What, when, where, how and why … who am I?
Languawitchery Wordcraft is me, Anya Hastwell
A potted timeline to date:
Late 1970s: I drew my first breath in this world one sunny spring day (in a hospital, not a Chekhovian cherry orchard).
1980s–1990s: I grew up in a small town in southeast UK with a forename that caused endless confusion for some, despite being a four-letter word. This enhanced my sensitivity to the power of words from a very early age (scroll down for footnote).*
1997: I realised that you could get paid for writing them when I had my first feature article published (a piece called ‘Ghosts of Surrey‘, if you’re curious – and £20 went much further back then!).
2000: I accidentally wrote the lyrics to a song that, just a little over half a decade later, ended up in an indie film called Vampire Diary (2006; Rating: 18+).
2001: The year I learnt that writing could also mean meeting your musical heroes, when I conducted a short, but sweet interview for my university’s student magazine.
All from a pen, a rickety old word processor, and certain words strung together in some sort of order.
2005–present: Publishers, businesses and organisations hire me to work on theirs: copyediting, proofreading and sometimes even writing** them.
Some of these words become published books.
Others evolve into creative content writing and communications.
When I’m not working, you might find me on a yoga mat, talking to a cat, or tour guiding for one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries.
You can also find me on LinkedIn.
Headshot image by Mark Caldwell.
* Pronounced [an-yah]. And it’s quite common in Europe. For further phonetic guidance, please add me on LinkedIn and click the speaker emoji next to my name.
See also: the character Anya Jenkins, former vengeance demon, in the cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
** Which I’d like to do more of, having recently finished a master’s degree in Creative Writing.