The 2021 New York Book Festival recently awarded retired Maine pastor Steve Burt an Honorable Mention for Young Adult Fiction for his “New England Seaside, Roadside, Graveside, Darkside,” a collection of 20 Twilight Zone-ish tales.

“Lighthouse Moths” is set at Pemaquid Point and weaves together two historical events (a shipwreck and a rogue-wave drowning) with a legend (the haunted lighthouse). “The Mason’s Leech” is a dog-returns-to-life creeper reminiscent of Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary.” “Captain James’s Bones” takes place in New Harbor and involves a legend, a graveyard, and a Halloween prank gone terribly wrong. “Caretaker” gives us a lawn maintenance man’s view of a hush-hush Augusta felons’ cemetery. And “Night Train to Plantation 13” carries us to a (thankfully) long-forgotten town in the vast northern Maine timber plantations.

Dr. Burt’s previous book, “The Bookseller’s Daughter,” won the New York Book Festival’s grand prize. Several southern Maine book clubs are reading it. The novel opens when a gargoyle disguised as a hunchbacked nun walks into Annie’s Book Stop in Wells seeking help locating a rare book.

“I had fun using Wells, York, and Kennebunk for the settings,” Rev. Burt says, “especially some of Wells’ 201 graveyards. Readers have told me they enjoyed reading about familiar landmarks like Maine Diner, Mike’s Seafood, and the little cemetery by Bear’s Den RV Park. Hardly anybody was familiar with Thed Heard’s tomb near the Wells I-95 interchange, where Thed was buried sitting up in his ancient wheelchair in the mounded crypt. Don’t think I want to be the one to open the door to inspect that grave site!”

“The Bookseller’s Daughter” also won gold at the 2019 Mom’s Choice Awards and was named Best Young Adult Fiction at the 2020 New England Book Festival.

An earlier trilogy of thrillers featuring psychic teen detectives (“FreeK Camp,” “FreeK Show,” and “FreeK Week”), set in the Bridgton/Sebago Lake region, won 20 awards.

Dr. Burt’s books are available at all Sherman’s Bookstores, including Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta, and online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.