I’m so excited! When I started on my quest, I was trying to reach 500 miles by the time I had my post-op assessment on November 4th. I succeeded at that. It took me 227 days to do it, but I did. Any miles after that was icing on the cake. It was then I decided to shoot for 1000 miles by the one-year anniversary of my surgery.

1000 miles

Could I reach 1000 miles by the first anniversary of my hip replacement surgery? I was sure going to try. I didn’t have as long to do it, but I already had 500 miles under my belt, so what was 500 more? I had 138 days to go, and if I walked 3.63 miles each day, I’d succeed.

Since then, my average daily miles per day was 4.60, so I was exceeding the minimum requirement, so that would get me there in plenty of time.

Drum roll and let the champagne corks pop! I did it! 1000 miles and with 30 days to spare!

1000 miles

Final numbers

Steps: 2,530,561

Miles: 1002.71

And the day isn’t over yet! Woohoo!!!

welcome 2020

A warm welcome to 2020!

By the time this post goes live, I’ll be long since asleep. Thank goodness for the ability to schedule, so before I fall asleep, I wish a warm welcome to 2020!.

I’m not much of a night owl anymore. I prefer early to bed and early to rise. Those few hours when the house is quiet allow me to formulate ideas for my books, which is best done while working something ‘mindless’ like jigsaw puzzles online. I love doing them, and usually, during the process, I come up with some crackers!

My 2019 achievements

2019 was a great year for me. I crossed an item off my bucket list – train trip to and from Vancouver on The Canadian.

On our return trip, the idea for a children’s book came to me and All Aboard the Canadian with Buddy and his Four Fantastic Furry Friends! came to be. Currently, it’s only available in paperback from me, but in the new year, I plan on getting it formatted for kindle and kobo.

Something that is unheard of for me is I released two books in 2019. The above-mentioned children’s book and the second in my It Happened Series – It Happened in Gastown.

My crowning achievement, YESTERDAY TODAY AWAYS, received a silver Recommended Read Badge in the mystery/thriller category!

a warm welcome to 2020

So now that I’ve given you the highlights of 2019, let’s give a warm welcome to 2020!

I’m hoping to cross another item off my bucket list – The Ocean from Montreal to Halifax. That way I can say I’ve travelled across Canada from coast to coast by train.

Book three in the It Happened Series (It Happened at Percé Rock) takes place in the Canadian province of Québec on the Gaspé peninsula in the quaint village of Percé. A time-honoured tradition is to walk to the rock and back from the mainland at low tide. Needless to say, that event features heavily in the story.

Unfortunately, my characters aren’t cooperating at the moment and not talking to me. I have the plot outlined (sort of). Actually, I think they’re miffed at me because this was supposed to be book two in the series, but got shuffled back.

The idea for a third time-travel book featuring Sarah Shand, so perhaps it will be my 2020 release.

What are your plans/goals for 2020?

My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King