I’m so excited to announce that my debut novel THE SECOND LOVE OF MY LIFE will be published by Headline in April 2016! It’s great to finally be able to share the news with you guys, I’ve been sitting on it for a while now as we came up with the perfect title for the novel and I’ve already completed a round of edits with my amazing editor at Headline Emily (who you can follow on Twitter here).
The news was announced yesterday via The Bookseller and I’ve pasted the press release below:
Headline has acquired an “utterly captivating debut novel” by an “exciting new talent” who works at Waterstones.
Commissioning editor Emily Griffin bought British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to The Second Love of My Life by Victoria Walters from Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson.
The Second Love of my Life tells the story of Rose – a young artist living in the small Cornish village of Talting – whose childhood sweetheart and husband is killed in a road accident, leaving her widowed at the age of 25.
Two years on, as Rose starts putting her life back together piece by piece, and her “challenging journey towards love and happiness is a heart-rending and ultimately life-affirming tale of survival”.
Griffin said: “What makes this novel special is the way that Victoria utterly immerses the reader in its world, portraying Rose’s story with insight, sensitivity and a seemingly effortless balance between light and shade. It moves me to tears every time and I can’t wait to put our publishing plans into action and introduce countless readers to this enthralling novel.”
Walters is a bookseller at Waterstones, and last year won Simon & Schuster’s New Adult short story competition. Her winning story, Dancing in the Fire, was released as an e-book in February.
Headline will publish The Second Love of my Life in e-book and paperback in April 2016, and will give a “tantalising taste of the world of the novel” in a digital short story to be published two months before.
A huge thank you needs to go out to my agent Hannah Ferguson (follow her on Twitter here) for making my dream of having a book on the shelves come true! I’m so thrilled that you guys will be able to read this novel and I can’t wait to hear what you all think in 2016!
(And you can already pre-order the eBook version of THE SECOND LOVE OF MY LIFE here!)
And finally we need a gif to describe how I’m feeling right now:
Victoria
xoxo
Victoria Walters 
Massive, massive congratulations! I think I’d die of excitement by April 2016! Seriously, well done you – and thank you for giving us all aspiring writers some hope! Look forward to reading and hopefully reviewing your book!
Thank you so much! Yes – keep on writing, if I can do it so can you!
Well done you. I remember visiting your Blog what is actually “years ago” now and you talking about looking for and then acquiring an agent, so to see how well things have gone for you is very nice to read about. Since then I got picked up by a publisher through my Blog, and I remember the excitement I felt then, so your joy is well-understood here. 🙂
Thank you Peter!
Woohoo! Happy dancing in my kitchen for you.
Hurrah, I love a happy dance! Thank you 🙂
Such exciting news, well done!!!
Thanks Becky!!
So exciting, Vix! Geesh, I take a little break from the blogging world and look at all this great news to come back to. Congrats! Will it release in the US?
Haha thank you!! I’d love it to be published in the US but will have to see if a US publisher wants to buy it, fingers crossed 🙂