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Craig Lancaster

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/Craig_Lancaster

born

in Lakewood, Washington, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.craig-lancaster.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction

influences

Steinbeck, Hemingway, Stegner, Doig -- a good, solid grounding in lite...more

member since

September 2009

About this author

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When Craig Lancaster moved to Montana in 2006, at the age of 36, it was the realization of a dream he’d harbored since childhood, one that he figured had been overtaken by events, as so many dreams are.

“I have these incredibly vivid memories of visiting Montana with my folks on family vacations, and following my dad, an itinerant laborer who worked in the oil and gas fields of the West when I was a kid,” Lancaster says. “It was such a vast, beautiful, overwhelming place. From the first time I saw Montana, I wanted to be a part of it.”

Craig was born on February 9th, 1970, in Lakewood, Washington. Adopted at birth, he grew up in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, with his mother and stepfather and siblings. His stepfather, Charles Clines, was a long...more When Craig Lancaster moved to Montana in 2006, at the age of 36, it was the realization of a dream he’d harbored since childhood, one that he figured had been overtaken by events, as so many dreams are.

“I have these incredibly vivid memories of visiting Montana with my folks on family vacations, and following my dad, an itinerant laborer who worked in the oil and gas fields of the West when I was a kid,” Lancaster says. “It was such a vast, beautiful, overwhelming place. From the first time I saw Montana, I wanted to be a part of it.”

Craig was born on February 9th, 1970, in Lakewood, Washington. Adopted at birth, he grew up in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, with his mother and stepfather and siblings. His stepfather, Charles Clines, was a longtime sportswriter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a connection that led to Craig’s career as a journalist, a profession he followed to a series of newspaper jobs across the country — Texas, Alaska, Kentucky, Ohio, Washington, California and, finally, Montana.

A couple of years after Craig’s arrival in the Big Sky State, he began chasing another long-held dream: that of writing novels. His first completed novel, 600 Hours of Edward, was born in the crucible of National Novel Writing Month, that every-November free-for-all of furious writing. He completed an entire first draft, nearly 80,000 words, in November 2008. In October 2009, it was published by Riverbend Publishing of Helena, Montana, and has since gone on to be selected as a Montana Honor Book and a High Plains Book Award winner.

His follow-up, The Summer Son, was released in January 2011 by AmazonEncore, to similar acclaim. Booklist called the new novel “a classic western tale of rough lives and gruff, dangerous men, of innocence betrayed and long, stumbling journeys to love.”

Lancaster’s work delves deeply below the surface of its characters, teasing out the desires and motivations that lead us through our lives.

“It’s all too easy to turn people into caricatures, but the truth is, we humans are pretty damned fascinating,” he says. “For me, fiction is a way at getting at truth. I use it to examine the world around me, the things that disturb me, the questions I have about life — whether my own or someone else’s. My hope is that someone reading my work will have their own emotional experience and bring their own thoughts to what they read on the page. When I’m asked what my stories mean, my inclination is turn the question around: What do they mean to you?”

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366 posts
Craig Lancaster's Blog

Happy release day

Self-portrait at 1:01 a.m. on Release Day. Yeah. Not gonna get a lot of sleep today.

And so EDWARD ADRIFT—my fourth book overall, and my third novel—heads off into the world today.

So much about publishing becomes a grind as you go along. Not an unwelcome grind; indeed, I cannot imagine anything I’d rather do than write and hope to put that writing in front of readers. But as one moves from newb...

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Craig Lancaster's Books

Average rating: 4.18 · 1,294 ratings · 365 reviews · 9 distinct works · Similar authors

	600 Hours of Edward 4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 avg rating — 828 ratings — published 2009 — 9 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Summer Son 3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 220 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Edward Adrift 4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 avg rating — 179 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure 4.36 of 5 stars 4.36 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Six-Hundred Hours of a Life: Or: They say you get 630,270, But I Don't Like to Assume 4.5 of 5 stars 4.50 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2009	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Comfort & Joy 4.56 of 5 stars 4.56 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This is Butte. You Have Ten Minutes. 3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	600 Stunden aus Edwards Leben 0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Past Due Pastorals: Memories And Observations Of A Mind Adrift In The West 0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Craig is Currently Reading

Craig Lancaster rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Write Hard, Die Free: Dispatches from the Battlefields & Barrooms of the Great Alaska Newspaper War

by Howard Weaver

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 01, 2012 09:25pm

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Craig's Recent Updates

Craig Lancaster is now friends with Russell Rowland
Jun 07, 2013 09:49pm · like
Craig Lancaster rated a book 4 of 5 stars Our Love Could Light The World by Anne Leigh Parrish (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 01, 2013 11:42pm
Craig Lancaster and 8 other people liked Jason Pettus's review of Lottery: " (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this review, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.) So what do you think -- do you think it's okay f... " Read more of this review »
Apr 23, 2013 07:07pm · see review
Craig Lancaster liked Kathy's review of 600 Hours of Edward: " 600 Hours of Edward To put it succinctly, I was blown away by "600 Hours of Edward." Edward Stanton is 39 years old, unemployed, lives alone in a house purchased by his very wealthy politician father, and has Asperger's Syndrome and OCD. Because of... " Read more of this review »
Mar 28, 2013 08:04pm · see review
Craig Lancaster liked Suzanne's review of 600 Hours of Edward: " Best book I have read in a very long time. "
Mar 07, 2013 07:45pm · see review
Craig Lancaster is now following Tim's reviews
Jan 21, 2013 04:30pm · like
Craig Lancaster is now a fan of Luke Daniels
Aug 15, 2012 08:12pm · like · see all of Craig's favorite authors
Craig Lancaster added the Goodreads iOS app
Aug 07, 2012 06:44pm
Craig Lancaster rated a book 5 of 5 stars Write Hard, Die Free: Dispatches from the Battlefields & Barrooms of the Great Alaska Newspaper War by Howard Weaver	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 01, 2012 09:25pm

More of Craig's books…

Quotes by Craig Lancaster

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
― Craig Lancaster, Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure

tags: life-philosophy

121 people liked it

“That's the problem with belief: If you rely on it too heavily, you have a lot of picking up to do after you find out you were wrong.”
― Craig Lancaster, 600 Hours of Edward

6 people liked it

“The complaint lies with me, not with you. I never could find a way to make you proud of me, and at some point, I think I stopped trying. When you were here, I blamed you for that. I think now, the failure is mine... It occurs to me that death is a funny thing - not funny in a laughter sort of way, but in a twisty sort of way. It's the people who are left behind who have to grapple with the regret. The one who is gone is just gone. Wherever you are... I hope you have regret about what happened yesterday.”
― Craig Lancaster, 600 Hours of Edward

6 people liked it

See all Craig Lancaster's quotes »

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