A LITERARY dream has come true for Barnsley writer Victoria Hennison.
After a soul-searching collaboration last year, she grew in confidence and has now self-published a romance novel.
Working with fellow writer Cathy Rentzenbrink, Victoria was co-author of Hometown Tales Yorkshire, a childhood journey following her battles with depression and self-harm.
“It was my first step to following my dream of becoming a published writer,” said Victoria, who is 36 and lives in Hemingfield with her husband and family.
Finding confidence and wanting to write stories ‘with characters people will fall in love with’, she has gone on to self-publish Gray Untold.
“I’m just a local girl chasing her dream,” says Victoria, who has also had articles published in online magazine, Counsellors Cafe.
Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Hometown Tales Yorkshire pairs new voices with fiction and narrative non-fiction to celebrate regional diversity and explore the meaning of home.
In Gray Untold, two worlds collide, friendship is tested, blood is spilled and hearts are broken as a couple battle against the odds.
Victoria is now working on a sequel to Gray Untold, developing the characters’ story further.
“I’ve already had people who have read the book asking if there is more to come and I don’t feel it has been fully explored yet,” she said.
“I have always loved writing, but never felt it an achievable dream, but after Hometown Tales Yorkshire I found the confidence in my writing and longed to write fiction where my imagination could run free.
“Hometown Tales was a difficult book to write, a difficult journey to revisit but it set me free and my passion for the written word was awoken.”
