June's Meet an Author Author is HannahLongbottom.

Finished Drabbles
The Tales of the Three Sisters by Maxie and Jools - Sa13+
100 Drabbles for Neville and Hannah by HannahLongbottom - Sa13+
100 for the Order by an Irish Boy and an English Girl - Sa13+
100 Reports For Kingsley Shacklebolt by Jools - Sa13+

SS100/50 Hall of Fame
100 drabbles for Remus by HannahLongbottom - Sa13+

H.S. Finished Fics
Bright Lights - Sa16+

H.S. Inactive Fics
Tempestuous - Sa16+


Interviewer: Droo
Interviewee: HannahLongbottom

Here we go:

Joooools!

Hello, lovely!

Congratulations! You are the new author to be interviewed on the meet the author series!

Am I?

Indeed you are!

Wow! Thanks! :$

What's that smiley?

Blushing.

Awww

I almost asked you if you were sure.

Of course... So Jools, tell us a bit about yourself: age, where you are from, what you do?

Well, I'm very almost *cough*ty, I'm from Yorkshire, in the Northeast of England. Right now I'm between jobs due to my health, but I'm using the time to read and reskill (I think that's the term they use anyway). I do voluntary work and I write, of course.

Of course... which is why we are interviewing you. So how old were you when you first began writing?

I was making up stories before I could write them down. I used to help my mum make up a bedtime story for me. I recently reorganised all my books and I found an exercise book with little stories that I'd written about my doll.

Awww that's so cute! What was the first book you ever remember reading?

I remember reading a book full of nursery rhymes and some books that my two of my aunts had got me where I was in the story. One of them was something to do with a rabbit and chocolate. I can't think why that might stick in the mind.

Sounds like Alice in Wonderland! LOL! What got you into reading?

My mum probably, and my dad. There are photos of me when I was very young with both of them and books so I think I was always going to be a bookworm.

I don't like that term, bookworm... makes it sound slimey, when it's awesome to read! I think we should call ourselves book peacocks... or book kittens! Do you have a favorite genre of books?

Book peacock, I LOVE it! *will use that forever now* Hmm, I don't think so, aside from the rather general category of Literary Fiction.

Yeah, I'm the same way about music. Which brings me to my next question. What kind of music inspires you?

I used to be very into bands like The Foo Fighters and I still am, to some extent, but now I prefer Kate Rusby, who's a fellow Yorkshire woman and a brilliant folk singer. I love, to a ridiculous extent, a singer called Paloma Faith, who I used as my character model for Esme Lennox. She's more of a soul singer than any other genre, she can be cheeky and fun one moment and deeply soulful the next. She's a classic. My favourite song of hers is Technicolour. I very much like Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons, too.

I don't know any of those! *writes them down to look them up* I love to discover new bands. So, the question everyone wants to know... when did you get into Harry Potter and how?

I was at uni, training to be an Early Years (3 to 5 years of age) teacher and I had heard some of the older children talking about Harry Potter, and I'd seen some of the boys carrying the books with them. This was a tough, inner-city school where reading wasn't 'cool' at all, so I knew these books had to be good. I then saw a copy of The Philosopher's Stone at the supermarket checkout. I never usually buy books from supermarkets but I made an exception. I sat down and read the book in one sitting and I've been a devotee ever since. That was all just before the first film was released.

Really? The first book was hard for me to get into... When did you begin writing?

I started to write when I was very young. There have been times when I've had to, for one reason or another, I've had to put writing to one side and those have been without doubt some of the most miserable times I've had.

Yeah... I know what you mean. Real life can be cruel at times, taking you away from the things you love the most. What did you write?

At first it was stories about the people and things around me, they would have fantastical and nonsensical adventures and be home in time for tea. As I grew older, I wrote longer pieces of prose and tried some poetry, although I really am a terrible poet.

Nahhh, I'm sure you'd be a great poet! Open a poetry thread, and everyone will know it. *rhymed* Is there a method to the way you write?

See, you're a much better poet There didn't used to be any method at all. I would grab a pen and paper as the fancy took me. Recently I've been more organised about things, keeping an 'ideas' book separate from another file which I'm building up things, like character profiles and story arcs. Being disorganized wasn't helpful, really. I also have a set time where I write whether I've got an idea or not. I can't remember who said it, but I remember reading this: "Writers write. Wannabes talk about writing". That made sense to me, I can't tell you the number of conversations I've had with people who say they're writers but actually they haven't really tried to write anything that they would want to share with the world.

... A set time to write. That's a great method! What brought you to SnitchSeeker?

I was looking for news stories about the Half-Blood Prince film and joined another fan site which wasn't all that easy to navigate. I noticed that they kept attributing the stories to SnitchSeeker and so I had a look. It was the quality of the fanfic that made me join.

HEAR THAT PEOPLE! Our fanfic forums are soooo good we bring people to SS because of it! What inspires you to write?

Words themselves inspire me. I love knowing the origins of words and the original meanings of names, which I've used a lot in my stories on SnitchSeeker and in other things I've worked on. Real life inspires me too. With Bright Lights, I took a very sad situation in my personal life and channeled those feelings into the story. I had the Epilogue written as a starting point. I always knew where it was headed. Writing that helped me deal with what was happening in reality, it helped me organise my thoughts, which made me stronger.

Have you written many other fanfics? Is HP the only genre you write?

I've written drabbles, which isn't as easy as you might think before you start them! Apart from that, no, I haven't really. I did go through a stage of trying to write like Alan Bennett but I soon realized that I was my own person, with my own voice and ideas.

Drabbles ARE hard! That whole 100 words thing drives me batty! Do you have any favorite authors?

I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Peter Carey, John Keats, Ted Hughes, Zadie Smith, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Greene, Banana Yosimoto, Lord Byron, Jeanette Winterson, The Bronte Sisters, Arundhati Roy, and Hanif Kureishi. I found Hanif Kureishi's work when I was 16 (I sort of skipped over YA literature, which wasn't as strongly defined a genre as it is now) and I found his stories to be very powerful and moving. I recommend three books to everyone over 16: The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Withering Heights by Emily Bronte. They're vastly different books but each one take you on it's own journey, and you can see what top notch writing looks like. I only say over 16 out of respect for people's parents, who might not want them to read those books.

*writes down so she can bring to local library* Do you have any hobbies?

Aside from reading?

And writing

I love theatre and live music, and just spending time with friends who are, sadly, scattered all over the country. I also enjoy making beaded jewelry as gifts for friends.

Theatre ROCKS! I wouldn't know what I'd do without it. Ok... so. Let's say you were to be sent to a deserted island and could only bring three things, what would they be?

That's a mean question to ask a girl who can't pack light! I think I'd have to take Jack (Mannequin), a supply of tea and coffee and huge bottle of sunscreen. We could manage the rest, Swiss Family Robinson style.

Awww, I'm sure Jack would totally love that! Tell us, if you were a Bertie Bott Every Flavor Bean, what flavor would you be and why?

Chocolate Strawberry flavour I think, or Black Coffee with Honey flavour. I'm not sure which.

Chocolate Strawberry I get... but Black coffee and honey? I've never combined those. Imagine you got the Nobel Peace prize for one of your writing pieces, who would you thank?

Coffee with honey is the only thing that makes me able to function before 10.30 am, I swear! I'd thank my parents, because they both made sure that I went to great schools. I'd also thank my high school English teacher, who gave me the confidence to see that what I had to say was important, whether it was about school work or just life in general.

Well, Jools, it was a pleasure interviewing you, thank you for sharing your art with us!