Many people talk about writing the “Great American Novel,’ but Rancho Mirage resident Michael Craft actually made it happen.
Born in Elgin, Ill., Craft did not have an early inkling that he would become a novelist—but when a number of his college instructors mentioned that he was a pretty good writer, it stayed in the back of his mind. His college degree is in graphic arts, which led to his first “real” job at the Chicago Tribune, where he served as art director for various features sections of the paper. During his 10 years at the Tribune, he rubbed elbows with many writers who encouraged him to try out his own literary skills.
In 1980, Craft was working at the Tribune and commuting by train from his home in Kenosha, Wis.; he found himself sitting on the train with his briefcase in his lap for about four hours a day. Many people might spend that time reading, but he wanted to do something a little more productive.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t you try your hand at a novel?’” Craft said. “It seemed totally off the wall, but it’s something I wanted to do. So I picked up a couple of ‘how-to’ books on how to write the modern American murder mystery, and I thought ‘OK, I could do this.’”
He started first by developing an outline. This was before laptops and smart phones, so Craft worked using a legal pad and a ballpoint pen. He started sketching out ideas, and when the ideas were firm enough, he began outlining the novel that became his first Mark Manning mystery. There was a lot of rejection and revision; Craft would write the manuscript in long hand on the train, get home, transcribe it on a typewriter, and watch the pages pile up. Eventually, he had a completed manuscript.
Craft quoted an adage that he found to be true: “It’s often been said that great novels aren’t written; they’re rewritten.” Revising a novel back then meant lots of retyping, so he eventually purchased an early IBM personal computer. That changed everything in terms of facilitating the craft of writing and revising.
However, Craft still had a long time to wait before he became a published writer.
“It took 12 years to sell my first manuscript,” he said. “It was a slim paperback novel titled Rehearsing. It was picked up by a small gay press in San Diego and published in February 1993. It took four or five years for me to snag an agent in New York. Mitchell Waters has been my agent now for well over 25 years.”
Craft would write the manuscript in long hand on the train, get home, transcribe it on a typewriter, and watch the pages pile up. Eventually, he had a completed manuscript.
Waters liked the next manuscript Craft had in hand—the Mark Manning project, about a gay investigative reporter for a large metropolitan daily newspaper. Waters suggested some revisions and indicated that he thought he could nail down a deal at Kensington Books in New York. That was an exciting prospect for Craft, since Kensington had long been a respected publisher of murder-mysteries. They did not have a gay series at that point, and Waters thought they were ready for it.
“I was definitely in the right place at the right time,” Craft said. “This was in the late 1990s, and gay murder mysteries were a ‘thing.’ It was sort of a Golden Age of gay murder-mystery writing, and they wanted someone. Suddenly, I had a contract for three books.”
After a magical Christmas trip to the Palm Springs area about 40 years ago, Craft moved to the Coachella Valley permanently in 2005.
“I remember when we got off the plane, there were mountains all around—nothing like the Midwest where I grew up,” Craft said. “I knew this was it.”
Craft was at a point in his life where he needed something new. He wanted to go back to school to finish an incomplete graduate degree; he found a master’s program in creative writing at Antioch University in Los Angeles, which recharged his batteries.
As for the characters in his books, Craft said he pieces together little bits of folks he’s known, and tries to never make anyone recognizable.
“And I always like to say that there is a bit of me in every character I write,” Craft said. “But no one character is me.”
He works on his writing for three or four hours every day, whether he’s thinking, planning, corresponding or promoting.
“I have found that when I’m in the heat of a draft, the act of writing is both physically and emotionally draining,” he said. “So I won’t force myself to try to write when I’m tired.”
What advice does Craft have for writers just starting out? “Network with other established or aspiring writers. A good option is the Palm Springs Writers Guild, an organization of about 300 writers at all levels of accomplishment. Or find a critique group or a writing class where people share their work.”
Craft is a member of/contributor to CVRep, the Rancho Mirage Library Foundation, Friends of the Artists Council, the Eisenhower Health Foundation and the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation.
His books have won numerous awards, including the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award. Four of the books in his Mark Manning mystery series were finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. In 2017, Craft’s professional papers were acquired by the Special Collections Department of the Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside.
Craft’s newest book, Desert Reunion, is the third in the Dante and Jazz mystery series. It’s his 20th published novel, and is available in hard cover, paperback and Kindle. Craft’s website is www.michaelcraft.com.
Asked about his philosophy, about both writing and life itself, Craft’s reply is quick and emphatic: “Think for yourself.”
Bonnie Gilgallon also writes theater reviews for Independent and hosts a weekly radio show, The Desert Scene, on Mutual Broadcasting. Her website is www.bonnie-g.com.