Q&A: KC Jones on BLACK TIDE: “I love seeing characters respond to the unknown, the frightening, the should-be-impossible.”

“[BLACK TIDE] is gasp-for-your-breath, peek-through-your-fingers horror, and I loved every page of it!” —Jonathan Janz, author

With his debut horror novel, Black Tide, author KC Jones has been nominated in the Bram Stoker Awards category of Superior First Novel in horror fiction. (See all the nominees here.) A character-driven science fiction/horror blend, Jones’ Black Tide is Stephen King’s The Mist meets A Quiet Place.

In our interview below, Jones reveals what inspires his unique angle for horror stories, and shares his favorite things about horror fiction…

About the book BLACK TIDE

A character-driven science fiction/horror blend, KC Jones’ Black Tide is Stephen King’s The Mist meets A Quiet Place.

It was just another day at the beach. Then the world ended.

Mike and Beth were strangers before the night of the meteor shower. Chance made them neighbors, a bottle of champagne brought them together, and a shared need for human connection sparked something more.

Following their drunken and desperate one-night stand, the two discover the astronomical event has left widespread destruction in its wake. But the cosmic lightshow was only part of something much bigger, and far more terrifying.

When a lost car key leaves them stranded on an empty stretch of Oregon coast and inhuman screams echo from the dunes, when the rising tide reaches for their car and unspeakable horrors close in around them, these two self-destructive souls must fight to survive a nightmare of apocalyptic scale.

Black Tide
KC Jones
Tor Nightfire
Categories: Alien Invasion Science Fiction, First Contact Science Fiction

Find Black Tide on Amazon

Reviews:

“Grab your popcorn for this one....Mayhem, masses of menacing monsters, pulsing parasitic vines...this is one gnarly day at the beach.”
—Jeremy Robert Johnson, author of The Loop

“A superb, fast-paced read that will compel readers to quickly devour the book.”
—Library Journal

“A wickedly fun, gut-shot punch of a story with whip-smart dialogue and breathtakingly tense action sequences. Don’t miss it.”
—Philip Fracassi, author of Boys in the Valley

“Brimming with relatable characters and shocking left turns, this is gasp-for-your-breath, peek-through-your-fingers horror, and I loved every page of it.”
—Jonathan Janz, author of The Siren and the Specter

“Jones’ debut novel unfolds like a movie, a terrifying nightmare come to life, an intense, realistic portrayal of an alien invasion. The action-oriented, blisteringly fast-paced plot is authentically rendered; but beware, not all make it out alive.....”
—Booklist

“Black Tide is cinematic, fast-paced, pedal-to-the-metal storytelling: I found myself gasping!”
—Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces

“Jones’ debut novel reads like a summer blockbuster stuffed with adrenaline-pumping action scenes and moments of heart-stopping suspense.”
—BookPage

“[A] snark-filled romp through a postapocalyptic world. The sarcastic, self-deprecating characters and quirky setup set this first contact tale apart.”
—Publishers Weekly

About author KC Jones

After graduating from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in film production, KC Jones returned to the Pacific Northwest to focus on a career in screenwriting, before making the leap to novels. When not writing, he can usually be found cooking, playing video and board games, or exploring the local wilderness with his wife. Black Tide is his debut novel.

Interview with KC Black about Black Tide

Q: What inspired your Bram Stoker Award-nominated book?

Inspired by a true story! (Lacking an apocalypse and monsters, of course.)

Many autumns ago, my spouse and I were staying on our favorite stretch of Oregon’s northern coast and decided to drive down onto a relatively empty stretch of beach to watch the sunset. As dusk was settling and it was time to leave, I discovered I’d misplaced my keys. We searched everywhere for them—didn’t find them until years later when it came time to sell that pickup, jammed far beneath the seat cushions.

Luckily, unlike the characters in BLACK TIDE, I carried a spare set. But on the way back to our hotel I couldn’t stop thinking... what if we hadn’t? And there was nobody to give us a lift, and the tide started coming in, and things emerged from the dunes? By the time we got back to the room, I was ready to start writing the thing on the hotel stationery.

Q: What inspires your unique angle for horror stories?

One of the most common descriptors I’ve seen of BLACK TIDE is that it’s cinematic. I love this, and I suppose it makes sense as it was a screenplay before it was a book. I spent a decade trying to break into film as a screenwriter, and I think that particular style of writing carried over and continues to inform what I do now.

If you’re watching the movie version in your head while reading, then that’s a double-win for this former would-be screenwriter.

Q: What are your favorite things about horror fiction?

I love seeing characters respond to the unknown, the frightening, the should-be-impossible. In every story people’s lives are upended to some degree, of course, but horror tends to push things to the limit and beyond, and it’s exhilarating to follow along. Throw in some supernatural and it’s just *chef’s kiss* for me.

Horror is an effective tool for peeling back the surface of the world and the people in it and taking a hard look at what’s going on underneath, most often through the lens of the fantastic, which I think makes the genre such a uniquely fun and fulfilling experience, both to read and to write.

Q: What are the best ways that readers can connect with you or keep up with your author news?

I’m not particularly active on social media, but I do try to engage as much as possible. I mostly go on Twitter to throw out Likes and RTs, and over on Instagram I tend to post about cooking, travel, nature, and my pets. I’m also a Goodreads Author. My website, www.kcjonespnw.com is pitifully outdated (time management is never where I tend to allocate skill points) but I almost always respond to emails via the contact form there.

Monster Complex ™