2021 was a strange year—to say the least.
I started the January living in a new city, getting to know it—which, during a pandemic, actually meant: not getting to know it at all, and instead locking myself inside my apartment, waiting for the nightmare to be over.
But this same year I was also part of the Clarion West Class of 2021, an experience that was magical, a privilege and a honor. Six weeks of writing and fun and hard work that made me a better writer than I was before; six weeks in which I probably learned more than I would in a decade.
And, of course, in 2021, I published a few stories—and that’s why I’m making this very-decent-and-very-official award eligibility post.
My first story of the year came out in January, in The Dark magazine. There, in the woods, is the tale of a woman who moves back to her family home, a place weird things happened when she was younger, and where the woods claim what it wants.
In March, Little Doors was published (The Dark). It’s the story about Shawn, a young man who, having lost—in more than one way—his uncle, dives deep into the the research his missing relative was putting together for a potential book. Only to find out the subjects of Uncle Huck’s investigations had very… peculiar stories to tell.
The Screaming Tree, which came out in August (also in The Dark), is about a sister and a brother trying to understand why their grandmother’s cemetery vault keeps being vandalised; which leads then to uncover a blood debt their family have been carrying through generations.
October, the anthology Were Tales was released, and I’m proud to he contributed with Wife to the Wild, a short story about the backlands of Brazil, and mystical jaguars.
Finally, in November, we had the release for Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World. My story for this wonderful project was Into the River, the tale of a woman, a city marked by its associations with nazism, and a river flooding with revenge.
I hope you’ll enjoy my work; if you manage to read it all, or just a few of these stories. And, if so, I'd be beyond honored if you want to recommend them for awards. As usual, I'm happy to get to work with a magazine dear to my heart, and with wonderful editors, authors and artists. Here I stand, in the hope that 2022 brings us better days, fulfilled dreams—and a much needed peace.
