The Waterloo Series

The idea for a series of micro or short stories titled The Waterloo Series was seeded in 2019.  Neither the place of the famous 1815 battle nor the countless railway stations so-named around the globe, this one refers to one rural Waterloo Station i(Waterloo) n the New England region of New South Wales.

If not for my association with the High Country Writers team and subsequently with the Andersons from Waterloo Station, the concept for the Waterloo Series might never have come to light.  This Series draws on morsels of historical legacies that have captivated me enough to imagine how the morsels might interplay with the world's people inhabit today. 

The first piece, titled Jeanette: The Belle of the Royal Easter was written early in 2020.  Set in the 1930s, the true story connected my forebears with the then owners of Waterloo Station.  It was just one simple transaction that changed one girl’s life and for a time, another’s.  If not for a family photograph resurfacing at the time my association with Waterloo began, and a chance comment, the history behind the photo would surely have been forgotten.  To access this short piece (1,650 words), subscribe for free access to it, or wait for the whole Series to be released.

The second story, intended to be a short, has morphed into a novella, and that was never anticipated.  Eight more of the original fifteen intended stories are back, front-and-centre on the drafting board, and they will be a mix of short and micro stories.  Now there is a deadline, and it is looming, so whatever else intervenes, it will the one to be sidelined.

How else could we know the world as we do today without our natural capacity to create and convey stories, fictional and non?  If we are not in constant states of learning and developing, what is our point?  What I write in two or twenty years from now will not – should not – resemble what I write today.  I hope to speak to you in ways that inspire you to join me.