K. Stephens, author of the Maine novel The Ghost Trap, which was adapted into an award-winning feature film in 2024, has released her new novel through Maine Authors Publishing.

Set against the backdrop of coastal Maine in the late 1920s, the historical fantasy blends lobstering culture, Prohibition-era rumrunning, selkies, and folkloric themes drawn from Irish and Scottish myth.

Titled By the Dark o’ the Moon, the novel builds on a thread introduced in The Ghost Trap, where superstitious lobstermen are wary of harming seals, believing that the ocean has a way of exacting justice.

The book’s blurb offers a deeper glimpse into the story: In 1927, with Prohibition luring Maine lobstermen to smuggle liquor under moonlight, a merciless rumrunner steals a selkie’s child one night from the storm-ravaged rocks. To reclaim her child’s sealskin and return to the sea, Aaelene must place her trust in the unlikeliest of allies: the rumrunner’s apprentice, a young man torn between loyalty and conscience.

Set in Midcoast Maine, the historical novel took 10 years to research and write. Over the course of five years, Stephens traveled to Ireland, Scotland, and England to collect origin stories of selkies, while also delving deeply into Maine’s rumrunning and bootlegging culture.

“I’m of Irish descent and folklore has always drawn me in since I was young,” said Stephens. “When you have magic and nature, foolish humans, lessons wrapped in morality, and vengeful otherworld beings seeking to redress harm, it’s the kind of escapist literature I’m most drawn to.”

Her book tour kicks off September 18 with a Sip & Sign collaboration with The Tiny Bookshop at Freya’s in Rockport from 6 to 8 p.m. and at a table at Maine Authors in the Park, September 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Clinton at the Old Mill Park.

For more information, visit www.kstephensauthor.com or www.maineauthorspublishing.com.

To request a review copy or schedule an interview, contact kaystephenscontent@gmail.com