Mini-Author Interviews: Anthony S. Buoni

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Mini-Author Interviews for UNDERWATER:

Anthony S. Buoni

What inspired your story?

I’ve lived in New Orleans off and on for over 21 years. It sings to me in a way no other place ever has. When Katrina flooded the Big Easy, my heart broke. Our country’s most unique city, rich with centuries of culture and history, submerged in a few short hours. People begging for rescue atop homes jutting from the murky water—an American Venice, tragic and romantic, flooded the television sets around the world, and I wondered if I’d get home again. Sometimes a place is more than a place, and I began wondering, should the swamp reclaim the area, who—and what—would remain? Would anyone ever come back? One of my best friends lives in Houma, just south of Nola, and she works for one of the local haunted house here, the House of Shock. Her normal character is a voodoo queen, and so I took some cues from that. This story is really a gift to her.

 

Did you have to do any research? If so, what kind? What did you learn?

Geographical. New Orleans is shaped like a bowl, so some parts of the city are on higher ground than others. Watching videos that recreated the flooding, the fallout, the looting. I examined airboats, how they operated and what not.

 

Can you tell me a little bit about your protagonist?

He’s an expert airboat pilot. Got a lover back on solid ground, and he hopes these runs will afford him a family. This is his first time raiding the city for supplies, and he’s nervous, but his youth also breeds cockiness.

 

Tell me about the setting you chose and how it influences your work.

New Orleans is a living, organic monster. She decides who she’ll embrace and who she’ll spit out. Music, drink, crime, culture, food, ghosts, voodoo, murder—it can be a little much for some. The city not only influences my work, but every aspect of my life. It made me the creature I am today and continues shaping my life.

 

What would you like readers to know about “Diluvium”?

It’s a wasteland story, a smaller piece to a larger world that’s come unhinged. Several other authors are currently chipping away at different regions (and different points in time) of this world—mine just happens to be soggy. Maybe we’ll see all these cataclysmic tales come together someday…

 

Living and creating in New Orleans, Louisiana, Anthony S. Buoni haunts swamps and bayous along the Gulf of Mexico, writing, editing, producing, and lecturing about his craft. A practicing pagan, he’s responsible for the BETWEEN THERE anthologies as well as his screenplay-novel, CONVERSION PARTY, available through PULPWOOD PRESS. Recently, he’s co-edited and co-produced two exciting anthologies with Alisha Costanzo with their independent imprint, TRANSMUNDANE PRESS: DISTORTED: vol 1 and UNDERWATER: vol 1.

In the past, he produced the underground zine MEOW and the illustrated horror rag OUTRÉ from MEOW PRESS, and his work has appeared in WATERFRONT LIVING, NORTH FLORIDA NOIR, and SMALL HAPPY. Currently writing a New Orleans monster novel as well as putting the final edits on novels featuring ghosts, zombies, and a café between life and death filled with secrets and philosophy. His next book, a collection of dark short stories, is due for publication in early 2016.

When not writing, Anthony is a Bourbon Street bartender and underground musician and DJ, drawing down the moon with new wave, trance, and melancholy tunes. Other interests include film, gardening, comic books, and playing video games with his son, Fallon.

 

Follow him on facebook or his website.

Excerpt from UNDERWATER: “Diluvium” by Anthony S. Bunoi

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“Looks like a winner,” Peter said, pointing towards one of the effigies, a woman with flowing hair that covered her bare breasts with her left arm. “She’s probably heavy, but I ain’t afraid to drag her up. Probably worth beaucoup credits. I think she’s close enough to the railing for me to reach.”

“I think it’s too much. How are we gonna get her on the boat?”

“Watch a master, kid.” Peter hopped over the rail in one effortless motion. Reaching towards one of the trees, he snatched a purple strand of beads from the limbs, snapping the branch in the process.

“Show me your tits.” He tossed the beads at Louis, missing his target by several feet. Peter almost lost his balance but steadied himself with a heel against the rail. “Take those home to the missus. She’ll blow ya for sure.”

“I want to get her real jewelry. Make it official.”

“You don’t want to do that. Next thing you know you’re not allowed to go out drinking, you have to toss your pornos out with the spoiled milk, and then your boys can’t even come over for chess. Down the road she’ll want kids, and they’ll come out with webbed fingers because of all the fucking radiation in the air.”

“You’re so damned negative all the time. We’ve been living together a while, and it’s good.”

“Shacking up is totally different than marriage.” Peter reached out, but the statue was just beyond his fingertips. He sighed. “You marry her, and her parents will start visiting all the time. They’ll be all up in your shit, telling you how to live your life.”

“Her parents died in the Fifth Wave,” Louis said. He held her as she wept that night.

“We’ve all lost people,” Peter said. “That’s why it’s better not to get attached.”

“I love her, man.”

Peter huffed pulled back and realigned his footing. “I don’t know who lied to you, but this world wasn’t built for love.”

Louis cringed at Peter’s stubbornness. Arguing with the man was useless—he was as stubborn as he was slow in an airboat. Bending over, he scooped up the Mardi Gras beads and shoved them into his pocket.

Peter reached out again. Adjusting his footing worked. He leaned over and rested his palm on the statue’s head. He looked back at Louis and smiled.

“Keep your Jenny. I know who will be in my thoughts later when I retire with that literature I found.” He wrapped his arm around the statue’s neck and tried to lift her up. “Damn, she’s a tough broad.”

Louis laughed. “Told you.”

“Look, not another word outta—”

The murky water underneath Peter erupted. A large alligator sprung up like gray-green lightning, grabbing his torso with a hiss and glistening white teeth. Peter’s ribs crunched inside the gator’s massive jaws. Screaming, Peter lost his footing on the rail. His body swung with the gator’s weight, but Peter, arms hooked around the indifferent cement stare, would not release the statue. The gator started rolling, bisecting Peter with more crunching and tearing before vanishing in the dark water with the lower half of the man’s body.

 

Check out his facebook, twitter, and blog.

Cover Reveal for UNDERWATER

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#releasedaychallenge, #sociallinks, alisha costanzo, amazon gift card, anthology, anthony s. buoni, author, bell, blood, blood phoenix, book, Broken World, cover reveal, Death, excerpt, faerie mound, faeries, fantasy, folklore, giveaway, heroes, horror, Hulk, humor, magick, mermaids, myth, New Orleans, paranormal, publishing, romance, sharks, spells, sprite, synopsis, The Rainbow Sprite, Underwater, urban fantasy, vampires, writing

✰✰COVER REVEAL✰✰

Underwater edited by Anthony S. Buoni & Alisha Costanzo @TransmundnePres @bookenthupromo

Genre: Fantasy Anthology

Release Date:February 29, 2016

Hosted by: Book Enthusiast Promotions (http://bookenthusiastpromotions.com )

#BuyNow

Amazon US:http://amzn.to/1JgjdYa

Amazon UK:http://amzn.to/1njorJ3

#Giveaway:

Enter here ➜ ➜  http://bit.ly/1T2eagc

Add the book to Goodreads ➜http://bit.ly/1QmcmxN

#Synopsis:

When was the last time you came face-to-face with a mermaid?

Ever explore a hidden underwater cave or been haunted by an unearthly creature? Did that passionate childhood fantasy turn into a real, sexy encounter? When was the last time you discovered a bell concealing the entrance to a faerie mound? Have you wondered what would happen if New Orleans was entombed in radioactive water?

UNDERWATER features sixteen exploratory tales that delve into decrepit landscapes and strange magic, inhuman heroes and crushing experimentation. Two-thirds of the world is submerged—experience what happens within, from the fantastical and erotic to the horrifying and triumphant, UNDERWATER showcases stories that will inundate readers with uncharted territories.

#MeettheEditors

Alisha Costanzo is from a Syracuse suburb. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she currently teaches English. She’s the author of BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH, BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED, and LOVING RED, and is co-editor of DISTORTED and UNDERWATER. IMPRINTED, her new novel, is undergoing serious edits for its 2016 release. In the meantime, she will continue to corrupt young minds, rant about the government, and daydream about her all around nasty creatures.

Anthony S. Buoni prowls the gas lamp lit streets of New Orleans, playing moonlight hide and seek with Ouija boards in the Crescent City’s foggy, above ground cemeteries. Anthony is the author of Conversation Party and Synchrony, co-editor to Distorted volume 1, and editor to both Between There anthologies. His stories and articles have been featured in Meow, Small Happy, North Florida Noir, and Waterfront Living. When not haunting swamps and boneyards, Anthony keeps it scary, writing dark fiction, editing, and watching horror movies, using his afterlife to DJ, write music, and conjure other worldly creatures with tarot cards, elixirs, and dreams.

#SocialLinks

Website:http://www.transmundanepress.com/

Facebook:www.facebook.com/TransmundanePress/

Twitter:twitter.com/TransmundnePres

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9831879.Transmundane_Press

Newsletter:http://eepurl.com/bLVkaH

#Excerpt

From “The Rainbow Sprite” by Alisha Costanzo:

My vision filled too often with bloody fucking rainbows, and my tongue craved the taste of hot, spring rains. I found myself wired and explosive in my daily duties, biting a claimed renegade but imagining the sprite instead. My queen punished me fittingly for it, caning the bottoms of my feet. I left with a hard-on.

She went easy on me, giving me a lesson in my more preferred manner, because I offered information that pleased her. Now, my orders sent me where I wanted to go: for a way to infiltrate the underwater faerie mound. Mine was through the rainbow sprite.

The woods changed with charms, glittering under the moon like beckons. Nevertheless, I found Nani’s watering hole, armed with a bell and her ring—both held the most curious magick.

Spring rain didn’t greet me as my toes slipped into the brisk water. Instead, a peaches and cream scent emitted from the waters before a pale, golden fluff bobbed to the surface above the slender face of a boy. His features matched Nani’s except that his eyes were a soft orange and freckles kissed the center of his face like a frangipani.

I leaned in as the boy hovered there and coaxed him closer. “Are you the little bugger that dropped a bell in there?”

His minute nod propelled him further forward, close enough for me to snatch him up. My grip found his throat, and I swung him onto land with a thunk of his shoulder blades against the grass. Teeth bared at him.

Sweat beaded along the kid’s forehead and wisps of fear wafted from him. Burning seeped into my chest at his touch, slow and eating at my skin like acid. “Will your blood poison me?”

The scent of his fear matured as he nodded again.

Liar.

I pulled the bell from my pocket and jingled it by his face. “What does this do to you on land?”

“Headache.”

“And if it touches you?”

The boy’s gaze hopped to the bell and back to me. “Make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I get angry.”

Was this pipsqueak quoting the Hulk at me?

I dropped my fangs, flaunted them in his face to the joy of his hyperventilating and pissing himself.

“Pika?” Long, blonde hair slicked back from Nani’s wide, rainbow eyes before they slanted and her mouth puckered. “Vampire.”

“Is this yours?” I pushed his head back to elongate the boy’s throat.

“Nan.” The boy’s voice so brittle it threatened to break.

“You let him free.”

“And why would I do such a thing?”

She tread closer, the water parting to her bare shoulder and dripping down her collarbones. It made me hungrier. “I will make a trade. Me for him.”

I wanted her blood more than the boy’s. “Out of the water.”

Nani climbed into the grass, circling around us and into the tree line.

“Nan.”

“It’s okay. He won’t hurt me.”

I will, but I won’t kill her. Not yet. “Aw. Isn’t this sweet.”

Terrified eyes blinked up at me.

“You have five seconds to disappear before this bell hits the pond.” I jingled the bell at him for emphasis.

“Go,” the sprite told her brother.

He shot out from under me, splashing as I counted, tossing the bell in after him. Rolled onto my back, I smiled up at Nani. “I do believe I scared the piss out of the little bugger.”

#ReleaseDayChallenge

For the next month-until release day-I pledge to post EVERYDAY with excerpts, author interviews, insights, and other fun stuff. I’m excited for you to learn more about these excellent authors. So stay tuned!