Apex Book Company

Adrienne Jones is a talented writer. She’s got a sharp sense of humor that makes her fiction wild, memorable rides. Mundania Press recently published her first novel (The Hoax). Adrienne followed that with Gypsies Stole My Tequila from Necro Publications. Apex fans will recognize Adrienne for her Apex Digest Online column, Atomic Rubble, and her Gratia Placenti contribution, “Party Makers.” Now her latest book, brine, brings back one of her most popular works (”Temple of Cod”) and expands on the original with two new sections to form a novel length work.

Jason Sizemore: Hi Adrienne! Thank you for taking time to do this interview.

Adrienne Jones: Why thank you, Jason. Thank you for taking the time to pick my brain once again.

JS: Tell us a bit about brine.

AJ: Brine is a ghost story. I almost laugh at this simplification, but at the end of the day that’s what it is. It’s the story of a painter, Elliot Newton, who although successful, can
only paint lighthouses. When he tries to paint anything else, he becomes paralyzed with fear. After being dumped by his girlfriend, he decides to get to the bottom of his phobia, and moves into his grandfather’s cottage by the sea–where yes indeed, there is a lighthouse. After getting good and

brine by Adrienne Jones

liquored up, he forces himself to paint something unique, something other than the lighthouse seascape he’s famous for. This unleashes bizarre manifestations that taunt him in outrageous ways, assuring that until he solves their riddle he’ll not be rid of them. After I wrote the first third of Brine four years ago, and published it as the chapbook Temple of Cod, my publisher and I both received emails asking for a continuation of the story. I’d never considered expanding on Temple of Cod, but after bashing my head onto the desk trying to come up with sequels, it dawned on me that the mystery wasn’t quite finished. I’d answered the what but not fully explored the why. Brine answers all those questions, and introduces the reader to some of the wildest characters they’ll ever see in a ghost story. The novel includes Temple of Cod as part one, with two parts added of equal length–Part Two: Shell Shock and Part Three: The Sand Witch.

JS: Sounds interesting, yes. I’ve got a signed copy of the original release of Temple of Cod. Can you assuage my fears of it losing value with this greedy new release of ToC? I was going to sell it ten years from now and use the money to finance my children’s college education.

AJ: Yes indeed. It also has the power to solve world hunger and disease, and possesses the secrets of dark matter in the universe. Encourage all your friends to buy now.

JS: I won’t lie. I haven’t read Shell Shock and The Sandwich. Are they as weird and delightfully disgusting as Temple of Cod?

AJ: It’s The SAND Witch Jason, The SAND Witch! Yes, they are possibly even more fun. I do want to stress that these aren’t three separate stories. Although it’s divided into three parts, it reads like a novel, the continuing sage of Elliot Newton and his paranormal afflictions. Unlike the first segment, which is told completely from Elliot’s perspective, we get to enter other characters’ POVs in the rest of the novel. I hope readers will have as much fun with the new characters as I had writing them, it’s a wild ride with many new and delightfully charming mutants.

JS: That does sound interesting. Now why brine and not Brine? Are you comparing your talents to those of e.e. cummings?

AJ: Well his ancestry and mine are oddly linked with the whole Cambridge/Harvard thing, but to the best of my knowledge he never wrote a poem about fish people. The lower case b in the cover title was a design decision by my publisher Pete Allen, who I trust implicitly. I originally nicknamed him ‘The Font Master’ but have since upgraded his status to ‘Little Lord Fontleroy’ which he likes much better.

JS: Sounds like you and your publisher might be playing some “parlour” games. As your publisher, I am offended by our lack of “parlour” games. At least give me a cute nickname.

AJ: How about Jason Tries-more? Or perhaps Jason Lies-more? You are a writer after all. At the end of the

The Hoax by Adrienne Jones

day we’re little more than professional liars.

JS: Adrienne, you are so clever! And it’s a talent that crosses over into your writing. Does brine showcase your dark sense of humor?

Gypsies Stole My Tequila by Adrienne Jones

AJ: Brine definitely has a lot of humor in it, although it’s less of an all out comedy than Gypsies Stole my Tequila or some of my other stuff. It’s not that there’s less humor, it’s just much darker. The humor is weaved into a very horrific and often emotionally jarring mystery (as most ghost stories are). What I did with this one is create more situational humor by way of things like thrusting ancient beings into the modern world, forcing a cultured, respectable doctor into a strangely primitive form, and taking a journalist that usually reports on banalities such as Cape Cod craft fairs and having her fall into this dark and dirty secret beneath the lighthouse. I suppose the story itself is a mutant hybrid, but I guess that’s what black comedy is.

JS: Now that we have the readers salivating for some brine, where is the best place to get the book?

AJ: Brine is available at all the major booksellers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or support the genre clans by buying from The Horror Mall or direct from Creative Guy Publishing. There are still some limited edition hardcovers left, signed and numbered by my little self, and those must be
ordered from Creative Guy. I’m pleased with the way the book turned out, and the artwork (done by Travis Ingram) looks fabulous on both the hardcover and the paperback.

JS: Wrong. The best place is to order it from the Apex aStore so that we get an affiliate bonus!

But I say to fans of dark humor, no matter where you decide to buy brine, just make sure you buy it!

Thank you, Adrienne, for your time. Do come back to play again sometime.

Get a copy of brine from the Apex aStore.
Get a copy of The Hoax from the Apex aStore.
Get a copy of Gypsies Stole My Tequila from the Apex aStore.

Jason Sizemore is the publisher and editor-in-chief of all things Apex. During his free time he writes weird fiction that can be tracked down from his personal website at http://www.jbsizemore.com. If you’d like a chapbook of his fiction, Webs of Discord can be bought from the Apex Shop.