Steve Bryant grew up at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, in Cairo, Illinois, in the part of the state known as Little Egypt, where the towns bear such names as Cairo, Thebes, and Karnak. Tales of riverboat gamblers, family poker games, and the old television show "Maverick" instilled a lifelong love of playing cards.

Steve blames a Mysto Magic Set and a pair of books by magician Robert Parrish for an early fascination with magic at age 7. Additional influences along the way included a Nelson Enterprises catalog at age 12 that introduced him to the world of fake seances, books by Steranko and Harry Lorayne at age 16 that introduced him to card magic, and Magic Castle membership in Hollywood at age 22, which introduced him to the movers and shakers of 20th-century magic.

Publishing credits in magic include four books of magic tricks: Bryant on Cards (1977), Little Egypt Card Tricks (1991), The Little Egypt Book of Numbers (2004), and The Little Egypt Book of Ghosts (2008). In 1995, shortly after his alma mater, the University of Illinois, created the web browser, Steve launched a 40-page monthly web magazine for magicians called The Little Egypt Gazette. Although he retired the magazine in 1997, after 24 issues, he still maintains a monthly web column, Little Egypt Magic. Steve has contributed feature articles to such conjuring publications as MAGIC, the Joe Stevens catalogs, and Genii.

On his way to a B.S. in engineering physics, Steve minored in English lit at Illinois and studied creative writing under Dan Curley and Rocco Fumento. Month9Books published his first novel, Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show, in 2015. Month9Books published his second title, McGrave's Hotel, in October 2016.

Steve lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife, Beth, whom he introduced to the Magic Castle on their wedding night in 1968. The kids have flown the coop, sort of. Nathan is a computer scientist and dad in Florida, and Sarah is a geologist and mom now back in Indiana.

For nearly three decades, Steve performed at Smith and Groves, a hometown tavern owned by his lifelong pal, Duke "Kahuna" Washam, where he presented both card tricks and elaborate Halloween shows. He still enjoys performing the material perfected there for gatherings of nice people, and he still enjoys writing spooky novels for teenagers.