Craig Lee is the author behind Crystal LeMar and the novel ‘Housekeeping’. He’s a proud coal miner’s son, father, husband and urban thinker. He discovered art at an early age and eagerly set about using it to reimagine and illuminate his small-town life. Drawing became an escape from the loneliness and the heavy realities of being an only child of a loving, yet hard-working family within a struggling community. That passion for storytelling later taking him around the world to help cities and neighborhoods reimagine themselves. A privilege he holds dear. As a debut author, his work takes energy from the same inequalities that first confronted his formative years. Experiences that taught him the value of identifying shared feelings and seeing things differently, through other’s eyes. Empathy. Understanding what moves people, has moved him to write. Airport terminals, planes, trains and hotel foyers are where he writes best. Public non-spaces between worlds. Globally scattered anonymous platforms to somewhere else that help him conceive and collide entire worlds. Neutral places to build a rapport with his characters, to understand their demons, charms and primal motives. A unique connection between character and author he believes builds a ‘sincerity of autonomy’ in each, and ultimately the story itself. You’d be correct in thinking he loves crafting emotive landscapes and spaces for his readers to immerse themselves in, to feel, smell and explore. Streets, buildings, rooms, down to the tiniest artefacts are characters in their own right. Designed to tempt, excite and confront whoever enters. Inspiring him most though is the liberation the word can wield to reinvent real lives. He’s never happier than when delicately painting, layer on layer, word on word, wonderfully flawed and complex heroines and heroes who’ll challenge their world whilst moving you to reimagine yours.