Writing and Editing
Writing and Editing is a podcast for authors that takes a whole-person approach to everything related to writing and editing. Listen in each Thursday for a new twenty-five-minute episode with an author or industry expert. All episodes are freely available in audio wherever you get podcasts. Hosted by Jennia D'Lima
Writing and Editing
343. History, Crime, and Fiction: Striking a Balance Between Genres with Joe McClean
Screenwriter and director-turned-author Joe McClean discusses blending genres, finding the right balance of historical accuracy and fiction, and gives a lesson on the importance of history.
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Visit Joe's website:
https://www.gingerbeardfilms.com/
Get your autographed copy of Sins of Survivors:
https://premierecollectibles.com/sinsofsurvivors
Check out Joe's adventures on his socials:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-mcclean-6668b018
https://www.instagram.com/joe_mcclean_gb/
Jennia: Hello, I'm Jennia D'Lima. Welcome to Writing and Editing, the author-focused focused podcast that takes a whole-person person approach to everything related to both writing and editing. Historical-crime crime fiction introduces the readers to both a thrilling plot and a time and place from the past. • Combining the two requires striking a balance between informing the reader in pacing. And author and filmmaker Joe McClean is here to share how he pulled this off in his new release, Sins of Survivors.
Jennia: Well, first, thank you so much for being here today!
Joe McClean: Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for having me!
Jennia: If you want to get us started by sharing a little bit about what the book is about and maybe something about where it is set and when.
Joe McClean: Yeah, Sins of Survivors is a story that takes place in 1937 Detroit. And it's a neighborhood called Black Bottom that has since been knocked down. It was knocked down in the late 50s, early 60s for urban renewal. But it's a story of two brothers, Jasper and Ben, who, after living through personal racist tragedy in the south in 1908, end up moving north with the Great Migration. And they slowly but surely make it all the way to Detroit, where there's just more opportunity because of the auto manufacturing. But they build sort of an illegal empire of businesses through Prohibition. And then when prohibition is overturned and booze is now legal, they sort of lose their ability to have the illegal portion of their businesses. So they decide to go straight. But going straight becomes much more difficult than they expect because they're not only dealing with a life in Black Bottom, which is this black neighborhood that was created by redlining, but they've already implanted themselves in sort of the evil underbelly of the criminal world there. So yeah.
