Author Signing with Stephen Sayers

Time: 1pm-2pm

Author Bio:

I spent my first thirty-five years in New England before joining the University of Missouri as a research professor. When I'm not in my laboratory, I spend time devouring my favorite forms of genre fiction—suspense, thriller, and horror.

As a twelve-year-old boy sitting under a lime green beach umbrella on the sands of Cape Cod, I discovered a new world. It was the 70s—was the lime green umbrella a giveaway?—and Edgar Rice Burroughs took me to Venus on a regular basis. The sci-fi series hijacked my imagination and Frazetta’s scantily-clad, knife-wielding princess and mythical-beast cover art dazzled my senses. A year later, I wandered into Salem’s Lot and nothing was ever the same again. I discovered two lives: the one I lived and the one I fell into with each page turned.

While my published research articles and scientific book chapters reflect the logic and precision of left brain thinking, my right brain has roared back with a vengeance. Decades after going to Venus, I found myself once again on the sands of Cape Cod—sans lime green umbrella—with a story that would not leave my head. I tried to ignore it, but the characters called to me, begging to let them out. On a dare from my daughter, I began writing and spent the next twelve months glued to my computer, possessed to create the first in a series of supernatural thrillers. A Taker of Morrows was my first horror novel, but the characters called to me, begging for a sequel. And then The Soul Dweller appeared in 2018 and The Immortal Force came along in 2019. Between 2022 and 2024, I joined Reedy Press for a couple of travel-related books, 100 Things to Do in Columbia Missouri Before You Die and 100 Things to Do in Plymouth Massachusetts Before You Die. But the fiction writer returned in 2024 and 2025 with The Carousel Man and my newest novel, tentatively titled, Beneath Still Dark Water. Keep an eye out for it soon! 

Throughout my journey, I've accumulated five guitars, four herniated discs, three academic degrees, two dogs, and one wife, son, and daughter, but not necessarily in that order. I divide my time between Columbia, Missouri and Cape Cod writing and teaching.