{"id":22480,"date":"2018-05-11T06:17:52","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T12:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22480"},"modified":"2018-05-11T08:01:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T14:01:29","slug":"craig-lancaster-on-the-way-out-looking-back-on-billings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/05\/craig-lancaster-on-the-way-out-looking-back-on-billings\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Lancaster: On the way out, looking back on Billings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Craig\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Craig Lancaster, with just a few of the boxes he’s been packing up for the move to Maine. At left is Spatz the cat, named for her white paws.<\/p><\/div>\n

I met Craig Lancaster almost as soon as he came to Billings nearly 12 years ago, shortly after he was hired to work at the Billings Gazette, where I\u2019d already been for more than 15 years.<\/p>\n

He quit the newspaper in 2013, about six months before I did, to try his hand at writing novels and freelancing full-time. Now, he\u2019s on the cusp of another big change \u2014 moving at the end of this month to Boothbay, on the coast of Maine, with his wife, the novelist Elisa Lorello.<\/p>\n

I thought it would be fun to catch up with him on the way out, to talk a little about his eventful 12 years in Billings and what lies ahead. We spoke in his house up on the bench, a little northeast of the Heights, with Elisa sitting in to listen, and occasionally to add her 2 cents.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an edited version of our conversation, with a few parenthetical explainers inserted as needed:<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: Tell us in, say, 150 to 200 words, what has happened to you since you moved to Billings.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: Since I moved to Billings in June of 2006, I got a job at the Gazette \u2014 entirely too fast. I had hoped to take that summer off, and I was working by July. I had a series of jobs there \u2014 copy editor, then ran the copy desk, oversaw sports, night city editor, got married, got divorced, and somewhere in there I wrote seven novels and a collection of short stories \u2014 which is the reason that I had come to Billings in the first place. I\u2019d left my job in California and wanted to see if I could go and have the writing life. And I had that and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: (Motioning toward Elisa<\/em>.) I think you\u2019d better mention that you remarried.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: I did get remarried! Yeah, yeah. I was just focused on Act 1. Act 2 is the gateway into what\u2019s happening now.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: So, give us the similarly short version of Act 2. We\u2019ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: OK. Well, if it was a film montage, the opening would be divorce and craziness and therapy and bottoming out. And then \u2014 I had met Elisa sometime before that, but in the midst of all this upheaval, we had started talking and I thought, \u201cMaybe I should go to New York and see how things are in real life with this woman.\u201d And they were pretty damned good. When we saw the direction of things, she moved to Montana to be with me.<\/p>\n

(Elisa<\/strong>): Well, I came for one summer first.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: Right, right. She came for the summer of 2015, and then moved here in January 2016. She was a lifelong East Coaster. She\u2019d lived for a while in North Carolina, but for the most part she\u2019d been pretty close to home. So there was always this sort of implicit promise that we\u2019d head back that way at some point.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: Here\u2019s a kind of a related question: Have you ever thought of what your life might be like if you hadn\u2019t moved to Billings? Where would you be?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: I think I was going to come to my end with the newspaper business no matter what. They were either going to get to me or I was going to do what I did in 2013: I was going to release myself on my own recognizance. When I left my newspaper in California in 2006, I had the opportunity to disengage myself from my middle-management, don\u2019t-sleep, eat-crap-at-all-hours job that I hated, and Billings was an easy choice for me. I was so familiar with it. My grandmother and my grandpa had lived here. I once had an aunt and uncle here. My folks met here in the early \u201960s. And I knew it was affordable. Since I wasn\u2019t sure what I was going to do next, affordability was key. And I had been long-distance-dating the woman who became my first wife at that point. A lot of the things that I wanted to look into \u2014 like my family background, the people I didn\u2019t really know anything about \u2014 the answers were here, and the people I hadn\u2019t met yet, some of them were here. So it made sense on a lot of levels.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: You came here and started working at the Gazette, your last newspaper job. Tell us about that.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: Here\u2019s what I\u2019ll say in favor of working at the newspaper: You really get to know your town. Even if it\u2019s secondhand, even if you\u2019re doing what I was doing, which was working the night shift at a newspaper, you\u2019re reading all this stuff and you really learn who the people are who make things happen in town, what the idiosyncrasies of the town are, what its rhythmic movements are. And so, I think doing that job, I took the affinity I already had for Billings and it sunk in in a much deeper way.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: I\u2019m interested in the way Billings became kind of a muse, with the settings, the characters. If you had moved somewhere else, would it have been difficult to set novels in other towns?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know. There are certain things that are really striking about Montana. You and I have talked about this because we both came from somewhere else \u2014 that no matter how deep we get in, no matter how many people we get to know, no matter how much time we spend here, you know, if we ain\u2019t fifth-generation, we ain\u2019t shit. Does it work like that in Omaha? I don\u2019t know. But I feel like I\u2019ve used that to my advantage because yes, even though Billings sort of gave me these settings and I tried to make it a character in the books that I wrote that I set here, I always kind of felt that I was writing from the outside. I\u2019m never going to be an insider here, but I think that\u2019s a very cool situation if you\u2019re a writer.<\/p>\n

And I do defend Billings. I can still remember my first reading in Missoula and people asked where I lived and I said, \u201cBillings,\u201d and they said, \u201cOh,\u201d like it doesn\u2019t stink in the room when they take a crap. It just drives me nuts. I think I have a pretty clear view of all the things that give Billings the reputation it seems to have in the rest of the state. When you drive through on I-90, you\u2019re not going to see the best part of it. But man, I love the neighborhoods, I love the little funky joints. I love the art scene that is awfully underground. And I love the people, most of them. So yeah, I don\u2019t think Billings has to apologize for itself, but it\u2019s often put in that position.
\n(The local novelist) Carrie La Seur said something a couple of years ago that really stuck with me. She said, places that haven\u2019t reached their full potential are much more interesting than those that have. That\u2019s a good way to look at Billings.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: When did you leave the Gazette?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: August of \u201913.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: Tell us about that decision. That was another bold leap, to quit the biz and set up shop as a writer.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: My second \u201cEdward\u201d book had come out in April of that year. The first \u201cEdward\u201d book had been re-released the previous August. It was connecting with audiences it never would have seen had it remained with the small Montana publisher that it had. It was still selling like gangbusters. Well, here came No. 2, and all these people who had read No. 1 glommed onto No. 2. In April of that year, I think my royalties were some incredible number, like, $12,000, and in May I made $18- or $19,000. Now, that\u2019s not going to thrill Mr. Gianforte, but it was a lot more money than I was making at the Gazette, and I was having to work a lot harder for it at the Gazette. That, combined with the fact that we were winnowing staff every quarter made me look at my life at the time. I said, \u201cI\u2019m never going to have a better opportunity to see if I can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Gazette editor Steve Prosinski quit the Gazette right before Craig was to meet with his financial adviser to talk about leaving the Gazette himself. He briefly thought of seeking the editor\u2019s job, but every time he did, he said, \u201cthere was black dread spreading out in my stomach.\u201d<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: I watched Steve tear down most of what he had built. I couldn\u2019t imagine doing a job like that if I wasn\u2019t allowed to build stuff. And if I wasn\u2019t allowed to build stuff, what\u2019s the point? I feel for the folks who are still there, trying to do a good job and often succeeding despite the incredible obstacles that are placed in their way. Some of them would be obstacles no matter what, just because of the way the business model has changed. But my God, Lee Enterprises? Give me a break. It makes it a thousand times worse.<\/p>\n

In 25 years of journalism, I had a lot of colleagues I loved, a lot of colleagues I never would have talked to but for the circumstances of the job, but Prosinski is my favorite boss, and it\u2019s not even close. It really is not even close. There\u2019s a pretty distinguished list of bosses who I respected, who made me better, gave me opportunities, but Steve \u2014 in addition to being a pretty damned good journalist \u2014 is a fine and decent man, and I treasure that.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: So, the second \u201cEdward\u201d book came in April 2013. That means you already had three novels and a short story collection out while you were still working at the Gazette? I used to wonder how you pulled it off. You worked full time and then some, you cranked out novels, you kept up one of the most robust Facebook pages of anyone I know, and you didn\u2019t seem to miss any big sporting events on TV. How many hours a night do you generally sleep?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: More now than ever, I think. But back then? Maybe five.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: Really? So that was part of the whole equation.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: I think working second shift (3 to midnight) was a big help in that regard because there was time in the morning for me to work, and then there\u2019s no collapse right after you put out a newspaper because you\u2019re still wired. So, I\u2019d come home and sometimes I\u2019d make a pot of coffee and I\u2019d say, \u201cOK, I\u2019m gonna write for two or three hours.\u201d And that was usually enough. Hemingway used to say, \u201cDone by noon, drunk by 3.\u201d Well, I wasn\u2019t enough of a drinker to follow through on that, but I got the \u201cdone by noon\u201d thing. Three or four hours \u2014 nobody wants to write longer than that. I don\u2019t, anyway. After that, everything gets kind of loose and you\u2019re not putting things together very well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually harder now, when I\u2019m not working for a newspaper, because I\u2019m doing so many other things. I think I\u2019m in the middle of a correction. I\u2019m not actively working on anything that\u2019s worth talking about, and I\u2019m kind of OK with that. It\u2019ll show up again, and if it doesn\u2019t, well, I wrote eight books in eight years.<\/p>\n

(Elisa mentions the book they worked on together, a romantic comedy set in Billings. It\u2019s out on submissions. If they don\u2019t find a publisher, Craig said, \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to do it ourselves. We\u2019ve done that before.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: How did you guys decide on this move?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: At the end of last year, we really started feeling the pull. There\u2019s a strong family element to that pull for Elisa. For me, I had had this boss in San Jose, David Yarnold, the editor of the paper. I remember him saying once how he always liked to replant himself every few years. Different job, learn a different skill, just challenge yourself, because it\u2019s easy to get stagnated. He runs the Audubon Society now, so he walked his talk. The end of the last year was the first time in almost 12 years in Billings that I started to feel a little stagnant here. It was coinciding with the pull Elisa was feeling from back home.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: Tell us briefly about the two-stage move you\u2019re going to be undertaking.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: At the end of this month, Elisa and I and the cat and the moving truck \u2014 a 26-foot moving truck \u2014 and her car on the tow trailer, will head out. Five days, 500 miles a day. Then we\u2019ll unload in Maine, and I\u2019ll spend a week there with her. We\u2019ll do some unpacking, some painting \u2014 we\u2019ve got a pink room we\u2019ve got to eradicate. And then I\u2019ll fly back here and take my dad to a handful of VA appointments, load up another, smaller trailer, hook it up to my car and then my dad and my dad\u2019s dog and I will do the whole thing over again. So, my joke, which I\u2019m not sure I want in print, is that I\u2019m taking bets on where we are when I threaten my dad\u2019s life. People who know my Dad from my Facebook stories about him know I\u2019m kidding. Maybe.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to leave that out. People who know you would expect that.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: Some people are really optimistic and think I can make it to Illinois. But I\u2019m thinking no farther than Wisconsin before I explain to him the physics of shallow graves.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: It is crazy. On the other hand, you\u2019re a novelist. How can you pass up an experience like that?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: Yep, everything is fodder.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/strong>: What aren\u2019t you going to miss about Billings? Is there anything else you want to say?<\/p>\n

Craig<\/strong>: Nope. I don\u2019t even feel the need to say anything about how whacky I think this town can be, and maddening. I mean, the (Police Chief Rich) St. John stuff right now, with the sex-having cops, is freaking incredible.<\/p>\n

I will say this: the NDO (the nondiscrimination ordinance) went down in late summer of 2014, and that was my first year sort of on the loose, the first time I allowed myself to become overtly political, because I was free to do it. That took a lot of wind out of my sails. It just seemed like such a no-brainer to me that you\u2019d have that. And the fact that (Mayor Tom) Hanel publicly \u2014 on at least one occasion that I witnessed \u2014 talked about \u201clet\u2019s get this done,\u201d and then he was the man who was in position to make sure it got done, and it didn\u2019t get done.<\/p>\n

Because he\u2019s such \u2014 I\u2019m trying to be nicer about that, because I do regret some of the ways I talked to him in my direct communications with him. But I don\u2019t regret my central message, which is, you could have done something meaningful. In a position that doesn\u2019t have a lot of direct power, you could have made things better in Billings. And you took a powder. It just pisses me off. I\u2019m not going to be voting in Montana anymore, but if that guy\u2019s on a ballot, I sure hope he gets rejected. We\u2019re afflicted by empty suits. There\u2019s no reason to put more of them in positions of influence.<\/p>\n

But I have to say, even though it\u2019s got 100,000 people, Billings is really small in all the nice ways. It\u2019s hard for me to go somewhere and not run into somebody I know. People I met through the arts, people I met through work, just being out in the community. The really cool thing about Billings is, I lived in suburban Fort Worth, where I grew up, from like the age of 3 to 20. Billings is the place I\u2019ve lived longest as an adult, and Billings became home in a way that was much deeper and more meaningful to me, and is more meaningful to me, than the place where I grew up.<\/p>\n

When the inevitable moment comes when I get emotional and weepy about leaving it, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to reflect on. There\u2019s going to be that moment when I have to come to grips with the fact that I\u2019m leaving the most important home that I\u2019ve ever had and going somewhere else. Fortunately, I\u2019m going with the most important person, and it would not be the home it is without her. So, I think I can take a reasonable gamble that the next place can be home, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met Craig Lancaster almost as soon as he came to Billings nearly 12 years ago, shortly after he was hired to work at the Billings Gazette, where I\u2019d already been for more than 15 years. He quit the newspaper in 2013, about six months before I did, to try his hand at writing novels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[60,93,4636,4905,610,368],"class_list":["post-22480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-diversions","tag-billings-gazette","tag-craig-lancaster","tag-elisa-lorello","tag-maine","tag-steve-prosinski","tag-tom-hanel","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22480"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22486,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions\/22486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}