[LaDirigiblePlum]

"Hi everybody!"

*tumbleweed*

Okay... erm, yes well I am free to any questions. You can make them as easy or as terrifically hard as you like, because I love a good challenge and enjoy answering questions (even the ones I don't know the answer to) as much as asking them! So ask away, ask away.

[alyosha]

What's the meaning of Life?

[sligers118]

alyosha, on 30 August 2009 - 11:19 PM, said:

What's the meaning of Life?

i know i'm not meant to answer this, but it's the one question i can't ignore. the answer is, of course, 42

[LaDirigiblePlum]

The meaning of life is unique to each person. there you go.

[RonsGirlFriday]

Once again, I am sooo happy to see you on the forums! You know how much I love your stories!

Questions for you!

1. Which HP book is your favorite?
2. What is your favorite non-HP book?
3. Do you write original fiction as well as fanfiction?
4. Any other hobbies?
5. Favorite food?

[LaDirigiblePlum]

What a coincidence! Because I love your stories too! They're all just so amazing that I want to do a little dance. A bit like this: But I wouldn't want to put you through the pain of my dancing... it's truly awful.


1. Which HP book is your favorite? The first book that springs to mind is probably Deathly Hallows, because it had me in floods of tears, also made me laugh, loads of action and I adored reading about Harry, Ron and Hermione's friendship, especially that scene where Ron comes back and saves Harry's life. And... obviously... RON AND HERMIONE GET TOGETHER AT LAST!!!!! But the book I've read the most times is the Chamber of Secrets, and that was really the book that got me into the series, when I was five years old. So that'll always be a sort of favourite for me.

2. What is your favorite non-HP book? Hmm... I have a few. I love Junk, by Melvin Burgess... I adore Marian Keyes's books (she's just so funny), mainly "Anybody Out There?" because it's a book that makes you laugh and cry, and I have to admire authors who manage that! Also I like "A Clockwork Orange" because it's just so strange, original and makes you think a lot. Sorry I couldn't come up with a definitive book! But I'm useless at making decisions.

3. Do you write original fiction as well as fanfiction? I do! I've actually written a novel (as of yet, unpublished ) which I think is a lot different from my fanfiction writing. It did take me 8 months to do, but I was quite pleased when I finished it! I also have a lot of other little "snippets" about the characters in this novel, like extra events etc. Also I write about them when they're grown-up with children, their jobs, their friends... I get very bogged down in things like that! When I create a character I have to give them a past, a future, hobbies, favourite colours, bands, books etc. because I have to think of them like a real person. So I write about that a lot too... it sounds boring, but it'll keep me entertained for hours! There is my very rambly answer to your very straight forward question.

4. Any other hobbies? I play the clarinet and the piano (though I taught myself the piano, so I'm not very good!) and I also adore art. Mainly painting, but I enjoy charcoal and pencil too. I also read up on Space stuff a lot... like stars and how planets were made. Black Holes fascinate me... and so does science really! So that's sort of a hobby.

5. Favorite food? This is a mean question! But I'm going to have to go with... shellfish. And bacon sandwiches. Preferably not served at the same time though, it has to be said! There are many, many, many more... I'll pretty much eat anything. Except cooked tomatoes.

Sorry I've written very long answers! But once I start talking I find it very hard to stop! Again, I have to say that I love your stories!

[RonsGirlFriday]

Hi again!

How do you write so much?? I just checked your author page, and I swear you've added about 100 stories since the last time I checked. You must write sooo fast! Are you a robot?

[GeorgeWhitman]

Hey TheDirigiblePlum, in response to your kind response on the archives, Mad About You, is indeed an American television show from the nineties that had a fair share of good moments before wrapping up after 7 or 8 seasons. Cheers!

[theelderwand1]

LaDirigiblePlum, on 30 August 2009 - 10:34 PM, said:

"Hi everybody!"

*tumbleweed*

Okay... erm, yes well I am free to any questions. You can make them as easy or as terrifically hard as you like, because I love a good challenge and enjoy answering questions (even the ones I don't know the answer to) as much as asking them! So ask away, ask away.

Hi! The elderwand dropping by for a quick quiz.

I've been deathly curious about several aspects of your writing. First, you touched on this in one of your responses to a review I posted, but I was hoping you could elaborate. What was the creative process like for creating your horrific Potter/Weasley kids? Was there any particular thing or things you can point to as your inspiration?

Second, most of your stories seem to fit into a relatively nice post-Hogwarts universe. Was this planned?

Finally, I'm deathly curious about a subject that may not be polite to ask, but, I'm a newbie, so I'll ask anyway: how'd you come up with your pen name?

Again, love your writing.

sinc

theelderwand

[LaDirigiblePlum]

Hello! Thank you for dropping by! I'm so happy you like my writing so much! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Creative Process for Troublesome Children - I don't know how I started... because I don't have brothers and sisters but somehow imagining a hectic household with siblings etc. was quite easy for me! I also have a lot of younger cousins who enjoy making havoc and noise so I took some inspiration from them as well!

I basically then took traits from Harry, Ron, Hermione etc. and then merged them together to make their children, but obviously added little unique things that were just born of their own accord! When I write the children their personalities really just come out fully formed, but I do try to make them fairly similar to their parents in certain ways. When I write characters I never think about what they're about to do/ say, because they instruct me rather than the other way around. So it's hard to describe how I "create" them... Sorry I'm useless at forming answers that make sense! I hope I've sort of managed it.

Nice Post-Hogwarts - Yes! I did want the post-Hogwarts world to be nice, because they'd all been through so much (especially Harry) that I felt they all deserved to have a secure and safe world again. Obviously life will throw other nasty things at them but I wanted the basis of their world to be good again.

I did think that some characters wouldn't be in the best frame of mind after the whole Voldemort phase - like the Weasley family and also Harry to a certain extent, mainly because I thought they'd need some time to come to terms with everything. Harry seems to have one horrible thing happen to him, and then before he can get his head round it something else happens! I had a theory that everything would catch up on him, and he'd just want some "down-time" as it were... blaming himself for deaths etc. He's so lovely.

Pen name! - I love my pen name (if I may say so myself ). I had always been curious about Luna's "radish" earrings, and then whilst reading the 7th book I came across the phrase "Keep off the Dirigible Plums". I loved the word, and found out they were Luna's earrings! *lightbulb above head moment!*

So I used it for my pen name. "So as to enhance the wearer's ability to accept the extraordinary."

Thank you for your questions! Sorry for my very rambly and roundabout answers.

[Korean00American]

Hey there plum! I'm just stopping by to ask you a few silly, off-topic questions!

The Choose or Lose Challenge: Which One, and Why?
1. Pancakes or waffles?
2. Sesame Street or Barney?
3. Draco or Lucius?
4. Coffee or tea?
5. Sneakers or flip-flops?
6. Talking or texting?
7. Harry or Ron? (Though after reading your stories, I may know the answer...)
8. Winter or summer?
9. Jeans or sweat pants?
10. Fanfic: Strictly cannon or AU?

Hope you have fun choosing! =^.^=

KA

This post has been edited by Korean00American: 21 January 2010 - 04:56 PM

[LaDirigiblePlum]

The Choose or Lose Challenge: Which One, and Why?

Ahh I love choosing out of choices! Even though I'm the most indesicive person even when it comes to little choices like these... I chose my A-Level options in 15 minutes but I can easily spend the same amount of time choosing a bar of chocolate.

1. Pancakes or waffles?
Pancakes. Because you can't have a waffle with lemon juice and sugar. My pancakes always end up as miniature disasters so the process of making them is always such fun!

2. Sesame Street or Barney?
Barney because I found Sesame Street scary. :| I have no idea why! However once on Barney they made fake food out of playdough and then pretended to eat it... and me being the three-year-old idiot I was thought it would be ok to actually eat a huge bite of playdough. Disgusting. Anyway, moving on...

3. Draco or Lucius?
Draco by far. Lucius is just disgusting and although he acts very much like Draco I feel that Draco has more chance for redeeming his ways because he's revealed to potentially have a moral centre. I'm thinking about when he lowered his wand when he meant to kill Dumbledore. I can't of a time when Lucius ever showed a moment like this.

4. Coffee or tea?
This is mean!! Because I'm English I feel I should say tea... but I need both to function properly! But if I was only allowed to have one forever I would have to choose tea.

5. Sneakers or flip-flops?
Are sneakers like trainers? Here I'm going to say flip-flops because you can get so many pretty ones for the summer that you can wear to the beach! Love the beach.

6. Talking or texting?
Talking. My refusal to text in text language means my texts are always really long and I get frustrated that you can't really get a proper flowing conversation. Also you can't do "voice tones" when you're texting, so many times I've tried to crack a funny joke and accidentally ended up insulting people by accident.

7. Harry or Ron? (Though after reading your stories, I may know the answer...)
Ron provides the comic relief (though Harry has known to be very funny when he wants to be ) but I'm going to have to say that I love Harry the most. He's just such an endearing character as he's been through so much yet can still love, laugh and smile with his friends, hand in homework late, get detentions, have bad luck with girls, poor relationships with certain teachers etc. that you can't help but relate to him! He's just so normal and lovely despite all that's happened to him that resistance to loving him is futile. *sighs lovingly*

8. Winter or summer?
Another mean one! Here I'll say summer, because you can sit outside until about two in the morning and still not get cold. I have this thing about looking at stars so staying outside at night is something I love doing.

9. Jeans or sweat pants?
Jeans! I just don't suit tracksuits at all... (I assume sweat pants are like tracksuit bottoms? I only know the phrase because of Mean Girls! Epic film. ) Yeah there's something about finding "That" pair of jeans that just makes living worthwhile...

10. Fanfic: Strictly cannon or AU?
I have written AU stuff before, but my heart definitely lies in canon. Probably because I read fanfics as extensions to the Harry Potter books so I like it when they all tie in. Though I am partial to a bit of Draco/Harry every now and again which obviously is not canon at all!

Thank you for this! I did have fun doing it. Sorry if my answers a bit odd or rambly. I had a tendency to ramble. See? I'm doing it now.

[Korean00American]

LaDirigiblePlum, on 22 January 2010 - 11:03 PM, said:

The Choose or Lose Challenge: Which One, and Why?

Ahh I love choosing out of choices! Even though I'm the most indesicive person even when it comes to little choices like these... I chose my A-Level options in 15 minutes but I can easily spend the same amount of time choosing a bar of chocolate.

1. Pancakes or waffles?
Pancakes. Because you can't have a waffle with lemon juice and sugar. My pancakes always end up as miniature disasters so the process of making them is always such fun!

2. Sesame Street or Barney?
Barney because I found Sesame Street scary. :| I have no idea why! However once on Barney they made fake food out of playdough and then pretended to eat it... and me being the three-year-old idiot I was thought it would be ok to actually eat a huge bite of playdough. Disgusting. Anyway, moving on...

3. Draco or Lucius?
Draco by far. Lucius is just disgusting and although he acts very much like Draco I feel that Draco has more chance for redeeming his ways because he's revealed to potentially have a moral centre. I'm thinking about when he lowered his wand when he meant to kill Dumbledore. I can't of a time when Lucius ever showed a moment like this.

4. Coffee or tea?
This is mean!! Because I'm English I feel I should say tea... but I need both to function properly! But if I was only allowed to have one forever I would have to choose tea.

5. Sneakers or flip-flops?
Are sneakers like trainers? Here I'm going to say flip-flops because you can get so many pretty ones for the summer that you can wear to the beach! Love the beach.

6. Talking or texting?
Talking. My refusal to text in text language means my texts are always really long and I get frustrated that you can't really get a proper flowing conversation. Also you can't do "voice tones" when you're texting, so many times I've tried to crack a funny joke and accidentally ended up insulting people by accident.

7. Harry or Ron? (Though after reading your stories, I may know the answer...)
Ron provides the comic relief (though Harry has known to be very funny when he wants to be ) but I'm going to have to say that I love Harry the most. He's just such an endearing character as he's been through so much yet can still love, laugh and smile with his friends, hand in homework late, get detentions, have bad luck with girls, poor relationships with certain teachers etc. that you can't help but relate to him! He's just so normal and lovely despite all that's happened to him that resistance to loving him is futile. *sighs lovingly*

8. Winter or summer?
Another mean one! Here I'll say summer, because you can sit outside until about two in the morning and still not get cold. I have this thing about looking at stars so staying outside at night is something I love doing.

9. Jeans or sweat pants?
Jeans! I just don't suit tracksuits at all... (I assume sweat pants are like tracksuit bottoms? I only know the phrase because of Mean Girls! Epic film. ) Yeah there's something about finding "That" pair of jeans that just makes living worthwhile...

10. Fanfic: Strictly cannon or AU?
I have written AU stuff before, but my heart definitely lies in canon. Probably because I read fanfics as extensions to the Harry Potter books so I like it when they all tie in. Though I am partial to a bit of Draco/Harry every now and again which obviously is not canon at all!

Thank you for this! I did have fun doing it. Sorry if my answers a bit odd or rambly. I had a tendency to ramble. See? I'm doing it now.

What fun answers! First, I really would've thought you'd choose Ron over Harry! At first glance, it seems to me that he's the star of more than a few of your stories, so I was pleasantly surprised to read your reasoning.

And yes, sneakers are trainers, and sweat pants are track suit bottoms. I should've re-written it with the English in mind! =^.^=

I'm sorry about your Barney disaster, but I have a feeling that you were by no means the only kid who tried that after seeing it.

This was so much fun to read--hope you had as good a time answering!

KA