nature

The Folklore of Black Hare Valley

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

I’ve created a universe rich in folklore!

Image by Artur Pawlak from Pixabay

When I first had the idea for Black Hare Valley (take a look at last week’s post to get the gist of the inspiration behind it…) I had no idea it would grow into a series, or a universe. I also had no idea how much folklore would come to shape it. My initial idea was an ‘IT’ style horror story about missing kids, ancient evil and a pretty little town that looks perfect but is anything but.

As I wrote the first book, and soon realised I had enough storylines for a second, and so on… I began to realise I was writing folk horror, a genre I’ve been obsessed with for a while. For anyone not sure about the term ‘folk horror’ it applies to a genre of literature film and TV with an emphasis on folklore and the culture of the outsider.

Folk horror is sub-genre of horror that explores mythology, urban legends, paranormal and supernatural beings usually in an urban or rural setting. It draws aspects from cultural traditions, rural life, small town life, connections to ancient evil and explorations of morality. I would argue that folk horror is a really important sub-genre as it explores tales of old and reframes them for modern readers and viewers, often tackling the big questions such as life, death, after-life, mortality, what it is to be human, community and sacrifice etc. It is also a more subtle and unsettling style of horror where threats are less obvious than in ghost or vampire stories, for example.

Common elements include: Paranoia, morality, superstition, tradition, religion dark aspects of nature, isolation. a foreboding atmosphere, outsiders, generational secrets, trauma, curses, nature, isolated communities, rural towns, old-fashioned ways, and dark forces.

The Black Hare Valley series ticks every box there is for folk horror!

As I wrote the books I found myself becoming increasingly immersed in British folklore and several aspects of it really came to dominate the series. I’m going to talk about them now.

May Day: May Day in Black Hare Valley is extremely important, some might say it is sacred. Schools and businesses close for the day. The May Queen, (usually a young girl decked out in white) sits upon a carriage pulled by a mule along the streets of the town. The townsfolk gather at the sides of the road to watch and wave and cheer. Just before she comes along, the hares are released. This is an old time tradition, with the hares racing away symbolising fertility and new life. Everyone follows the May Queen to the park where she is crowned upon her thrones with a garland of wildflowers. A community celebration follows, with children dancing around the Maypole, and plenty of food and drink to enjoy. Traditionally, people used to leave ‘May baskets’ on neighbours doorsteps, sometimes containing food or small gifts, often just posies of wildflowers. In Black Hare Valley May Day represents the shift into Spring and celebrates new life, resurrection and fertility.

Hares: Hares are integral to May Day in Black Hare Valley but they are also a hugely significant symbol of the town and what it represents. Through the ages and across cultures, hares have been associated with witchcraft and magic, as well as with madness, the moon, and bad luck. Equally, they have been associated with good luck, new life and fertility. It was once believed that witches could shape shift into hares to escape persecution. There are old folks tales about what it means to see a hare running through town (a house will catch fire) and people used to believe it was good luck to see hares jumping from the flames of a cornfield.

Fairy rings: Fairy rings are perfect circles of mushrooms/fungi that appear naturally by themselves. There are perfectly good scientific and biological reasons this happens, but go back far enough in time and people used to believe the rings were portals to the fairy realm. It was seen as a great crime to break or damage a fairy ring and doing so would invoke the wrath of the fae folk. They may put a curse on you or they may steal you into their own world. I’ve used fairy rings in the series, and they mostly pop up in book two: 1966.

The Green Man: The Green Man is a universal symbol of nature, fertility, and new life. There are countless folk tales and versions of him across the world and within different cultures. His gnarled old face is often carved into trees or posts, and can often be seen on churches and other old buildings. He symbolises nature, rebirth and the human connection to the natural world. He also symbolises the past…

I hope you’ve enjoyed a little journey through some of the folklore that shaped my next book!

Here is the preorder link if you are tempted to give Book One: 1996 a try!

https://books2read.com/u/4EO5DE

My 2025 Goals Vs The Reality!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments

What I set out to achieve this year and how well I did!

Hello everyone! It’s that time of year once again where I dig out the goals I set myself for 2025 and see how well I did. I always find this exciting because once I set those goals at the start of the year I do tend to instantly forget them! It’s fun to see where my head was at a year ago and what was important to me going into that fresh new year.

Let’s dive in, see what I set myself up for and see whether I managed it or not!

Goal No 1: Publish The Mess Of Us February 2025 

Reality= Achieved: Yeah, this wasn’t going to get missed was it? The preorder was all ready to go! An easy start!

    Goal No 2: Go through my editors suggestions for The Dark Finds You and prepare it for release summer 2025 –

    Reality= Achieved, sort of?: Okay, The Dark Finds You is released on 9th January 2026 so I didn’t meet the goal of releasing it in the summer of 2025. I did, however, go through the final suggested edits! Half and half?

    Goal No. 3: Publish The World You Gave Us through Chasing Driftwood Books 

    Reality = Achieved!: This anthology written by the children I work with was indeed released June 2025. I suspect that’s why The Dark Finds You got moved back several months! It was a hard slog editing, formatting and getting it ready for release but the kids were all so proud of it and we launched straight into another one!

    Goal No 4: Send Black Hare Valley Book 1 to beta readers and my editor 

    Reality= Achieved sort of?: Another half and half. I did send it to Beta readers if you count serialising for feedback here and on Substack? I certainly got feedback! It didn’t make it to my editor though so I didn’t meet that part of the goal. I’m now on the final edits before I send it, so I was close!

    Goal No 5: Get both Black Hare Valley books 2 and 3 to 5th draft status 

    Reality= Failed!: They were only in first draft a year ago and they are now in third, so I didn’t get close to 5th draft. I set myself a tough challenge with that one!

    Goal No 6: Finish the companion book I am working on 

    Reality= Achieved!: I just finished the third draft of this Black Hare Valley book the other day. It’s now book 4, rather than a companion book though…

    Goal No 7: Continue to build and progress Chasing Driftwood Books 

    Reality= Failed!: Honestly, this almost fell apart this year. I just don’t have the time I ideally would like to commit to it. We are still going however and we just posted a 2025 round-up on the website of everything we’ve been up to and what are plans are for 2026!

    Goal No 8: Continue to keep as physically and mentally well as possible! 

    Reality = Achieved!: I am still sticking with Pilates and Calisthenics in order to keep as fit and flexible as I can as I drift closer to my 50s! Still walking lots and pottering in the garden too. Mental health wise, despite the challenges of the perimenopause, I am doing well!

    Goal No 9: Restart my vegetable plot 

    Reality= Achieved!: This is one of the things I am happiest about. I actually did really well in the garden this year, especially with tomatoes which I have always struggled with! Considering I was giving myself a gentle way back in, it all sort of exploded. I’d say I’m even more into it now, even more obsessed with turning my space into a sustainable food garden! For the first time ever I got a piece of paper and planned my new patch. I researched companion plants and plants that hate each other. I took multiple cuttings of herbs and fruit bushes I already have. I put up a new fence and created an archway entrance which beans will grow up. I have also been making trellises out of old sticks and these form a sort of grid/fence structure from the old tires I have. It all looks quite quirky and I love it! I also planted winter seeds and currently have broad beans, peas and winter lettuces on the go! I created a keyhole bed which is a key-shaped raised bed (made mine out of old logs) with a chicken wire compost circle in the middle. The idea is the compost leaches out to the soil. I’ve got another compost in the corner and plan on adding a second greenhouse. I am genuinely so excited and I’m out there every day planning and sorting and preparing! I guess the lesson I have finally learned is that gardening starts in the winter!

    Goal No 10: Reconnect with nature whenever and wherever I can

    Reality= Achieved: I have continued to try to name nature whenever I can. If I don’t know the name of something locally I take a picture and look it up later. This year I have also become very interested in the benefits of herbs and plan to grow a lot more next year. I’ve been drying my own and plan to start making teas too.

    In conclusion, I failed two, achieved six and partly-achieved two which I think is pretty good considering it’s been a busy year!

    Look out for my first post of 2026 where I will set out my goals for the next year! Thank you, as always, for being part of my writing and publishing journey and for joining me here in my little corner of the internet.

    Have a wonderful festive period and a very happy New Year!

      The View From Here Is A Good One

      ~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

      Freewriting from prompt…

      oak that watches over our house – image is mine

      I only need to look up to see greenery, trees, shielding me. The view from here is my favourite oak, taller than the house and so grand it hurts. How many hundreds of years has it stood on this lane watching over this place? My place. Our place. The view from here is the sycamore and the poplar. I got worried when its leaves didn’t come back as fast as the others, but maybe poplars just take their time. The view from here is the bridge over the river, where the willows weep beside ash and elm and alder. The view from here reminds me how lucky I am, though none of this is truly mine, it is. It is. 

      I only need to wander to the back windows to look out on something close to glory. Something close to perfect. Something that feeds my soul in a way that nothing else can. The view from here is a garden full of trees and shrubs and flowers, where chickens peck and the dogs bury bones, and the old tire swings from the fir tree, still going strong after fifteen years. Where the horses in the field snort and graze, where the deer trot furtively from the woods as the sunlight fades. The view from here is sunsets and early morning mist. The view from here is lapwings and buzzards and red kites and badgers and foxes. The view from here is safe, for now.

      The view from here makes me dizzy, when the memories rush in, one here, one there, a little boy with socks on his hands pulling a funny face, being rolled down the hill in a tire, being buried in a hole, little baby jabbing at a mud hole with a stick, little girl firing arrows to be like Katniss, little girl and her little chicks cupped in her little hands, and bbqs and trampolining and drinking cider while the sun goes down on us all, and firepits and marshmallows and games of football and tennis and tag and when it was lockdown we made the garden our outdoor gym, and jumped from log to log, twirled and spun and laughed at our own rules, and threw eggs out of the window in a parachute that didn’t work and looked out of the windows at the still silent world.

      And that was then. And this is now. And we are still here.

      The view from here grounds me. Reminds me: who I am, who we are, what we did, who we loved, how we lived. The view from here changes with the seasons, and in the autumn the garden is covered in leaves, and in the winter the ground is crunchy with frost, and in the spring the green is creeping back to shield us, and in the summer the grass dries out and the sun never seems to go to bed…

      The view from here is good.

      The view from here is us.

      The Trees Want To Come In…

      ~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

      Flash fiction

      Originally published on Medium.

      photo is mine

      They didn’t used to be so close.

      The trees.

      Come with me, let me show you. Room to room. Window to window. Do you see? So close now, so close.

      photo is mine

      A long time ago I used to call it a wall of green. Back in the days when people were still a thing, and I’d do the gardening on sunny Sunday afternoons. Every now and then I’d stop and rest, rub the small of my back and grin at the trees.

      ‘Look at that wall of green,’ I’d say.

      Because it was. Firs taller than the house, giant oaks, poplars, willows, sycamores and ash. So many trees. In the winter most of them shed their leaves and looked sorry for themselves. They looked barren and stark, nothing to offer but the impressive silhouettes they made against a silver moon.

      But in the summer it was something… A wall of green I called it. From the huge trees lining the bridge across the road, to the endless rows of oaks, beech and hazel lined up along the lane, to the trees that edged our garden. Even the trees we added, the pear, and the apples, the plum, the cherry, the buddleia and the lilac, they grew so fast and were soon so tall they joined that great green wall.

      And beyond that, sat us, surveying our huge green lawn, smiling smugly at the borders left to go wild, at the constant buzzing in the borage and the buddleia. Oh, we were smug, weren’t we? Thought we were doing our bit.

      And oh, I did love those trees, that wall of green. We felt sheltered behind it, like nothing could ever touch us, like nothing could get through. And though a busy road ran past us, it didn’t feel like that in the garden, behind that ever growing wall of green.

      We could hide there. Live there. Lie back on the grass and stare at the clouds. Listen to the robins and the blackbirds and the tits. Watch the crows see off the buzzards, and gasp in delight whenever a red kite hovered over us.

      But things are different now. That life, that world, over. Only ourselves to blame, and all that. Of course. We always knew it was coming, always knew we were doomed. Why? Well, because people are mostly just awful that’s why.

      Anyway. It doesn’t matter.

      Things are different now, that’s all there is to say. That’s all I need to worry about. And the trees are closer. I know that. I feel it in my bones, in my blood. I suppose I could go out there with a tape measure, make an experiment out of it, prove myself wrong or right, but really, what would be the point?

      I know.

      photo is mine

      The trees are closer now. They’ve crept in. Bit by bit. They’ve grown, multiplied, reached higher, spread wider. The green is startling, I can tell you that. It hurts my eyes. It makes my vision blur if I stare too hard. I start to get lost in all that green. I think about opening the door and letting it in. Or wandering out to join them. I think I can see faces in the trees — maybe people who felt that same longing, people who opened their doors.

      They didn’t use to be this close, filling every single window. I can’t escape them now. Every window is covered. They stand like sentries, turning my home into a prison. And I am not free. I cannot simply leave.

      Every window, I tell you, every single window. The green fills the space and there is no room for anything else. The green taps its fingers against the windows, asking to come in. The green scratches and scrapes, prods and pokes. The green is only pretending to be shy.

      The green is terrible and beautiful and it is only what we deserve, after all, we slaughtered them, hacked off their limbs, uprooted them, burnt them. The green just wants to say hello. And oh, I am tempted to open the doors, open the windows. Let it touch me. Wander barefoot and mad into it’s inevitable embrace.

      photo is mine

      I tell myself to hold on. To wait. To try to live. I might be the only one left…

      I tell myself to be brave, to try to survive.

      I tell myself the green is patient and wise, but maybe it doesn’t mean to hurt me.

      But I also tell myself that perhaps the green is the better option, the kinder end, because something darker and uglier and thicker and gnarlier roars and rumbles to life under the very house I stand in.

      The roots are awake.

      The roots are closer now.

      The roots want to come in.

      Thanks for reading! This was written in response to the prompt ‘from a window’ on The Wild Writers Club. Initially I wanted to take a photo from every window in my house showing the close trees, bushes and greenery and writing a non-fic piece about how much I love it. However, I started to get an idea for a creepy story instead so that’s what I went with…