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Kevin Hincker

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Kirkus gives us this field to write a bio. Mine is boring, so I'll spare you, though in case you're really dying for another author bio you can go here: https://kevinhincker.com/about-me.html.

My books are more interesting than I am. So far, seven of them have been reviewed by Kirkus. Most were given starred reviews. One was included in Kirkus's Best of 2023 list. Another they think of as groundbreaking, and call "A blueprint for the next evolutionary step in genre-hybridized fiction." Genre-hybridized fiction is definitely what I write.

Here you'll find lyrical, propulsive plots, richly drawn characters (I'm a playwright, and my dirty secret is all I really care about is what people say and what they're doing while they say it), and prose that can be poetic, rabid, funny as shit, and deeply moving, all at the same time. Here you'll find themes unconstrained by "normal," which results in material that can challenge some people. I guess that's a warning. Should I be issuing warnings in my book marketing? Who knows. My big problem as a book marketer is I have no skill as a book marketer. I'll have to defer to Kirkus Reviews, who have spent the last 90 years honing that skill - they've been doing it since 1933. So I say we take them at their word when they call my work "all-consuming storytelling."

They've earned the right to a bit of hyperbole...

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THE GHOST WITH A KNIFE AT HER THROAT Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

THE GHOST WITH A KNIFE AT HER THROAT

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON Aug. 15, 2023

Set in an art colony on the Southern California coast, this series opener blends elements of urban fantasies, amateur sleuth mysteries, and magical realism.

Although Skysill Beach may seem like just another tourist trap—featuring numerous parks, art galleries, and even a psychic district—there’s a shadowy side to the secluded community of artists. For generations, the talented painters who relocate to Skysill never seem to leave. And, even stranger, many artists utilize “Higher colors” in their works that are not only undetectable to the normal eye, but can also be used to manipulate various emotions. When former wunderkind artist Asher Gale—whose ability to see the spectrum of these colors may have driven him to a mental breakdown—is tasked with investigating the apparent suicide of the daughter of a wealthy patron, he quickly discovers the motives behind the young woman’s death are not only complicated, but dangerous as well. His inquiries give him insight into the obscure origins of Skysill, and also reveal details about the mysterious disappearance of his parents years earlier. Powered by consummate worldbuilding, superb character development, and nonstop action, Hincker’s wildly original storyline—which features ghosts, murders, psychics, and even an unlikely romance—is only the beginning of a much more grand-scale narrative. Also of note is the author’s witty—and effortlessly readable—writing style. Although there are countless examples of his unique use of imagery and analogy, a few examples follow: One character is described as having “snowy skin and white hair falling taut off one shoulder, the way starlets played nuns in the 50s,” and an older woman is “stooped like a question mark.” Another character squints through her bifocals and tight lips and makes “the sound horses do, thinking about hay.”

This masterful detective tale launches what could be a transcendent hybrid series—a must-read.

Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023

ISBN: 9798987630167

Page count: 264pp

Publisher: manuscript

Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

THE QUESTION IN THE DANCER'S KISS Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

THE QUESTION IN THE DANCER'S KISS

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON Aug. 14, 2023

A mentally unstable former artist sees colors invisible on the normal spectrum and is plagued by ghosts in Hincker’s novel, the second in a series.

Once considered the most talented young artist in Skysill Beach—an art colony / tourist trap on the Southern California coast populated by artists who work with ultraviolet light—Gale is now an alcoholic who can barely hold down his job authenticating real paintings from forgeries because of his bad attitude, almost constant state of inebriation, and his frequent seizures, which he calls “storms.” When Gale is approached by a wealthy art collector and tasked with traveling to Los Angeles to have a potentially invaluable canvas authenticated—a painting that was allegedly done in 1492 by an Italian artist who painted with “higher colors”—Gale leaves the confines of Skysill Beach for the first time in his life and quickly realizes that the ghost (of a woman who died by suicide) who has been haunting him, his sexually charged relationship with a psychic, and his mysterious past are all entangled in a grand-scale conspiracy that includes the end of time itself. An intriguing premise, deeply developed characters, masterful worldbuilding, an impressively intricate storyline, and some bombshell plot twists at the novel’s end make this a virtually unputdownable read. Gale’s self-deprecating, razor-sharp wit (“…my strengths are introspection and getting drunk…”) gives the story an added layer of literary appeal. At the height of an intense scene in which antagonistic characters meet, Hincker throws in this great line: “For a second no one spoke because it would’ve wasted the stare down.” Though the various narrative elements, when considered separately, aren’t exactly groundbreaking, cumulatively the storyline has a wonderfully fresh and innovative feel.

A blueprint for the next evolutionary step in genre-hybridized fiction.

Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2023

ISBN: 9798987630174

Page count: 334pp

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024

THE SHADOW WAITING ON ITS THRONE Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

THE SHADOW WAITING ON ITS THRONE

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON Aug. 14, 2023

The third installment of Hincker’s History of Light series takes its urban fantasy saga, featuring unstable former artist Asher Gale, in a much darker—and more apocalyptic—direction.

The story is set in Skysill Beach, an art colony on the Southern California coast that’s part tourist trap and part haven for “sighted” artists who use special ultraviolet paint to compel people to buy paintings. Gale is a possibly mentally ill alcoholic who, as the novel opens, has had visions of his own death on top of a terrifying “ghost mountain.” As tensions rise between the Five Families—the factions that have kept the strained peace among supernaturally gifted people for generations—a critical Conclave is scheduled in Skysill. Meanwhile, Gale is seeing more and more ghosts and is suddenly able to see the circumstances of people’s future deaths when he touches them. He must figure out his place in a complicated world—one in which he’s trying to avoid a 500-year-old power-hungry painter, among other enemies who seek to murder him, and stay away from his psychic girlfriend, Caroline, as he believes that almost certain death will ensue. In addition, he must figure out how to defeat an “eternal ghost.” Hincker’s novel suffers a bit from middle-book syndrome, as it lacks the excitement of an all-new storyline with fresh characters, as well as a satisfying conclusion. It also would have been improved by tighter editing. However, it still manages to deliver the goods, due to the storyline’s rapidly expanding scope, the relentless pacing, and the masterful use of multilayered tension. Gale’s premonitory visions, for instance, will give readers a grim feeling of looming disaster: “everything ends in three months.” However, it’s Gale’s self-deprecating humor that keeps the pages turning; in one high-intensity scene in which Gale is told he should embrace his heroic side and become a “seeker,” he responds: “I have bruises on my bruises…I seek vodka and acetaminophen.”

Not the saga’s strongest volume, but an entertaining bridge book to what will hopefully be epic concluding installments.

Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2023

ISBN: 9798987630181

Page count: 330pp

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

THE SACRIFICE THE DEAD WILL MAKE Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

THE SACRIFICE THE DEAD WILL MAKE

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON Aug. 14, 2023

In the fourth and penultimate installment of Hincker’s History of Light urban fantasy saga, an endearing, mentally unstable artist confronts the end of the world.

Living in Skysill Beach—a tourist trap/artists’ colony on the Southern California coast—is becoming increasingly problematic for former painter Asher Gale, who has a drinking problem, experiences strange seizures, and sees ghosts wherever he goes. As bizarre crimes plague the town—burglaries, assaults, murders—a gang of Brazilian thugs are searching for Gale, the police have identified him as a possible suspect, and his love interest, Caroline, is nowhere to be found. Gale knows that something very bad is going to happen within a matter of months—and it’s all somehow related to Aeternus, a mythical eternal ghost, who apparently wants to lift a curse and remake the world. Gale, who can exist in the physical world (“flesh me”) or the spiritual plane (“ghost me”), is slowly putting together the pieces of Aeternus’ byzantine plot, but when a series of earthquakes devastates the area, he realizes—too late—that the end of time has begun. Fans of this impressively unique series will rejoice as this new installment takes the storyline into overdrive by radically increasing the pacing, action sequences, and bombshell plot twists. Revelations abound as Hincker reveals deep insights in Gale’s parents’ backstories, Caroline’s past, and the mythology surrounding the Undying Land, a lost world “shared equally by people and ghosts.” Brilliant worldbuilding and insightful character development enhance this fresh take on urban fantasy. Hincker’s style is fluid, focused, and powered by richly descriptive writing that fully immerses readers in the action: “My mouth felt like the inside of a blood sandwich.” Asher’s relationship with Caroline aptly describes this wildly original narrative: “violent, magnetic, orgasmic.”

Propulsive action, an unforgettable lead, and all-consuming storytelling.

Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2023

ISBN: 9798987630198

Page count: 324pp

Review Posted Online: March 27, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024

THE CURSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

THE CURSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON June 14, 2024

The concluding installment of Hincker’s The History of Light pentalogy chronicles an emotionally fractured painter’s attempt to save the world.

Skysill Beach, an artists’ colony/tourist trap on the Southern California coast, has seen better days: A curse is “dismantling” the world, and everyone outside of the colony may already be dead. Asher Gale, a painter and recovering drug addict at Skysill Beach, has visions (or twisted hallucinations) increasingly filled with apocalyptic images: “I saw the Earth devastated. Everything shattered. A dark disk in the sky. Cities leaning, empty, oceans dried, mountains thrown over.” Reality isn’t much better—the sun has begun to inexplicably go out (“there was a round, black disc in the sky in its place, and darkness deeper than grave shadow everywhere I looked”). Nightmarish monsters are falling from the sky, and grotesque spirits are emerging from inhabitants’ backs like cicadas freeing themselves from shells. With his girlfriend Caroline dead and his essence progressively fracturing, Ash must somehow figure out how to stop the curse and free billions of spirits stuck on Earth yearning to travel through dimensions to the Forgiving Sea, where they can wash their spirits clean before time ends. While this story works well as an eschatological fantasy, it’s ultimately not so much a narrative about unlikely heroes at the end of the world as it is a story about the transcendent power of love. Although Hincker heaps on Ash’s sarcasm and snark throughout the series (sometimes to the detriment of the story’s intensity), the emotional connection between him and Caroline is intense and authentic. Their relationship is the fuel that powers the narrative to its stand-up-and-applaud conclusion. Readers will be enthralled right up to the very last page.

A fitting end to a wild and unique paranormal fantasy saga.

Pub Date: June 14, 2024

Page count: 266pp

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: July 22, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024

A DEBT TO THE STARS Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

A DEBT TO THE STARS

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON May 1, 2023

Hincker presents an SF story of first contact, human survival, and banking.

When aliens first arrived on Earth in the year 2047, economist Diana Roark, the CEO of Roark Pharmaceuticals, was down on the ocean floor on a near-fatal deep-water bioprospecting mission that “shattered” an arm and a leg. As a result, she missed the alien visitation; three hours after they showed up, they were gone, having provided Augmentation that made all bodies on Earth run at peak efficiency and mysterious Obelisks that provided all of humanity’s basic needs. Thirty years later, the whole world has changed: “Why work, they had reasoned, at meaningless careers, when food and water were free, health care unnecessary, and when the natural elements had been conquered?” But for Diana, everything remained the same; as far as she knows, she’s the only human who didn’t go through Augmentation. Now 60—and unlike everyone else, showing her age—she has bone cancer that’s about to end her life, so she decides to go on the secret vacation she’s been planning. But before she can fulfill her last wishes, she’s kidnapped by an operative from the World Bank who mistakenly believes that she knows more about the aliens than anyone else does. She’s rescued by Robert, a foulmouthed alien account executive who resembles broccoli and who tells Diana she has only 48 hours left to save Earth. What follows is a unique, frantic, fun, and thought-provoking SF tale that takes surprising twists and turns. Often, it delivers unexpectedly humorous observations: “It wasn’t much of a plan, but economists were notorious for unreasonable passions and commitment to untestable theories.” Hincker essentially offers a book about banking and economists—who are both the villains and heroes of this piece—that’s anything but dry or dogmatic. Quite the contrary, it’s a zany romp with heart, reminiscent of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1980) and its sequels as it follows Diana in her earnest journey of healing and heroism. An open ending promises more delights to come.

Enjoyable, funny, and thought-provoking speculative fiction.

Pub Date: May 1, 2023

ISBN: 9798987630105

Page count: 316pp

Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2023

THE LITTLE QUEEN Cover
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

THE LITTLE QUEEN

BY Kevin Hincker • POSTED ON Oct. 28, 2022

In Hincker’s contemporary fantasy novel, a teen has a supernatural connection to bees.

While sitting in his middle school classroom, Anthony Smith notices a bee. While the rest of the students panic, Anthony has no worries about being stung—after all, he can communicate with bees. On her deathbed, Anthony’s mother made Anthony promise he would never use his strange ability again. The insect’s classroom visit rekindles his love of bees and beekeeping, and even Anthony’s teachers think he should be encouraged to spend his time focusing on bees rather than falling further into the depression brought on by the death of his mother. But something is wrong with the hive Anthony has cared for since his mother’s death; the bees aren’t acting like they should. Anthony happens upon a small queen bee unlike any other he’s ever seen, clearly wounded and alone. Taking her home and caring for her, Anthony introduces her to his failing hive in a last-ditch effort to save both it and the “Little Queen.” While researching online to determine just what kind of bee his new queen is, Anthony starts to receive some disturbing messages that lead to threats against both him and his precious hive. The author tells his sweet-as-honey story from multiple perspectives, primarily those of Anthony and the Little Queen. The thought processes and world of the bees are intricately drawn; the description of how knowledge is passed along from one bee to another is creatively handled, and the Plain of Crowns, where only a Queen Bee may visit, sounds like heaven to both humans and bees: “Beneath her is a rich, golden vastness, the color of perfectly cured honey. It glows like the light of the sun through a yellow autumn leaf.” Though Anthony is in the seventh grade, his story will appeal to adults and younger readers alike.

A well-written, compelling tale—readers will fall in love with Anthony and his Little Queen.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2022

ISBN: 9798360907428

Page count: 272pp

Publisher: Independently Published

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2023

ADDITIONAL WORKS AVAILABLE

The Einstein Object

Science is magic if you know the right language. Preston discovers a programming language somehow tied to Einstein's theory of relativity, and inherits a terrible power and a magical enemy from his long dead grandfather. And this enemy will stop at nothing to regain what she's lost. A mysterious ad for a course in computer programming injures Preston's hands so he misses months of school. When he returns, to finds the world somehow altered. His old friends avoid him, while the odd kids in the programming club are now fascinated by him. And while his sudden new Algebra skills are very welcome, he’s also having nightmares that don’t add up: dark matter is missing from the universe, and his neighborhood overrun by Dark Folk Then his programming club enters a competition to create a game, and Preston must use his grandfather's legacy — the language that twists his fingers in terrible shapes — to defend them. The competition clock ticks down as dangers and questions multiply: what is this legacy Preston has inherited? Why does the Dark Crone want Preston's mobile phone? And most important of all, who, or what, is The Einstein Object?
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