Dragon's Edge Press keeps doing stuff. Last month, they submitted one of my short stories to the CapCom short story contest, last week they asked me to be their "Author of the Month", and this week they're creating an audio version of the anthology with one of my stories and asked if I'd be willing to do the reading, or if they should get someone else to read my story.

They also asked if I'd sing a couple "to the tune of" songs they published, and I offered to do a guitar noodle behind reading a couple poems.

I'll get to make more use of my home studio. I'll see if they like the recording I make.

The week was slow - mostly hacking computer code and small woodworking projects.

The weekend made up for it.

Friday was 2 hours of tango lesson and practica. I'm getting good enough that I totally suck at a much higher level. Sort of like graduating from needing to fix your grammar to needing to improve your character arcs.

Saturday started with an all-day literary conference, Rally of Writers, in Lansing. I drove up with a couple friends from one of my critique groups and had fun chatting, attended four lectures and chatted with strangers at random. This is a place where you can start any conversation with "What are you working on?", and then sit back and relax.

Perfect for introverts who have trouble making small talk.

One lecture I hit was about "place": the setting for your story. The speaker's point was that the place is a living entity, just like any character, and you should strive to give the reader the feeling of the setting, not describe it like an architectural drawing. And that places grow and change. Today's haunted ruin was once the pride of the county, filled with joy and romance.

The characters and setting interact. Trivial examples are that the princess lives in a white marble castle, while no governess in her right mind should take a position in the dilapidated old Gothic mansion.

Breaking tropes is also fun. Beauty's beast lives in a white marble castle.

I finished the day with a dance at Fred Astaire. I was exhausted enough from the day of lectures, etc that I only danced for two hours, instead of the entire two and a half hours.

Sunday was a three hour tango lesson and practica, followed by going to see Project Hail Mary. I've not read the book (yet), so I can't say how good a job they did of following that, but the movie is very good. Very manipulative, but good. Not recommended for anyone susceptible to epileptic seizures though, lots of flashing images.

For a movie about the destruction of the sun and end of all life on Earth, it's very funny.