptional debut, which blends Jack Kerouac's picaresque narrative style and James Ellroy's noir sensibilities with a heaping helping of urban legend, subtle social commentary and a trunkful of decapitated heads." Read the whole review here. Hector Lassiter On Pulp Pusher The Scottish crime site Pulp Pusher launches a new feature called "Pushed for Answers" centered on essays regarding authors' ongoing characters. Read the first essay, featuring Head Games' Hector Lassiter, here. New Short Story Pulp Pusher also features a new original short story by Craig called "Seeing Red." Smith On Head Games Author Anthony Neil Smith pens a wild, Bukowskiesque tribute to Head Games. Read it here. Graphic Novel Coming From Publisher's Marketplace: "Graphic novel script rights for Craig McDonald's highly praised Head Games, historical thriller and 1950s-era road novel based on the factual theft of Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa's head (available from Bleak House Books, Sept. 2007), to Mark Siegel of First Second Books (Eisner Award-winning imprint of Henry Holt & Co), by Svetlana Pironko at Author Rights Agency." Chapter Reading Recorded in an undisclosed location with a bandit crew somewhere outside greater Chicago on a Sunday morning, coming down, Craig reads the opening chapter of Head Games. Listen to the mp3 by clicking here. Page 69 Test Craig recently put Head Games through Marshal Zeringue's popular page 69 test which examines page 69 of a novel to see how representative that page is of the rest of the book. Read the results here. Hardboiled Crime Club Book of the Month On the heels of BookPage's selection of Head Games as the September "Mystery of the Month," Poisoned Pen's Hardboiled Crime Club has picked Head Games for its October read. More here.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Events Saturday, February 20 at 5 p.m. Murder by the Book 2352 Bissonnet Street Houston, TX (713) 524-8597 Sunday, February 21 at 2 p.m. BookPeople 603 N. Lamar Austin, TX (512) 472-5050 Saturday, February 27 at 2 p.m. Poisoned Pen Press 4014 North Goldwater Blvd. Scottsdale, AZ (480) 947-2974 Saturday, March 6 at noon CANCELLED Big Sleep Books 239 North Euclid St. Louis, MO (314) 361-6100 Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. Foul Play Mystery Bookshop 27 E. College Avenue Westerville, OH (614) 818-CLUE Saturday, March 13 at 1 p.m. Books & Company at the Greene 4453 Walnut Street Dayton, OH (937) 429-2169 Saturday, March 20 at 1:30 p.m. Aunt Agatha's 213 South 4th Avenue Ann Arbor, MI (734) 769-1114 Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. Marysville Friends Author Series Veteran's Memorial Auditorium 233 W. 6th St. Marysville, OH (937) 642-1876 Saturday & Sunday, June 12 & 13 Printers Row Lit Fest, Chicago, Il Saturday, June 12, noon - 2 p.m.: Craig will be signing at the Mystery Writers of America booth. Saturday, June 12, 2 p.m.: Craig will be signing at the Big Sleep Books tent. Sunday, June 13, 2 p.m.: Craig will be signing at at the Big Sleep Books tent. Wednesday, July 28 Thurber House 77 Jefferson Avenue Columbus, OH (614) 464-1032 Sunday, September 12, at noon Kerrytown BookFest Moderator, Northern Noir Panel Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, Main Tent Participants: Steve Hamilton, William Kent Krueger, Bryan Gruley (More to come)