David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 511 | Since last entry: 511

On a New Year’s Day a bit more laid-back than our usual, as Kate’s still too sick for parties (though definitely improving), I took care of a number of chores, went for a walk, and attended a brunch (by myself) at the home of a former work colleague. Dinner was take-out Thai. I whacked back the email a bit (and if you’ve sent me any mail in the last month, my apologies for lack of response). And then, finally, at the very tail end of the day, I stopped procrastinating and sat down and wrote. First words of fiction since October, I think. This is the story I’d wanted to write for the “Federations” anthology, but what with one thing and another (most of which, I must admit, were completely under my control) I didn’t even begin it until after the deadline. And I’m not sure where it goes from here. But still, it’s another story and it’s finally under way.

That’s one day in a row. Let’s see how long we can keep the streak going.

Count me among those who are more than happy to see the back of 2008. Although most of the year was very good for me, the last month or so has been a real train wreck. Illness and weather conspired to deprive us of both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I’m only now beginning to recover from Post-Travel Stress Disorder brought on by our unplanned week in DC on the way home from Germany. We’ve also had some hassles with health insurance, and the ongoing financial meltdown has taken a psychological toll. I haven’t written a word of fiction since October.

However, when I went to prepare David’s Index, my annual numerical summary of my writing year (which I started doing in 2003 and has since become a meme), I discovered that I’d had a really good writing year up until then. I finished and submitted my second novel, The Dark Behind the Stars. My first short story collection, Space Magic, was published by Wheatland Press. I gave a reading at Powell’s, which was a huge success. And “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” was nominated for a Nebula Award. (It didn’t win, but it will appear in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2009.) I attended the Oregon Coast Novel Weekend, Taos Toolbox, and Launch Pad writers’ workshops, and I was the Short Story Guest of Honor at RadCon.

This year I wrote more stories and sold more stories than in any year since 2003. It was also a better-than-average year for publications, with “Firewall” in Transhuman, “Falling Off the Unicorn” in Space Magic, “Sun Magic, Earth Magic” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and “Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven” in Realms of Fantasy, plus “Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely” (reprint) in The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy, appearances in two podcasts, and translations of “Titanium Mike” into French and Czech. Six stories are on deck to appear in 2009.

We remodeled the bathroom. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but the result is gorgeous. We also worked with a professional organizer several times this year, and the house is now much less cluttered. There’s more work to be done, to be sure, but it’s been a great stress reliever and gives a huge sense of accomplishment.

We traveled a lot. I mean a lot. I spent at least one night in: Kennewick (where we were stranded for five days by an ice storm); Washington DC (square dance); Pasco (SF convention); Seattle (SF convention), then Victoria BC, then Seattle again (square dance); Lincoln City (writing workshop); Eugene (wedding); Palm Springs (square dance); Austin (Nebula Awards); Milwaukee and Madison (SF convention); Taos (writing workshop); Cleveland (square dance); Laramie (writing workshop), then Denver (SF convention); Montreal (SF convention); San Francisco (square dance and a reading); Seattle (SF convention); Calgary (SF convention); and finally our vacation in Germany and Austria: Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Melz, Vienna, Munich, and Washington DC (where we were stranded for six days by an ice storm). It was fun, but I don’t think we’ll be doing as much travel in 2009, and I certainly hope for better weather.

(We did have a good time in Germany and Austria, honest, though the disasterous trip home does tend to color my memories of the experience. Trip report coming soon.)

My resolution for 2008 was to write a thousand words a day, every day. That lasted about two months, but it did get my novel finished in time for the April workshop.

My resolution for 2009 is inspired by the fact that we did not get to celebrate several major holidays at all in 2008: In 2009, I will celebrate the major holidays. By “celebrate” I mean put up decorations and share a festive meal with friends. By “major holidays” I mean the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving (Vancouver fly-in counts), Winter Solstice, and something in the vicinity of the Spring and Fall Equinoxes (hey, any excuse for a party).

I also intend to write every day, exercise three times a week, watch what I eat, and keep the house clean and decluttered, but those are just goals, not Resolutions.

Happy new year, everyone, and best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous 2009.

Since my last post…

• The December Internet Review of Science Fiction was posted, including Greg Beatty’s long and thoughtful review of Space Magic. “[T]his collection makes it clear that David D. Levine is a writer to watch.”
• The December Locus arrived, including Gardner Dozois’s review of Transhuman: “There are probably no award-winners in [this anthology], but there is a respectable amount of good solid core SF. Best story here is by David D. Levine, but there are also good stories by Mark L. Van Name, Paul Chafe, Sarah A. Hoyt, Wen Spencer, and others.” I’ll take it.
• Locus also included the annual Forthcoming Books section, which told me that both Gamer Fantastic and Witch Way to the Mall will be published in July 2009. I’d been wondering when those were coming out. Also, Transhuman is going to be reissued as a mass-market paperback in April 2009.
• There was also a photo of me and Lou Anders at World Fantasy Con on page 5. In color, no less!
• I received my contributor’s copies of the February 2009 issue of Realms of Fantasy, including my story “Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven.” I love, love, love the illustration they gave it.
• The audio version of “Sun Magic, Earth Magic” (ably read by BCS editor Scott H. Andrews) was posted at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It’s also available from iTunes.
• A five-minute video of me blabbering incoherently, recorded by Bill Johnson of Willamette Writers at OryCon, was posted on YouTube. I thought it would be an interview, but once the camera was rolling I was informed that, no, I should just talk about whatever I wanted. I had nothing prepared. *cringe* Other writers fared better.
• I learned that Aeon Magazine, the next issue of which was going to contain my story “The True Story of Merganther’s Run,” is suspending publication. I think this is the first time I’ve “killed” a market. However, the story is supposed to appear in an anthology, The End of an Aeon, some time in 2009.

(Sorry to use bullet points in a blog post, but I was a technical writer for 15 years and sometimes I revert to type.)

In addition to all that, there have been several Real Life issues which are annoying and mildly worrying. We have options, though, and there’s nothing to get too concerned about, I hope. I have a list of seven “items I am waiting for”, three of which have notations such as “aargh!” next to them.

We leave for Germany today. Um, did I mention that? Our itinerary:

• December 5-6: fly Portland to Frankfurt
• December 6: Nuremberg
• December 7-14: Cruising the Danube on the Viking Spirit (stopping at Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Melz, and Vienna)
• December 14-16: Vienna
• December 16-20: Munich
• December 20: fly Munich Portland

I’ll post from the road if I can.

My fever broke overnight, and Kate’s on the mend as well. We’re still not 100% but we were recovered enough to have a nice Thanksgiving luncheon of turkey pilaf, with pumpkin custard for dessert later. Apart from that we had a quiet day of reading and watching Torchwood. So, although we’re missing our friends, it wasn’t such a horrid Thanksgiving after all.

I am grateful for Kate, for our lovely home, and for being generally in good health and able to do whatever we want (though we have just been quite sick and couldn’t do what we wanted because of it, that was a temporary aberration).

Well, now I’m sick too. Not as sick as Kate was — I haven’t thrown up, at least — but I’m feverish, achy, and completely lacking in energy and appetite. So we’re putting Lise on a cab to the train to Seattle and will stay at home for the weekend. We may or may not have anything resembling Thanksgiving dinner, depending on how we feel tomorrow.

Happy turkey day to those who are in a position to celebrate it.

Pout.

At Orycon I thought I was having a pretty good time, though I recognized that the con was passing in a blur because I was so heavily programmed. Seeing other people’s con reports afterwards, though, I realize now that I missed an awful lot of people… in fact, I feel like I practically missed the con. There were many people there I saw only in passing or not at all, I attended only two program items that I wasn’t on, and I had only two meals away from the con hotel: I walked down to the farmers’ market by myself for a quick lunch, and we had a very nice French dinner with friends from Seattle. Every other meal was either eaten in the noisy sports bar or snagged from Hospitality or the Green Room, because I didn’t have time for anything else.

Next time I will try to remember that panels are not my only Orycon program commitment. I was only on 6 panels, but in addition to that I had a reading, a writers’ workshop, auctioneering the Sue Petrey Auction, and Opening Ceremonies (which included a runthrough beforehand and the Endeavour Award ceremony). Jay Lake phoned while I was at dinner on Saturday to ask if I could help out with Whose Line, but I begged exhaustion. Orycon is my hometown con and I feel I owe them a lot, but next year I think I need to tell Programming to schedule me on only one panel-qua-panel per day to leave room for all that other stuff.

At the end of the con Kate was very low in energy and we left early. Our friend Lise is staying with us for a few days post-con, and we took her around for some touristing in Portland today, but Kate was pretty draggy all morning and after we got back from lunch she threw up and went to bed. She’s been sick as a dog all afternoon, poor thing. I hope that our Thanksgiving plans will not be affected, but she’s really out of it. Neither Lise nor I is affected, at least not yet.

Well, it’s been about two weeks since my last substantive entry, and, as is usually the case, when I’m not blogging, I’m also not writing. I did write a few hundred words on a short story last Tuesday at the coffee shop, but I don’t really feel like it’s going anywhere and I haven’t been motivated to continue it. I’ve been kind of mopy, downright depressed in fact on a couple of days, and beating myself up for being a failed one-shot-wonder has-been hack.

Today I reminded myself that I completed and submitted a novel — only my second — at the end of October. Perhaps this is post-novel ennui. In any case, I deserve a couple of weeks off, dammit.

It’s not like I’ve been idle in those two weeks, either. We went to Calgary for the World Fantasy Convention, which was very enjoyable. Good people, good conversations, good dinners. Calgary felt exactly like a cross between Dallas and Minneapolis: oil companies, friendly humble people, an emphasis on beef in the cuisine, and skywalks. I didn’t make any big deals during the con, but I did talk with some editors and I had a good time hanging out with my writing peers.

Something about the geology of Alberta is conducive to fossils: in addition to the oil and coal industries, it is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, one of the finest paleontology museums anywhere. We rented a car on Thursday before the convention and took off for a day trip there with Ellen Klages, who made an excellent traveling companion. The Tyrrell features a very impressive collection of fossils, including no fewer than three T. Rexes, a whole herd of Ceratopsidae (e.g. Triceratops), two Plesiosaurs, and numerous other complete skeletons, as well as an excellent exhibit on the deeply weird creatures of the Burgess Shale (which is nearby in British Columbia).

One of the highlights of the museum was the quirky, informative videos starring this guy who seemed vaguely familiar (perhaps he was a member of Second City) and kept falling victim to amusing natural disasters. There was also one skeleton in the first major hall that looked to me exactly like the Utahraptor in panel 4 of Dinosaur Comics, but not one person to whom I noted this resemblance had ever even heard of the webcomic. Philistines.

The little town of Drumheller, where the museum is located, knows a good thing when it sees it and has gone completely dinosaur-mad. Every possible thing in town that could be decorated with dinosaurs is, and there are fossil stores galore (had to pass up the $40,000 Triceratops skull, alas, even though that’s only about $32,000 in US dollars). There were also a few cavemen in the decor, but I’ll try not to hold that against the good people of Drumheller.

Coming back from the convention we were surprised to find that our seats for the flight to Vancouver (row 13, seats A and B) were at the very front of the plane, facing backwards. Not only did they not recline; not only was there no tray table, no window, no underseat storage, and no overhead storage; not only did we have to play footsie with the people in the next row, but we spent the whole flight feeling like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE PLANE WAS LOOKING AT US! Exceptionally weird.

Upon return from the con I found two acceptances in my mailbox: one from Esther Friesner, for a humorous YA werewolf story in anthology Strip Mauled, and one from Cecilia Tan, for a gender-bending humorous erotica short-short in anthology Up for Grabs. Yay! Also a rejection from Asimov’s, to keep me humble. That story really wants to go to Strange Horizons next, but they are currently on hiatus, so I decided to hang onto it until January. The annoying thing is that if I’d been home when the rejection letter arrived I would have gotten the story to SH just before they closed for the year.

Also in the mailbox: the November Locus, with Gary K. Wolfe’s lengthy review of Space Magic. “An interesting portrait of a new writer who’s either impressively versatile, or still in the process of trying to define himself, or maybe just dealing with attention deficit issues.” I’d tell you what I think about this, but… ooh, look! A leaf!

The weekend after WFC was Wordstock, “Portland’s Festival of the Book.” This is the fourth or fifth year of the festival, but the first time I’ve participated as an author instad of just an attendee. Jay Lake and I had 25-30 people for our joint reading, and I had an absolute blast. They treat the authors really, really well.

The day before yesterday I did something I’ve been meaning to do since I retired, a little over a year ago: I went out and bought a new digital flatscreen TV (not enormous, only 26″) and a TiVo. I had some difficulty getting the TiVo to play nice with my WiFi network, but now it’s up and running. I’m impressed with the UI, as expected, though it’s a little on the busy and flashy side. And I was surprised to find that the new TV, hooked up to the same old analog cable, picks up nearly 60 additional digital channels, some in impressive HD. Too bad the TiVo HD can’t see them (at least, not without additional hardware which I haven’t yet sprung for). I have not yet found anywhere a comprehensive list of those channels, which include both the expected digital versions of Portland’s over-the-air channels and dozens of unidentified others.

Today’s newspaper included a couple of sentences from my letter to President Obama, which I’d cc’d to the paper. Unfortunately they were misattributed to one “David Levin,” but I’ll take what I can get.

This coming weekend is OryCon. Our friend Lise from New York will be staying with us for a couple of days before and after the con (the bathroom remodel was completed in time, huzzah!) and my programming schedule looks like this:

Friday:

• 1:00-2:00pm: First Novels: the road to the editor’s desk in Eugene with Mary Rosenblum, J.C. Hendee, and Mike Shepherd-Moscoe
• 4:00-5:00pm: Social Networking sites: the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly in Salon G with Petrea Mitchell, John Hedtke, and Phyllis Irene Radford
• 7:00-8:00pm: Opening Ceremonies in Salon E with Ginjer Buchanan, Harry Turtledove, Jeff Fennel, and Cecilia Eng
• 10:00-11:00pm: Erotica readings in Eugene with Edward Morris and Theresa Reed

Saturday:

• 10:00-11:00am: Ask Dr. Genius: Ad-Lib Answers to Audience Questions in Salmon with Alan Olsen, Rick Lindsley, Louise Owen, and Jim Kling
• 11:00am-12:00pm: Writers’ Workshop with Mary Rosenblum (not open to the public)
• 12:30-1:00pm: Reading in Salem
• 2:00-3:00pm: Discovering new planets — what are they like? Can we even tell? in Medford with Melinda Hutson, G. David Nordley, and Marilyn Holt
• 4:30-6:00pm: Sue Petrey Auction in Mt. Hood with Tom Whitmore

Sunday:

• 11:00am-12:00pm: A look back at 30 years of OryCon history in Eugene with Patty Wells, Debbie Cross, and Paul Wrigley

Hope to see some of you there!