Talent is in no short supply in Amherst as the city welcomes another author to its ranks.
Sheldon Higdon, a native of Amherst turned Pittsburgh Yinzer, said being an author is just part of his life story.
“I really got my love of writing from my mother,” Higdon said. “She was a really big reader and writer and loved poetry.
“So, growing up, I would read a lot of the stuff she would bring home like Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe.”
Falling in love with horror movies and books, Higdon said he soon found himself crafting stories with the same ideas, delightfully haunting his dreams as he did so.
“I began with writing short stories and poetry, and it kind of progressed from there,” he said. “When I got to college at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I wrote my first novel as a graduation thesis, but that never got published.”
Still, Higdon said the ideas began to take over and he soon set to crafting his debut novel for the public, taking inspiration from his childhood favorites.
“When I write, the ideas tend to come to me from words or ideas and I let them grow from there,” he said. “One of my favorite elements to use is, the what-if scenario where I think of a scene like a boy sitting outside his house and then ask myself what if he’s locked out, or maybe he’s not a boy at all but a ghost, and the ideas begin flowing.”
Armed with the element of what-if as well as taking inspiration from his own life, Higdon said he began crafting a story involving twins and their journey through escaping witches and exploring fall.
“I have twin boys that really became an inspiration for me as I started writing, and the story started to progress into this middle school-grade novel,” he said.
Titled “The Eerie Brothers and the Witches of Autumn,” Higdon’s novel follows twin brothers Horace and Edgar Eerie as they begin to explore their hidden supernatural abilities.
Meanwhile in 1692 Salem during the midst of the witch trials, Hex is absorbing the abilities of other witches with the intent of entering the present and taking control over humans, the hidden ones and magic.
“With the help of their best friend, Lenore, Horace and Edgar must travel back to 1692 Salem and try and stop Hex, but dark family secrets are revealed and those secrets might destroy the brothers before they have the chance of saving their family, friends and their future,” Hidgon said.
Higdon’s novel will hit stores Sept. 22 and pre-order is available on Amazon.
Higdon said he plans to have book signings in Amherst and Pittsburgh.
