Well, not entirely, but finances are keeping me slavering over a worn keyboard instead of off down the road, cold pint in hand...
So, as it goes, a while back I chucked in the day job and struck out on my own armed with a pencil a crotchety imagination and various machineries of joy with which to promulgamate the process. Life is a learning experience and what I've learnt is NOT-A-LOT! Whether tethered to a paycheck or frenetically chasing the golden hoop of freelance, folk are generally the same. Originality is not what is wanted . Yes, yes, I realised this way, way back in the misty past during that godforsaken marketing course that I did - when 'marketing' was all the thing - "Ho ho ho, Mr Moon, forget 'innovation' if you want to get ahead in this field, see where the pack is going and try head 'em off..." Baaaaaaaaaaaaah!
And yes, after months of submitting original characterisations, mascots, emblems and logos, what the herd really want is something as close to Donald Duck, Micky Mouse, MacDonald's double-M and the Nike swoosh as they can get away with.
Meanwhile my quest to exit this looping rat race and settle/wade/hack my way into a less treadmill-like lifestyle in the Natal Midlands remains thwarted by the non-sale of the Johannesburg house. My plans of straw-bale building, hut erection, dammit even man-cave dwelling are in a permanent state of suspension. The only interested parties to date have been rather impractical business-men (aren't they all?) and foreigners. Yes, foreigners - except they have to sell their own holdings in the old-country before they can progress. The locals aint interested, they want a ready-to-move-in, like what they saw in last month's Elle Decor, perish the thought of putting their own spin on things (see first paragraph!). My extolations on the benefits of the solar-geyser and rain harvester fall on deaf ears.
Everything is on hold, I cannot seem to focus on any long-term project in fear that it will suffer dire disruption as and when we move, the semantics of which still keep me awake at night. So, apart from sporadic forays into the novels, graphic or otherwise, these are on hold. The vegetable patch should be showing the first signs of the prospective winter pickings - but it has been left to its own devices. From what to keep and what to chuck, arranging to install things like diff-locks on the bakkie and somewhat more rugged tyres on the motor cycle to what sort of stock I'd like to put in the gift/ craft-shop and wondering if I can get some micro-brew kegs into the pub .
Here is a character I want to develop, he's Harry the Hood, he's Harry Potter on amphetamines, out for a pint, a snort and a bit of (inadvertent or otherwise)dark magic on the side...
