Returning to Horden…

I went back to Horden while planning Emergence.

It’s John Gimmerick’s hometown. It’s also mine.

I wanted the places in the book to feel seen rather than remembered. My parents still live there, but there were corners I hadn’t visited in years. The beach. The dene. The cundy. I knew that returning to them physically would change how I wrote them.

Walking those spaces again altered the book in quiet ways. Distance fell away. Familiarity sharpened. I noticed what time had kept and what it had erased.

These photographs were taken during those visits. Not as research exactly, but as a way of paying attention.

Some stories require you to stand where they stand before they’ll speak.

And they spoke through Emergence.