1 / 8

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Owner Michelle Souliere, left, chats with a frequent customer at the Green Hand Bookstore in Portland, Maine, on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

NEW YORK – With deep knowledge of Stephen King's books and curiosity about their inspirations, writer Sharon Kitchens began a journey around Maine. As she learned about the real-life settings and people behind such fiction as “IT” and “Salem's Lot,” she arranged them into an online map and story she called “Stephen King's Maine.”

“It was amateur hour, in a way,” she says. “But after around 27,000 people visited the site one of my friends said to me, ‘You should do something more with this.’”

Published in 2024, the resulting book-length edition of “Stephen K

See Full Page