Tracy Buchanan lives in the UK with her husband, their little girl and their (very naughty) puppy, Bronte.

She travelled extensively while working as a travel magazine editor, and has always been drawn to the sea after spending her childhood holidays on the south coast of the UK visiting family – a fascination that inspires her writing.

She now dedicates her time to writing and procrastinating on Facebook.

5 Things about Tracy

1. Tracy once rubbed shoulders with Brad Pitt. Yes, she literally rubbed her shoulder against his as he passed her in a VIP room at the premiere of Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. She managed to get into the VIP room because she was working in PR after getting her English degree at Royal Holloway, University of London.

2. Tracy got attacked by a kangaroo. Okay, ‘attacked’ might be a bit of an exaggeration. It tried to jump on her back while she was in Australia. Why was she in Australia? She was writing an article for the travel magazine she edited, a job she got after impulsively quitting PR one day. Sure, she loved the PR world, especially all the parties she attended while sipping champagne and eating all the canapes the stick-thin models bypassed. But she’d always dreamed of writing so quit her job to retrain as a journalist.

3. Tracy’s wrote her first novel The Atlas of Us after doing a short Open University course. That course was the OU’s Starting writing fiction course (now offered for free here), which she did while working for university in the department responsible for co-producing popular series with the BBC such as Frozen Planet, Stargazing LIVE and Coast (see the Author Connections map she oversaw there). She then went on to work in the OU’s social media team and is now leaving all that behind to pursue writing full-time.

4. Tracy love dogs. Her first dog was a one-eyed Jack Russell called Archie. He has a starring role in The Atlas of Us, though when he got a copy of the novel, he didn’t seem too bothered. A sniff, a huff then back to chewing his paw. He sadly passed away but now she has Bronte, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who rules the roost in her house alongside her daughter Scarlett.

5. Tracy is addicted to Lypsyl. It’s been an addiction of hers since childhood. She owns about a hundred Lypsyls but can never seem to find one when she desperately needs to. One of her friends believes this addiction suggests psychotic tendencies. Tracy disagrees but may one day write about a Lypsyl-addicted serial killer. Watch this space…

If you’re a fan of Tracy’s books, join the exclusive Facebook group she’s set up with other bestselling women’s fiction authors for giveaways and exclusives. Just visit The Reading Snug and request to join.