​

https://preview.redd.it/4m9xds7m06la1.jpg?width=1707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1db12ff9f3f203e065df55949a1d820832118ed4

In March, we'll be reading Bringing Home The Rain by Bob McGough

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58757789-bringing-home-the-rain

Genre: Rural/Urban Fantasy

Bingo: Anti-hero, Urban Fantasy, Self Published

SCHEDULE:

• March 1 - Q&A
• March 17 - Midway Discussion
• March 31 - Final Discussion

Q&A

Thank you for agreeing to this Q&A. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.

Thank you for having me! I’m Bob McGough, an author, podcaster, and indie game designer from Alabama. I’ve been writing for a bit over a decade now, having been previously published in a number of anthologies by various small presses. Over quarantine I resolved to finally start getting my urban fantasy series out into the world, and began self-publishing it on the advice of John G. Hartness.

What brought you to r/fantasy? What do you appreciate about it?

I don’t recall exactly when I joined, but I looked and my first post there was 5 years ago (asking for folks favorite fantasy puns, because puns are life). But I’ve been a lifelong lover of fantasy, so it was a natural place for me to hang out once I discovered Reddit. I love the variety of the group, which has introduced me to a number of great books I would likely not have discovered on my own.

Who are your favorite current writers and who are your greatest influencers?

Glen Cook’s Black Company is my favorite fantasy series of all time. Early on in my career I was heavily influenced by eldritch horror writers like Lovecraft and Derleth, though that has paled over time. This book series is more along the lines of Sandman Slim (Richard Kadrey), Criminal Macabre (Steve Niles), and Constantine (Alan Moore). The authors I have most enjoyed reading over the last year have been Paul Tremblay, Will Wight, Richard Kadrey, and Anne Bishop.

How would you describe the plot of Bringing Home the Rain if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?

A redneck wizard with a crippling meth addiction solving backwoods occult mysteries.

What subgenres does it fit?

It’s pretty firmly in the urban fantasy camp, though I prefer to call it rural fantasy. It also has a dash of horror for flavor.

How did you come up with the title and how does it tie in with the plot of the book?

The title is drawn from the amazing song by the Builders and the Butchers, Bringin’ Home the Rain. I write to music most of the time, and that song I feel does the best job encapsulating the feel of my series.

What inspired you to write this story? Was there one “lightbulb moment” when the concept for this book popped into your head or did it develop over time?

This definitely developed over time. I wrote a large number of horror short stories that were essentially early world building for this series, long before I ever had the idea for this book specifically. So there was no singular ‘lightbulb moment,’ just a lifetime of living in the deep south needing to make its way onto the page.

If you had to describe the story in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?

Chaotic, mysterious, decaying

Would you say that Bringing Home the Rain follows tropes or kicks them?

Both? It very much follows that trope of the reluctant detective investigating the mysterious magical event. But at the same time, Howard Marsh is no private detective, no police officer, nothing like that. He’s essentially a homeless drug addict trying to just scrape by. He’s also magically incompetent. And lord, does he curse too much.

Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to Bringing Home the Rains protagonists/antagonists?

The protagonist is Howard Marsh. He is a lifelong resident of Jubal County Alabama, whose life has been destroyed by drugs. He lives in a storage shed and eeks out a living as a water witch, finder of lost things, and copper thief. The antagonist, really, is Howard Marsh. Because really he’s the agent of destruction in his life. But for these specific mysteries, there are various forces at work causing the mayhem, that I don’t want to reveal as they would be spoilers.

Have you written Bringing Home the Rain with a particular audience in mind?

I wrote it with two audiences in mind. First, anyone who has lived in the deep south will instantly be able to relate to the locations and characters (I hope). It’s not an area that gets shown in media very often, and when it does, it's usually by people who have no actual lived experience with this area. The deep south is a lot more than plantation homes, sweet tea hospitality, and racism. Sure, those are strong elements, but like every place, it exists on a spectrum. So I wanted to write a series that people who live here could relate to, and appreciate. And then I wrote it for people who don’t live here, to see a more realistic representation of what life is like here for some people.

Alright, we need the details on the cover. Who's the artist/designer, and can you give us a little insight into the process for coming up with it?

The cover was made for me by an artist on Fiverr. Basically since before the book was written I knew what sort of cover design I wanted. I know it doesn't fit the current trope of ‘blue/purple cover with some leather clad person front and center’ that UF books tend to have these days. But then I like to think my series doesn't really fit the standard tropes exactly, and I wanted to show that. So the first two covers in the series were made by the same artist, then I have made the rest (my other quarantine project was learning to use Affinity Designer). Each book in the series features a skull on the cover, that is in some way related to the content of that book.

What was your proofreading/editing process?

For all my books ideally it goes: draft one, wait three to six months, draft two, wait a bit more, draft three, let my LadyFriend read it, make some tweaks at her suggestion, and then send it to the editor. I HATE to edit however. I would much rather be writing the next book, rather than going over the last one.

What are you most excited for readers to discover in this book?

I hope that folks who are perhaps a little loath to give Urban Fantasy a try will be pleasantly surprised to find that this isn’t your conventional book of the genre. And I hope that people get a little insight into what life is like in the deep south, when you dig past the ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ portrayals in media.

Can you, please, offer us a taste of your book, via one completely out-of-context sentence?

Turning a squirrel into a tiny bonfire was one thing, but doing the same to a forest worth of squirrels…well, I’d need a whole lot more drugs.