To celebrate the release of my new book, Coral Were His Bones, I’m going to be posting a month’s worth of things about selkies. Coral is a m/m paranormal erotica novel about Finn, a selkie who’s in love with his childhood sweetheart Devon, but bound in a magical contract to a cruel master. It’s a story of modern magic, snark, sex, and how to heal when everything hurts.

In Inuit mythology, Sedna is the goddess of the sea and sea creatures, including seals. There are other seal stories too, like Seal Boy, who turned into a seal pup when tossed into the sea.

Inuit folktales probably aren’t very familiar to most North American or European audiences. You can explore more from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, where there are interviews from CBC North with Nunavummiut elders discussing various traditional stories, or read some translations of folktales. (About half of them have been translated into English–scroll past the Inuktitut script and transcription to see if there’s an English translation.)

There are also some great books from Inhabit Media, a Canadian Inuit owned and operated publisher. Their goal is to preserve and promote the stories, knowledge and talent of Inuit and northern Canada. You can read a bit more about how they got started in this recent Publisher’s Weekly article. If you like creepy folktales, or know a nine or ten year old who loves Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark, definitely get a copy of The Shadows That Rush Past.