lauren3210

lmao, I write a post to say "hey, I'm back!" and then I promptly disappear again, sorry about that! I have been trying to respond to more posts on my friends list though, so I guess I'm making progress, slow as it may be. But I've just finished another epic rewatch of the Lord of the Rings (it's a thing I do every couple of months, because I'm weird like that) and I'm about to start reading a new book, so I thought I'd take some time in between to talk about what I've been up to lately:

WRITING:

I haven't been writing much recently, or at least, I haven't finished anything. My head seems to be teeming with ideas at the moment, some fanfic, some not, and I write like a woman possessed for about 10k, and then I look at it and think, "what the hell am I doing, this is crap," and then I start something else. It's weird, and it's annoying, and I'm wondering if I should in fact have signed up for some fests if this is how I write when I don't, tbh.

PARENTING:

So, as you know, Eryn, my eldest, is getting ready to take her GCSEs in a couple of months, and she's doing really well in every class except History. Now, in this subject, her fairly new teacher downgraded her coursework from a C to an E; told the class the wrong thing to revise for their mocks (the results of which go on college applications); spends most of her time trying to control the class instead of actually teaching anything of substance, and gave my daughter an Attitude to Learning level 1 - the worst mark you can get, and the only one she has ever received, EVER. So, last week I went in to talk to the History dept. about Eryn's work, and after a bit of back and forth about how Eryn should do this and Eryn should do that, I got kind of annoyed, and brought up everything the teacher has done in the past 6 months to knock Eryn's confidence in general. And then we got into a fight:

ME: All I'm saying is, there seems to be a common denominator here, and it's not Eryn.
TEACHER: *scowling* Well, Eryn, what did you say to me in class yesterday?
ERYN: *shrugs* I don't remember.
TEACHER: *yelling* How dare you shrug at me?! That's so rude!
ME: *smacks hand on table* Excuse you very fucking much, that's not rude, that's a social anxiety tic, along with her shaking hands and her inability to make eye contact. And how dare you try to teach her manners when I'm sitting right here? That's MY job, your job is to teach her history, and so far you're sucking at it!
HISTORY DEPT HEAD: Um, okay, so, Eryn you work on your revision, I'm sure you're going to do great!
BOTH TEACHERS: *run out of the room*

Yeah, I scared away two women in their 50s. Apparently though, I am well known in the school for winning arguments - one teacher tried to pull Eryn out of class for wearing nail varnish, and her head of house told the teacher not to because, and I quote "you do not want to tangle with Eryn's mum, believe me. She nearly made me cry once." (I did do that, lolololol)

FAMILY STUFF:

I had a little bit of a panic attack over my parents this weekend. I'd never really thought about it before, because until Joe left for Australia last week (and a guy nearly died in the seat in front of him on the airplane, bless him), he's always lived with them, but when I couldn't get in contact with my mum for two days, I freaked the fuck out, because what if something had happened? I'm 150 miles away, Jo is halfway across the world, how the hell would I even know if they needed help? It was the first instance I had of realising my parents' mortality, and I ended up spending 3 hours on the phone with my mum this afternoon, alternating between sobbing down the line and yelling at her to be more careful (turns out they'd gone on their boat for the weekend and forgot to tell me OR take their mobiles, for fuck's sake).

Also, I've been suffering from sciatica pains (a pinched nerve in my left bum cheek, all the way down to the back of my knee), and the other day I woke up after having slept in a funny position, and I can't move my right shoulder without whimpering. I'm walking around like a hunchback with a limp right now, I look utterly ridiculous! However I did get VERY VERY drunk on Thursday, because it was St Paddy's Day, and it's a rule for us Irish folk. Ben and I went down to our local Irish pub, and Ben wore a pair of my green leggings. I tried to get a picture of his hairy ankles, but I was utterly trolleyed and they all came out completely blurred. And now I'm going to have to buy a new pair, because he completely stretched out the crotch area (which he is ridiculously proud of, because he's a gross boy). One of these days though, I'm going to stop just telling you about the stupid things this man does, and just provide actual documentation!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately, and now I'm gonna go read a book. I hope you're all doing wonderful things, my darlings! ♥

I've been thinking a lot about whether or not to join in with some fests this year. I signed up to quite a lot last year, and while every one was a lot of fun for different reasons, I'll admit to feeling a bit burnt out by the end of the year. So this year I kind of decided that I would only sign up to the ones I enjoy the most, both writing and reading, to cut back on some of the stess that I felt before. The only problem with this is that I kind of thrive on prompts. When I see one I like, the entire fic unfolds before me, and I get that itch to start writing. It's both a fantastic and frustrating feeling, because the stress comes from having to sign up and not knowing if I have the time to get it done.

What I'd really like, I think, is the option to jump in at the last minute, kind of thing? Like, if the prompt I liked hasn't already been claimed, and I find that I do have the time and end up writing it, I can just submit the finished fic to the fest? Does that make any sense? I've seen prompts at both dracotops_harry and harrydracompreg that I would love to write, I'm just... not sure I can fully commit, so I haven't signed up.

Idk, maybe my anxiety is just playing up at the moment, and I'm feeling the stress of signing up even before I actually do it, lol.

A few other people were doing this stats thing last week, but it took me a while to work out a) how to use the stats page on ao3, and b) my total word count after holiday fests. But I finally worked it out, yay! So, here's my stats for the year 2015:

My five fics with the highest hit counts are: Unexpected Consequences (16097); The Rewards of Bravery (15003); Special Magic (7444); Make My Demons Run (6947), and Teach Me (5099).

Including holiday festfics, I wrote a grand total of 14 stories last year, and 11 of them were for the different fests I signed up to throughout the last 12 months, holy shit! My grand total word count for the year was a whopping 181,583!! That's like, two entire novels, I'm completely shocked.

While I'm here, I thought I'd list the fests I joined in last year, just so people truly understand how utterly crazy I went:

• hp_kinkfest


• dracotops_harry


• harrydracompreg


• hd_collab


• hd_smoochfest


• hd_remix (That Picture Remix Flash Fest)


• hd_eighthyear


• hd_erised


• hd_owlpost (3 fics)

I mean, man, that's a lot of fests, right? I had a lot of fun, but I will admit to getting a bit stressed out over it, so I don't think I'll be doing quite so much in 2016. Erised will be a thing, obviously, and probably also Smoochfest if they have a theme that calls to me, and I also signed up to hd_remix, now that I have a few fics in my arsenal for my writer to choose from. Everything else will just have to be down to if a prompt inspires me so much I can't stay away.

And now I think I'm getting a bit addicted to this ao3 stats page...

I was totally going to sit down and veg in front of the tv with some handy Netflix, but now I can't stop thinking about all the things I didn't put in my comment on blithelybonny's Buffy post. I'm going to have to write them down now, aren't I?

Problems with writing slash for years and then suddenly switching to het and panicking about it:

1. "Hang on, how can they be 'chest to chest' when there are breasts in the way? Oh, no, it's cool, they're squashy enough."


2. "No no no, fingering is easier from the front, not the back, especially when clothes are still on."


3. "WAIT. WHERE DID THE COME GO??"

Man, writing about dicks is so much easier, I think I'll go back to that, tbh.

So, I found a website that sells Converse Hi Tops in a range of different comic book characters, and I thought, hey, Eryn loves BOTH of these things so much, how about I spend loads of money on them for her for Christmas? But, I wanted it to be a surprise, so instead I asked Madison to go in and ask her if her fave was either The Joker, or Harley Quinn, because I couldn't remember. And what was Eryn's response? "shut up and go awaaaaayyyyy!"

Nice. See if I get you anything for Christmas now, you absolute buttface.

Sigh. I'm sure I wasn't this difficult as a teenager. But then again, my mother would probably tell a completely different story...

Hey everyone! *waves tiredly*

It feels like it's been forever since I last posted anything (although it's probably been closer to a few weeks), I've been SO BUSY OH MY GOD. But anyway, I have a week or so now to myself before going back to the grind, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to chat with you all!

( life stuff )

I think that's it? I have yet to do any holiday shopping, so I know I'm going to be frazzled in a few weeks. Oh also, my tumbledryer has crapped out on me, so until the repairman gets here I'm stuck hanging everything over radiators, so my laundry is slow going, which sucks. But anyway! How is everyone else? Much love you you all ♥

Hello lovely flisters! I'm desperately trying to find the time to finish writing my gift for hd_erised as well as my gifts for hd_owlpost, and I was wondering if someone would have the time to beta this little story for me? It's H/D (obviously), a little under 3k long, NC-17 rating, with some angsty post-war thoughts and emotions. My usual beta is currently working really hard on her own Erised entry as well as going through mine, and I don't want to have to ask her to fit this in as well, so any help would be greatly appreciated! I just need someone to point out any glaring errors, and basically tell me if it sucks or if it's okay.

Thanks in advance, and happy weekend! ♥

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For my second rec post, the fandom and pairing are gonna be Stiles/Derek from Teen Wolf.

( Read more... )

I totally forgot to claim this fic! Now I have to go and reply to all the lovely comments!

Title: Of Infinite Longings
Rating: R/Mature
Word Count: 6,500
Summary: Draco likes books. Harry doesn’t, but he thinks he might like Draco.
Content/Warnings: A lot of talk about books being the best thing ever; author’s shameless use of characters to explain why books are the best thing ever; books, basically.
Author's note: Dear prompter, my brain decided that you meant Muggle literature, I hope that’s okay. None of the quotes used are mine, I just borrowed them to help make my point about books being awesome. Title taken from the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.