Ask Me Anything!

[lauren3210]

Because everyone is doing it and it looks like fun and I'm bored, so why not? Get as personal or as random as you like, y'all know how I love to share :D

Comments

[gracerene]

What is something you are super excited about right now?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

My smoochfest fic! I just handed it in, and I'm feeling really proud of it, because I really feel like I interpreted the song for the prompt well, you know? I can't wait to see what people think of it!

Also this Cards Against Humanity online game that my daughter found; we haven't been able to stop playing it and IT'S SO MUCH FUN OMFG!!

[capitu]

Do you speak any other languages?

What's your favourite thing about fandom?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I have this thing about languages, where I'm not all that good about actually speaking other languages. I can speak English and Gaelic, and I can translate French, Spanish, Latin, and Portuguese into English, but I can't actually speak them myself, lol!

My favourite thing about fandom is how expansive it can be, which for a multi-shipper like me is an absolutely awesome thing! I can find someone who ships Harry/Draco but also really loves Luna/Ginny too, or Remus/Sirius, or anything else, and fandom becomes a little bit bigger every time. But also I love how inclusive fandom is as a whole; it doesn't matter if you're straight, gay, black, white, or a monkey with a typewriter, you can find something that makes you feel welcome and included somewhere within this ragtag group of nutters. I love that so fucking much!

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I once stayed in a massive house in Wales for Christmas, that managed to house my step-father's entire extended family (I think there were about 20 of us staying there). I loved it so much that the layout of the house has been imprinted on my brain, and whenever I imagine my dream house, it's that one. Although it was quite old and not in the most perfect location, so I would probably have one built just like it somewhere else, if money weren't an issue. It had this massive kitchen with a island in the centre, and it was like the hub of the entire house, and I'd love to have that, my family all around me while we cook. Unfortunately my kitchen in my own house is too small for that.

I've had weird dreams since I was really tiny, but I have one reoccurring nightmare that I have whenever I'm ill. I dreamed that my family housed a pack of zoo animals in our back garden, and one of them was a very mean big cat. He was so mean and scary that we had to chain him up to the slide (lol) to keep him from hurting any of the other animals. And one day, I came downstairs to find that all of the animals had escaped, including this big cat. And when I looked at his broken chain, laying beside it was the black and white cat that lived in the house next door, and the big cat had chopped this little pet in half. What's even scarier is that I was only 2 years old when I first had that dream! My mother still remembers me waking her up in a panic and forcing her to go and check on the neighbour's cat, to make sure it hadn't actually been chopped in half.

I also once dreamed that an ex of mine came to save me from a spy mission gone wrong, and while we huddled in the back of a plane on our way home, he apologised for all the things he had done to me. This was a strange dream because it felt as though he had forced his way into the dream, rather than it just happening naturally. A few days later I learned that he had passed away, and to this day I wonder if that dream was some kind of ghostly visit or something. (I don't really have any opinions on the afterlife, but it's interesting to think about!)

Wow, what awesome questions, you are so much better at that than me, haha!

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I generally don't tend to have crushes on real people tbh, I don't pay close enough attention. Although now that I think about it, when I was younger I did have a crush on Ronan Keating, from the boyband Boyzone (wow am I showing my age there, good god!). Ouch yeah, that's pretty damn embarrassing, and now I kinda wish I hadn't remembered that, haha! *hides face under pillow until the redness goes away*

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I am 33, so Boyzone came around just at the right time for me (1997 was when their first hit came out, if I remember correctly). It was an embarrassing crush, because I didn't even like their music! I was listening to bands like Silverchair and The Offspring, not bloody pop bands, lmao!

[snowgall]

Any piercings other than earlobes? Tattoos?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

*grins*

Okay, piercings: my left ear is pierced 3 times (plus twice on the lobe) and my right ear 2 times (plus twice on the lobe. I have my belly button pierced (my first ever piercing), my left nipple, my tongue, and my bottom lip.

Tattoos: I have a scorpion holding a rose in its tail on my stomach; a pentagram inside a sun on my lower back; a feather turning into a flock of crows on my left ribs; a kneeling angel on the back of my neck; the quote "see you then" on a heartbeat on the inside of my right wrist, and a quote from Wuthering Heights translated into Gaelic and wrapped around my right ankle.

I've been thinking about getting some stretches for my lobes recently, and possibly another lip piercing. Also I really want a snake wrapping around my left wrist, with the head resting over my thumb, but my usual tattooist has moved and I haven't found anyone else I trust enough yet. I'm also thinking about having a tattoo on my shoulder and the side of my neck, but as I don't know what I want yet, that will probably be a while.

... yeah, I'm a bit of a body mod fan, haha!

[snowgall]

Wow! I figured you probably were a fan of body mod given the recent kerfuffle with your daughter and her school :) But I had no idea the extent.

It all sounds very cool, but I admit to reservations about tongue piercings. A lot of it is due to my linguistics training - I can't see wanting to mess around with my articulators! I want to be able to pronounce lingual sounds (e.g. trills, clicks, certain fricatives) without any more difficulty than I already have :)

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

She's the only one so far who shows any sign of following in my footsteps, lol! My middle girl raises her eyebrows whenever her sister starts talking about a new body mod she wants, and often says "I just don't understand why you and mum keep mutilating yourselves" haha! But I'm quite conservative now compared to when I was younger; I rarely wear jewellery in my piercings, and none of my tattoos can be seen unless I show them. As for my tongue piercing, it actually depends on where on your tongue you get it pierced. Mine is towards the back, so you can't even see it when I talk, and - apart from the few weeks it took to heal - it doesn't affect my speech at all. I can still roll my r's with the best of them, lol!

[indyonblue.livejournal.com]

What's the best holiday you've ever been on?

Do you have a phobia?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I have two: One when I went to Spain with a girlfriend, and one when I went to Menorca with my family. The first one was great for so many reasons. We were so young (16) and we went on a watersports holiday, and did precisely NONE of the sports offered. Instead, we lazed around on the beach for the whole 10 days, watching gorgeous people and tanning our skin, and because it was Spain, and it was summer, we could hold hands and kiss and just be together without having to wonder what people we knew were saying about us, and it was just fantastic. The family holiday was just beautiful. We rented a villa with a pool, and my eldest daughter spent practically the entire 2 weeks in there. My middle daughter (who was actually just the baby at the time) kept forcing her grandad into the paddling pool, so they could do "mermaid exercises" together - it was the most hilarious thing, to see this man who looks like father christmas bending down and then waving his wet hands in the air going, "i'm a mermaid princess." Like for real, hands down the best thing I have ever seen. It was just a really relaxing, wonderful holiday, full of days on the beach and walks down into the town in the evening, watching the kids on the trampolines and then walking back via the ice cream shop. Just a really gorgeous family holiday.

I have several phobias, haha! Arachnophobia, for one. The other day, I managed to kill a really large spider in the bath my smooshing it with a bottle of conditioner, and then afterwards I had to sit down because my knees were weak and I felt sick. Claustrophobia is another, although it's less about the small space than it is about the inability to move. I freak out just the same when I'm in an elevator or if someone is hugging me a little too tight. I also have an extreme issue with crowds, but I don't know if that an actual phobia or more of a general dislike of being near people, lol. But yeah, spiders and small spaces, those are the main things that will get me irrationally hyperventilating!

[indyonblue.livejournal.com]

Small spaces I don't mind, unless they are packed with people & then I panic. So yeah, I'm not a fan of crowds either. I hate going to Covent Garden for that reason - the lifts up with everyone pushing into you...ugh.

Holidays with grandparents are the best! Both of those trips sound amazing :)

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I once got stuck in a lift with a bunch of people who had all taken advantage of the sale on pillows at a nearby store. 6 people and 12 massive bloody pillows, all crammed into a very tiny carpark lift, and then the damn thing got stuck between floors for an hour - in the middle of summer! I thought I was going to die, it was the worst thing!

[indyonblue.livejournal.com]

That would give me nightmares!

[nia_kantorka]

Which author would you like to meet and grill about their works? If one is not enough, you could tell me about one author from each of your favourite genres (I think it's only fair to be gracious here ;p).

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Ohmygod, there are so many! I'd love to have a sit down chat with Maggie Stiefvater (YA lit writer), because she just seems really cool, and I just think we'd get along really well together. I'd also love to talk to Madeline Miller (author of Song of Achilles), because I really want to ask her if she just wrote that book because she just couldn't hold in all the slash shippy feels after studying The Iliad at university (because I confess to having those ship feelings myself, haha!). Oh and also Kelley Armstrong (Adult horror/supernatural writer), because man can she write an awesome female character, and I really want to know how she managed to think up an entire universe of characters and still manage to fit them so seamlessly into our world. Sarah J Maas, Robin Talley, Holly Black, Libba Bray, and God, so many more awesome female writers, I want to chat with them all!

Oh, and Patrick Ness, of course, because he's lovely! :D

[nia_kantorka]

Maggie Stiefvater must be a great person. Whenever I see something she said (on tumblr), I love it. I have her Wolves of Mercy Fall series on my tbr shelf, but haven't read it. God, all these unread books in my life.

I'm curious about Madeline Miller's book now. :)

Kelly Armstrong writes YA too. I read her Darkest Power series. My blog fellow loves her Women of the Otherworld books and I read all her reviews. It's slightly intimidating that there are so many books and such a bunch of characters.

Libba Bray. Oh God yes! I'm waiting like mad for her second Diviners story and loved Going Bovine. Her blog posts are hilariously funny.

I've only heard about the others, but at least Patrick Ness is also on my tbr pile. :)

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Read Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series, Nia! Doooooo ittttttt! Canon gay character! Possibly canon gay relationship! Angry feminist female character! House full of psychic characters! Magic woods! Seriously, go read them, you won't be disappointed.

And yes, I've read all of Kelley Armstrong's books, including her YA series (she was the first author to write a love triangle the right way, and I love her for it). There are a lot of characters, but you won't be disappointed by them, they're all awesome in different ways!

[nia_kantorka]

Haha. I'll try. But it's hard to buy new books when I have tons of unread at home. ;p
Do you read slash books too? It can be a bit one-sided with all the fics on top, but there are some awesome books out there.

Sorry, Kelley, not Kelly. I really liked her style and should try at least the first one.

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

What's your favourite (HP) pairing you've never written? Would you like to write them?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I think I'd like to try my hand at writing Ginny/Luna? Like, they're my favourite side pairing to Harry/Draco, and I often just shove in little hints of them in my Drarry stories, but I think I'd like to devote an entire fic of just those two girls, from Hogwarts and onwards. They're just so lovely, plus I actually get shippy feels from them in canon, which is extra awesome!

Brilliant question, thanks! <3

[birdsofshore]

What's your favourite smell?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Ha, what an awesome question! And this might seem like a strange answer, but... petrol? Seriously, I could sit on the forecourt of a gas station for an entire day, just breathing in the fumes. Hot tarmac is a close second though!

[eidheann_writes]

If you just found out you'd inherited/gifted by magic/etc your dream house, where would it be and how would you describe it?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Okay, first of all, it has a huge kitchen, the type that has a breakfast bar and an island, plus room for a dining table. It would have enough room for me to have an actual wood-paneled study, with walls high enough that I actually need one of those skating ladders in order to reach my books. And it would just be light and airy, simple rather than minimalist, full of wooden floors and white walls, where most of the rooms just have large open doorways rather than doors, so that everyone can do their own thing and yet still be in reach of each other. (It would also have a front porch where we could keep our shoes, because I get really tired of tripping over all the bloody shoes in my house atm!)

As for where it would be, I would either have it in County Cork, Ireland, where most of my family hails from and where most of them still live, or it would be in the village I grew up in, which was in Essex, about an hour north of London. Both places are beautiful, with lots of fields and woods, broken up into small little hamlet type places where everyone knows everyone else. That would be the dream location for my dream house. :)

[amorette.livejournal.com]

What was the last meal you ate?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn filling! Which is actually quite rare for me, I don't often eat carbs, lol!

[amorette.livejournal.com]

I want that right nowwww!!! Sounds delicious!

[dicta-contrion.livejournal.com]

If someone offered you the chance to pick up and move somewhere different for one year, would you want to do it? If so, where to and with whom?

What's one skill/talent you wish you had?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Yes please I would love to do that! (Especially now, in fact, can we make it 5 years? Maybe when I get back someone more competent will finally be running this country!) I'd love to go to somewhere like New Zealand, or Australia. Maybe South America? I'd only go if I could take my family with me though, because as much fun as a break from the kids sounds in my head, a few days and I'd be going nuts without them, lol!

I wish I could play a musical instrument better than I can. I can just barely strum a few chords on a guitar, and I can play the piano one-handed, but I wish I could do more with them.

[icmezzo.livejournal.com]

What is your favorite HP moment or What is your most common daydream?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I love all of the big moments in HP, you know, like the reveals near the end of the books, and the shocking moments and all of that. But I mostly just really love the little quiet humorous moments, like when Harry's all "You need you inner eye tested, if you ask me," and "You’d think I walk around with my eyes shut, banging off the walls," - I absolutely adore Harry's humour, I find him fucking hilarious! But I have to say, my absolute favourite moment in the series is The Prince's Tale chapter in DH. I'd always known, while reading the books, that Snape was on their side, as awful as he could be. I was so convinced of it that I would get really angry when other people would say that it was so obvious he was a bad guy, haha! So that chapter was like vindication for me, because I WAS RIGHT, and because we finally got to see his story. I cried the hardest while reading that chapter, and I still love it the best.

I constantly daydream about being an actor in one of the tv shows I watch, just because when you see some of the bloopers and dvd extras and stuff, it just looks like so much fun! I can't actually act to save my life, but still, in my daydreams I'm awesome!

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

uhh, i can grill you too with some questions XD lucky me! totally going for it:

1. if you can have any pet you want- real or not- what kind of pet would you like to have?



2. why do you think that harry and draco belong together?



3. if you can change one thing about your body - in any possible way or impossible way- what would it be?

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I'm a cat person, so I think if I could be friends with any animal I liked, it would be one of the big cats; a jaguar, a tiger, or a lion. But only if I knew I could be friends with it without curbing its natural traits though.

For me, Harry and Draco are one of those Epic Couples, where love and hate are a fine line that they walk along all the time. There could be so much passion there, and I can just imagine an established relationship with them being constantly at each others' throats day to day, arguing and fucking like they're the exact same thing, all of it spilling out to make an explosive relationship that's bigger than anything else. That's why I love them!

If I could change one thing, it would probably be my boobs. I've had 3 kids, and I'm in my 30s now, so they're starting to point towards the floor rather than the ceiling, unfortunately. I wouldn't want them to be any bigger or anything, but a nice breast lift would do wonders for my bikini confidence, lol!

Very cool questions! <3

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

uhh totally loving cats too!
still if i have the option of all animals imaginable - i want a chinese dragon - flying and petting and looking like a snake (you know like shen-long in dragon ball?) all the awesome things in one animal

cool reasons! me was just being noisy there XD thanks for answering

i dont get that boob must be standing up thing - i have very small boobs (they fit nicely in an a cup but do better in b) but still they are hanging, they always had been hanging... never remembering them not hanging and somehow having 3 kids makes it quite ok for your boobs to say: "even after all that we are still hanging in there" - but i understand the reason behind it- and i dont want to sound judgemental- and its your body so if you wnat that changed that is totally fine with me - i just somehow have to need to point out that you shouldnt wish that to change - if that does make any sense... sorry me is rambling so me is now shutting up

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Chinese dragon, hell yeah!

And I know, my boobs don't bother me too much - I mean, if they did, I'd be off to see a plastic surgeon to get them lifted. It'd just be nice, you know, in a perfect world, if I didn't have to worry about getting sweaty underneath them, lol! But you're right, pointy-up boobs are definitely a western culture kind of thing; there are many places where women don't wear bras and are utterly confused as to why someone would want their nipples pointing upwards - after all, it's not like a suckling baby is going to be coming at them from the top now, are they? Haha!