Today, for the second SPFBO 9 Spotlight of August, we have Stephen Wolberius with us. Stephen Wolberius is something of a polyglot, and his SPFBO entry is …

Night Demon Book 1

Lilian, a thirteen-year-old factory worker in an industrialising town plagued by a serial killer, can see an invisible affliction within other people. When her search for her missing best friend ends with a confrontation with a demon — and learning that the affliction turns humans into demons — another demon named Lucian saves her life and promises answers. Her first clue is that demons are responsible for the many murders. Unfortunately, Lilian’s new lead has problems of his own — Demon Hunters, who claim Lucian is the serial killer and who see Lilian as an accessory.

Can her ability to communicate with these creatures be used to solve the crimes? Or will her connection to the Netherworld prove to be her own undoing…

And with that question …

Onto the Questions!

As a Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Entrant, you’re not just independently published, but self-published. Can you start by explaining a bit about why you chose that route and how it’s been for you?

I think I’m not the only author who tried querying agents hoping to land with a traditional publisher. At least, for me, there used to be a certain nostalgic allure of the trad-pub industry. How dreadfully wrong I was. After a year in the query trenches, I submitted my work to a slew of gatekeepers…I mean agents with absolutely nothing to show for it. I didn’t receive a single personalised rejection containing feedback, and only a couple of form rejections. Two-thirds of the agents I queried simply ghosted me. That’s when it dawned on me that something might be holding the door deliberately.

The whole notion of needing an agent, a middleman, so to speak, irks me either way. A publishing deal is a business deal. When I do business with someone, I do so directly. If you insist on dealing with me by proxy (e.g., an agent), there’s something wrong. It has to do with honest trust, and if the publisher doesn’t trust me to do business with them straightforwardly, I can’t trust them either. Call me old-fashioned.

Then there’s something to say about the rampant politics and the insistence on trend-chasing that modern traditional publishers are by and large guilty of. I wanted to be myself, not be required to tick boxes or write to the next big trend that might not ever be.

Self-publishing means that what I write gets published. Unaltered, unadulterated and to my own niche. I get to keep a larger share of the royalties as a bonus.

As an author, I relate to so much of this. As a reader – as reader, I thoroughly believe that books that have the author’s touch are much more interesting! And this is borne out by the fact that, while there are a few traditionally published books I love, I find it so much easier to find indie/self-published stuff that I enjoy!

On a related note, why did you enter the SPFBO contest? How do you expect to find it? Refreshing your blog’s page every five minutes, or sit back and chill?

I don’t expect anything from the SPFBO contest if I’m honest. Most of the clout goes towards the high-fantasy and epic-fantasy series. A dark story that combines horror with dark fantasy world-building, with a cover that’s appropriate for the genre simply won’t attract the same number of eyeballs as a hero’s journey epic fantasy with a bright and swirly cover will. I entered because it’s the most prolific indie contest out there and because it gives me the opportunity to get to know the indie author community a little better. Who knows what I can learn from their collective knowledge?

I think that is one of its major lures. The book bloggers are important, and I’m really grateful to them for their time and attention, but we authors also contribute a lot to making this the wonderful thing it is for as many of us as possible!

Since I always love to ask about book titles … why did you choose the title, Night Demon?

Night Demon as a title has pretty hefty implications for the story itself. The story revolves around vampires and demons, which have existed in our mythologies for a very long time. From Babylonian and Akkadian mythology, we get the demon lilitu. The lilitu, or simply lili, are female wind/evening demons who later evolved into the Hebrew Liliths. By then, the word lilit/lilith meant night demon. In other words, the title is simply Vampire via an English to Proto-Semitic back to English workaround.

It’s always so fun to learn new tidbits of etymology! Thank you for sharing!

I won’t ask for your favourite scene since I know some people don’t have those (like me; I never have favourites), but can you share a (non-spoiler) scene you really like and you just can’t believe how awesome it is every time you go back to re-read it?

The scene where Lilian travels to find Lucian and warn him about the Demon Hunters looking for him. She’s in a dark and snow-covered forest. It is daylight, but a gathering blizzard casts the world around her in a grey gloom. Lilian meets a Lamplighter who may or may not be a figment of her imagination ─ she’s unsure. The Lamplighter tells her he can help and guides her for a while, dispelling the darkness ahead of her with his wick.

The scene happens at a point in the book where the gathering blizzard and the appearance of the Lamplighter really stand as symbols for all that has happened before this moment and the terrible decisions Lilian has to make. There are no monsters or real danger to Lilian at that moment, but I always come back to that scene as one of my favourites and best. To quote a passage about the Lamplighter:

Lilian stared at him and felt as though she had known the Lamplighter all her life. Always dependable, to light the lamps in the night — bearing his rodded wick through the crepuscule, come rain or snow or shine of moon and kindling lights in darkness’ gloom.

Cool! I tend to think symbolic scenes, like that, can often really ring something deep within.

What are some elements or themes, or combinations thereof, that really make your book stand out to you?

I like to think of my style as horror but with dark fantasy world-building. There isn’t just one boogeyman with a machete chasing people down or an unstoppable supernatural entity that uses a videotape as its proxy. Night Demon is about creeping dread and disappearing options for the main character. You get to know them deeply. If you’re looking for love in a story, then Night Demon is kind of a stunted coming-of-age novel. But there is definitely a platonic kind of love growing between girl and demon.

It also questions morality and the separation between good and evil. Lilian is fighting to stave off a demon threat, but at the same time, a demon saves her life, and they become friends. There is a demon who eats children but who also helps Lilian at some points. Lilian is not a mary sue or even morally right all the time. There are no black-and-white characters here, but neither are all of them purely grey. Lilian and Lucian genuinely try to do the right thing, but it doesn’t always work out. In these moments of hard decisions on what to do when no perfect solution presents itself, I tend to find the most human and relatable characters. I hope the story achieves this without sounding preachy.

For the geeks among us, Night Demon is also packed with little historical facts and oddities and, of course, Elilim, the language magic at the core of the fight between Demon and Demon Hunter.

I’ve created a complete sound inventory, syntax, and enough grammar and vocabulary to hold a simple conversation in Elilim. My characters use this language to evoke powerful magical spells. Speaking of which, my magic is quite potent. There’s no telepathy or evoking local memories or litRPG-style spells that make you wonder: why didn’t you just bring a regular gun or crossbow? A sea of fire and death is more my tune.

That sounds really cool! Characters who genuinely try to do the right thing in a rough world are one of my major attractions! – And of course I like language magic, too.

What else would you like to share?

My top priority as an author is to be read. Despite self-publishing’s many problems (it’s not the be-all-end-all alternative to traditional publishing), I’ll keep writing. I hope you keep reading.

There is more where Night Demon is coming from. You may have noticed that the full title is Night Demon Book 1. I’m working on Book 2 as we speak and on a standalone novella set in the same universe ─ 100 years before the events in Night Demon Book 1. I’m considering offering the novella for free to my readers when it’s done. Sign up for my newsletter for that over on my website.

I hope you enjoy reading Night Demon as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thank you for sharing that with us!

Stephen Wolberius is the author of NIGHT DEMON. Born in the Netherlands, he started his writing hobby with text-based roleplays. Stephen decided to write his debut novel after he added writing professionally to his erstwhile hobby in 2020. He is a content writer by day and enjoys delving deep into history and linguistics when he’s not writing. He is fluent in British English, American English, Dutch, and German and speaks West Saxon and some Proto-Indo-European. He is currently trying to learn Waray and has shown an interest in Proto-Austronesian.

You can get Night Demon from most retailers, as well on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon NL, and Google.You can also get Night Demon directly from the author, and check it out on Goodreads.