David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Woke up bright and early this morning and ran downstairs in eager anticipation… only to find myself in the basement because our bedroom is on the ground floor. Hope everyone is enjoying their first day of continued existence. Happy solstice, too!

Submission information for the Potlatch 22 Writer’s Workshop has now been posted at http://potlatch-sf.org/workshop.php. Deadline is January 7. I will be one of the critiquers, but more may be added depending on how many people submit manuscripts and critiquers’ availability. Submit soon, space is limited!

Who are your favorite ebook reviewers for science fiction and fantasy? Someone who, perhaps, might be interested in reviewing a new ebook release of an award-winning SF/Fantasy short story collection that’s coming out early next year?

Why? Oh, no reason.

I just found out how to “claim” my author page on Goodreads, so you can find me there at http://www.goodreads.com/daviddlevine.

What do you find useful about this community? What do you recommend I do as a new user?

Effective immediately, my home page has changed to https://daviddlevine.com, an all-new URL and an all-new website designed by the fabulous Jeremiah Tolbert of Clockpunk Studios!

My blog there is at https://daviddlevine.com/blog/ and its RSS feed is https://daviddlevine.com/feed/.

The old URLs will redirect to the new ones, but this is currently only partially implemented, so please update your bookmarks, blogroll, and links.

Go on over and check the place out. Make yourself at home, kick the tires, leave a comment if you like. Please do let me know if you find anything that’s broken!

We have now nailed down the dates and hosts and some of the readers for all the SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series events in 2013, so mark your calendars:

Portland readings:

• Wed Jan 30, 2013: James Patrick Kelly (host), Felicity Shoulders, Grá Linnaea
• Wed Apr 24, 2013: Mary Robinette Kowal (host), Tina Connolly, Nisi Shawl
• Wed Aug 14, 2013: Laura Anne Gilman (host)
• Wed Oct 16, 2013: Peter Orullian (host)

The Portland events are held at McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave., Portland, OR 97211, and run from 7:00 to 8:30 PM.

Seattle-area readings:

• Tue Jan 29, 2013: Cat Rambo (host), Felicity Shoulders, Grá Linnaea
• Tue Apr 23, 2013: Mary Robinette Kowal (host), Tina Connolly, Nisi Shawl
• Tue Aug 13, 2013: Laura Anne Gilman (host)
• Tue Oct 15, 2013: Peter Orullian (host)

The Seattle-area events are held at the Wilde Rover Irish Pub & Restaurant, 111 Central Way, Kirkland, WA 98033, and run from 7:00 to 8:30 PM.

All events are free and open to the public. We’ll have booksellers on hand and all the authors will be available to sign.

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

See http://www.sfwa.org/for-readers/sfwa-northwest-reading-series/ for more information and to RSVP (not required, but encouraged).

This morning I found a message in my spam folder from an aspiring science fiction author, offering a free ebook and requesting feedback, “Likes,” and blogs. It was a nice enough letter, but clearly bulk mail, not personalized in any way. This was my response:

Thought you might like to know that your email landed in my spam trap. And, well, technically it is spam, because it’s a commercial email from someone I’ve never done business with before. As spams go, it’s pretty pleasant and inoffensive. However, I’m not likely to read your book (not a fan of the subgenre, sorry) or help you publicize it (I already have dozens of real-world friends who are making the same “please help me publicize my book” request on a weekly basis). Good luck!

He replied with a nice email thanking me for the pleasant reply, having received some nasty ones. I responded:

Alas, I’m not really surprised about the nasty responses. We are all so overwhelmed by uninvited commercial messages — they’re on our TV, every web site, email, Twitter, Facebook… — that when we actually have a chance to yell back at the source of one I can see that some people would really let fly, not caring that the source was an individual who’s just trying to make a buck. So, even though I think this campaign is probably not a good idea, I’m sympathetic.

You probably would have done better to approach people you actually know. If you don’t know any prominent writers, maybe some of the less-prominent writers you know do, and you could ask them to introduce you. If you don’t know anyone in the SF writing community (and if that’s the case, you really should have started doing this long before your book was ready for release, but it’s never too late to start) you can attend science fiction conventions, join a local writing group, maybe join SFWA. Participating in social media — mailing lists, joining Facebook groups, leaving comments on blogs — is a pretty good way to form online relationships. But when I say “participate,” I mean to hang out like you would at a party, don’t be all “buy my book!” all the time… maybe even ANY of the time. Keep doing this until you have created actual relationships, to the point that asking your prominent writer friend “hey, my book’s out, would you mind mentioning it on your blog?” is seen as a natural request rather than an imposition. Yes, this does take time, by which I mean years, but a) it’s fun, and b) building a career is not the same thing as selling one book.

Thanks for asking, and good luck!

After I wrote that I realized that other people might like to read it as well. So here it is!

The fabulous Tina Connolly — podcaster, facepainter, author of Ironskin, and all-around cool person — has turned my story “Moonlight on the Carpet” into an episode of her idiosyncratic Toasted Cake podcast. You can hear it now at http://toastedcake.com/2012/12/toasted-cake-49-moonlight-on-the-carpet-by-david-d-levine.html

I left Facebook over two years ago because I didn’t like their corporate practices, their privacy policies, or their user interface. I didn’t like the games, the ads, or the constant invitations to events and pseudo-events I couldn’t or wouldn’t attend. And managing my friends list was a constant chore.

I’ve been off of Facebook ever since, but it’s been getting harder and harder to avoid. A nonprofit I’m involved with used Facebook to coordinate a recent publicity event. You have to be on Facebook to enter some contests. People are always sending me links to pictures, polls, and articles that are locked behind Facebook’s garden wall. The final straw was that I was unable to participate in the auction of Mark Bourne’s toy robots to support Clarion West. Refusing to have a Facebook account these days is like refusing to have a credit card — an understandable choice, but it makes life harder.

So, I’m back. You can find me at http://www.facebook.com/david.d.levine.sf. I still don’t like their corporate practices and find their user interface atrocious, but they’ve made one important change: they’ve added “subscriptions,” which means that I don’t need to be “friends” with a couple thousand strangers in order for them to see what I post. I will only be friending people who are my actual real-world friends; everyone else is welcome to subscribe. This will, I think, greatly reduce the hassle factor that drove me away before.

This is actually Phase Two of my revamped global social media strategy, but the cart rolled past the horse. Look for Phase One in the coming week.

Leverage returns tonight with “The Low Low Price Job.” Kate and I both worked on this one as extras — tune in and you might see us!