HALLOWELL — As gray clouds cast a shadow over Hubbard Free Library, a group sat under its vaulted ceiling and pondered the sanity of a nurse who murdered 30 children.

The nurse in “Misery” is fictional, but the mind that created her is not. The small reading group spent hours Saturday analyzing the darkest works of Maine author Stephen King, bringing tales of murder, evil and the human condition to life.

Horror lovers from across New England flocked to Hallowell for the city’s first-ever Stephen King Day. From 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, attendees participated in book discussions, horror painting sessions, cemetery tours and a costumed “Carrie” prom to round out the night.

Michelle McShane traveled from Kensington, New Hampshire, to attend the event. She said she discovered King’s writing when she was 9 — against her mother’s wishes — and fell in love with the way he delves into the psyche of his characters.

‘”He really tries to make it like, ‘Here’s a real person, and what if this happened?'” she said. “Even in ‘Misery,’ there’s nothing supernatural in the book, and it’s terrifying, what happens in there. I just think he writes people so realistically — like ‘The Shining’ is just incredible, because he gets so much into someone’s mind.”

Her husband, Graham McShane, does not read King himself. “I support my wife’s Stephen King addiction,” he said.

Event organizers bustled around the library and American Legion Hall Post 6 clad in dark green Stephen King Day shirts throughout the day. Maureen Kendzierski, a member of the library’s board of trustees, said the event was the result of a year of planning and community feedback.

“One of the things that people wanted from the library was for the library to work more out in the community,” Kendzierski said. “I thought that a really great way to do that would be to have a literary event around an author, and obviously a real easy choice was Stephen King.”

King nearly bought a house in Hallowell, Kendzierski said, and has visited the town many times. The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation has supported several businesses in Hallowell and donated around $70,000 to the library over the last seven years, including for a project to replace all lighting with energy efficient LEDs.

While King himself did not attend the event, a close friend of his did. Artist Glenn Chadbourne of Newcastle has illustrated book covers for King for nearly two decades, including two volumes of the “The Secretary of Dreams,” and the anniversary editions of “Carrie” and “Cujo.”

He also designs his holiday cards.

Chadbourne said he met King through a mutual friend in 2006. He wrote King a letter asking if he could design a graphic for him, and King said to go for it.

“That’s how it all began, and then after I did one thing, it snowballed into another,” Chadbourne said. “It’s as if you were a musician and you got asked to jam with the Stones. He’s a good guy, and I’ve been very lucky — he’s been good to me.”

Chadbourne gave a talk at the American Legion Post 6 about his design work for King and added a signed print to the raffle of books and King-related items. At the same time, on Main Street, Michel Paul Art Studio invited people to paint their own versions of Stephen King book covers.

Kendzierski said the various events of the day were made possible through collaboration from local artists, businesses and community members.

“It’s a really good way to draw the town in together,” Kendzierski  said. “We wanted to make sure that it was an event where it wasn’t just the library, but the library out in the community encouraging the community to work together around a common goal. So that’s why Stephen King Day.”

Stephen King is most commonly associated with words like horror, gore, creepy and twisted. He’s also kind, Chadbourne said.

“I love Steve, he’s phenomenal,” Chadbourne said. “He’s a two-joint thing: He’s a brilliant guy, but he’s also a nice guy, which is more important in this day and age.”