Ever Onwards, The Duo Go, Heading For The Rocky Mountaineer by Jan Speedie and Margaret Graham

 

Rocky Mountaineer.Jasper reminded us of the bush towns of Australia with its pioneer homes.

pic 2 old house

Whilst there we saw many lakes, and rivers, always with the mountains in the background, and a coach which bore the wonderful sign, totally appropriate for women like us, with delusions of grandeur.

pic3 coach sign

This coach took us to Maligne Lake and Canyon. It is the most tranquil of lakes where sound carries extraordinarily clearly, so it didn’t remain peaceful once our lot hit it.

pic 4canada pic 4a carriage

Then, it was the day of the birthday. Margaret was greeted with a banner on the door. No more can she say 21 years of age and on to the station, where the Rocky Mountaineer waited. We were in a red leaf carriage, the bottom of the pile, we suppose, but it was nonetheless fantastic.

pic 5 train

We had the lovely Shino to ply us with food and drink, and a viewing platform either end of the carriage. We began our journey along the ‘First Passage of the West’ retracing the steps of the early 19th century adventurers.  We was as always, the snowy mountains, forests and tranquil lakes. Aware that we were leaving the Rockies, we looked long and hard. Never have we seen such scenery, and never have we seen such a l-o-n-g train.

pic 6 Rockies waterfall.

Jan had arranged a cake, so happy birthday was sung, but no bumps. Then the Rocky Mountaineer gave her a couple of prints and a bottle of champagne. Obviously she shared it all (well, not the prints)

pic 7 cake

We follow the path of the Fraser River until we join the North Thompson River to Kamloops where we stop for the night. Shino kept us entertained with stories of the early pioneers and their perilous journeys and we ware always on the lookout for the elusive wild life.  The only thing we saw were bald eagles, but too far away to photograph.

Finally we drew into Kamloops, and another birthday celebration in the evening.

pic 8 birthday celebs. pic 9birthday celeb

www.rockymountaineer.com

 

 

A Day In My Writing Life: Lynne Hackles

I’m a busy writer, working under several different names. Here’s my typical day. Wake at 5am, do a thirty minutes run, thirty minutes housework and then sit and write until five in the afternoon. Some days I take a ten minute break for lunch.

And, if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.

Lynne Hackles

The truth is I get up when I feel like it. Some mornings I really do exercise. I stretch out my arms from under the duvet and clench and unclench my hands five times, then rotate the wrists five times.

Wearing my dressing gown, I stumble into the next room and switch on the computer, ready to start work. But I don’t. Start, I mean. I check emails, check my online horoscope, check Facebook, check my blog to see how many hits it’s had, then I do an online crossword, or two. I suppose I sort of creep up on work.

On my desk is an open notebook holding my To Do list. I’ll decide which job I am going to tackle, then set my kitchen timer for 25 minutes and while it ticks away I get stuck in and write. Once the alarm goes off I stop, get up and move. A few minutes later I start another 25 minute session. Moving regularly is necessary for me. I have a collection of lumbar discs in a jar so need to take care of my back.

Lately, my writing work seems to be mostly journalism and non-fiction stuff. There was a time when I churned out stories for women’s magazines but I’m having a rather long rest due to being all story-ed out. Some days I have student assignments to mark – I’ve been a tutor for Writers’ News Home Study for 20 years. (They keep ignoring my hints about a golden clock.) Other days I try to ‘push’ my work. Writers are expected to do more than their bit when it comes to publicising their books. Handy Hints for Writers is one of my latest but I’m still telling people about Writing From Life and I give talks about writing down personal experiences as well as going the whole hog and tackling life stories.

Lunch is taken whilst listening to Tim Wonnacott on Bargain Hunt. I reckon, by now, I must have earned a degree in Fine Art and Antiques.

Afternoons are for doing other things. The LSO (Long Suffering One) and I will be in the garden or, if the weather’s not good, we’ll be inside stripping wallpaper, painting cupboards and doing the 1001 things that are needed in order to finish renovating the house we moved into a year ago.

Most evenings I carry my laptop downstairs and, while the television is on in the background, I’ll answer emails and do the admin’ side of my writing job. Other evenings, like tonight, I go out to give a talk.

And then there’s the Sabbath which can be any day of the week but which is work-free. It’s a time to recharge the batteries and do something different. We are working our way through a long list of places to visit, people to see and things to do.

handyhintsforwriters racingstart writingfromlife

Racing Start – a Kindle best-seller. Fast paced cycling fiction for 8-12 yr olds
Kindle/Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Racing-Start-Lynne-Hackles-ebook/dp/B00HNFOM8G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389086256&sr=8-1&keywords=lynne+hackles+racing+start
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/racing-start
iTunes/iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/racing-start/id785373782?mt=11
www.lynnehackles.com
www.lynnehackles.blogspot.com
Handy Hints for Writers – Compass Books
Writing From Life – How To Books
Ghostwriting – Aber Publishing