A practice-based research project. Four, linked, short novels for children in the 8-12 age range are presented with an accompanying rationale. The stories embody some important creative choices which are discussed in the rationale. In particular, one metaphor, the thought forest, is used for exploring questions about the differences between imagined and material reality in a suitable way for readers in a specific age range. In taking inspiration from goth culture. I chose to aim for stories with a ‘dark’ feel, but not to try and write children’s horror stories, preferring instead to reflect some qualities that I consider more ‘ghothish’ than gothic, such as emotional sensitivity, the celebration of creativity and a tendency towards the unconventional. I see my research as having an organic form, which I have described using a tree metaphor. The thought forest metaphor, used as a device within the stories, is also offered as a concept for other creative writers and researchers to use in their own future works, embodying the process by which writers may draw on those stories already written in order to create new stories for future audiences. My own four stories are about what happens when a group of 12-13 year-old characters accidentally find their way into the thought forest and there obtain an amulet that has the ability to bring thought forest things into the everyday world. Supernatural beings appear and strange things begin to happen, but never in quite the way that the characters expect, until they start to learn how the amulet might work and how they may be able to control it.