Welcome everyone, I’m The Li-Bury-An, and today we have a spotlight on Ushasi Sen Basu
I first met Ushasi Sen Basu when a very old and dear friend shared an advertisement for Ushasi’s novel, “A Killer Among Us.” I was immediately intrigued. A woman author from India penning an exciting thriller/mystery? I knew then and there that I had to ask her to represent Indian women in our anthology series, and thankfully she agreed. She sent me a wickedly delightful horror tale about a woman who likes to roam her apartment complex at night, trying her neighbors’ doors to make sure they’re locked. But she isn’t at all what she seems to be. Ushasi has a powerful voice and is the perfect example of what a woman can do when she sets her mind to it!
“The boy’s scream stopped, or rather sounded smothered, like someone had held him against them. A woman’s panic-stricken voice said, ‘what, Rohan? what happened, Rohan?’
From “Nightcrawler” by Ushasi Sen Basu
‘There was someone in this room, she was standing here!’ the child sobbed.
His mother’s voice softened, ‘Oh Rohan! It’s just a bad dream, shona.’
‘No, no I tell you! She was here! Strange hair… she was… I couldn’t see her face but I know she was here!'”
Today, Ushasi talks about how she came up with her story “Nightcrawler” for THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY : Women of Horror Anthology Volume 3. Out now from Kandisha Press!
“I live in an apartment complex, a gated community with about 200 families. In non-pandemic times, it hummed like a hive with people walking in and out of each other’s homes like an extended family. We often left our doors unlocked in the evenings for this purpose, rather than incessantly answer the knocks of neighbouring children looking to play or their parents dropping in for a chat.
But it struck me, what if there were someone, in these 200 apartments, who was not quite so benign? What if she didn’t walk in and out of homes at the expected sociable hour and instead tried her luck late at night? And the rest of the story snowballed from there.
I bet you’d keep your front door locked if you had her in your neighbourhood.”
USHASI SEN BASU holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. She has been a professional writer and editor for a decade and a half. Ushasi’s debut novel, Kathputli, a contemporary literary fiction novel, was published in 2017. Her second novel, A Killer Among Us, was published by Readomania in 2020. She is also a contributing author to two other anthologies, the Readomania Book of Horror and The Readomania Book of Crime. She lives in Bangalore, India with her husband and daughter. To know more about her, visit her Instagram account @ushasiwriter or her author page on Facebook (@ushasikathputli).
KANDISHA PRESS 
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