Tracey Harries lives in the South Wales Valleys, where she has worked as a qualified social worker and manager for the past twenty-five years, both within statutory child protection services and currently for the Welsh Government, providing independent expert advice to the family courts. Tracey has also worked for many years as an independent social work assessor and is registered with both Social Care Wales and the Health and Care Professions Council, England.Tracey and her husband have three grown-up children, and her spare time is spent walking in the beautiful Welsh countryside with the family’s three springer spaniels, Woody, Scout and Cooper. Tracey also loves music, and much of her youth was spent singing and playing in local bands. She has recently started playing the guitar, after a very long sabbatical and finds it relaxing. She loves to attend Glastonbury, and her 50th anniversary ticket is currently very much on hold. She likes to consider herself an ‘old hippy’.The Rule of Optimism is Tracey’s first novel which, at the age of fifty-seven, she sees as a momentous achievement. The book was started during lockdown, and although she has worked throughout as a designated key worker, the time spent working from home has allowed her space and freedom to fulfil this lifelong ambition.Tracey has drawn on her own experiences in the novel and hopes that she can continue to write, as she has found the experience completely transformational.