An author from Phoenix who spent brutal summers with a horror book in hand says a specific writer and Arizona's climate helped shape his path to becoming a published horror writer — and his literary hero recently returned the favor.
Nat Cassidy grew up in north Phoenix, where the summer's scorching temperatures kept him indoors for much of his childhood
"It wasn't the place where you can just go outside and play all the time. I lived at 32nd Street and Bell (Road)," Cassidy said.
He added that he lived within walking distance of a used bookstore and what was then a Maricopa County Library.
With his single mother sometimes away for work, Cassidy filled his time indoors with books — specifically, horror novels.
"I would be inside, reading. Stephen King, and the books Stephen King recommended, and Stephen King's contemporary, because it was literally too hot to play," Cassidy said.
After graduating from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Cassidy felt drawn to the Northeast — the setting of so many of the Stephen King novels he grew up reading — and moved to New York. More than 50 of Stephen King's publications are set in Maine.
Still, he says his years in the desert left a lasting impression.
"I miss it in a profoundly visceral way," Cassidy said from his New York apartment.
Since 2017, Cassidy has written four novels and has published several short story collections. His latest, "I Know a Place," will be released in May of this year. All of his work falls within the horror genre.
For his newest short story collection, Cassidy received a contribution from the author who first inspired him: Stephen King wrote the foreword.
"To have him write so many pages and so many words, analyzing and supporting this work, it was a dream come true," Cassidy said.
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