In 2018 I became a Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing. As part of my thesis I was required to provide a collection of short stories linked by place. I chose the New Forest, in particular the area in and around Lyndhurst. Pure laziness on my part: I live there, so not too much on-the-ground research required. That was the fun part, taking known places and imagining people and situations into them. The other part was academic research, which is definitely not my forte. I called the overall thesis ‘The New Forest: Setting, Sanctuary & the Supernatural’ and analysed various writers who used the New Forest, concentrating on those three categories. The collection of stories was entitled Haunts & Shades.
Once the dreaded Viva was passed and the thesis shelved, I looked at Haunts & Shades as a viable manuscript and wondered what to do with it. The dream would be to illustrate each story with an appropriate photograph and market the collection as a glossy publication for the tourist trade. Given the present state of traditional publishing, not a project that would appeal to an agent, let alone a publisher. Self-publishing would be too arduous. So the collection, neatly filed in an attractive folder, gathers dust on a shelf. But perhaps one day…