Come have a Prohibition cocktail with author K. Stephens

The Bee's Knees crafted by 8Bells, an Irish bar in Camden, Maine. Photo by K. Stephens

Years ago, Lori from The Next Best Book Blog was kind enough to feature The Ghost Trap as a recommendation to her readers, along with an online author chat with me. She has just given me the opportunity to be part of her author series "Books and Booze.https://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com

The Bee’s Knees
This cocktail was invented in the 1920s and its name is slang for “excellent” or “the best.”

• Gin .75oz
• Lemon Juice .75oz
• Honey Syrup
• Lemon Twist or Lemon Wedge garnish

 
So, I’m sitting in an Irish bar called 8Bells, newly opened in Camden, Maine when I see The Bee’s Knees on the menu. What are the odds? My just released Prohibition-era novel set in Maine features the making of the cocktail, The Bee’s Knees in one of the chapters. Read a snippet here. (enter the password: selkies)
 
Prohibition in Maine isn’t the same as it was for every other state in the nation. For one thing, Maine enacted Prohibition in 1851, almost 70 years before the rest of the states followed in 1920.
 
Let me back up a bit. I live in Maine (near Camden) and my debut novel about lobstermen called The Ghost Trap, was turned into an award-winning feature film in 2024. I was honored to also write the screenplay and serve an executive producer on the project when we shot it in Midcoast Maine.
 
OK threading it all together, my next novel By the Dark o’ the Moon took 10 years to finish and also features lobstermen as rumrunners. You see, the other unique angle to Maine and Prohibition is that many lobstermen and fishermen were the first rumrunners in America. Because they were on the coast, they could zip out to Rum Row (three miles out to sea to the international boundary of U.S. territorial waters) grab the forbidden liquor off steamers, ships, and schooners, and zip back in on their modified boats with V-12 engines to the rocky coast way faster than the Coast Guard patrol boats could catch them. They most always did this during the dead of night or “by the dark o’ the moon.”
 
In my story, Elray Cross, a one-armed jerk of a lobsterman-turned-rumrunner, stands out, not only for his superior distillation of a white whiskey called The White Wraith, but also, for his ruthlessness. Years ago, he captured a selkie’s baby off the storm-ravaged rocks and claimed her for his own. Her stolen sealskin protects him from the wrath of the selkie colony, lurking nearby in the Atlantic waters.
 
Let’s enjoy a sip of The Bee’s Knees. I ordered it off the menu, and took a sip. It is September now in Camden, and the trees are still vibrantly green, with good weather and 75 degree days still holding on. The wistful feeling is that this is impermanent, and hard frost will start hitting a month from now. But for now, as I enjoy the sweet lemony honey of the cocktail, it feels like endless summer in a glass.
 
I am planning a four month book tour of Sip & Signs in New England, where I’ll be talking about the novel, its relation to Maine’s famous Prohibition history, about hidden speakeasies I’ve photographed in the Midcoast as a journalist (yes, real attics and basements that once hosted wild secret parties in the '20s before they got renovated into apartments and stores.) With a book like this, it only makes sense to have a sip of something alcoholic and delicious while having a literary chat. My motto, “"Let's not get healthy, let's just get another round."

Cheers and Sláinte to my fellow TNBBC readers and thank you Lori for having me back again!