J. D. Craig

J.D. Craig has lived his entire life in San Diego County except for four years in the U.S. Air Force and two years of penance in Los Angeles. He graduated from San Diego State University as an English major with post graduate literature courses. Having been raised in Oceanside, Ca. he developed a love of the beach and the small town atmosphere endemic in a beach community. In his formative years he was an avid reader of the original sci-fi novelists and of pulp detective fiction, Shell Scott being the favorite of these with Hammet a close second. As his interests grew, he discovered Hemingway, and found a kinship in the earthy characters of Steinbeck. This lead to an abiding interest in American Literature and thus, to the irreverant beat literature of the fifties and sixties. Irreverency and a healthy scepticism of the norm are his overreaching ambitions. Humor above all is the perfect vehicle to express this. Comedies are his favorite movie catagory with little comedy being found in print these days. He considers the works of Groucho Marx and S.J. Perleman to be the utmost in written humor. He believes to compare the comedy of Jack Benny or George Burns to the blue language crap of today is to liken chamber music to a chamber pot. After college Mr. Craig worked as an insurance adjuster for many years. Filing reports in addition to honing his writing skills, gave him the opportunity to observe the vagaries of human nature. Investigating theft and injury claims was helpful in his maturing process. It is this, he declared, that prepared him for writing fiction.