The Fairies of Maine: A Dreamy Contemporary Fantasy

by Christopher B. Owen

When airline pilot Steve Porter brings his ailing wife, Stephanie, to convalesce at the site of her childhood upbringing—an immense, stately inn in Maine called the Brandywine—he expects a summer of relaxation and perhaps boredom. What he discovers after their arrival, in the week leading up to Midsummer’s Eve, is anything but boring, for the old inn is run and surrounded by a cast of eccentric and idiosyncratic characters, including Stephanie’s Aunt Dora, the proprietor. As strange things begin to happen at every turn, Steve begins to wonder if the rumors he’s heard whispered are true—is the inn somehow connected to the world of Faerie?

Augmenting this tale are the stories of Crystal, a young drifter who is dating Stephanie’s Cousin Spencer, a troubled young man just returned from war; and Tom, a retired engineer who has been coming to the inn for decades with his wife, Mary. The lives of these three individuals—young, middle-aged and old—become intertwined during their stay at the inn. Crystal dreams of a life she seemingly cannot have. Steve is falling into alcoholism as his wife suffers mental issues, while Tom is still reeling from the recent death of Mary, and he comes to the inn a broken man. But little do these three know that powerful, eldritch forces are at play in the nearby woods, and perhaps within the inn itself, that could change their lives forever.

542 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2025

About the author

Christopher Owen lives in Colorado with his wife and two cats. His work has appeared at Daily Science Fiction, Every Day Fiction, Mirror Dance, New Myths and other places. He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the Yale Summer Writers’ Conference.