Spotlight, Excerpt & Author Interview: The Demon, The Hero, and The City of Seven + Giveaway

“Sometimes a little bad can do a lot of good.”

Welcome to the book tour for a hilarious fantasy debut called The Demon, The Hero, and the City of Seven by A.E. Kincaid! Read on for more info and a chance to win a $25 Amazon e-gift card!

The Demon, The Hero, and The City of Seven

Mal & Reg Novel of Widdershins Book 1

by A.E. Kincaid

Publication Date: December 14th, 2021

Genre: Fantasy/ Humorous Fantasy

Sometimes a little bad can do a lot of good.

What happens when good and evil collide? They yell, “Ouch!” When you’re a demon who’s been magically connected to a human for eternity, life is bound to be annoying. But when that human is also an inept hero who tosses his lunch whenever he gets stressed out? Breaking the connection becomes priority one. Plus, there’s a mystery at the heart of their bond that needs unraveling. When the magical object that bound them broke, it weakened the barrier between Widdershins and the Underworld. The duo hopes to find a wizard in the City of Seven who will be able to help with both problems. Follow along as our demon, Lord Malgon and our hero, Sir Reginald make themselves unwelcome with fairies, humans, dwarves and giants—all while racing to get to the City of Seven before Mal’s supremely evil brother.

In this debut humorous fantasy adventure novel, Kincaid pairs an endearing cast of characters with expert world-building and laugh-out-loud dialogue. The Demon, The Hero, and The City of Seven will leave a Mal and Reg shaped stamp on your heart.

Add to Goodreads

Excerpt

In my 550 years of existence, I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who exasperates me more than Sir Reginald P. Asstradle, the ersatz Hero of Widdershins. When he speaks, I imagine drop-kicking him off a cliff. When he snores, I fantasize tossing him into a fiery volcano. Don’t get me wrong—he’s a good lad. For a human, anyway. But when you are magically entangled with another being in such a way that putting just a few yards’ distance between the two of you triggers the spell to physically smash you back together? That can wear on anyone’s nerves. Like my nerves, for example. Right now.

Available on Amazon

Author Interview:

1. What inspired you to write this book? OR Tell us a little about how this story first came to be.
I wanted to write a short story to submit to an anthology for consideration, but I wasn’t sure what it was going to be about. All I knew was that the villain was supposed to be the main character. So one day I’m out for a walk, and I pass a place where I’d fallen off my bike a few years ago. Something I remembered vividly about the incident was nearly throwing up on a nearby front lawn. In fact, as I was thinking about it, almost every time I’d gotten seriously hurt in my life—my initial, adrenaline-fueled instinct was to throw up. I thought to myself, “Wow. I would have made a terrible hero.” And for some reason (probably because I had the idea of a villain MC in the back of my mind) I got this vision of a well-dressed, bored looking demon holding a bucket out for an inept human hero. It made me laugh…and that was the beginning of Mal and Reg.

2. What, if anything, did you learn when writing the book?
Two things. First is that even if you only write for 40 minutes a night after work and after your kid goes to sleep—you still eventually accumulate enough words for a whole book. 🙂 The second thing is that sometimes you get to the end and a big chunk of your story doesn’t work. It’s annoying and disheartening. But you can fix it. You just have to keep going.

3. What surprised you the most in writing it?
The thing that I’ve always had trouble with was committing to the details of a story. I’m always wondering, “Should I got back and give this person a brother?” and “Maybe I should start over and rework the magic system?” But with this story there was so much more clarity. The characters were stronger in my mind from the outset, and that made those types of decisions easier.

4. If it’s not a spoiler, what does the title mean?
Not a spoiler at all! The demon is Lord Malgon Belroth Kirranith and the hero is Sir Reginald P. Asstradle. They are the two main characters. Before the start of this book they broke a magic stone that left them physically bound for eternity—unless they can get to the City of Seven and get a wizard there to help them.

5. Were any of the characters inspired by real people? If so, do they know?
None of the characters were—but there really is a pub called Cock o’ the North in Hatfield in England. I went back in 2000 with a friend. It’s a really nice place (or at least it was then) and yet there was still a local guy outside trying drunkenly to hitch a horse to a wagon. It made an impression.

6. Do you consider the book to have a lesson or moral?
It’s got two lessons, I guess. The first is that you don’t necessarily have to become what you always assumed you would become. And the second is that sometimes a little bad can do a lot of good. The initial reference in the book has to do with poisons—how sometimes poisons plants and herbs are used to make medicines. But it has a deeper meaning within the book as well.

7. What is your favorite part of the book?
Anytime Mal and Reg are arguing. They are so fun (to me).

8. Which character was most challenging to create? Why?
Reg, for sure. I wanted him to be naive, unsophisticated, and a bit of a pushover, but not a complete idiot (no matter what Mal thinks of him at first). It was a hard line to walk at times.

9. What are your immediate future plans?
From a fiction writing perspective, I am in the process of writing the next book in this series. I hope to release it in the summer of 2022!

About the Author

By day I am the Creative Director at a branding studio in Iowa. By night I write humorous fantasy novels. In between I drink coffee to keep up with a small human, and try to convince my cat she’s not as great at dictation as she thinks she is. The Demon, The Hero, and the City of Seven is my first published novel.