Five Things - February 2, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. For photos of my books, kids, pets, and miscellaneous things I find interesting, you can follow me on Instagram @tabithalord.

So here are this week’s five things, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." — Benjamin Franklin

2. It’s official – we are nomads no more! We’ve been sleeping in our new place for just over a week now. Although the furniture situation is still a little sparse, we’ve been working at our kitchen counter and sleeping in our new comfy bed. The living room chairs have arrived, along with our gorgeous dining room table, but we’re still waiting on the kitchen chairs and sofa. Little by little, it’s coming together. Saying goodbye to our RV home for the last three years was bittersweet for sure, but we already feel like we are building a new home here.

3. There’s a lot to love about city living. My favorite things include walking the dog in the morning in Pasadena Central Park, walking to my yoga classes, and walking a few blocks to dinner when we’re too tired to cook. It’s especially great being here in SoCal, where we can hang out with our boys and their significant others as they now all live under an hour away. Our daughter is up in Portland, but at least we’re all in the same time zone now!

4. It’s been great to have some space again, and also a little overwhelming. I’m trying to break down my sorting and organizing projects into manageable chunks, but there’s a lot to do. I also haven’t really settled into daily routines and habits, which help keep me from spinning out. Every aspect of my life feels a little ungrounded at the moment, but I know this feeling often accompanies big changes, and I’m doing my best to stay centered.

5. This week, I’m attending a writing conference in Colorado Springs. Several of my classmates will be there, and I’m so excited to hang out with them in person. They have been a steady source of support and encouragement, and I feel so lucky to be part of this incredibly talented, thoughtful group.

Five Things - January 19, 2026

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to ‘bear witness’ to something. For me, the term seemed to reflect a passive activity. We witness something, see it happening to someone else, or in the world, and observe it as a bystander. But with the chaos currently bombarding us from all sides, the ‘bearing’ part becomes more meaningful, more active. When we witness violence or injustice, we hold the truth of it within ourselves. We become a living record of it, but the ‘bearing’ part isn’t without cost. When we witness trauma, we too are traumatized. When we witness injustice, we feel rage, frustration, fear. Our nervous system responds. Our body reacts. Our soul suffers. In the aftermath, I think, we have a choice. We can allow what we’ve witnessed to paralyze us with fear or anger or frustration, or we can do what we need to do to keep our minds and bodies healthy, and then find a way to engage, and to give meaning to what we’ve witnessed.

3. Ray and I decided that as soon as our bed is delivered to the new place, we’ll move in, regardless of whatever other furniture has or has not arrived. Well, it looks like the bed is coming Thursday, so we are likely spending our last week as nomads. Things are about to get real!

4. As I sit at our small kitchen table in the RV writing this, the animals are resting in their favorite places. We’ve purchased new cat trees and beds, scratching poles and water fountains. I’m curious what will become their new favorite comfy spots in the new place, and I wonder how long it will take for them to feel like they’re home. I wonder how long it will take before we feel like we’re home?

5. Classes are in full swing, and my brain is working overtime. While there isn’t as much creative work happening this semester, there is quite a lot of learning going on. So far, it’s been great to be with my classmates and instructors again, and I love discussing the business side of the writing world. This class dovetails nicely with my own plans to promote and publish new content this year. Our deep dive into teaching philosophies and methods this semester is already really interesting and satisfying too. I’m starting to imagine what it might look like to teach at the university or grad school level. And of course, I can’t wait to dig into the edits for my thesis. I’m tired just thinking about everything that needs to happen in the next few months, both personally and professionally, but also really excited!

Five Things - January 5, 2026

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “Let our New Year's resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” - Goran Persson

2. Instead of setting hard and fast goals for the New Year, I’m in the habit of setting intentions. If I know where I want to put my energy, and I’ve identified the things I want to work on both personally and professionally, individual, specific goals become clear. Personally, I’ve put a lot of work into my physical and emotional health over the last year, and going into 2026, I plan to lean into those good habits. Since Ray and I will be nomads no more in just a few weeks, I intend to put energy into building a local community. I’m not sure yet where I’ll find that community, but I’ll be engaging with things close to my heart, like pet rescues, book clubs, and writers’ groups. I’ll also be graduating in 2026, so much of my energy will still be focused on school. Finally, I’m planning on publishing a good bit of the new content I’ve written over the last two years, which is really exciting, so stay tuned.

3. After a relaxing vacation over the holidays, where I cooked, ate, played games with our family, and slept a ton, this week, I’m diving back into things. I’ve had my first meeting with my thesis mentor to talk about revisions, and I can’t wait to dive in. For me, editing is much less stressful than drafting. The story infrastructure is already there, so with edits, I’m refining and finessing vs. creating. I love thinking up new heroes and villains and plot action, but I really love making a good story better.

4. Today the painters got to work in our new place! While I am going to miss so many things about our adventures on the road, I’m looking forward to having a home base once again. There is a lot to do since we’re essentially starting from scratch, so I have to take things in small chunks. This weekend, we plan to shop for the bathrooms and then move on to the kitchen. If I think about everything that needs to be done, I’ll get totally overwhelmed, but when I use my tried and true methods of list-making, daily and weekly planning, and thinking incrementally, I can talk myself off the ledge!

5. As we wind up our time as nomads, people have been asking about our favorite places. Honestly, we’ve seen so many amazing things that it’s hard to pick, but for sure, the National Parks have been a highlight of our travels. None disappointed! I’d have to say the crown jewels were Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Glacier National, followed closely by Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. We missed Yosemite. It was our plan to get there this summer if we were still on the road, but we’ll definitely be making a road trip there sometime in the near future!

Five Things - December 22, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "Muscles are fleeting. Bodies give out. But integrity, honor? The confidence to be oneself, to follow one's heart? The compassionate drive to help others, even at great risk? That's strength." - Marjorie Liu

2. On Friday I turned in my thesis draft to my mentor! At 112k words, it’s the longest book I’ve ever written. As always, the manuscript will need to be edited, but that’s work for next semester. For now, I’m taking a break, reflecting on the past year’s professional accomplishments, of which I include anything school related, and thinking about my intentions for 2026. Change is in the air for next year, and I’m trying to meet it with equanimity by staying present, embracing gratitude, and taking each day as it comes.

3. One big change for 2026 is that Ray and I will be nomads no more! As I’ve mentioned previously, we’re moving into a place in Pasadena, and we’re currently working to turn it into a home. We have literally no furniture, so it’s both fun and daunting to start building back from scratch. I’m really excited to find a local community, and I’m equally as excited to have a place our friends and family can come visit.

4. Next semester, in addition to editing my thesis, my course load will include classes on the business of writing and on pedagogy, or teaching teachers to teach, lol, so the focus for this last full semester is a little different, but I’m really interested in everything. I just got my pile of textbooks. I look forward to studying them, of course, and also putting them on the bookshelf in my new office!

5. We are currently in Indio, just outside of Palm Springs, for the holiday. Our kids will be arriving this week, but unfortunately my mom and dad are sick and won’t be joining us. It seems like this year, everyone’s a little worn out, so our plan is to simply eat, rest, play games, chill, and recharge. The nice thing about the desert in the wintertime is we’ll probably be able to chill and recharge by the pool. Wishing all of you a peaceful, restful holiday!

Five Things - December 8, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." - George Orwell

2. I just passed the 100k mark on my thesis novel, and I’ve got about 10k more to go before the end. The longest book I’ve written in my writing career thus far has been 85k, which equals about 320 print pages, so this new one is going to be a beast. It’s a good thing fantasy readers don’t mind an epic tome! I’m really excited to be writing the final few scenes, and I’ve been doing a bunch of writing sprints with my classmates. With a solitary endeavor like writing, it’s fun to find a way to build community and encourage each other as we race to the finish line.

3. At this time of year, I’m in the habit of reflecting on the past year, both personally and professionally. It’s a concrete way to take stock of where I’m at, celebrate my accomplishments, and begin to set intentions for the coming year. Sorting through all this, I realize how much life happens in one year! In this culture of hustle, taking time to breathe and reflect feels essential.

4. As we transition from our time as nomads to making our home in Pasadena, I find myself reflecting not only on this past year, but on the last three. Scrolling through the pictures on my phone, it’s a little disconcerting to realize how much I’ve forgotten already until I prompt my memory banks with a visual cue. I feel like we’ve seen more of this country in the last few years than some people see in a lifetime, and I am so grateful we had this unique opportunity. I’m planning to make a photo book featuring the highlights of our adventure, which I think will be a fun journey down memory lane!

5. For our final few weeks on the road, we’ll be heading to Indio, just south of Palm Springs, to celebrate Christmas, and then back here to Northridge as we furnish our new place in Pasadena and move ourselves in. One of the things I’m going to miss about our nomad life is waking up somewhere different, but still being in our home. I will miss the freedom and adventure of this lifestyle. At the same time, I’m really excited to make a more permanent home again. I know I already shared my ‘quote of the week’ above, but this one really seems to reflect my personal state of mind:

   “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

Five Things - November 24, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice. - Jacques Diouf

2. Thanksgiving is upon us! The unique thing about Thanksgiving, as far as holidays go, is that it’s only about food, friends, and family, and our gratitude for those things. There is no other agenda – no gifts to buy, no atonements to make, no goals to set. Just a gathering around a table. I hope you all find joy and peace around your table this week.

3. Speaking of Thanksgiving, last week, on my alter ego’s blog, I shared some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes including sweet potato pie, my take on cranberry sauce, and a delicious, easy carrot dish. Check out this link if you’re interested: Maggie’s Musings - Happy Thanksgiving!

4. Ray and I signed the lease for a place in Pasadena! We’ll be moving in sometime around February 1st. After three years as nomads, we’re ready to put down some roots and build a community. I’m definitely a little anxious to give up our wandering lifestyle, but I’m also really excited for the new place. We have no furniture at all, so it will be fun to furnish the place from the ground up, so to speak. Be sure to check out my Instagram in the next few months where I’ll post our progress.

5. In professional news, I’m working with a new marketing and promo team. We’ll be meeting to get a plan up and running after Thanksgiving, and then we’ll really start rolling in January. I’ve put most of my publishing, marketing, and promotional plans on hold while I’ve been in grad school, but I’ve also created a ton of content, and I look forward to getting my work out in the world again! Stay tuned…

Five Things - November 10, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." - Frederick Douglass

2. It’s November already, and that means I only have about eight weeks left of school for the semester. It also means that’s how much time I have to finish both my thesis and a novella for my short forms class. I’m excited to see the finish line on the horizon, and I’m also hyperventilating a little bit at how many words I still need to write! My thesis novel, The Dragon Dancer of Krysh, is the longest book I’ve ever written, topping out at over 100k words. When this semester ends, I’ll be breathing a big sigh of relief.

3. Ray and I are currently in Orange, California, where we spent Halloween at Disneyland with our oldest son and daughter-in-law. Halloween has always held special meaning for us since it’s the anniversary of both our first date and the day we got engaged! We’ll be here through Thanksgiving, where we’ll be cooking up a storm with the kids. Our oldest will be hosting, the first time one of our kids has had a holiday at their place, which feels like a family milestone!

4. One of my favorite things about staying at this particular RV park in Orange is that there are citrus fruit trees all over the property. Anyone can pick the fruit! Whenever we’re here, we collect bowls full of fresh oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and limes. It’s an urban RV park, right in the middle of the city, so it was really a pleasant surprise the first time we were here.

5. This week I am traveling to Folsom to hang out with my sister and brother-in-law. I haven’t had a ‘sister’ visit in a while–one where I just stay at her house and we work at the kitchen counter together then crack open a bottle of wine at the end of the day and catch up on life, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Five Things - October 27, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." - Maya Angelou

2. Since I’ve recovered from my nasty cold, Ray and I have resumed our Friday ‘date day’ adventures. Last week, we visited the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, which was every bit as cool as the one in NYC. I’ve taken to calling it the Cat Museum because of the amazing special exhibit on, yes, cats. Most of you know I am a cat lover. In fact, I am practicing to become a crazy cat lady sometime in the near future, so I was very excited for this exhibit, and it did not disappoint!

3. This friday, we visited the Getty Villa in the Palisades. The bigger Getty museum, located just off the 405, houses a vast collection of artwork, and the Getty Villa houses the antiquities collection. Built to replicate an actual Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, the structure itself is a work of art, and we spent hours exploring the treasures within. Having earned my undergrad degree in Classics, I enjoyed this exhibit almost as much as I did the one with the cats!

4. Taking a full day off has been something of a challenge, as I imagine it is for anyone working remotely or who has a non-traditional type of job. On the one hand, being able to work anytime, anywhere gives me a flexibility I truly enjoy. If I want to go see the cat exhibit on Friday, I can work on Saturday morning instead. Unplugging completely, however, has proven difficult, but this Sunday, I really wanted to spend the day at the beach. Yes, here in sunny SoCal, it’s still pleasant enough to spend an afternoon with toes in the water and a sun hat on! It felt good to turn off my brain for a little while and just enjoy the day.

5. Later this week, we’ll be leaving Northridge, which is north LA county, very close to two of our boys, and heading to Orange. The RV park where we stay is just about five minutes from our oldest son and daughter-in-law. It will be nice to be near them for a couple of weeks, and we’ve already made Halloween plans together. When we lived in RI, our Halloween parties were legendary, and the holiday always held special meaning for Ray and me since it’s the anniversary of both our first date and the day we got engaged. It’s certainly a fun day to celebrate!

Five Things - October 13, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “Cruelty is a terrible thing. I believe it is the worst human sin.” - Jane Goodall

2. I had a nasty cold over the weekend, and it totally interfered with our plans to do all the fun things. But sometimes I think getting sick is our body’s way of telling us to slow down and pay attention, so that’s what I did. I slept more this weekend than I probably do in a whole week normally, and I’m happy to report I’m on the mend.

3. I’m well into the murky middle of my thesis project. With every manuscript, I’ve had moments when I feel like I’ve totally lost the plot, or I just feel stuck. Over the years, I’ve developed some tried and true tricks to help me navigate this part of the process. For my thesis, however, I did something a little different than usual and wrote a full synopsis of the story before I started writing the manuscript itself. A synopsis is a two page summary of the entire story, from the main characters, to the plot action, to the end–with spoilers. It’s a document most agents and editors require, and it is absolutely no fun to write. But, I’ve discovered that my synopsis is acting like a pretty solid roadmap, and it’s helping to keep me on track. So, the murky middle of this book isn’t quite as murky as others have been at this point, which is a good thing since the deadline is looming!

4. The other class I’m taking this semester for school is on short forms, from flash fiction to novellas and everything in between. I just finished writing one for class titled “Red Riding Hood Redux,” and it’s a subversive, feminist retelling of the traditional fairy tale. I’ve submitted it to an anthology for publication, and I should hear back in a few weeks. Whether or not it’s accepted, I really like this piece. I find when I’m exploring short fiction, I lean in hard to writing horror, and this story is no exception. I can’t wait to share it with you!

5. It’s storming like crazy outside right now, but I am cozied up with my kitties and a cup of tea writing all the words. As I sit here thinking up imaginary worlds, characters, and conflicts, I’m reminded what a privilege it is to have the freedom to express myself creatively. I wrote an article recently for another blog titled “Writing is Radical Resistance.” As storms of all kinds rage around us, I thought I’d share one section of that article that gets to the heart of why telling stories is so important.

   As much as I want to entertain and connect through my stories, I am also often grappling with big questions in a lot of my work. With my first science fiction series, the underlying questions I posed were, “When confronted with hatred and injustice, who becomes a hero? Who defends their neighbor? Who turns a blind eye?” These questions are as frighteningly relevant today as they’ve ever been. The characters I created for that series had been tossed into the fray, so to speak, and it was satisfying to explore all the various ways they responded to the catastrophes in their world and watch them evolve. I think maybe we creative types are constantly processing what we’re seeing around us – the oppression, the injustice, the inhumanity, and we’re practicing our own responses to it.

   “Writing in itself is radical resistance, a triumph - people can try to stop you from speaking your truth, but no one can take your words from you.”― Eternity Martis

Five Things - September 29, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "Integrity is the essence of everything successful." - Buckminster Fuller

2. We just spent a few weeks in Portland, Oregon and then took a couple of days to trek down the coast to SoCal where we’ll be for the next few months. Portland, despite propaganda to the contrary, is not in fact ‘war torn.’ We spent a fabulous day at the Saturday market, which was filled with art, crafts, food, and music. During our time there, we also listened to live music, ate fantastic farm to table food, and enjoyed the view of Mt. Hood on sunny days. Our daughter, who lives downtown, walks everywhere, throws rooftop garden parties, teaches music and sings at all sorts of fun venues, and camps and hikes regularly with her group of friends. It’s a fabulous, quirky city with fabulous, quirky people. Stay weird and stay safe, Portland.

3. Although we were hustling to get here, we did stop and stay near Mount Shasta. I remember when Mount St. Helens erupted back in 1980, so getting a close up look at Shasta, also a potentially active volcano, was really cool and slightly unsettling. Over 14,000 feet, Shasta is the second largest mountain in the Cascades. For comparison, St. Helens was 9677 ft before it erupted and 8363 afterwards. Shasta was quite the sight for sure!

4. Being in SoCal again is great. Aside from all the cool things to do here, we’re able to meet up with our kids for brunch or dinner, or plan a day together. We took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu, and the destruction from the fires is still pretty awful. Reconstruction is well underway, but the loss was truly devastating.

5. We’re still missing our kitty. It was hard to leave the last place she was with us and arrive somewhere without her. Her sweet personality and loving soul were a constant, gentle presence in our tiny space. Anyone who has lost a beloved pet knows how hard it is to let them go and how empty it feels when they are gone. We’re still having some very big feelings around here, and I suspect we will for a while, but our daughter reminded us that we’re hurting so badly because we were blessed to love her so much.

Goodbyes Are Hard

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our beautiful Milo. For almost seventeen years, she’s been part of our family. She brought so much love, joy, and comfort to all of us over the years, and we are so grateful for her loving presence and beautiful soul. Milo, you will be missed beyond words.

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” - Anatole France

Five Things - September 2, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." - Nelson Mandela

2. When we started this adventure two years and nine months ago, we wanted to visit all of the lower forty-eight states. Well, today, we woke up in state number forty-eight! Putting the final sticker on our map felt like quite the accomplishment. As I reflect back on all the things we’ve seen and done in the last almost-three-years, I’m overwhelmed, and I actually have to look through our photos to remember it all. When people ask about our favorite place, we don’t have just one, but a whole list of them, and the highlight reel includes a bunch of National Parks.

3. Speaking of National Parks, we just spent the last few days at Glacier National Park in Montana. It’s listed as one of the ‘crown jewels’ in the NP system, and it really is stunning. The lakes, the forests, and the mountain terrain were all absolutely magical. Ray and I also had an adrenaline-fueled, close encounter with a bear while we were hiking, a first for us! He was literally sauntering down the trail like a boss. We stepped aside as far as we could, which wasn’t very far, and Ray got out our bear spray. We didn’t make eye contact with him as he strolled by, but I managed to get him on video. You can check it out on my Instagram page. I promise there’s no zooming in or editing. He really was that close!

4. I recently hit a personal single-day driving distance record. Last week, we traveled from Mareno, North Dakota to West Glacier, Montana, a distance of over six hundred miles. Although we gave ourselves two days to make the trip, I really wanted the extra time in Montana, so we headed out early and made it by dinner time. Not something I’d like to do again anytime soon, but I finished a great audiobook on the way!

5. As we spend time in the northwestern part of the country, it feels like fall here, and I really like that. Fall has always been my most productive writing time. There’s just something about the crisp air and the smell of apples and pumpkin spice that seems to motivate me. Flipping the calendar to September also flips a switch in me. I go from summer vacation mode to get-to-work mode, and since I’m drafting my thesis as we speak, it’s good to be in the zone!

Five Things - August 25, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.” - Caroline Kennedy

2. School starts this week! I actually thought classes started after Labor Day, but nope, tomorrow. I’m excited to get started, though. In addition to writing my thesis, we’ll be intensively studying short fiction in a class aptly titled ‘Short Forms.’ There’s a pretty impressive reading list, and we’ll have to write four short fiction pieces to workshop with the group. I’ve published a good number of short stories in anthologies, magazines, and on podcasts, so this is something I really enjoy for a few reasons. First, short stories take less time to write than novels. This may seem obvious, but as writers, we’re in it for the long game. A full-length novel takes me anywhere from three months to a year to draft, but I’m able to finish a short story in a week or so. Second, short stories are a place to experiment. I can play with voice, write in an unfamiliar genre, or use a different point of view. I’ve written ghost stories, high fantasy, modern horror, near-future apocalypse tales, and even a mystery. Finally, every word counts in a short story. Short fiction must still have well-developed characters, a complete story arc, and a distinctive voice, but everything has to develop quickly, using far fewer words. With less space to tell the tale, I find I’m more vigilant than ever about tightening my language. Hopefully, the short fiction I write for class will find a home somewhere, and I’ll be sure to share it with you.

3. We just left Minnesota, and I have to say, we were really charmed by the state! The twin cities were so cool, although the Twins were out of town so we didn’t get a chance to visit the ballpark. The lakes were gorgeous, and we definitely could have spent a lot more time there, so we’ve bookmarked it for more future exploration.

4. Today we’ll get to put another sticker on our map. We’re currently camped out in North Dakota, one of the last remaining states in the lower forty-eight that we’d yet to visit. Last night, we had dinner in the cool little western-themed town of Medora, and today, after a few hours of work, we’re heading into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

5. When school started last summer, I had a couple of projects in process. I used the break time between spring semester and residency, and the short summer recess, to finish two of those projects. I now have three romance novels in the pipeline–two romantic suspense stories from the TSI series and one romcom featuring an emotional support dog and a runaway bride. All three still need editing, but it’s good to have some new material in the works. Stay tuned!

Five Things - August 11, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

2. I’ll be at Chicago Fan Expo August 15-17 signing books with a few of my RI writer pals. If you’re in the area, come visit us in booth AP26. I’ll also be moderating some panels including: World Building- Mind Your Myths and Backstory on Saturday from 12 pm – 12:45 pm, The Writers After Party on Saturday from 4 pm – 4:45 pm, and Writing the Other-Creating Characters Outside Your Comfort Zone on Sunday from 2 pm – 2:45 pm. Check out the panels, and stop by to say hello!

3. We’ve had a whirlwind of travel these last couple of weeks, from finishing up our time in Colorado to South Dakota to Wisconsin. In South Dakota, we stayed in the Black Hills and visited the Washington Monument, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Wind Cave. Then we spent the night in the Badlands and explored Badlands National Park before heading to Sioux Falls for a couple of days. We’re currently chilling by a lake in Wisconsin, where we spent a fun weekend with some friends, and Wednesday we head towards Chicago so I can get ready for the Con. I made a couple of reels on my Instagram account which barely capture the incredible landscapes and monuments. It’s hard to see the scope and magnificence through the camera lense, but at least I’ll have a record of all the amazing things we’ve seen!

4. As I enter the final stretch of grad school (classes start back up in a couple of weeks), I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming year and beyond. I’ve written a ton of content over the last eighteen months, with several completed manuscripts to show for it, but I haven’t spent any time getting those stories into the world. Starting in January, when my grad school thesis draft is finished, I’m going to turn my attention to publishing and promoting my work again. For those of you who follow my alter-ego, Maggie Clare, I’ll have three completed romance novels ready to go by the winter, and those of you who like my speculative work, my thesis is a fantasy novel featuring a feathered dragon. Lot’s happening over the next year on the creative front, so stay tuned!

5. We are down to three states left in the lower forty-eight. These include North Dakota, Minnesota, and Idaho, which we have plans to visit by the end of August. Before we hit the three -year mark, we’ll have filled out our map!

Five Things - July 28, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.

   I want to be light and frolicsome.

   I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,

   as though I had wings.” ― Mary Oliver

2. It’s been a minute since my last blog! July has been a whirlwind, and I just finished my second year of residency for grad school in Gunnison, Colorado, so I’ve been a bit behind with my posts. My head and heart are full from being with my amazing classmates, workshopping our projects, attending useful craft talks, listening to incredible readings, and decompressing together when the jam-packed days were done. I’m taking a couple of weeks to enjoy our August travel plans, and to finish up a romantic suspense novel I started writing over a year ago, before I dive into my thesis and the other classes scheduled for this September.

3. Speaking of travel, we’re still in Colorado, currently in the Denver area for another week where we plan to catch a Rockies game and go to the Colorado Renaissance Festival. Yes, our Renaissance costumes made the cut when we pared down our wardrobes for the RV. After Colorado, it’s on to South Dakota, one of the four states in the lower forty-eight we haven’t visited yet.

4. I’ll be at Chicago Fan Expo August 15-17 signing books with a few of my RI writer pals. If you’re in the area, come visit us in booth AP26. I’ll also be moderating a bunch of panels, so check out the Chicago Fan Expo website for more info!

5. While in Western Colorado, I had the chance to both hike and drive through groves of Aspen. These trees are truly magical. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Services, Aspen trees are known for their ability to reproduce through their root systems, creating interconnected groves of trees that are essentially a single organism. Aside from that, they’re really gorgeous!

Five Things - June 24, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” - Dalai Lama

2. I think I’ve mentioned here that I wrote a horror flash fiction story for school, workshopped it with my class, and sold it to Tales to Terrify, a fun, creepy podcast. Well that story is finally live, and you can find it here: MONSTER. A couple of things… It’s short. Flash fiction work is generally under a thousand words, and even the audio version is only three minutes long. But it’s brutal. This is a Frankenstein’s monster story with an AI twist, and in the end, everyone’s really a monster. Approach with caution, or skip if it’s not your thing.

3. My second summer session of grad school is underway! The month of June is considered a ‘reading period’ in preparation for our time together on campus at residency in July. But this year’s schedule is a little different since we have a lot to prepare for residency in addition to the completed reading assignments. I’m currently working on a synopsis, which is a two page summary of the entire novel and the bane of most writers’ existence, an outline, which is just what it sounds like, and the first five thousand words of the manuscript. While it’s a lot, it’s also really exciting to be working on my dragon story.

4. We’re on the road again for the summer, currently camped out in Las Vegas where it is very, very hot! We flew back to Rhode Island for a quick weekend full of events, and now I’m back with my nose to the grindstone working on the above mentioned school work. We’ll be heading to Moab, Utah next week to check out some of the National Parks we missed our first time there, and then on to Colorado for about a month. I’ll try to remember to post more pictures!

5. If any of you follow my alter ego Maggie Clare, and read the steamy stuff I publish under that pen name, you may have heard I just finished writing a contemporary rom-com. Usually my romance novels have a suspense sub-plot featuring serial killers, cartels, stalkers, or some other nasty bad guy mucking things up for our couple. But my latest story features an emotional support dog, a runaway bride, a hot firefighter, some angsty heartbreak, and a happily-ever-after ending of course! The story evolved from a piece of short fiction I wrote for school. I liked the bones of it so much, I decided to try writing a long form version. If you’d like a sneak peek, head over to my Dear Maggie blog and check it out!

Five Things - May 26, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters." - Alan K. Simpson

2. It’s graduation season around here! In the last two weeks we’ve celebrated RJ who graduated from Loyola Marymount, Nick who graduated from the MFA program at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film, and Noah’s girlfriend Anjali, who received a Masters from USC. It was a whirlwind of activity and very exciting. Congratulations to all!

3. We’re back in Orange for a couple of weeks before we launch into our summer travels. Since it’s baseball season, and we love to visit as many parks as we can, last night we went to an Angel’s game. While they lost to the Yankees, of all teams, there’s nothing like watching game on a spring night under the lights with a cold beer.

4. We also went to dinner with Nick and Leslie at this cool place called The Hobbit. There’s only one seating per evening for this five course extravaganza, and we opted in for the wine-pairing. The food and experience was outstanding! We’d tried to get reservations here the last time we were in town, but it was booked solid, so we were thrilled to finally check this off our list of things to do in the OC.

5. I can’t believe classes start up again next week! This break has gone by quickly, but I’m ready to dig into my thesis, which will be the second half of my romantasy novel titled The Dragon Dancer of Krysh! I left this manuscript at the halfway point and put the project on hold when I started school. It was my hope to use this novel as my thesis project, but it needed to be approved by a mentor willing to work with a slightly longer than usual manuscript. I’m thrilled to say I have an incredibly talented and flexible mentor, and she’s truly excited about this book. If all goes as planned, the draft will be finished by winter break!

Five Things - May 12, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.” - Anne Frank

2. I got to spend this Mother’s Day with our kids for the first time in years. Only our daughter was missing, and she’ll be here next week to help celebrate her brother’s graduation. Every time we’re together, I feel such gratitude that I helped these lovely humans into the world!

3. I am officially on break from school for a couple of weeks until the summer session starts in June. I didn’t think I needed this downtime so much, but I really, really do! I’m using the time to finish a contemporary rom-com that began its life as a short story for workshop last semester. I liked it so much, I’ve developed it into a full-length novel titled Run, Harry, Run. The synopsis and outline are finished, along with half the manuscript, so I’m challenging myself to complete the story before school starts up again. It’s a luxury to have hours to spend on my own project, and I plan to take advantage!

4. I get a lot of advertising on my Instagram account for cool events. Because we move around every few weeks, the ads are usually for the last place we visited instead of where we are, which is a bit frustrating. It seems as though Insta has finally caught up with us, though, and I have a running list of stuff I want to do here in SoCal. For date night last week, Ray and I went to The Obscure, a distillery where the staff makes their own booze and then concocts really delicious cocktails from their supply. While you’re tasting in their artistic, moody space designed to feel like the French Quarter of New Orleans at night, they’re telling stories about the origins of the stuff you’re drinking. It was a unique, yummy experience which I highly recommend if you’re in the area.

5. This week we’ll be moving the RV from northern LA to a state park right on the ocean. Just as the hot weather is hitting in this part of the country, we’ll be chilling on the Pacific. After a winter in the desert, this beach lover can’t wait!

Five Things - April 28, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” - Billy Graham

2. We’re on the road again! This week, we’ve set up camp in Newport Beach, CA. It feels so good to be near the ocean again. For a girl who grew up on the coast, the desert never felt quite right. Like if I drove far enough, I should run into the beach. Anyway, we’re near the coast for a while now, and we look forward to spending time with our kids, watching a few of them graduate, and enjoying our continued adventures.

3. This is my last week of class, and next week marks the last week of the semester. Once I turn in my final assignments, I will have officially finished my first year of graduate school! My final paper in the survey class is a reflective piece. It asks where we were as writers when we started, how we hoped to grow, and what practical things we actually learned. I’ll be thinking about this over the next two weeks, and as soon as I have my thoughts together, I’ll share some of the highlights here.

4. I’ve been matched with my thesis mentor, Cindy Skaggs, and I’m really excited to work with her! She and I will have a kick-off meeting next week to discuss which project makes the most sense to focus on. I’m particularly pleased to have Cindy as my mentor because, in addition to working on this thesis, she’s eager to discuss industry stuff with me as well. It will be great to have someone else to bounce ideas off of, and to ask advice about publishing pathways for different projects. I’ll keep you updated as we get going.

5. I haven’t mentioned Milo, or any of the pets really, in a while, but all is well with our furry friends. Milo is sixteen and requires a little extra daily TLC, and I’m truly happy to do it. She’s such an affectionate little love, and I think her monthly arthritis shot, her daily thyroid meds, her extra calorie treats, and her calming pheromone collar truly make a difference in keeping her happy, comfortable, and as healthy as possible during her twilight years. It honestly makes me feel really good to take care of her after all the joy she’s brought, and continues to bring, to our family. Also, Daisy turns four next month, so happy birthday to our tiny travel dog!

Five Things - April 14, 2025

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. 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, starting with the quote of the week…

1. “I’m not going to allow my inability to do everything undermine my ability to do something.” - Senator Cory Booker

2. Coachella, wow! I planned to go to this festival while we were here in the desert because it’s literally happening right down the street, and because it’s so iconic, and it did not disappoint! Yes, it was hot. Yes, it was expensive. Yes, it was super crowded, but the opportunity to experience it with my bestie, and two of my kids and their girlfriends, was truly worth it. Lady Gaga put on an amazing show, and Green Day was fab as usual. I also got to listen to so much great music that I otherwise wouldn’t have discovered on my own. All in all, it was a fantastic, memorable weekend. I am totally exhausted, and I’ll need a few days to recover, but it was worth it.

3. I’m taking another glass art class today. It’s only a one-off workshop, but I’m really excited. Old Town Artisan Studios is truly a little gem of an organization. The space is incredibly peaceful and their mission to bring art to an underserved population admirable. Doing an art that’s different from the type that’s become my career feels meditative and satisfying. It was something I promised myself I would do when I set my intentions for the New Year, and I’m proud that I’ve followed through.

4. I can’t believe this semester is almost over! We’re starting our final round of workshops for the school year tonight, and I’m really excited. We’ve been focused on the horror and western these last few weeks, so our stories will be written in one of these genres, or at least contain an element of one of the genres. Oddly enough, I’ve written another horror story even though I really wanted to try my hand at a space western. So many stories, so little time! Eventually maybe I’ll get to it…

5. Just a few more weeks here in the desert before we hit the road again. I will miss the beautiful sunshine in the middle of winter, the stark mountains against the bright blue sky, the adorable hummingbird population, the extra space in our outdoor living area, my lovely art studio, and the kind people we’ve met here. At the same time, I’m ready to continue our travel adventure. Onward!