Interview:

Tell us about your experience on Full Moon Slaughter. What was it like coordinating all of those different authors? Was it your first anthology? What surprises did you encounter?

It was a fun, eye-opening experience for sure! My first time running an anthology and it was huge. When eye first opened the call, the response was overwhelming. The group quickly swelled to over a hundred authors, interested in submitting. Being an antho with a Werewolf theme, eye couldn’t have hoped for a better editorial debut, as the Werewolf is my favourite beast in the realms of Horror. The open call ran for many moons and in the end, eye had received 37 submissions from 35 authors, mainly short stories with a few poems thrown in for good measure. Every story was fangtastic and running the group was lots of fun, with everyone showing a level of enthusiasm which was inspiring. Full Moon Slaughter closed at roughly 120k words and a massive 394 pages of howlin’ good Horror. There were a few groovy surprises: some of the authors, who eye have known for some time on Facebook, but had never read any of their work before, sent me some jaw-dropping gems. The camaraderie between all who contributed has also been a huge joy. The biggest and best surprise for me was how well Full Moon Slaughter was received when unleashed. Though it has received very few reviews, it was the best-selling anthology we put out last year and warranted doing a sequel – maybe even a series. Full Moon Slaughter 2: Altered Beasts is now sitting at around 85k, so it shouldn’t be too long before this next beast is let loose among you all.

Tell us about your open anthologies? Where did you get the idea for them?

Full Moon Slaughter 2 has adopted the theme of Therianthropy. Although Werewolf stories are still accepted and encouraged, the theme has been broadened to include all kinds of werebeast and shifter. So far, eye have received some extremely strange offerings, among which you will find a wereoctopus and even a werehedgehog for instance haha. Eye wanted to keep it somewhat relative to the Werewolf theme of FMS and Therianthropy was the most logical choice.

Dance with the Demon is another one eye have run and is now full, waiting to go through the process. The title is pretty self-explanatory; the theme is quite simply, Demons. For this antho, eye have received some truly chilling tales of demonic Horror. There are some extremely dark minds floating around this little community of authors, let me tell you haha.

Do you prefer anthology work or writing novels?

This is a tricky question. Eye love writing, both short stories and novels/novellas, but my experience with Full Moon Slaughter has given me a new-found enjoyment. It was so much fun putting that together and watching it take off after release.  The constant flow of anthologies that spring up have gained me somewhat of an addiction throughout 2016, much to the detriment of my poor novel in progress. So far this year, however, eye have been struggling to write much of anything at all, and eye fear eye may have temporarily burnt myself out in the anthology arena. My goal at this stage is to complete as many of the anthology stories eye have committed to, while trying my best to resist the temptation to agree to any more…at least for now. Eye have a novel sorely in need of completing which has sat idle, half finished, throughout most of last year.

Tell us about some of your short stories? Is it easier to write a short story or anthology?

Eye have stories in nearly 30 anthos now, with several more awaiting publication. The past couple of years have been a wild ride and have challenged me greatly in many ways. Eye have stories which cover almost every subgenre of Horror scattered throughout the many anthos eye have appeared in, and have surprised myself quite a few times with what my sick mind has come up with haha. Right at this moment though, eye would have to say, putting together an anthology seems like a much less daunting task for me than writing a short story, the reasons being are stated above in the previous answer. Right now, the words just refuse to come, which can get supremely frustrating at times.

Why do you think it is important to write short stories for exposure only anthologies?

Ah, the eternal argument haha. Eye know there are extremely passionate arguments for and against ‘for the love’ anthos, and eye stand firmly on the former. For me personally, exposure only anthologies have been an excellent journey. While those who argue against say that we shouldn’t be giving our work away for free, my argument there is, when you submit a story of say, an average of 5k words to an exposure antho, that is exactly what you get – exposure. If it weren’t for the dozens of anthos my stories have appeared in, nobody would know who the hells eye am in the writing world. Eye attribute what little success eye am enjoying in the 2 short years eye have been in the business to getting my name out there in a lot of awesome anthologies. It has helped bring readers’ attention to my own books, so that is a big plus. Now, if eye were to have held out and sent these same stories to paying anthologies only, which can pay anywhere from 1cent a word to, eye dunno, is it 6cents? Eye honestly can’t see myself paying the bills with the kind of money that would bring me. Not to mention the rejection rate in the paying markets is huge for a noob like me. Chances are, most of my hard work would be still sitting, unpublished on my hard drive. So yeah, exposure only anthologies, when put out by a quality press, always have and always will have a rightful place in the writing world.

bio:

Toneye Eyenot writes tales of horror and dark fantasy which have appeared in numerous anthologies over the past two years. He is the author of a clown/werewolf horror novella titled BLOOD MOON BIG TOP, released with JEA Press, plus the ongoing SACRED BLADE OF PROFANITY series with two books, THE SCARLETT CURSE and JOSHUA’S FOLLY, published through J. Ellington Ashton Press and a third currently in the works. He is the editor of the FULL MOON SLAUGHTER werewolf anthology, also with JEA. Toneye lurks in the Blue Mountains in NSW Australia, with the myriad voices who tear the horrors from his mind and splatter them onto the page.

Links:

You can most easily connect with Toneye through his Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/Toneye-Eyenot-Dark-Author-Musician-1128293857187537/?ref=bookmarks

Or website –

http://toneyeeyenot.weebly.com/  

Amazon page –

https://www.amazon.com/Toneye-Eyenot/e/B00NVVMHVA/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1487953600&sr=8-2-ent

 

 

 

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