An Accidental Vagabond is about traveling and living abroad, and a little journal of the history of places I have been, both alone and with Eun.
Yet, this blog has been through a lot of changes.
Herstory
In 2008, I decided to try writing a blog.
Blogging started in 1994 on something called link.net. The blogging platform Blogger began in 1999. WordPress launched in 2003. Youtube in 2005. Twitter in 2006 and Tumblr in 2007. A year later, I started this blog; once called Leta1950. My first post “It All Begins with Quitting” was posted on July 27, 2008.
A lot has changed since then, including this blog. Honestly, much of this process has been slow, and meandering. The blog, not necessarily my life, although from time to time my life can fall into that description too.
How it Began
In 2008, I had no idea what I wanted to write about, only that I wanted to write. So, naturally I made it a blog about writing and being a writer. I made the unfortunate decision of naming my blog after my mother. Unfortunate, not because I didn’t love her or her name, but what did my mom’s name and birthdate have to do with being a writer?
I didn’t do any research before starting and I had no clue of how to build an audience or what my niche was truly. So, I meandered. A lot. I meandered inconsistently. I stuck with the theme of writing for about 3 years, then in 2009 I was cast in a touring company, and I changed the theme of this blog to reflect that change in my life. In 2010, I returned to the theme of writing, sometimes writing about films, books, workshops I was teaching, little bits of life here and there.
The Move to China
Then in 2013, I got a teaching job in China. It was only meant to be a year thing, but after my mother’s sudden death in 2014, I ended up staying abroad another year but this time in Europe. It was while I was in Europe that I decided to change this blog to a travel blog. It was sometime around 2015 that I changed the name to Accidental Vagabond. Still, I didn’t write much. Then in 2016 I returned to Portland, Oregon for about 8 months before moving to South Korea.
Still I didn’t write much.
Life in South Korea
I began in Busan, a coastal city in the south of South Korea, but then moved up north to a place called Gwanggyo in 2017. Still I didn’t write much.
In September of 2017 I met my partner Eun. We had our first trip together in February of 2018. I created a new blog called Put a Pin in That, which was meant to be about all our travels together, but covid put a stop to that idea, and that blog. In 2018, we moved to Seoul together. Here we are still together and still in Seoul.
Now
I changed the blog again to An Accidental Vagabond. Moved Put a Pin over to Accidental Vagabond, and read through every past post. It was like a diary, interesting to me because it was my past, maybe interesting to people who know me because they know me, but it wasn’t readable to anyone else. So, another transition. Old posts removed and travel focused.
I did export old posts to other blogs like Simple my photo blog, and My Short Story Workshop where I write about writing, and Flecksofpoetry.com where I write poems, but this blog is about traveling, living abroad, and all the joys and challenges and experiences that entails.
Let’s see how it goes.
An Accidental Vagabond 
Thank you for the like and the follow, it is very encouraging. Terry.
P.S. If the answer to this question is yes then you are a writer and not a hobbyist……………. do you have to write?
This is a tricky answer for me. Do I have to write? Have to? It’s more like I can’t help it. If I’m not writing stories or poems, which I want to write, but often don’t, I journal. I write in my journal almost daily which is why I don’t always blog. So yes, I have to write. But, when I think about the play I want to write, and the adaptation I want to write, or the poems in my head, and all of the short stories, and the next novel, all the stuff that wont come out because I think about how no one will ever read them- I feel comfortable with my writing as a hobby idea. I hope it will trick me into writing all of my ideas. I don’t know if that makes any sense.
Thanks Terry. I look forward to reading more of your posts, and thanks for liking my Zizkov excerpt. I really appreciate that- talk about encouraging.
My pleasure. Any trick that keeps you writing is a good trick.
Adrienna,
various google searches led me to your blog and I’m grateful for it. I really love your haunting video of Sue as well as your letters from an old friend section…she was incredibly special to me…an unofficial godmother (she hated that term) to my son. Will you send me an email? Would love to back channel a few things. PS also saw your post on Pollock. The Krasner bio is just out and it is fantastic. Warmly, Aby