Let me re-introduce myself...

Hello Again (and Hello for the First Time)

I started this blog in 2006, not long after I moved to New Zealand. Somewhere along the way it grew. More than 214,000 views later, I owe a lot of you a hello. And if you're new here, welcome. Pull up a chair.

So why did I go quiet? Ironically, because of a writers' group. I met a fellow writer who convinced me to stop giving my writing away for free online and save it for a book. They even suggested I delete this blog. (I wrote about it in Why I Stopped Writing back in 2017.) Instead of writing the book, I stopped writing altogether. Lesson learned: for me, writing for you IS how I write.

So, who am I now?

I'm a Métis storyteller with two homelands, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. I grew up in Northern Ontario, lived in New Zealand for twenty years, and ran a massage therapy and wellness business for thirty. I've been a yoga teacher, a fundraiser, a mountain climber (Kilimanjaro, 2013!) and the founder of Pendo Project, which helps get kids in Uganda into school with lunch in their bellies.

I'm also a cancer survivor, three times over. Ovarian cancer at ten, again at thirty-two, and in 2022, Stage 4 kidney cancer. That last one brought me home to Canada for treatment, with my New Zealand Huntaway service dog, Blue, by my side.

Since then I've been busy reinventing myself again. I published my first children's book, Fluffy the Extraordinary Butterfly. I earned my Graphic Design diploma from the Toronto Film School, and I'm halfway through a Creative Arts degree at Yorkville University. And I'm finally writing my novel: my memoir, One Mountain At A Time. Yes, same name as this blog. That's not a coincidence.

What you'll find here

Honest stories. About living with cancer and fighting to be heard by the medical system. About creativity, healing, and starting over in your fifties. About New Zealand, Northern Ontario and everywhere in between. And the occasional story about Blue, because he is the love of my life.  Dogs can be your soulmate you know.

I've never been good at filtering, and I'm not going to start now.

If you've been here since the beginning, thank you for still being here. If you're new, I'd love to know who you are. Leave me a comment, and you can find more about me and my books and projects at tracypepper.com.

Not everyone starts a mountaineer. Some become one.

~ Tracy