Though caught on the busy day before her scheduled departure to Phoenix Comicon’s Fan Fest, where she and husband C.M. Halstead will be promoting his science fiction books at a much-in-demand vendor’s table, Tonya June Moore was only to happy to provide a reporter with a frank and entertaining interview.
Of course, it should be noted, her primary passion in life is outreach — or as she calls it, “teaching social media.” Talking to people, whether it is interviewing stars for the Sedona International Film Festival, promoting her husband’s creative work, endorsing holistic ways to heal from illness or simply talking about living off-grid in a renovated 1980 school bus, comes easy to Moore.
“Any knowledge I have, I put out there for people,” Moore said.
How she became a guru of empowerment, of disseminating knowledge, is a story in itself. After leaving her corporate job five years ago, she “sold everything” and took Route 66 to Sedona — not straight to Sedona, she explained, as it wasn’t her planned destination, but once here she experienced a life-changing event that rooted her in red rock country: She met the man who would become her husband.
Both she and Halstead, a former Marine turned writer, had ample experience in the corporate world and decided it wasn’t for them. Their lives now almost seem like a negation of the very concept of corporate striving.
“We live in a school bus we did ourselves,” Moore said. “We did all the work on it. And she looks really antique, which is cool.”
The couple’s accomplishment is impressive by anyone’s standards: Accounting for the initial overhead — the cost of the bus itself at $1,200 — creating a tiny moveable home still amounted to less than $5,000. They move approximately every two weeks to remain firmly within the bounds of the law, but what they accomplish in those two weeks reveals more than just a passion for abiding by the rules.
“We live intentionally,” Moore said. “We clean up the forest along the way …. When we get there, and while we’re there.”
For Moore, the commitment to the environment is important, but she will admit that her choice of home sometimes surprises others. According to her, reactions are often mixed when she tells people she lives in a bus. Even in Sedona, where folks are expected to have expanded minds, the idea of someone who lives on a bus can be more powerful than the reality of the person standing before you.
“I like to be clean. I don’t have dreadlocks,” Moore said, smiling.
She added that such misconceptions are troubling. This little city in the red rocks is not always what it appears. If given the opportunity, Moore will expound upon this belief, asking why in such a beautiful, energetic place as Sedona there is such closed-mindedness — such skyrocketing rents, bad landlords and aggressive, entitled people.
“I don’t want this to be another Manhattan,” Moore said.
She then did an about-face, shaking her head.
“Still — I’m an eternal optimist.”
