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What inspired you to write the McGinn saga?


David aka Alder and Joseph aka Finn
David aka Alder and Joseph aka Finn

The journey of the McGinn family saga started in 1994, while I was working as a new grad nurse on nights. I started writing the story of James McCarthy (fictionalized as Jim McGinn) who was killed on a dirt road in Solon, Maine in March 1938. After about twenty-five handwritten pages, I decided it wasn’t good enough and tossed it.

I first heard the story from my grandmother who would have been his niece. He was killed after leaving a barn dance and the murder was never solved. Jim was one of seventeen kids (Twelve boys and five girls) and as amazing as the murder was, so was the story of Mary McCarthy.

When her husband Thomas died, she still had very small children and the two oldest boys, David (20, left) and Joseph (19, right) worked to support the family. My great grandfather Lewis (18) maintained the farm and each child in succession worked to care for the younger siblings. This was a time when there was no such thing as welfare and the strength of that family is what carried them through those years and the great depression.

I had picked 1933 as the starting point purely by chance, and because of my writing style, things took on a life of their own from there. I don’t write from a plot. Only a beginning and where I expect it to end. So as I researched 1933, the fact that prohibition was coming to an end, was purely coincidental, but added a key element to the story. The McCarthy’s did make their own liquor, but to my knowledge, it was only for self-consumption.

As I researched more about the McCarthy’s, I was very fortunate that my cousins had a number of photos posted on Ancestry and this helped to build the characters in my mind. Alder was based upon David, or how I imagine he may have been. To be thrust into that responsibility at twenty years old takes a person of great discipline. At his side was his brother Joseph (Finn in the books) and he was the enforcer in my mind. The family protector. I knew that Lewis ran the farm, and I made his character (Lewin) a worrier, and more nurturing than the older boys. Through subsequent books, each sibling takes on their own personality as they move away from the family unit.

For the female characters, of course Mary is the Rock. She leads by example and has high expectations for all of her children. The three oldest daughters each have a personality of their own: Allison, the mean girl, Emma the innocent, and Ruth the Pius. They all have their distinct styles. Emma along with Finn are my two favorite characters are my favorite to write for since both have great growth over the course of the four books.

The other character that was great fun is the town of Monroe itself. There is a town named Monroe, Maine, but it in not based upon that one. The fictional Monroe is a blend of my hometown of Madison, the neighboring town of Skowhegan as well as elements of Athens and Solon. All clustered together in central Maine.

Even though I had a number of ideas, the Red Road was the story I wanted to write. From there, the characters took me through three more books and now onto another series based upon Alvin and his journey from Ireland to America, the McCalls, the Morelands, and Winslow Hatch. I am hopeful of releasing the entire three-book series by the late spring of 2025.

I truly appreciate the love and support that I have received from my readers, and I hope that this next series lives up to the bar set by the McGinns.

-Jonathan

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