Prolific and disarmingly modest, Kranes has written several novels that have not yet seen the light of day. He has a sequel to "The Hunting Years," an early short-story collection; a father-son book in which he explores the way that fathers and sons often change places; and he has felt the urge to write one book of detective fiction, and he has started another.

In fact, "Making the Ghost Dance" is a book he wrote 15 years ago, and it has been with Signature Books for five years. The magic tricks practiced by the protagonist in the book are familiar to Kranes because he spent his youth in an identical path. "I found out how to hold an audience, and I put myself through a master's degree doing magic shows for children."

In recent years, he brought card tricks into the teaching of writing — "sleight of hand vs. verbal sleights of hand — the notion that there is a secret in every work, and it hides in the narrative, and you wonder when the secret will surface. So that's the hidden card that rises out of the deck."

Kranes is also like his character in his early stumbles at school. "I was a troublemaker, and I was thrown out of school several times. My father would tell me, 'Your teachers say you are very bright but you could be doing much better. You may not get into college.'

"So in my senior year I did very well. I tested well and that got me into a good school, Bowdoin College in Maine."

He wrote "Ghost" as simply as he could. He loves language so much that he believes he has sometimes "overdone it. I like finding the startling phrase. I like to play with words — and I have a knack for the playful use of words.

"I don't know how I got it. A woman once called me 'Metaphor Man' — and it was not a compliment."

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com