Five Things - December 18, 2023

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. As 2023 draws to a close, it’s part of my practice to conduct a personal and professional year-end review. This particular year was unique. It was hard to know how to set goals, or even what realistic goals would look like, when our lifestyle was changing so dramatically. Would I still be productive during my favorite writing seasons? Would I manage to find a rhythm to my life and my work? Would I accomplish as much professionally as I hoped? Would I say the heck with it all, I’m going off the grid entirely and moving to the Colorado wilderness? Turns out, I’m not going off the grid, but I will be heading to Colorado this summer to start grad school. With so much uncertainty going into the year, asking whether or not I achieved my goals for 2023 doesn’t feel like the right question. I definitely didn’t write as much as I’d hoped, but I’d prefer to focus on the things I did accomplish and the amazing things we did experience this year. So, here are the top-three achievements for my professional highlight reel…

   • Dreamwalker went out on submission with my agent. No results yet, but in my professional career, this is the project that earned me an agent, and it’s the first time I’ve wanted to pursue a traditional publishing deal.

   • For the first time, I have several writing projects in process all at once. I’m in the middle of writing a fantasy novel (with dragons!), and in the middle of finishing the last three books in my alter ego Maggie Clare’s romantic suspense series. So, my accomplishment this year is that I have three half-finished books in my document files!

   • I was accepted into graduate school. I’ve been circling the idea for a long while, and this year, I applied, paid my deposit, and set up my school account and email. I’m really excited to be part of an academic community again, and I can’t wait to get started.

2. I’m in the process of sorting pictures from the past year to make a memory photo book. As I go through them all, I realize how much we’ve seen and done in 2023. This lifestyle has afforded us the opportunity to experience, in one year, things that might have taken a lifetime. We’ve stayed in twenty states, visited nine national parks, dropped anchor in big cities from New Orleans to Albuquerque to Portland, and found tiny little towns we’d never have discovered otherwise. This highlight reel is too big for a post, but I’ve documented much of it in pictures, and it’s been fun to look through them all and remember.

3. The holidays are a little different on the road. For many years, we mostly hosted events at our home in RI, and we loved it. This year, we went out to dinner for Thanksgiving, and for Christmas, we’ve rented an AirBnB so our family can gather. This way of celebrating feels temporary, until our children begin to establish traditions of their own, but we’ll be together nonetheless. We’re taking dad to see the Star Wars exhibit in Disney, watching a local production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ on Christmas Eve, and cooking a meal together on Christmas day. The sun is shining, and it’s pretty warm outside, so that’s a little different, but enjoying each other’s company and celebrating together is what really matters, even if we’re outside barbecuing in December!

4. As the sun sets on 2023, and Ray and I reflect on our first year as nomads, we both agree that despite where we are in the country, we do have a home, we simply bring it with us. We’ve also realized our home is more than our physical space, although we were surprised at how quickly we made that our own… Home is being with each other and having our fur babies with us. It’s our little routines, like morning coffee outside under the awning, cooking dinner together, and planning our calendar together. It’s sharing this adventure every day with the person you love.

5. “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” ― T.S. Eliot

Our itinerary, subject to change:

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

January 3 - February 2: Chula Vista, 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

Monday Musings December 20, 2021

As the year winds down, I find myself thinking a lot about endings and beginnings. Obviously, 2021 is coming to an end, and while we all had high hopes that it would be a better year than 2020, it was just as challenging for my family personally. Not that there weren’t many wonderful things that happened in 2021, but the shitty stuff was pretty shitty. Ever an eternal optimist, I look to the coming year with gratitude and hope. I know there will be challenges, and things often change in an instant, but all the more reason to be grateful for the here and now, and for the time with which we are gifted.

At the end of every year, I also take inventory of my personal and professional life. I ask myself if I am focused on the things that are most important to me, and if I’m spending my precious time on my priorities. If not, it feels like a natural time to make a change. To that end, I’ve decided to step away from Inkitt, the publishing company where I work in several capacities. The projects have been gratifying and interesting, and the people wonderful, but lately it’s been taking too much time away from my own writing. At some point the balance shifted, and I need to shift it back.

The thing about endings though, is that they make space for beginnings. I have a lot I’d like to accomplish professionally this year, and I am clearing the space to do just that. I’m still in the middle of my reflective process, but this is one step I’ve already taken to realign my priorities. I’ll let you know what else I come up with.

Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something's time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings. - Henry Cloud

Wishing you all peaceful endings and joyful beginnings this holiday season.

Monday Musings 8-17-20

Every year in the middle of August, around now actually, I start to feel as if time is galloping away at top speed. The summer is winding down. The changeover to fall is in the air. Sure, we have some scorching days, backyard BBQs, and beach time left, but September is in sight.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fall. I love the crisp days, my renewed interest in cooking, the productivity in my work life. I love apple picking, football season, and mulled cider. I love the changing leaves, pumpkins, and dressing up for Halloween. My trepidation isn’t really about the change of seasons at all, it’s about the way I can feel time passing by in such a visceral way.

This year, I am torn between wanting to draw out time, and feeling a desperate urge to speed things forward. This hasn’t been the easiest timeline for me, or for anyone else on planet Earth. A resurgence in the virus is a very real concern. My inability to travel has directly impacted my career. I haven’t seen my two oldest children since Christmas. The list goes on. But, I am acutely aware that tomorrow isn’t promised and this moment is a gift, so savoring the here and now, mindfully choosing how to spend my time, and fully embracing the present with all its challenges, is how I am striving to show up.

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.” Dalai Lama

Monday Musings 7-6-20

Today is my birthday. It’s the year before a really big one, so naturally I’ve been reflecting a lot about this past decade…

I ushered in my 40s by summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro with my sister and two close friends on my birthday nine years ago. At the time, I could feel my life changing around me. Instead of trying to hang on to something that was out of my control anyway, I chose instead to embrace the potential for something new. My children were growing up, some moving out. I loved my career, but it had chosen me, not the other way around. I found myself wondering what my choice would be if I could make a different one. I needed space to clear out my head. I wanted to connect deeply to the world around me, and to be utterly disconnected at the same time. So, I climbed. It was hard, really hard, and it was also breathtakingly beautiful - a metaphor for life I guess. I didn’t return with any earth-shattering revelations, but I did return with a deep sense of accomplishment and inner peace. A few weeks later, I wrote my very first blog post, which a travel and climbing magazine published - a sign of things to come!

As I wind down this decade, more change is in the air. My body feels age in a different way. All but one of my kids is an adult, and she’s right on the cusp. I’ve had to let go of some things permanently, like ever returning to medical school. Some ships have sailed, and that’s okay, because letting them go made space for other things. I’ve rediscovered my inner artist, and she’s building a satisfying career. My husband and I never really had a chance to enjoy being a couple before we had children, and we have that now. I have deep, meaningful friendships.

As I contemplate the next decade, sure there’s some fear. I think it comes with facing our own mortality in a much more concrete way. But I’m also looking forward to it. I have always lived fully, throwing myself whole-heartedly into my work, my family, the experiences presented to me, and I have no intention of showing up in the world any other way.

“Life isn’t meant to be lived perfectly…but merely to be LIVED. Boldly, wildly, beautifully, uncertainly, imperfectly, magically LIVED.” ― Mandy Hale

Monday Musings 12-30-19

It’s that odd week just before the New Year when I can’t keep track of the days, we’re still on vacation, and time seems to be moving in a strangely sluggish manner. I’m caught between reflection and planning anew.

It’s important that I make space to reflect. When I do, it feels like I’m taking a long, deep breath. By honestly evaluating the past year, I’m able to celebrate my successes, review my short-comings, and begin to form and solidify my intentions for the New Year. Certainly, the New Year is an arbitrary date on the calendar, and we can take stock, assess, and change our course if necessary at any time, but working with a particular habit life or personal rhythm has value for me.

So, here are my writerly reflections on 2019…

It’s particularly satisfying to complete a writing project, and this year, I released the final book in my Horizon series. As an author, this milestone feels pretty significant. I’ve also worked with an incredible voice actor to convert all the books to audio, traveled around the country to various Comic Cons and conferences for signings, sold two short stories to podcasts, wrote a consistent post for Monday Musings every week, continued my work as managing editor for Inkitt Writer’s Blog, and started drafting a new urban fantasy. I’ve also started a project under a pen name and completed three novel drafts for that series. More on that next week. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with my productivity in 2019.

Of course, there’s always more I wished I could have accomplished, but I feel like I was as productive as I could be, and at the end of the day (or year as the case may be), that’s really how I measure the success of my work life.

Last year, on my list of intentions, I stated I wanted to find a way to teach more because I missed being in the classroom. This year, I taught six weeks of Latin to middle-schoolers and loved every minute of it! I also moderated several panels at conferences and Cons, which feels similar to teaching in a lot of ways.

Where I fell short professionally was my work for Book Club Babble. As a partner and senior writer, I really should have produced more content. Luckily, this is a great team to work with. When one of us can’t focus on the site for whatever reason, the others pick up the slack. But, I need to make it a higher priority for 2020.

Five years ago, with my husband’s encouragement, I changed the course of my professional career and became a writer. I had no idea what that would mean, how it would look, or in what direction things would go. I was terrified to put my work out there, knowing that so much of this industry meant facing rejection. I stood at the very beginning of a path, understanding that my learning curve would be huge, and took a chance.

Now, at the end of the decade, a decade where I consciously turned the ship, so to speak, I’ve given myself permission to list all my writing accomplishments in one place. Here goes…

THE HORIZON SERIES (winner of seven independent book awards including the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize in 2016)

HORIZON

INFINITY

EQUINOX

SHORT FICTION AND PODCASTS:

Keeper of the Light from HOLDING ON BY OUR FINGERTIPS

Quest Nine - Starship Sofa

Goodbye, Charlie - Tales to Terrify (Episode 404 - last story of the hour)

Homecoming from SIRENS

NON-FICTION:

Inkitt Writer’s Blog

Book Club Babble

Project 3.8 - collected interviews of children and families dealing with pediatric cancer

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve chosen to engage with me and my creative work, and I am both humbled and grateful for your support. I write because the stories in my head are clamoring to get out, but I also write to share them with you, hoping you’ll find yourself lost in a tale or moved in some way. Reflecting on this year, and on my writing career as a whole, leaves me with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I am so grateful to be able to pursue this art, and I am so grateful to be able to share it with all of you.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year!