My Favourite Thing by Victoria Walker

Delighted to welcome Victoria Walker back to my blog this week to tell readers about her favourite thing. Victoria has just released the next novel in her fantastic Icelandic Romance series – read on to find out about Ignited in Iceland…

Thanks Morton for having me on the blog this week! It is total serendipity that the theme for the blog is my favourite thing, place or season because as you read this, I will just have returned from my favourite place in my favourite season and as an added bonus, it was with my favourite people.

I am going to tell you about my love affair with Disneyland, sparked in the late 1970s by my nan visiting Disneyland in California and bringing me back a guide book. I can’t tell you how many times I looked through that glossy photographic book which showed me somewhere that seemed like absolute paradise to a seven-year-old.

Because my aunt lived in California, my first visit to Disneyland was when I was twelve. It was exactly how it had looked in the book and we stayed until the absolute last minute, eeking out every second of the day. I remember being stunned that they had fireworks every night and they were spectacular compared to fireworks I’d seen until that point. My dad setting off a rocket from a milk bottle was as good as it got. I visited there twice more in my late teens and was always methodical about making sure we hit the right rides in the right order to make the most of every single moment. It might have verged on militant. Ask my dad…

Then when my kiddies were little, we decided to take them to Disneyland Paris. I say, we; my husband hadn’t been introduced to the delights of Disneyland before and just went along with it. He probably wasn’t aware of my deeply hidden love of Disneyland, and I played it cool. So off we went. Now, this is going to sound weird. Whether it was because when we went there it was Christmas (it was November but that’s already Christmas in Disneyland) or whether it was because my kids believed that Mickey and Minnie were real, I’m not sure. But that trip was magical. What I thought had been amazing in California was on another level in Paris. It warmed my heart like nothing else and from then on, I was in love with Disneyland at Christmas.

I’m not going to pretend that every visit since then has been as magical as that. One year it rained so hard for every single minute of the trip that we had to line our boots with sandwich bags. Sometimes our feet have been so sore from walking that we barely made it back to the hotel. But we always come away with amazing memories. Even when my daughter and I did the Disney 10k run a few years ago and she got a nosebleed at the 5k mark and we couldn’t finish (it crossed my mind for the briefest moment to leave her behind with the first-aider and finish the race), even that was great.

This visit is our first in six years, now with our grown-up children. I am going to wear Minnie Mouse ears, wear my Disney sweatshirt that I only wear at Disneyland because it would be weird anywhere else, and I fully expect to cry when we walk in because it always overwhelms me and it’s the first time we’ve been since my mum died, and she loved it as much as I do. I can’t wait for the Christmas magic to wash over me. It’s not about the rides anymore (well, except for Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean), it’s about being in a place that we all love, having fun together like nothing else matters while Christmas happens all around us. It’ll snow on us while we walk along Main Street, there will be joyful Christmas music and I’ll enjoy every single minute of it.

About Victoria Walker

Victoria Walker has been writing romantic fiction since a visit to Iceland in 2014 inspired her first novel. As well as writing, she spends her free time dressmaking, knitting and reading an inordinate amount of contemporary romance, occasionally punctuated by the odd psychological thriller and saga.

In the past she has worked as a cinema projectionist, a knitting and sewing tutor and has owned a yarn store, all things which will no doubt appear in her books if they haven’t already.

Victoria lives in the Malvern Hills with her husband.

Social media and website links

Facebook – Victoria Walker Author

Instagram – @victoriawalker_author

Website – www.victoriaauthor.co.uk

About Ignited in Iceland

Iris, an English volcanologist, arrives in Iceland focused solely on her research. But when she meets Siggi, a charismatic local with a complicated past, his passion for showing her Iceland’s geological wonders ignites unexpected feelings.

Cautious but drawn to each other, they embark on a short-term romance, promising to part ways when Iris’s work is done, but their deepening connection challenges the boundaries they’ve carefully set.

When a volatile volcano suddenly threatens everything, they’re forced to confront not only the unstable landscape but also their own hearts. In a country where the ground can shift at any moment, can Iris and Siggi find a way to stand firm together?

Set in the land of ice and fire, this is a compelling tale of love, risk, and finding the courage to trust again.

Buying Link : www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DHSXSPNZ