Foreword

One month today my next novel will be published. It’s my third one and yet the fear and excitement is just as strong. The worry about reviews and sales is already there even though there is absolutely nothing I can do about either. The book is written and all I can do is let it go.

Coming Home to Glendale Hall is fiction, of course, but it is also personal to me. I can’t help but write about the big things in life and try to fathom my own thoughts and feelings about them – love, family, friendship, grief, death and what comes next, how we treat each other, forgiveness, faith etc.

This book is set at Christmas, which has always been my favourite season. As such, you will find some of the things I love about it tucked inside. It’s also about family. A member of my family sadly passed away as while I was writing it, so the book is dedicated to him, and it’s so sad to know that this Christmas will be spent without him. Some of that feeling is in the book. My characters went on some of that journey with me too.

But alongside that loss, there is also hope and joy. A healing of the past. The possibility of the future. The magic of Christmas. So I hope that readers will feel that magic. That this book puts a smile on their faces at the end. That it makes them think about the big things in life but also encourages them to enjoy the little things too.

I always think of the advice ‘write the book you want to read’ and that’s what I always try to do. Not everyone is going to want to read this book but hopefully it will connect with someone out there, and that’s why writing books is so special for me. I know how wonderful it is to read a book and find it speaking to me so if mine does that for someone then that’s all I can hope for.

Love,

Victoria

Xoxo