What happened to Letters & Portraits this year?

...here's my 2023 recap

Photo: Tomi Adesina

Hi,

I hope you’re well and have had a good year…so far.

I’m sorry to have introduced you to a vibe that I didn’t keep up with. No podcasts, no newsletters – honestly, that’s not like me, and I did beat myself quite well about this, but I also think if I told you about it, maybe that’ll give us some closure for the year.

I wrote the intended first newsletter draft of the year in February as a late “Happy New Year” post and recorded the podcast because the first month of the year was hectic for me. In January, I was swamped in publicity and communications for the film, The Wait. As the writer of the film, I had tonnes of messages and PR to sort through and that meant I needed to push back the podcast and newsletter, but I had anticipated that the flurry would be done in February, and I could settle back into routine.

My prediction was correct.

The Wait

In February, I wrote and recorded the podcast episode for “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and was all set to get back into the bi-monthly newsletter and podcast rhythm when momentum around #NigeriaDecides2023 started building. The events were tense and I did not feel it was the right time to publish my newsletter – it just didn’t feel like the sensitive thing to do. In this period, I also put off the launch of my first audiobook partnership with Genti Media.

Perhaps this was not the right thing to do, but that was my gut feeling.

In March, after the elections, Genti released Fola King as an audiobook and I recommend that you listen to it – I did enjoy the voicing of Fola King’s character and if you’ve read the blog series on Tommyslav’s Island, you might find this great to listen to.

Fola King, Audiobook.

As I journeyed through March to June, I was up against prepping for a car driving test, dealing with some not-so-great health stress, reading, researching and writing to make the submission deadline for my first-year doctoral studies portfolio, attending classes, juggling corporate responsibilities at the office, and slowly…there was no time in my packed life to write or think about my newsletter and podcast. The only thing I consistently found time to do was pray and keep a gratitude journal, which I spoke about last year in the post ‘Where do the years go?’ (podcast) – Befitting topic, right?

I was also constantly beating myself up about disappointing my audience and with every message I got via Instagram, Twitter or even WhatsApp from those who had my number, it just made things worse.

I finally took a physical break and vacation in July when I separated myself from my laptop and the other demands of work to catch up on life with my loved ones. July was a beauty and a personally blessed month. Needless to say, no writing or podcasting in that season.

I returned to reality after the summer break and settled into the routine of competing demands and deadlines. School, office, research, tonnes of emails, rinse and repeat. Love it!

It’s November and my orderly brain says this post is more suited for December because it ties in nicely to the end of the year. But then, why not now?  The only way to get back into anything is to break the duck.

As a result, I have released the two pre-recorded podcast episodes, “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and “Fireflies” for this year. They are now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music – I hope you enjoy them.

So, if you’re reading this, either at the start or in the middle and maybe even during the last bit of your day, thank you for staying with me.

P.S: I recorded Fireflies back in May 2023

Love,

Tomi

Bonus material: Watch me talk about my PhD research at the University of Exeter.