Downpour received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with authors Christopher Hawkins.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The book is called Downpour and it was published on October 3rd, 2023
What’s the book’s first line?
They knelt together, father and daughter, and looked down at the dead thing in its box.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Downpour is about a family that becomes trapped in an isolated farmhouse when a strange rain begins to fall that literally eats away at their home and turns everyone around them into monsters. They were already a family in crisis before the rain began to fall, and the question becomes whether they can survive and, if they do, what will it do to them as a family.
What inspired you to write the book?
Rain is often seen as a cleansing force, but it also has this tremendous destructive power, as anyone who’s witnessed a hurricane or tsunami can attest. I wanted to take that idea one step further, and envisioned a rain that could not only transform the world around us, but transform us as well, all the way down to the core of what makes us human.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
If you love survival horror, eco horror, or are just looking to have your heart broken a little bit, this might be the book for you.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?
Scott, the father in the story, isn’t an action hero. He’s not an idealized character. He makes mistakes throughout the story–sometimes really big ones–and that way he’s a lot like so many other fathers. He’s doing the best he can against impossible odds. He loves his family and will do anything to protect them. That’s what keeps him going.
Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
He reminds me a little of Richard Dreyfuss’ character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I don’t know if that was a conscious decision on my part, but that movie is close to my heart, so it might have been playing on my subconscious while I wrote the book.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I don’t know if I ever made a conscious decision to become an author. I’ve been writing since I was a teenager, so it’s something that’s always been a part of me.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The hardest part is that you’re responsible for everything from book design to marketing. “Chief cook and bottle washer,” as my grandfather used to say. But the flipside of that is that you have complete control. There’s no one trying to push me into something that I might not want to do.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling?
If it was the right opportunity, absolutely.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
There’s a lot to learn about indie publishing, so don’t feel like you need to learn it all at once, or that you need to be an expert before you start. Do what you can when you can, and don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone.