Well, goodness me, is that the time? Those autumn leaves burning red, the daylight’s almost done, and little woodland creatures are scurrying off to the safe embrace of Mother Nature to hibernate. YET – life continues: in darkness, unseen, underground.
Could it be… the right time for another blog?
I was going to write something about my recent ‘freelanciversary’, my very own version of an Oscar winner’s acceptance speech that goes on for so very, very long that everyone’s fallen asleep in their drinks by the time it ends (if they haven’t packed up and left already).
Not quite the ‘five-word badass brevity’ of Joe Pesci in 1991’s ceremony. Or these Six Word Stories.
But having read through the past year’s Languawitchery blog writings, it’s all gotten really rather serious, hasn’t it?
Working as a freelance in a creative field – which in recent years feels like it’s been overwhelmed by a toxic Victorian miasma created by the kind that ‘know the price of everything but the value of nothing’ (Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic that my dear late Dad was very fond of repeating) – can certainly feel exhausting at times.
And it’s becoming ever clearer that their author (me) has been trying very very hard not to get expelled from school again (a secondary comprehensive in Surrey) either for: (a) having an ‘interesting array of various hair colours’ (an actual quote from one of my school reports); (b) for wearing those jeans with the ripped knees; or (c) some other excuse concocted by those with a misty-eyed nostalgia for the days when the school had canes and corporal punishment – only outlawed the year I started there.
Still. Some three whole decades later.
Someone trying much, much too hard to please everyone all of the time, of being all things to all people.
While in this reflective state – a veritable House of Mirrors, no less – the words a wise man once said to me come swimming up to the surface of consciousness:
So in that spirit, I’ll write that Oscar’s acceptance speech next year, maybe – when it’ll be a whole decade of being my own boss. (The boss in question [me] is currently learning how not to be such an awful slavedriver to their one and only employee [also me].)
Instead, here’s a couple of cartoons. These came forth in 2019 when I did an – online – cartooning course by Neil Kerber, superstar cartoonist for Private Eye and many others. Creative doodling was something I hadn’t done since I was in my teens and I’d forgotten quite how I much I’d enjoyed it…
NB: These following images are best viewed on a desktop computer or a tablet device, rather than a mobile phone.
And this:
Anyway, I highly recommend Neil’s course – which would make a wonderful Christmas gift for someone you love (or even yourself!).
You can find it here: Neil Kerber’s Amazing 6 Week Cartoon Course.
Got any questions or comments? Please get in touch.
As with the rest of this website — all words are written by me, Anya Hastwell;
images are created by myself using elements from the Canva design tool, unless otherwise stated.