David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Following several days of thinking that the Worldcon was increasingly unlikely for me, followed by the unhappy certainty that I would not be able to make it, a generous friend has stepped forward and I can attend the convention after all (though without Kate). And I got back to the program committee before they deleted me from the schedule, so here is where you can find me at the con:

The Best Writing Advice I Was Ever Given
Wednesday 12:00 – 12:45, Bays 111A (CC)
What writing advice have you received that you’d share with others? How did it help make you a better writer?
Bobbie Benton Hull (M), David Gerrold, P. C. Hodgell, David D. Levine, Derryl Murphy

Autographing – Elizabeth Bear, Patricia Briggs, Wesley Chu, Tanglwyst de Holloway, David D. Levine
Wednesday 14:00 – 14:45, Exhibit Hall B (CC)

Reading – David D. Levine
Thursday 13:30 – 14:00, 303B (CC)

Steampunk: Aesthetics vs. Content
Thursday 15:00 – 15:45, 302AB (CC)
Steampunk is known for being pretty, but what about real content? Is it that dramatically different from other genres? Or are most steampunk stories like one genre with a veneer of steampunk?
David D. Levine (M), Matthew Dockrey, Sarina Dorie, Grá Linnaea

Writers Workshop section 05
Friday 13:00 – 16:00, 201A (CC)
Fifty-plus entrants submitted speculative fiction manuscripts in advance to be constructively criticized by industry professionals. In this section, a few of these entrants go on the hot seat to hear what the pros have to say. All workshop sections are closed to non-participants.
David D. Levine, Madeleine Robins, Diana Pharaoh Francis

Kaffee Klatche – David D. Levine
Saturday 13:00 – 13:45, 202B-KK3 (CC)
Join a panelist and up to 9 other fans for a small discussion. Coffee and snacks available for sale on the 2nd floor.

Game of Thrones: Expectations of Gender and Sexuality
Sunday 12:00 – 12:45, Bays 111A (CC)
After five seasons, we have expectatons of Game of Thrones as having a lot of female nudity and graphic violence. But, at the same time, it has some very strong female characters, and, among some of the characters, a more modern view of sexuality. Do these contrasting views work against the show or enhance it? What are some of the bigger surprises?
Perrianne Lurie (M), David D. Levine, Lauren Roy, Valerie Estelle Frankel

STOP PRESS: I WILL BE AT WORLDCON!

Extremely generous friend Marc Wells has just stepped forward to take care of Kate while I take his wife Patty to the convention, saying “you and Patty need to be there, I don’t.” Marc has the experience to help Kate with her insulin and I trust him completely.

This is so overwhelming I am in tears. But I will be at the convention.

Original post follows:

The short version: Kate spent four days in the hospital last week, coming home Sunday, and we won’t be able to attend the Worldcon.

The long version: This started over a week ago, with tummy troubles that came and went. Thursday at 1am it was back, even worse, to the extent that I called 911 at 5am; paramedics came, gave her an intravenous drug for nausea, and took her to the ER.

At the ER she got more intravenous drugs and a CT scan, which showed some bowel irritation but nothing major. With the drugs she perked up pretty quickly, but the doctors decided to keep her overnight for tests and observation. They also gave her injections of insulin to bring her steroid-induced high blood sugar down. (We had just started metformin, an oral blood sugar medication. As long as she was in the hospital they decided to use the stronger stuff.)

She stayed in the hospital from Thursday to Sunday. Each day she felt better than the day before, but every night she had trouble in the early AM. Tests for C. Diff, norovirus, Shiga toxin, bacteria, and the most common virus for stomach bugs all came back negative. Finally the enterologist suggested that the symptoms were consistent with “autonomic diabetic neuropathy” — basically, high blood sugar weakens your sympathetic nervous system so that your GI tract doesn’t work right, especially when you’ve been sleeping for hours.

Getting her blood sugar down (from 408 Wednesday to 149 Sunday; normal is 140 or less) and giving her Imodium brought the trouble mostly under control, and she went home Sunday. But her sugar has been so high that metformin isn’t going to cut it, so we will have to inject long-acting insulin every morning, and test her blood sugar and inject the appropriate amount of regular insulin before every meal. Also we need to change our eating habits — reduce carbohydrates, increase fiber, eat more smaller meals, you probably already know this drill. We were already doing pretty well on this score but will need to do even better.

Kate is absolutely not up for travel this week. We considered whether I could go to the Worldcon without her, but with this new and complex drug regimen to manage, plus follow-up visits with the doctor, it doesn’t look as though I can go for even one day. Kate can’t manage this by herself right now, it isn’t something I could ask a friend to do, and I don’t want to leave her with strangers (we would have to find, interview, and hire someone in just a day or two). It might be different if we were more experienced with the routine of blood, drugs, and pointy things, but not in the first week.

So… no Worldcon for us.

To say that I am disappointed would be a severe understatement. Shattered, more like. Also angry, sad, and resentful. Not at Kate, but at the terrible situation we both find ourselves in.