Ongoing SIFF films

Three more to review - probably a little less detailed than my inclination, because I've got fifty thousand things to do today before I leave for 5 days tomorrow morning. Below the cut, a Belgian drama about an autistic teenager, a Johnny To cop flick, and a 'quirky' Japanese coming of age film.

( A Slippery Slope )

In which I lose my temper

Why is it that nothing in this world gets done until you yell at somebody?

We were promised that all the fittings of this bathroom would be in by last Friday. And then it turned out that the compound they'd used to level the floor wasn't dry, so the wood floor couldn't be laid, and the toilet can't go in until after the floor's in place, so... you get the idea.

So the floor was finally laid yesterday, and we were promised that the plumbers would be here today, and it would all be done. Today arrives, and there are no plumbers. I phone the project manager, who tells me cheerfully that the plumbers are busy today, it's not going to happen, and they'll be here first thing tomorrow morning.

No they bloody well won't, I say, they'll be here today.

There followed a ten minute conversation in which I ranted a great deal about the various delays in this project and about how fucking pissed off I was with them in general, which ended in her saying that she would talk to the plumbers and ask if they'd be able to work late this evening.

Ten minutes after that, she gets back to me - yes the plumbers will be here today, she can't give me an exact time, but they'll come late afternoon or early evening and get the work done.

'Thank you,' I say. 'Now wouldn't it have been nicer for everyone if we could have come to that arrangement without me having to swear at you first?'

Who likes to read m/m?

I don't pimp books in this LJ. I pimp anime, manga, films, fanfic if it's really outrageously special (I think I've pimped three in four years), occasionally music. I pimp those because they're what I'm reading and watching and listening to. It's not because I don't like books. I love books. But sadly, when I'm writing in particular, I don't have time for everything, and over the last few years, what's dropped off my screen has been original fiction. It took me almost a year to read the last novel I finished (though in my defence it was a very long novel).

Well, this isn't exactly a pimp post either, because the author is a friend of mine, and you can all assume I wouldn't be neutral in assessing it. So flat facts only - Ann Somerville writes original m/m fiction. Her website of free stories is here. Anyone who likes those examples of her work might be interested to know that she has her first professionally e-published novella for sale via Samhain publishing, Interstitial, with all profits going to Medicins Sans Frontieres.

Interstitial is sci-fi space opera, with a bitchy love triangle involving both gay and het (that's a love triangle, not a threesome, you perves!). If you think that's your particular boat, give it a try.

Thus ends what will most likely be the only mention of a book you will ever see in this LJ.