A Derbyshire farmer's daughter has written her own success story. Thanks to the powers of self-publishing Tracy Blythe has watched her first novel turn into a bestseller. She chats to Jill Gallone.
IMAGINE the story... a Derbyshire farmer's daughter who can't ever remember writing stories at school manages to pen a novel in two-hour blasts during her baby's naps.
After years of hard graft she finishes the book, but it is rejected by 18 publishers.
Fast forward seven years and the book is plunged into the limelight after it is self-published online. Available as an ebook, it soars to the top of Amazon's bestseller list. More than 200,000 readers snap it up.
The Derbyshire farmer's daughter is hailed as the big new star of women's fiction – and lands the book deal of her dreams.
It feels like a storyline from a novel, but it's not; it's happened to Duffield mum-of-two Tracy Blythe, now more famously known as Tracy Bloom.
"I still can't believe it myself," she admits. "I think, 'is this really me?' Sometimes it still feels like I'm just getting away with it."
Tracy's down-to-earth roots, growing up on a farm in Kirk Langley, have made her the person she is today – and given her the armoury and knowledge to write with strength and humour about the human condition.
"Growing up on a farm was a very good foundation for my writing," says Tracy, 43, who, despite book sales across the globe, is currently most excited about an article she has penned for Farmers Weekly. They invited her to do a piece after spotting her comment about being proud to be a farmer's daughter.
"Growing up on a farm creates a foundation for comedy," she explains. "Farmers are very sharp and witty, so much so that when you are growing up the only way to get attention is to have plenty of witty replies."
Tracy says she honed her humour from a young age. "Most farmers have a natural desire to say something funny. I think it comes from the fact that all farmers are running businesses, they are massive multi-taskers, work long hours and it can be quite solitary. So when they do meet up, they are ready to be very, very sociable."
Her parents, Jim and June Burton, are still farming in Kirk Langley and brother Andrew Burton runs a farm in Brailsford.
Meanwhile, husband Bruce (occasionally mistakenly called Mr Bloom!) works at Rolls-Royce in Derby.
"We're Derbyshire through and through," says Tracy, who laughs when she hears about Bruce's name mix-ups. "My agent suggested I wrote under a pen name because they said Blythe wasn't very sparkly.
"Bruce finds it hilarious when he's called Mr Bloom but in one article he was called John!"
Luckily, he takes it on the chin. "He's been brilliant. He never questioned all the time I spent writing, and when everything took off last year when my book was self-published he was very excited.
"We both went to Ecclesbourne School in Duffield but never got together as a couple until our early 30s. We were very good friends for a long time."
The couple now have two children, Tom, seven, and Sally, five, and it was through a life-changing move to America, sparked by Bruce's job with Rolls-Royce, that the new chapter began.
Tracy explains: "I was 36, had just had my first baby and gave up my career in marketing to move to America with Bruce. It was partly because I'd moved to a country where I didn't know anyone that I started writing. It was my salvation. It gave me something to focus on – plus an excuse not to do the housework! I wrote in two-hour blasts when Tom went to sleep in the afternoons.
"I had always wanted to write. When I was in marketing it was the part of the job I loved."
Without the day job, her creative energies could be poured into her funny and romantic novel, No-one Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday. And though she was in Connecticut at the time, it had its roots in Derbyshire ante-natal classes.
"I went to ante-natal classes before we went to America and it struck me that a very random selection of people meet up to talk about a very intimate and life-changing experience."
It provided the basis for a comedy novel, which has won her fans across the world.
"When I was writing it I was inspired by Gavin and Stacey, which was being shown on American TV. The writing is funny, touching, amazing and features unusual characters. It really stirred me. I wanted to be that good. It took a year to do my first draft, then I got pregnant again and put it away for a while.
"I was going to creative writing evening classes in America but one night decided not to go and instead spent the time sending the book off to agents in London. I got an agent who managed to get the novel published overseas but I couldn't get a deal in the UK."
The book was available in the likes of Germany, Poland and Serbia but not England. So, last year, Tracy decided to self-publish No-one Ever Has Sex on a Tuesday.
"It went on sale as an ebook on Amazon in April 2013," Tracy explains. "Amazon spotted it and put it on promotion on June 1. By June 8 it had gone to number one in the bestseller list and stayed there for three weeks. At the time it was hard to comprehend. I was an unknown author. It seemed just ridiculous."
With thousands buying the book online, it wasn't long before a publisher came knocking on Tracy's door. "I got a book deal with Penguin Random House."
This year the book finally came out in paperback in the UK – which means Tracy can see her novel in book stores. Self-publishing catapulted Tracy to the kind of success she hardly dared dream of.
Tracy went on to self-publish another book, Single Woman Seeks Revenge, which reached the number two spot on Amazon's bestseller list for three weeks. Book three will be out this autumn, though Tracy is cursing her bad luck – and blames George Clooney.
"I chose the title of my latest book before I had written it. It's called I Will Marry George Clooney by Christmas and it's due out in October. As you can imagine, I was a little perturbed to find out he is getting married, rumour has it this month!
"My son was sitting having breakfast one day, the radio was on and I heard him say, 'That George Clooney has just got engaged'. I said, 'What!'" After getting over the shock that the eternal bachelor may finally have succumbed to a woman's charms, Tracy decided to be stoical. "The book's about a single mum who works in a Derbyshire chicken factory. Her life is falling apart and she decides the answer is to marry George Clooney.
"Her decision takes her on a journey and she turns her life around."
The sequel to No-one Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday will be out next year. And she admits, she would like to see one of her books make it on to the big screen. "I would like to learn how to write a screen play. I love dialogue."
Meanwhile, life goes on almost as normal.
"I feel very fortunate to be able to work from home and take my kids to school. After I've dropped them off I leave the house for a while, brainstorm some ideas, then come back and reel off a couple of thousand words."
Despite all she has achieved, Tracy is still pinching herself and says: "There's a huge dollop of luck involved in what's happened to me."
Luck or otherwise, she had the energy and determination to do it.
