I’ll be away from the 8th-18th, I doubt there’ll be any sales in that time but if there are I’ll post your order when I’m back!
Category: Blog
After 40 years of multiple sclerosis, 20 years of me being a carer, 6 months of palliative care, and weeks of intense decline, my mother has passed away.
This is a weird time for us. There’s been a sombre mood over the house while we come to terms with everything we’ve been through and what the new “normal” is. I’ve been working on a couple per-zines to help me process (which I’ll be making available on my shop) and I’ve been offered some work leading workshops on processing grief through that format – not that I’m an expert, but the friend who offered me the opportunity clearly thinks I have something to offer with the grief work that she does.
I don’t want to drag people down about it so I’ve been self editing when I speak about it, and the zines offer me a more raw outlet for things I wouldn’t usually talk about. Maybe they’ll help other people going through similar things, or maybe they’ll just help people understand me more. It’s important to hold non judgemental spaces, as much for ourselves as other people, and there’s really no wrong way to feel or to express yourself about intense, and intensely complicated, life events. Radical self acceptance, and all that.
During times of intense trauma I obsess over a creative endeavour, and this time it’s zines, which is good for me. I think we’re all ok enough, all things considered.
I’ve decided to have a crack at selling the stuff I make, and taking it seriously while also not pushing myself beyond my limits as a person with serious challenges. That means that whatever random things I happen to make will be up for grabs – some one offs, some repeatables, but I won’t be restricting myself to any one type of creativity. It’s just not how I thrive.
Because of my challenges with my health (both physical and mental), I ask for patience and kindness when it comes to responses and speed of shipping. You’ll get it as fast as I can get it to you, promise :3
Almost all my stock is made by hand (card decks I get professionally printed, although the packaging is then made by hand) and so they may have the foibles of handmade products – perfection is for heartless mass production. I have multiple repetitive strain injuries that don’t ever seem to heal, so things take me a longer time to make and I’m likely to have some difficulties making them, but all things are of worth! Some thing may be sold as “seconds” if they’ve come out particularly wonky, but are still fine, so if you’re on a tight budget check back in occasionally for a bargain!
Bests,
The NotSoWittyWriter
(Andrew, He/they/Em)
Categories
Personal Algorithm
I’ve seen a lot of shit takes lately about curating your own algorithm, mainly that it should be either a collection of your own work on your own website (babes I’ve seen all this before, I can’t look at it a thousand more times and pretend to be entertained) or that you should only look at content creators/topics that you already know you like, which sucks all the whimsy out of it. I DO want to go on a strange tangent about koi farming and learn new things, actually.
So far as the takes I’ve seen totally miss the point that the only good thing about algorithms was discovering new things.
I’m not claiming to have a solution to this – ideally I’d like a place to go where I can see updates (for the love of fuck, decent ones) from people I like and articles about things I am or may be interested in. I don’t want clickbait. I don’t want shitty personality tests or rage bait or nazi bs, I don’t want to be watched by the ever present surveillance.
I just want to connect and discover.
I largely stay off social media (ad) platforms now cause they have nothing of worth to offer me, although I dip my toes in now and then. Feel a bit caught between “if I want people to see my stuff I have to be present” and “this isn’t working and the environment fucking sucks”.
Tough one, innit?
Categories
Inspire new worlds with stickers
While inspiration isn’t hard to find, having a stock of visual prompts can be really useful – using my creative journal I’ve worked dozens of new stickers over the last year, many of which I’ve continued to use to create new work and ideas.
If you could do with a fresh burst of inspiration (or just want to decorate the world you already live in!) consider becoming a Patreon supporter or buying a pack (or three, or five!) from my web shop ✨
Categories
Back and bold
Yeah it’s been almost 2 years since I posted last 🤷 I’ve but given up though! I’ve picked up some new skills and outlooks, and I’m ready to go at it again!
One of my new(ISH) hobbies is creative journaling and I think some of the pages would make great art prints – I’ve written a substack article about it if you’re interested in taking it up, I’ve also got a pilot podcast episode recorded. Trying this new thing called “radical self acceptance” where I stop expecting too much and enjoy what I can do. Wild, right?
Nebulous Rivals is the next big game likely to come to fruition – the idea is to drawer 2 cards from a mixed deck each turn and then trade them in for suns, planets, asteroids, and tiles which you use to build your own patch of space. The finer details of how it’s going to be scored are still a mystery to me, but I’ve begun getting all the kit in to build a prototype deck, which is never a cheap endeavour when you’re on a low income. I looked into buying marbles but it was estimated to come out at £20-£30 per game which is unsustainably high, and so I’ve decided to make them myself – I prefer to keep my big projects as hand made as possible because mass production is inherently unethical (the only labour I’m exploiting is my own!)
Last year was pretty fucking rough, and amazing. While the year started with a violent encounter with a bigot, it then went on to acting for the first time, creating new art, and enjoying the smallest moments. Healing my body and mind held me back me from a lot of things, but I’m feeling ready to to tackle life again with a fresh perspective, Ngl the nature of my life means things get in the way nearly constantly so I can only do my best, but I’m happy with that.
The writing club I run (Friends of Penelope) ran a poetry competition in December and I sent it off to acclaimed author Molly Potter for judging – The results just in! I was not the winner, but I think we all did great work and I’m excited to release it as an anthology by printing some copies in house and selling them at markets or via local book shops. Title tbd. I’m feeling more able to write again following the traumatic incident of last year, and so I’m hoping to publish a few anthologies of my own this year – one poetry and one short story. I say hoping, that’s because of several influencing factors and I don’t want to put excess pressure on myself, that’s the death of motivation (and more importantly, enjoyment) for me. Those will be available on this website.
I’ve decided that I love working on games and will be pushing that as a large facet of my career from here on out – See creatures will have a second go at a kickstarter campaign early/mid 24, after I’ve managed to get some travel sized versions out to reviewers. (Travel sized because I’m on an extremely low income and have to do what I can manage). If you want more info on that amazing game (not that I’m biased!) go to seecreatures.co.uk. It’s part of my Deep Sky game series – the heading under which all my games will be published. There is talk about setting up a gaming co-operative under Queer City Gaymes, but only time will tell if that’s going to actually happen. I’d like it to. All info or links to my games can be found on this website.
I also plan to sell some of my art, I’ve done a series on Trans Masc bodies (18+) that I’d like to sell, and I’ve done another based on my experiences during the summer.
And that’s not even mentioning the choirs I’m in or run, nor the personal music I’ve been working on, combined with my work in the community and training workshops I’m hoping to see the results from my efforts really grow this year.
Check out my socials for more info!
Categories
Update
The last 7 months have been quite trying, hence my website being quite. In a nutshell my partner and I agreed to be in a documentary about trans issues, we had a lot of distress over this decision as we were worried about the final content of the show (which we haven’t seen yet), we also didn’t want to make a commodity of trans day of remembrance for other people’s entertainment but felt the desperate need to do what little we could to try and stave off the waves of hate trans people face. We, ultimately, didn’t want to be in it at all and have been plagued by anxiety and distress. The final outcome of the show remains uncertain for us, and channel 4 have been grossly misrepresenting it’s contents in publicity statements.
This was followed by an attack by far right extremists in the park during an art rally I held against section 35, which resulted in my getting a broken nose and concussion trying to pull an attacker off of an innocent by-stander. There has been no justice on that matter, only polite words of concern.
This has lead me to take a step back from several facets of my life while I nurture my mental and physical health.
Not everything has come to a halt however – I’ve been working on a few creative projects! The first is a book called “Irreversible Joy” which is about finding happiness from the perspective of someone who’s gender diverse (spoiler alert, there’s a lot of it to be had!) and a card game called “See Creatures” which is a bright and lighthearted game about making creatures for points and to inconvenience the other players with their effects – another update coming soon!
I also have been working on a thriving theatre life, I started a new protest singing group which has become a tightly knit group and we also do writing and acting – our current project being around the history of gender diversity, which crosses thousands of years. I also have a (thankfully small!) part in a community theatre production in a nonbinary role, which is on during late June and early July.
Hopefully going forward things will continue to improve!
The official run of Songs Of Hope And Protest ended mid June, but we’ve continued to perform scratch performances at a couple festivals, all to raving reviews – even the one where last minute doesn’t quite cover it! The cast played into the mistakes and the audience loved the authenticity. There are murmurings that SOHAP might continue to do one off shows, mostly condensed to just the songs, and I’m hopeful it will continue!