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Inside the Wasteland Part 2
Author Interview Series with Rob McLauhglin
DRAFTEN SCRIBEZ PRESENTZ
Draften Scribez
10/18/20264 min read
Welcome back to the wasteland
Rob McLaughlin — One Twisted Story? Apparently, That Wasn't Enough.
Some authors write a story, torment a few fictional characters, and call it a day.
Rob McLaughlin apparently looked at that approach and thought, Nah, I can do worse.
Rob contributed Our Lady of Holy Death to Obsidian Skull Press's No Safewords in the Wasteland, introducing readers to a world where death, belief, and the darker corners of human nature make for some rather questionable decisions.
But here's where things get interesting.
That story isn't the end of Rob's twisted imagination. In fact, it's connected to something much bigger.
Enter the Indian Mound Cursed Universe, a planned three-book series beginning with Carnytown, followed by the interconnected anthology Beneath the False Dawn of Concrete Gods, and culminating in Our Lady of Holy Death: Blood Moon.
That's right. Three books. One interconnected universe. And apparently, Rob has decided that ruining the lives of characters in a single story simply isn't ambitious enough.
I respect the commitment.
What makes this particularly exciting is that Our Lady of Holy Death isn't just another dark tale sitting on the shelf. It's part of a larger fictional world with connections stretching across generations.
And I've had the pleasure of getting my editorial claws into the book that starts it all: Carnytown.
Now, I'm not about to spill Rob's secrets before readers have a chance to discover them. I'm an editor, not a monster.
Well, that depends on which author you ask.
But I will say that there's something incredibly satisfying about watching separate stories become pieces of a much larger, darker puzzle.
So, Rob, I have questions. Quite a few, actually.
And considering you've given us an entire cursed universe to explore, I think that's only fair.
Our Lady of Holy Death. Well, that sounds like someone we should absolutely introduce ourselves to without asking any follow-up questions.
Naturally, we asked fifteen.
Rob McLaughlin joins us to talk about a story whose title makes a hell of a first impression. There’s reverence in it, there’s a warning in it, and there’s that little voice telling you to mind your own business. If you’re here, I’m guessing you ignore that voice about as often as I do.
We start with the title, then get into Death as a presence, death as an event, and what happens when faith and horror find themselves sharing the same room. Rob also talks about the uncertainty he likes to create. Did someone actually see something? Did they dream it? How comfortable are you going to be without a definite answer?
Then there’s the matter of trust. We give writers permission to lead us into some deeply unpleasant places, but everyone has an opinion about how fairly they ought to behave once we’re there. Personally, I can appreciate a little psychological fuckery. Just make it worth the trip.
Open the boxes. Let’s see what Rob has waiting for us.
Well. Barry is unhappy, Rosita is someone Rob would prefer not to piss off, and the hypothetical jury has grounds to consider aiding and abetting homicide. A productive conversation, I think.
Thank you to Rob McLaughlin for answering our questions and giving us a look at the thinking behind Our Lady of Holy Death. I appreciate an author who’ll talk seriously about grief, belief, and the consequences of a character’s choices, then happily entertain the possibility of being prosecuted by the people he invented. There should be room for both.
What stays with me is how much of this conversation comes back to the explanations people reach for. Something disappears. Something hurts. Someone treats you badly. You decide what it means, and that decision can start doing a dangerous amount of work. Rob gives us plenty to consider about Rosita and Barry without making either of them sound particularly qualified to decide what punishment anyone deserves.
As for Our Lady herself, that final answer gives us something else to sit with: who might find protection in her, who might hesitate, and what assumptions we brought to the introduction in the first place.
I still have questions, obviously. But I’ll let Rob off the hook for now.
And if Rosita asks, we’ve been perfectly polite.
Understanding why someone does something can make a story more interesting. It doesn’t necessarily make you want to leave them alone with your manager.Rob says a writer’s obligation is not to bore the reader. Fair enough. I’m willing to be unsettled, suspicious, and occasionally furious with a fictional person. Bored is a much harder sell.
His answer about foreshadowing is where I start paying closer attention. I like a story that gives me enough information to become confidently wrong. Then something happens, an earlier detail comes crawling back, and I have to admit the warning was sitting there the whole damn time. Rude. Effective, but rude.
Our next question follows that thread, and Rob answers it with an efficiency I almost resent. You’ll see.
From there, we get into death, meaning, and consequences—and yes, there are story details ahead. Rosita’s mother’s disappearance weighs on her, and Rob discusses how that uncertainty influences her response to Barry. It’s uncomfortable territory: the things people carry, the people they take them out on, and the explanations they give themselves afterward.
“The previous answer touches on that,” Rob says, before getting into consequences and all the baggage that comes with a response you can’t take back. That’s the part that sticks with me. You can explain yourself afterward until you’re blue in the face. Whatever you did is still done.
And then there’s Rosita holding herself partially blameless. Partially is doing some work there, isn’t it? Enough responsibility to acknowledge that something happened, perhaps, but hopefully not so much that you have to sit alone with the entire ugly business. People can get remarkably creative when they’re negotiating with their own conscience.
For the final set, I wanted to pull at the human problem underneath the horror. Take away the supernatural, and what are these people still doing to each other? Rob’s answer brings us back to resentment and punishment, which gives us plenty to think about before we move on to mortality.
Then I hand his characters the opportunity to complain.
If you’ve spent any time asking writers questions, eventually you start wondering what their fictional people would say if they could get a word in. Who’s angry? Who’s bringing evidence? Does the author need a lawyer? Rob appears to have a fairly clear idea of the charges.
We finish by asking him to arrange an introduction to Our Lady of Holy Death. Apparently, I couldn’t just say thank you and leave like a normal person.
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