lauren3210

 
I've just written my first 1k for my hd_erised  fic!! I'll admit, I've been moaning a bit about this one, because the things my giftee loves are just a touch off the mark with what I usually write. Not that I'm complaining or blaming the mods or anything, because I know they work really bloody hard to give something to everyone that they can feel comfortable writing, and it's not always going to be perfect. And, after 3 years of truly excellent match-ups for me, I'm absolutely okay with this one being a bit more of a challenge. It's just, a bit hard to get it going, and to get really enthusiastic about the process. But I've started it, which is always the hardest part, and I have a cheerleader to keep me going, and even my trusty beta has promised to hold my hand, even though she's no longer involved in fandom, which is really sweet and encouraging, so I'm sure I'll find my excitement again soon!

So, I came back from holiday a couple of weeks ago, and it's taken me this long just to get back to normal. I must tell you all my experience, because OMG was it a rollercoaster! Okay, so some friends of ours convinced us to go on a coach trip to Spain. They went last year, and they had loads of fun, meeting new people during the 26 hour (!!) drive across France and through the pyrenees (I think? Some mountain range, anyway). So we decided to give it a go, because all the kids would keep each other amused (they have 3 too) and us grownups would have some other adults to talk to. And everything went fine, it was chucking it down with rain on the ferry, Eryn abandoned us to go chat up a boy (because of course), we all watched some movies on the private TVs on the seats, and we chatted and tried to fall asleep and everything was good. Until 1 in the morning, somewhere in Northern France, when the fucking coach broke down! So we were stuck there, on the top floor of this bloody double decker coach, for NINE HOURS OMG. It was boiling, we were swimming in our own sweat, and Imogen (plus a few other younger passengers) ended up being sick due to dehydration. The French police brought us food and water (because the trip organisers couldn't be bothered), and we ended up arriving at the campsite 13 hours later than we should have. I basically had to play I Spy for 12 hours as well, because the replacement coach they found for us didn't have the TVs, and the seats didn't recline, so I had to amuse Imogen for the entire trip through France. It was a fucking nightmare, omg.

Spain was lovely, though. It's been a few years since I've been, and I'd forgotten just how hot it gets there! I even managed to get sunburn (Me!!) on my boobs - ouch! - because I sorted out the kids and Ben and totally forgot about myself, as you do. Imogen went just about able to swim, and came back able to dive like a dolphin and knowing how to snorkle with the fish. We all got lovely tans, Eryn lost her favourite bracelet in the sea, and we all discovered a new Dutch dish that we all absolutely love (it's called 'patat oorlog', and it's chips with raw onion, mayonnaise and satay sauce, which sounds like it really shouldn't go together but it really does and it was amazeballs omg). So yeah, other than getting there, we had a great time, and I'd love to go back again another year - although probably not via coach, haha!

The kids are still at home for the summer, and they're all starting to get on each other's nerves (and mine), so I can't wait for school to start up again. Eryn got her AS level results yesterday, and she got an A and 2 Bs! She's very happy, and ready to buckle down and get even better results next year, so she can get into a good university. She wants to go to London, which is going to be expensive for us, but if she wants it, we'll sort it for her. 

I'm writing a new HD fic, as well as the Ersied one. It was an idea I had, and I don't know if I'll ever finish it, but it would be nice to write a fic again just for fun and because I feel like it, rather than for a fest (although those are always fun too!). Plus, I'm in the middle of rewriting one of my older HD fics into an original story. Well, I say 'middle', but what I really mean is that I'm right at the start. I'll get there though. Maybe...

And... I think that's it? Hope you guys are all happy and well, and I'm going to try commenting on people's posts again - I'm constantly reading them when I don't have time to reply, and then I forget to come back, but I'm working on fixing that!

Love to you all xx

I'm trying to write something, and what I really need is some examples of a long drawn out penetrative sex scene. Does anyone have any fic recs with something like that in there? Any fandom, any slash pairing will do. I'm not going to plagiarize anything, obviously - I'll work out a way to kick myself in the face before I do anything like that - I just would like a sense of what to concentrate on, how to make it seem like it lasts longer than it takes to read the sentences, if that makes sense? If anyone could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it! ♥

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.

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! ♥

Good Lord, it's been ages since I've posted on here! I have lots of reasons why, so I'm gonna tell you all about them, because why not?

• READING

I've been reading a lot, ever since my mum bought me a Kindle for my birthday. It took me a bit to get used to, because I'll admit it, I am a bit of a book snob - I prefer the weight of the book in my hands, the feel of the paper beneath my fingers, the smell of the pages as I turn them. I think it adds to the reading experience, that it grounds the thoughts and emotions a story takes you through in something tangible, real. I'm also a techno-failure; technological stuff tends to fail around me quite a bit, for no reason I can ever work out. HOWEVER, I've kind of fallen in love with my Kindle recently. Partly because it's so easy to get a new book and start reading it immediately (although my bank balance has protested that fact this month), and partly because LGBTQIAP+ fiction is so much easier to get ahold of. Bookstores tend to just keep a small collection in their one tiny little shelf, and I sometimes find Amazon hard to navigate to get to the stuff I want. But all these little Recommendations For You and links to Amazon Kindle buttons on Goodreads makes it a lot easier for me to find the type of stuff I'd like to read on my little Kindle. And over the past couple of weeks, I've read about 30 M/M fiction books! And it's been awesome.

• LECTURING

I'm going back to lecturing next week! It's been two years since I've done it, as my overseeing professor went on a sabbatical to write her next book, but now she's back, which means I am too! I'm so nervous, but also really excited, because I get to sit around and talk about my favourite things for 12 weeks, and watch my students have their minds blown as we go through the course material. What do you MEAN Supernatural is a Christ Narrative? Listen and learn, little grasshopper. So yeah, for the next 3 months, I'm going to be chatting about Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, and a load of other contemporary entertainment and their connection to Christianity. I can't wait to have our first little discussion about my own Atheism (it always comes up, and they're always so surprised, bless them).

• BOOKCLUB

gracerene and I have just started up a very low key, hopefully very fun, online bookclub! I hope y'all will want to come and join in; we're starting in October, and we're gonna read a book a month, and then all get together to talk about it! Come and talk about books with us!

• WRITING

Unfortunately, I've kind of... stalled on my Erised fic. My main problem is that I'm not sure where it's leading, and while I'm used to writing that way, it usually helps if I have some idea, but this time there's nothing except for a few scenes I can see in my head. It's frustrating, so I tried to turn my hand to the few Owl Post gifts I've signed up for, and they're not working for me either. And then of course there's my original fiction, where I know how I want that to play out, but for some reason the words just won't come. I'm hoping that if I just leave it for a few days, I can get my head into the space of teaching again and then the words will just come to me whenever I have a break from that - it's worked in the past, so maybe I'll get lucky again? My recent bout of insomnia hasn't been helping either - it's been 10 days since I've had a decent night's sleep, and I'm about to lose my mind I'm so frustrated. Oh, well, can't be helped I guess!

So yeah, that's me. What have y'all been up to recently?

I was wondering if anyone on my flist would like to volunteer to beta read my hd_eighthyear fic for me? My usual beta has been very quiet for a while, and I don't want to disturb her if she's busy with RL things, so I could really use someone to go over this fic for me, if anyone feels inclined? It's almost done, and it's about 7k long (which is fairly short for me, yay!), and I just need someone to go over it and point out any mistakes I may have missed in my readthroughs. Thanks in advance! <3

Title: Stuck in the Middle (With You)
Prompt: Prompt no.1
Word Count: 12,000
Rating: PG-13
Contains (Highlight to view): A whole lotta fluff! S
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Epilogue compliant?: LOL nope.
Who is pregnant?: *Draco and one other FC. *
Notes: Pretty sure this is my first H/D fic with no smut, so er, sorry? I've written a few angsty things recently, and this was a perfect opportunity to just write some fluffy stuff all about babies, so I hope you'll forgive my self indulgence. Dear eidheann_writes, your prompt made me giggle the moment I read it, and I hope you enjoy what I did with it!. Huge thanks to indyonblue for looking through this so quickly for me, and hugs to the mods for such a great fest!
Summary: Harry had thought that it couldn’t get much worse than the synchronised vomiting that was morning sickness.

I had great fun writing this, and although I never managed to get it to a point beyond a PG-13 rating, I kind of didn't care. I sort of just wanted this story to be a light-hearted, feel-good story, full of all the trying things expectant parents go through in the run up to a birth. Fun Fact: All of the things that happen to Draco and Pansy in this story have happened to me during my three pregnancies (and what happened to Harry too, actually). Yes, my husband literally crouched down in front of me and asked, "Is it coming now?", all while holding himself as though expecting to catch a wildly thrown rugby ball. Turns out even medical doctors can freak out and act stupid when there is a tiny human on the way! I hope y'all enjoyed it!

It feels like ages since I've posted anything! I've been busy writing fics for all the fests I signed up to, but I've also been feeling a little bit down recently. Nothing too serious, I just haven't been my usual, slightly manic self. I long ago came to the realisation that one of the worst things about bipolar disorder is that there's never any logical reason for the mood swings, but that doesn't stop me from getting frustrated with myself over it. So I did what I usually do when this happens, and retreated into fiction, and this time I chose to rewatch a lot of past favourite series. And that led me to some thinky thoughts on the different ways I ship, so I'm going to ramble on about that under the cut:

( come ramble with me )

In other news, I've finished writing my last fest fic! It's sitting with a friend right now, who will hopefully tell me in a few days where it's shit and where it's not so bad, and then I can hand it in and I'm done! Do you know, I have written SIX stories so far this year? The word count for all of them adds up to over 100k, good God. Thankfully though, I now have a little time to let my fingertips grow back, so yay for that!

In other other news, my eldest turned 15 last week! I kind of hate it, because a second ago I had this red faced squalling little bundle in my arms, and suddenly there's this young woman in front of me, with boobs bigger than mine and a penchant for piercings. Which was one of her birthday presents: she got an industrial scaffolding piercing in her ear, so now she has a massive bar sticking across it. It looks good, actually, and I'm now thinking about having it done myself. The next body modification on her list is a lip piercing, but she has to wait until she leaves school to get that, so I have a little breathing room. Who the fuck said kids were allowed to grow up? Someone make it stop, because I don't like it!

Anyway, merry month of May to my flisters, I'm really enjoying reading all your daily updates! <3

Title: Unexpected Consequences
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco; background Hermione/Ron, Ginny/Dean
Rating: NC-17
Warnings/Content: bottom!Draco (apparently this should be a warning); 8th year fic; some OOCness due to plot reasons.
Summary: Harry was going back to school. He was going to play Quidditch, sleep in lessons, hang out with his friends, and generally just enjoy being a kid for a change. And he was also going to do it while being bonded with Malfoy, because apparently life was just going to continue throwing curveballs at him. Harry didn't know why he expected anything different.
Word Count: 39,200
Disclaimer: 'That Picture' is a work of and belongs to alekina. The general non-profit, fair-use disclaimer for Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart applies.

Okay so, just so I know I have this on my own blog, here is my fic for the Picture Flash Fest that was hosted over at hd_remix the past week, now that its posting is completed. I haven't posted a fic in installments since my Teen Wolf writing days, so this was a fun experience for me. I originally wrote it as a (hugely long) oneshot, but vaysh and raitala very sweetly asked if they could instead turn it into chapters and post one on each day that the fest ran. (I guess I was the only participant ridiculous enough to write nearly 40k, haha!) It's had a lovely response so far, and I hope that everyone who gave this WIP a chance over the last week enjoyed the final piece.

I loved writing this story, tbh. I actually wrote it in less than a week, because work and other fests got in the way of me getting to it before then. But the prompt hit me so strongly that the words flew from my fingertips and the story unfolded before I really knew what had happened. I love when writing strikes me that way. There are probably things I would change about this story, had I had the time to think about it more, but I think a lot of writers feel that way about their fics. But I actually really love this story a lot, I think because it turned into a fic that I like to read myself, and I included lots of tropes that I love the most. It evolved into a story just for me, rather than just a fic written for a fest with someone else's idea in mind. I guess that might be why I love it so much. But anyway, here it is, for anyone who has managed to miss out on its posting and wants to read it now it's complete!

I've just had to ask for an extension for this fic, and I feel so bloody awful about it. I've NEVER had to do this before, other fest mods will attest to this, I'm usually one of the first to hand in my submissions. I really wasn't going to do it, and I typed my fingers to the bone yesterday trying to get it finished, but I just couldn't quite get to the finish line.

However, on the plus side, if I do get granted an extension, I think that yesterday I had a sudden brainstorm on how to make this fic good. I've been struggling with this story, as you guys know by now what with all my whining, but now inspiration has finally hit. So, by the grace of the mods, hopefully I can now hand in something I really feel good about, even if it is a few days late.

Has anyone on my flist had to ask for an extension before? How do you deal with the guilt?