Stephanie Anne’s sixth book, The Tunnel, might just scare the bejeezus out of you. It officially launched on March 28 at a fun art market event at Studio Staja.
In case you missed it, I sat down with Anne afterward to talk about The Tunnel and other blood pumping stuff.
“Six teenagers entered the abandoned subway station. Only one came out.” –stephanieanneauthor.ca
“[The Tunnel] was actually based on a stress dream I had in 2020 because, if I’m going to have stress dreams, I might as well turn them into horror stories,” Anne says.
Anne says some of the inspiration also came from her tendency to write as little setting and character description as possible.
“I want the sense to be ‘this could happen to anyone anywhere. No one is safe from the horrors.’ But the more I wrote and the more I started exploring the lore, it started being about―not just teenagers―but specifically teenagers of my generation. And I ended up setting the story in 2009, which is when I was 18, and some of the anxieties that my friends and I were going through at the time.”
Stephanie Anne at her book launch event at Studio Staja on March 28. Photo by Kimberly Lemaire.
The Tunnel is Anne’s first novel, a cosmic horror. “That is a sub-genre of horror that can cross the line into sci-fi sometimes, which is, I think, one of the reasons why I really love it. The big name with that genre is H.P. Lovecraft,” Anne explains. “Some of the common elements are cults, and these big old gods that don’t care about us…. It’s this concept that the world is so much bigger and scarier than we could possibly understand. And there are things out there that don’t care about us, and if we try to learn about it, we will go insane.”
Horror itself is a fascinating genre, and those who like it, like it a lot.
Anne agrees. “For me, part of it is the controlled anxiety aspect,” she says. “I suffer from two different anxiety disorders. I’ve got my daily medication, my emergency medication. But reading or watching horror, I get that adrenaline rush that’s safe and protected. And I think because so much of my personal life is extreme―not necessarily because I choose for it to be that way―I don’t get as interested reading cozier stories. I need something that is at the same level as my life.”
As for the book launch for The Tunnel, Anne says it was an art market by design. “I don’t like the idea of a book launch just being me sitting in a corner with a pile of books,” she says. “I think it’s more fun to make it a community event… I meet some amazing people, and especially when I meet spooky people who do artwork that I love, I want to see them succeed just as much as I want myself to succeed, and even if you don’t read my kind of stuff, you can still participate in the party.”
Another way book lovers can participate in the party is through Anne’s fundraiser The Book Purge which supports the Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue. “[The Book Purge fundraiser] started out when I only had three books published, my three finished short story collections. I had only just started doing in person events, and I went, ‘You know they’re giving me a six-foot table. How do I fill my table with only three tiny books?’”
“This is a household where the cats outnumber the humans.” – Stephanie Anne
Anne says the decision to dedicate half of her table to the Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue came from her adopting all her cats from the rescue.
“My husband and I decided earlier on we weren’t going to have children of our own; we have so many nieces and nephews. And in a multi-cat household we have become very devoted cat parents. We love taking care of cats.”
“Now I am managing these two businesses where one is my business as author and self-publisher and small business, and then this massive fundraiser that is taking over my life in the best possible way.”
“At the end of the day, for me, it’s about giving all your money to the cats and give all your money to the local artists… but especially the cats, of course.”
Get your copy of The Tunnel and other work by Stephanie Anne at her website or at an art market near you!
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