30 min
S. 8, Ep. 6: Interview with Crime Writer Joel Burcat The Crime Cafe
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- Books
This episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features my interview with crime writer Joel Burcat.
He writes a series of environmental thrillers that you'll want to hear about.
Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy inks for both on my website, debbimack.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so.
Check us out on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crimecafe
Debbi (00:54): But first, let me put in a good word for Blubrry podcasting.
I’m a Blubrry affiliate, but that’s not the only reason I’m telling you this. I’ve been using Blubrry Podcasting as my hosting service for my podcast for years and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made. They give great customer service, you’re in complete control of your own podcast, you can run it from your own website, and it just takes a lot of the work out of podcasting for me. I find for that reason that it’s a company that I can get behind 100% and say, “You should try this.” Try Blubrry. It doesn’t require a long-term contract, and it’s just a great company, period. It also has free technical support by email, video, and phone, so you can get a human being there. Isn’t that nice?
If you want to podcast, try out Blubrry. No long-term contract, excellent distribution, and great technical support, too, by email, video, and on the phone. I’ve included an affiliate link on this blog.
Download a copy of the PDF transcript of this episode here.
Debbi: Hi, everyone. My guest today is a practicing environmental lawyer and he writes environmental legal thrillers. Kind of makes sense. In any case, he has also edited legal publications, but today we'll focus on his fiction. Although given the subject matter and being a former EPA attorney myself, I can already picture this interview spinning out of control. In any case, it has that potential. I'm pleased in any case to have with me thriller writer and environmental attorney, Joel Burcat. Hi Joel.
Joel: Hi Debbi. It's great to be on your program.
Debbi: Well, it's great to have you here. Thank you for coming on and thank you for waiting. I was reading your guest post and I focused in on those words, "gray area,” and I thought, boy, that's exactly where I like to write, in those gray areas. And I always end with a kind of a bittersweet twist. I can't seem to come up with a completely happy ending. It's as if, okay given these laws, given this set of circumstances, here's the best we can do. How do you come out on that? Do you think lawyers have a tendency to do this? Is it a legal thing or is it always mystery writers?
Joel: You know, it seems to me that it's relatively easy to write a story that's in black and white. I'm not picking on him and certainly nobody can pick on Lee Child, but Jack Reacher is always sort of a black and white kind of character. You know he's always on the good side and that the other guy is always on the bad side. There's no gray area in there. And with so many other writers, it's very, very clear, not necessarily with writers, but certainly with books that they write or characters that they write, you know, that they are the good guys and that the antagonist is absolutely the bad guy. And in fact, the antagonist can be, be really, really, really bad, and then you've got your good guy, your hero, your the protagonist.
You know, it seems to me that it's relatively easy to write a story that's in black and white. I'm not picking on him and certainly nobody can pick on Lee Child, but Jack Reacher is always sort of a black and white kind...
This episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features my interview with crime writer Joel Burcat.
He writes a series of environmental thrillers that you'll want to hear about.
Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy inks for both on my website, debbimack.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so.
Check us out on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crimecafe
Debbi (00:54): But first, let me put in a good word for Blubrry podcasting.
I’m a Blubrry affiliate, but that’s not the only reason I’m telling you this. I’ve been using Blubrry Podcasting as my hosting service for my podcast for years and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made. They give great customer service, you’re in complete control of your own podcast, you can run it from your own website, and it just takes a lot of the work out of podcasting for me. I find for that reason that it’s a company that I can get behind 100% and say, “You should try this.” Try Blubrry. It doesn’t require a long-term contract, and it’s just a great company, period. It also has free technical support by email, video, and phone, so you can get a human being there. Isn’t that nice?
If you want to podcast, try out Blubrry. No long-term contract, excellent distribution, and great technical support, too, by email, video, and on the phone. I’ve included an affiliate link on this blog.
Download a copy of the PDF transcript of this episode here.
Debbi: Hi, everyone. My guest today is a practicing environmental lawyer and he writes environmental legal thrillers. Kind of makes sense. In any case, he has also edited legal publications, but today we'll focus on his fiction. Although given the subject matter and being a former EPA attorney myself, I can already picture this interview spinning out of control. In any case, it has that potential. I'm pleased in any case to have with me thriller writer and environmental attorney, Joel Burcat. Hi Joel.
Joel: Hi Debbi. It's great to be on your program.
Debbi: Well, it's great to have you here. Thank you for coming on and thank you for waiting. I was reading your guest post and I focused in on those words, "gray area,” and I thought, boy, that's exactly where I like to write, in those gray areas. And I always end with a kind of a bittersweet twist. I can't seem to come up with a completely happy ending. It's as if, okay given these laws, given this set of circumstances, here's the best we can do. How do you come out on that? Do you think lawyers have a tendency to do this? Is it a legal thing or is it always mystery writers?
Joel: You know, it seems to me that it's relatively easy to write a story that's in black and white. I'm not picking on him and certainly nobody can pick on Lee Child, but Jack Reacher is always sort of a black and white kind of character. You know he's always on the good side and that the other guy is always on the bad side. There's no gray area in there. And with so many other writers, it's very, very clear, not necessarily with writers, but certainly with books that they write or characters that they write, you know, that they are the good guys and that the antagonist is absolutely the bad guy. And in fact, the antagonist can be, be really, really, really bad, and then you've got your good guy, your hero, your the protagonist.
You know, it seems to me that it's relatively easy to write a story that's in black and white. I'm not picking on him and certainly nobody can pick on Lee Child, but Jack Reacher is always sort of a black and white kind...
30 min