Welcome to my blog titled “Five Things” where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. In addition, at the end of the blog, I’ll keep a running itinerary of our travel plans. For a photo gallery of our life on the road, our pets, and miscellaneous things I find interesting, you can follow me on Instagram @tabithalord.

So here are this week’s five things…

1. I was accepted to grad school! After the fiasco with my missing transcripts, I have to admit, I was a little nervous, but everything turned out fine. The MFA program is two years and three summers. I’ll start in June with the summer session and a July residency in Colorado, which is not a bad place to be for a week or two in the summer! I’ve been asked why I decided to go back to school when I’m already smack in the middle of my writing career. Here’s what I wrote as part of my personal statement on my application…

   The purest answer is that I love to learn. I love to surround myself with smart, creative, driven people who help me stretch, and it’s time for me to stretch as a writer. This program will allow me to focus on genre fiction and will help support the career I’m already building, while at the same time challenging me to grow artistically and professionally. I’m truly excited to learn in an academic setting once again. I’d also like the option to teach at the college level, and an advanced degree will allow me to do so. As much as I love the freedom and creativity that being a novelist allows, I thrive in a community and I miss teaching. 

   I’ve circled the idea of earning an advanced degree for years, and the timing finally feels right. While this may seem counter-intuitive considering we are nomads at the moment, we actually have a great Wi-Fi system on board, and both my husband and I are committed to our careers even as we enjoy our unconventional lifestyle. I very much look forward to the years of creativity, learning, and professional development this program will undoubtably offer.

2. We’re in Orange California for the holidays! When we started our journey from Rhode Island just after the holidays last year, we couldn’t imagine how much we’d see and do in a year and just how fast the time would fly. We’re really excited to be in SoCal as three of our four kids live here. Just being able to grab dinner or take someone shopping or let our dogs play together is such a pleasure. We look forward to settling in for the season!

3. Amy and I are back on a roll with the Author’s Buzz podcast. If you’re a new writer looking for advice on how to navigate the publishing industry, have a listen to our latest episode: Publishing Pathways. As always, we keep it real!

4. This Thanksgiving week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the past year. It was a year of big changes for us. We sold our home, along with pretty much everything else we owned, and embarked on a grand adventure to see the country. And what a grand adventure it has been! I’ll share more thoughts on that soon, but as this holiday of giving thanks approaches, I’m immensely grateful for the important things like our family and friends, our good health, and the good fortune we have to enjoy this unconventional lifestyle. What I’ve also realized along the way is how little we truly need, not just to survive, but to thrive. Our living space is about 1/10th the size of the home we sold. We share one car, a Jeep that also doubles as our garage to store beach chairs, golf clubs, and yoga mats. We sleep in a comfy bed, and we have all the amenities of a luxury hotel in what is essentially an oversized bus. We eat well. We have our beloved animals with us everywhere we go. In many ways, it’s a simpler life than the one with the big house and the fancy cars, but it’s no less rich, and I am grateful for the experience. I recognize even with this simpler version of things, we have more than many people on the planet, and I don’t forget that. So, as I write this post on the Monday of Thanksgiving week, I feel grateful, and I’m going to hold that attitude of gratitude for as long as I can!

5. “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” ― Epicurus

Our itinerary, subject to change:

November 19 - January 3, 2024: Orangeland Park, CA

January 3 - 14: Oceanside, CA

January 19 - February 2: San Diego, CA

February 2 - 16: Palm Springs, CA

February 16 - March 1: Las Vegas, NV

March 1 - March 5: Meteor Crater, AZ

March 5 - 15: Albuquerque, NM

March 15 - 17: Amarillo, TX

March 17 - 24: Oklahoma City, OK

March 24 - April 5: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX

April 5 - 12: Fredericksburg, TX

April 12 - 19: Hot Springs, AK

“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien