David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Kobo’s holiday sale ends today (January 5)! Use promo code 50COUPON for 50% off hundreds of indie ebooks, including my award-winning short story collection Space Magic. Use the “Add to Cart” drop-down rather than the “Buy Now” button to allow entering the promo code.

Book View Cafe’s holiday sale ends tomorrow (January 6)! Over 100 ebooks are half-price, including my novella Second Chance! Books are listed at full price but will be automatically discounted at checkout.

Happy new year!

I’m (still) working on a big retrospective post of all the cool stuff I did in 2013, but at the prompting of John Scalzi I thought I would put up a separate post with my award-eligible work from 2013.

• “The Wreck of the Mars Adventure” (novelette) in Old Mars, anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, October 2013 (buy it at powell’s | amazon | b&n). In 1701, Captain Kidd (yes, that Captain Kidd) becomes the first Englishman on Mars.
• “Artist’s Retrospective” (short story) in Daily Science Fiction, website edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele Barasso, September 2013 (read it at daily sf). An artist “unpaints” a picture in a world where time runs backwards.
• “Wavefronts of History and Memory” (short story) in Analog, magazine edited by Trevor Quachri, June 2013 (buy it at itunes | google play). A radioarchaeologist travels thousands of light-years to peer into Earth’s past, but her own history gets in the way.
• “Letter to the Editor” (short story) in The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, February 2013 (buy it at powell’s | amazon | b&n; hear it at tales to terrify). Mad scientist Dr. Talon explains himself.
• I also made “Letter to the Editor” into a 15-minute video, which is eligible for the Hugo Award in Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Of these, I’m proudest of “The Wreck of the Mars Adventure,” but it would be a real hoot to get Dr. Talon on the Best Dramatic Presentation ballot.

As you may know, I retired from my day job in 2007. People often ask me if I retired to write full-time, but the fact is that I’m not really spending much more time writing than I did when I was employed. Instead, we spend a lot more time traveling.

Here are all the cities where I spent at least one night away from home in 2013:

Las Vegas, NV
Redmond, WA
Lake Quinault, WA
Walnut Creek, CA
Bend, OR
Taos Ski Valley, NM
Kennewick, WA (x2)
Minneapolis, MN
Milwaukee, WI
San Francisco, CA
San Antonio, TX
La Grange, TX
Lincoln City, OR
Barcelona, Spain
Greenwich, UK
Brighton, UK
Orlando, FL

Plus numerous visits to Seattle to hang out with Janna and other friends.

This is just a quick reminder that SFWA’s Pacific Northwest Reading Series is having our next events in Seattle and Portland soon!

On Tuesday, January 14 in the Seattle area, we’ll have Nicola Griffith, Kelley Eskridge, and Janet Freeman-Daily. The University Bookstore will be on hand again selling books and all the authors will be available to sign.

When: Tuesday, January 14, 2014, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: Wilde Rover Irish Pub & Restaurant, 111 Central Way, Kirkland, WA 98033

On Wednesday, January 15 in Portland, we’ll have Mary Rosenblum, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Rick Lovett. Wrigley-Cross Books will be selling books and all the authors will be available to sign.

When: Wednesday, January 15, 2014, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave. Portland, OR 97211

See http://www.sfwa.org/for-readers/sfwa-northwest-reading-series/ for more information on both readings. Tell your friends!

I hope you can join us! It should be a lot of fun.

Did you get a shiny new e-reader or tablet for Christmas?

Book View Cafe is having a holiday sale! Through January 6, over 100 ebooks are half-price, including my novella Second Chance! Books are listed at full price but will be automatically discounted at checkout.

Kobo is also having a holiday sale! Through January 5, use promo code 50COUPON for 50% off hundreds of indie ebooks, including my award-winning short story collection Space Magic! Use the “Add to Cart” drop-down rather than the “Buy Now” button to allow entering the promo code.

Enjoy, and spread the word!

You don’t really want to get into that whole “Black Friday” BUY BUY BUY thing, do you? Why don’t you come out to Hillsboro and hear readings from five local authors (including me!) while enjoying food and/or drink from the world’s largest collection of Oregon wines and beers instead?

What: Bards & Brews Author Reading Series
When: Friday November 29, 7:00-9:00 pm
Where: Primrose & Tumbleweeds, 248 E Main St., Hillsboro, OR
Who:
    Damien Macalino, What If an Alligator Ate an Avalanche?
    Eddie Regory, Wallace Park: A Memoir
    David D. Levine, Old Mars
    Jo Barney, Graffiti Grandma
    Christopher Lord, The Christmas Carol Murders

See http://www.niwawriters.com/bards–brews.html for more information. Hope to see you there!

OryCon was fun, as usual, with friends and silliness and many fine meals. I was on a lot of programming, also as usual, to the extent that I don’t think I saw any program items other than the ones I was on. But those all went well and were generally pretty well attended. However, with all that programming, plus continuing jet lag from our recently-concluded European trip, the convention was over before I knew it. And once the con was over I came down with a mild cold — not con crud, I think, just exhaustion after what was, in effect, a month of travel including four cities and two conventions — and I’m only just beginning to get over it now.

A highlight of the con for me is that I was invited to read excepts from the five Endeavour Award nominees, which was an honor and a treat and very well received. But then, immediately after the Endeavour ceremony, I was surprised to be called back on stage to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from OSFCI (Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc., the non-profit corporation that puts on OryCon and other Portland cons).

The award usually consists of a bottle of Scotch, but the organizers realized that would be wasted on me, so they consulted with Kate (who kept it a complete secret from me) and selected this lovely steampunky robot sculpture.

I’ll be perfectly honest… when my name was called out as the recipient of the award, my first thought was that they must have already given one to everyone who really deserved it if they’d gotten all the way down to me. But, upon reflection, I realized that I’ve been doing something for OSFCI every year — including chairing OryCon, serving a couple of stints on the Board of Directors, and setting up and maintaining the corporate web page and email lists — pretty much continuously since I moved to Portland in 1983… and that’s thirty years. How the heck did that happen?

One thing about this award, though… I refuse to accept that a Lifetime Achievement Award means I have to stop now.

Last night we were very fortunate to see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Theatre Vertigo. A tight, crisp performance in a tiny space.

The acting was uniformly excellent, with Mario Calcagno’s performance as Jekyll a standout; most of the rest of the cast plays one or two roles (several of them cast gender-blind) in addition to dividing the role of Hyde, a decision I questioned at first but which worked brilliantly. The production is highlighted by subtle, highly effective music and sound effects and sharp lighting, with every sound and light cue nailed. And the whole thing takes place in a performance space the size of my living-dining room, with one and a half rows of seats along the wall on each side; this intense production takes place right in the audience’s lap.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plays through November 23 and I strongly encourage you to see it if you can.

OryCon starts tomorrow! (How the heck did that happen?) Here’s where you can find me:

Friday 1:00PM-2:00PM, Hamilton: Gender and Writing
Rhiannon Held (M), Rhea Rose, Barry Deutsch, Mike Chinakos, David D. Levine
Gender free? Gender neutral? Stereotyping? How gender affects our writing. What writers do to write effectively in the opposite gender’s point of view and whether they really do get away with it.

Friday 3:00PM-4:00PM, Morrison: Effective Readings
Anne Bishop (M), Grá Linnaea, Liz Argall, David D. Levine, Sonia Orin Lyris
You may be a good writer but reading aloud is a separate skill. Learn to make your words on the page sound great.

Friday 6:30PM-7:00PM, Mult/Holl: Endeavour Awards
Nancy Kress, Jim Fiscus, Daniel H. Wilson, Laurie Frankel
2013 Endeavour Award: The Award honors the best SF/F book written by a Pacific Northwest writer.

Saturday 11:00AM-11:30AM, Lincoln: David Levine Reading
David D. Levine
I’ll most likely be reading from my novel Arabella and the Marsman.

Saturday 3:00PM-4:00PM, Roosevelt: Workshop: Story Outline in an Hour
David D. Levine (M), Matt Vancil, Jason M. Hough
Bring something to write on and write with. You’ll have an outline (or a good start) to a story by the end of this panel. Bonus–this would be a great head start to that creative writing class homework you’re ignoring over the weekend.

Saturday 5:00PM-6:00PM, Alaska: Ask Dr. Genius: Ad-Lib Answers to Audience Questions
Janet Freeman-Daily (M), Karen Black, Jim Kling, Guy Letourneau, Dan Dubrick, David D. Levine
No really they’re real scientists honest. Bring your science questions and if they don’t have an answer they’ll make something up and it might even be sort of right.

Sunday 11:00AM-12:00PM, Madison: Audiobooks
Annie Bellet, Mark Niemann-Ross, Phoebe Kitanidis, David D. Levine
Selling the rights ACX hiring a narrator or–gulp–doing it yourself!

Sunday 2:00PM-3:00PM, Morrison: Gay Lesbian and Trangender Themes in SF
David D. Levine (M), GuyAlan Holady, Theresa “Darklady” Reed, Keffy R. M. Kehrli
SF and F have long been a magnet for people with alternative sexuality and genders. How does literature and media compare with the political reality today?

Sunday 4:30PM-6:30PM, Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing: Sci-Fi AuthorFest 7
A starfleet of science-fiction and fantasy authors descends for one galactic booksigning event. Free and open to the public.