What will we see about ourselves when we look at the past?

In this episode, I’m chatting with Jack Wang about his debut novel, The Riveter. We discuss themes of love, betrayal, honour, and identity.

Jack tells me how he was able to narrow down his research to the most important things and honour the past by carefully relocating it in present bodies. I learned a lot from Jack, and I think this episode is a great resource for anyone writing historical fiction.

The Riveter is out now from House of Anansi Press.

Show highlights

00:00 - Introduction

3:09 - Lola’s summary of the book

4:15 - Why Jack wrote a novel on the Second World War

6:50 - Designing the characters of Josiah Chang and Poppy

16:36 - Creating a connection between different kinds of freedom

20:18 - Bringing truth from the past to the present

23:03 - How much research should you use in writing historical fiction?

27:30 - Using drama to evolve your characters

32:08 - Writing about interracial relationships

37:36 - Brotherhood and belonging in war time

41:07 - Traversing through time and employing chronology

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Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NyYOI0m7hlc

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Guest’s links

Buy The Riveter: https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-riveter?_pos=1&_sid=63211d578&_ss=r

Follow Jack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwangauthor/

Follow Jack on X: https://twitter.com/jackwangauthor

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Host’s links

Find out more about the show: https://www.journeyoftheart.com/

Book a one-on-one with Lola: https://wordcaps.com/coaching/