2021 in Review
Hello, Happy New Year, and welcome to this, my first newsletter!
I’m intending to keep these emails short and infrequent — no more than three per year, with any writing-related news or updates I have, plus a bit about what I’ve been up to.
Last year was significant for me as it saw the publication of my first pieces of short fiction. I only started writing short fiction in 2020, having been convinced up until then that it was something my brain wasn’t wired to do. But I’d been reading so much amazing short fiction online, and had so many ideas kicking around inside my head that I thought it was time I pushed myself. Plus, after spending several years writing my novel, I felt like I needed a change of pace. I had a total of three short stories, one flash piece, and one piece of micro fiction published in 2021, so it’s been a good year. You can read them here:
The Techwork Horse (FIYAH Literary Magazine Issue 17 — January 2021)
Worst Place Ever - Avoid! (Winner: Apex Magazine Microfiction contest — March 2021)
A Blind Eye (Daily Science Fiction — May 2021)
Scale Baby (Zooscape — December 2021)
The Walls of Benin City (Omenana Magazine — December 2021)
In November, I found out I’d been shortlisted for the Future Worlds Prize for SFF writers of colour, which is very exciting. This was for the opening of my novel A SHADOW IN CHAINS, and I feel very honoured to have been shortlisted. The announcement of the winner is due in the next few weeks.
On a personal level, in October I ran my first full marathon, something I never thought I would do. It was an utterly amazing and humbling experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I ran the London Marathon, for the mental health charity Mind, and will continue to enter the ballot each year as, alas, I am hooked. You can check out photos on my Instagram, here. [For any running stats nuts: my finish time was 4 hrs 30 mins 58 secs; my aim was under 4 hrs 30 mins, so not too shabby.]
That’s about it! Thanks for reading.
Modupe
(M H Ayinde)