Hello friend! I am following up Mike Trigg’s domestic technological thriller with a psychological thriller for you: S.E. Stenner’s latest, Sasha’s NOT HERE! Lets welcome the author and learn more about the book. You will also find a book excerpt after the interview. 🙂

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Get to know the author: S.E.Stenner

Welcome to Armed with A Book! Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!

I’m a thirty-something story fan, whether its books, films or a local play, I just love a good tale. I’ve been writing poems and short stories since I was seventeen, mainly just as a hobby, until I penned this book. I’m not quite sure what first inspired me to write my own stories, because as someone who struggles with mild dyslexia, editing anything I write can seem like a mammoth task in itself, even after the trial of scrawling out a whole book. But all that aside, the decision to take up the challenge has been extremely rewarding when I see the finished article before me. 

What inspired you to write this book?

The pandemic. Though that subject matter doesn’t feature in the story, it was definitely a factor, as a lot of the writing was completed during lockdown. It was partly the isolation and disconnection to the world around me at the time which inspired the setting and feel of the book. The cramped quarters, the sense of staring at the same four walls for days on end, it just made my imagination run into overdrive and helped me create this tale.

How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?

It took about a year in all. The story shot into my head one weekend, and I mulled it over for a few days and just let it simmer in my brain before I put pen to paper. I then spent around two months writing out a rough draft, and quite a lot of the dialogue was written during this time. Then when I had the bare bones I filled in all the extra details, which took another four months, the rest of the time was then comprised of just editing, re-writes and of course the dreaded spelling and grammar checks.

What makes your story unique?

The power dynamic between the two main characters and the way it shifts back and forth within the story. I’ve always been someone who likes stories which can shake up the norm. We’ve all read a book or seen a film where from the get go you pretty much know what’s going to happen, or you have an idea how the story might play out. What I love is when a story throws you a curveball from completely out of nowhere, yet when you reflect on it, you can’t quite believe how you didn’t see it coming as all the signs were there. And that’s what I’ve tried to do with Sasha’s Not Here, throw my readers not only one curveball throughout the book, but a whole host of them.

Who would enjoy reading your book? 

People who are looking for something a bit different, who enjoy blended genres. It’s a psychological thriller at its heart, but I’ve tried to add touches of horror and humour in there too.

What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?

Hairs springing up on the backs of their necks and goosebumps covering the surface of their arms, of course – but seriously, I’d just love them to have been entertained. I’ve had times when I’ve finished a book and thought “Wow that was a good story, I really enjoyed that”, and that’s all I want them to take away. Yes, I’ve added the odd thought-provoking thing in here and there, but at its core I just want the reader to have been entertained and enjoyed the ride. 

Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?

There’s a scene just past the halfway marker of the book. I wrote a back and forth between the two main characters, they’re goading each other, and after a damning beratement from one to the other I finished their sentence with: ‘Your monster will show itself soon enough, or maybe it already has!’ Which always had the sense that it took the air out of the room and rendered the other character speechless. And that quote’s always been a favourite of mine.

What is something you have learned on your debut author journey so far?

That writing is hard work, and as an indie author, every stage of the process is a slog and an immense uphill climb. Yet for some mind-boggling reason it’s totally worth it. Yes, perhaps your book won’t be noticed and yes, maybe people won’t like it even if they do read it. But ultimately the fact that you have this creation which came just from you in your hands, what I’ve learned is that, that’s such a great achievement in itself. 

If you could give a shout out to someone(s) who has helped in your writer journey, please feel free to mention them below!

My family of course, and my friends, though my biggest cheer leader has been my dear friend Sam. Whenever I’d ever expressed despair or contemplated throwing in the towel, he’d always urged me to plod along with it and not give up. He’d do this not just so he could get a signed copy once I was published, but because he truly believed in me. So thank you so much for your support, Sam!

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Book Excerpt from
Sasha’s NOT HERE

 As a jolt of panic suddenly coursed through him, Mitchell leapt up from the desk and sprinted out of the office. Thundering down the labyrinth of steps it took to get to the sub-basement, he rushed as fast as he could through the first locked door. His keys becoming a blur in his hands, as he fumbled with the lock, before he gained entry to the corridor which led to the small storeroom. As soon as he stepped into the corridor, the sound of a rhythmic banging could be heard echoing around the space. The sound was akin to an axe slicing into a tree trunk, but its tempo was marred by determination and not rhythm. The sound had all the indications of a thing which desperately wanted freedom from its prison, however had no intention of stopping until it claimed it. 

Mitchell’s hand slipped along the cold dark wall, his fingers prickling as they slid against the damp painted stone in search of the light. Finally, his palm drifted over the familiar panel on the wall, as he located the switch in the gloom, and he hastily flicked it on. The ancient strip light which ran down the length of the corridor flickered wearily to life. From lack of normal use, the bulb took a second or two to illuminate, but when it eventually did, it filled the space with a bright sickly glow, which would have looked more at home inside a 1950s UFO movie than in an old shop basement. Reacting to the light, the sound within the storeroom instantly ceased, and an unsettling silence descended like a heavy blanket over the corridor and the small room beyond. 

Mitchell squinted towards the barred window in the storeroom door, but he couldn’t see anything at this distance. The lighting within the room was far dimmer in contrast to the florescent glow in the corridor, which made the storeroom appear dark, gloomy, and full of shadows. Stepping hesitantly towards the door, Mitchell kept his gaze focused, as he searched for any kind of movement from within with unblinking eyes. Something’s different, something’s wrong, a small voice in the back of his brain told him, though he tried to ignore it. When he was a foot from the door he peered inside, but he still couldn’t see anything. There was no sound either. It was as if she had disappeared!

‘Sasha?’ he called through the window. He hadn’t meant for his voice to sound so shaky, but he was getting the oddest vibe from this situation. It felt as if the air had shifted, almost thickened, but he didn’t know why.

‘Sasha!’ he murmured again, in a breathy whisper. Something felt very wrong, he couldn’t deny the nagging panic rising up inside of his stomach any longer, the scene had the same uncomfortable calm to it which usually hung over graveyards. Empty, still, but full of death!

This time he saw a flicker of movement from within, as a hand then appeared from the gloom and in an almost snake-like fashion wrapped itself around one of the bars. A moment later a face came into view. It looked like Sasha, but something had changed. Mitchell searched the face before him, the features looked displaced somehow and her eyes, they appeared hollow and lifeless, as if all the humanity had simply been sucked out of them.

‘Sash,’ he uttered, it appeared as if she hadn’t heard him, as she stared off past his person into the distance. ‘Sash!’ he said more sharply, in a tone one might use to rouse someone from sleep.

This time she reacted, her eyes drew focus and fell right on him. The stare was icy and sharp, like a blade drawn through freshly fallen snow, and it cut into him, right to his core. The same sneering smile he’d seen from before on the monitor, accompanied it and began stretching across her face again, contorting her once beautiful features into something more sinister and terrifying.

‘I’m not Sasha,’ she said in a voice which was far deeper than Sasha’s ever was, and possessed a strangled quality to it. It was the kind of voice which makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. A voice you might hear whispered to you in the depths of the night from a dark corner of your room, or hear echoed from a disembodied voice in a nightmare. It was a voice like no other Mitchell had ever heard, but not only this, he didn’t understand what it had just said.

‘Sasha?’ he murmured again, wide-eyed. A deep sense of panic and confusion was flooding his system and Mitchell felt as if his stomach had sunk down into his ankles. What the hell was going on, his mind screamed.

The voice spoke again from her lips, and with a slight chuckle uttered three unusual words. ‘Sasha’s not here!’

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Interested?

Find this book on Amazon.

Thank you for hanging out with us today. Connect with S.E.Stenner on Twitter, her website and Amazon.

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