David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Here’s what I’ve been working on this weekend. Mwah hah hah.

My story “Liasons Galantes: A Scientific Romance” is out today in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #108 (in HTML, PDF, PRC, EPUB, and Kindle formats).

In conjunction with the story, they’re giving away a signed copy of Ann VanderMeer’s new steampunk anthology Steampunk Revolution. Enter to win!

I’m intrigued that they describe this story as steampunk. When I was writing it I thought of it primarily as a romantic fantasy, set in a fantasy world reminiscent of Belle Epoque Paris in which relationships are visible as living things. The electrical gizmos in the story, I thought, were just props. But of course all of these elements do add up to something steampunkish, especially given that I subtitled it “a scientific romance.”

This isn’t the first time I had no idea what kind of story I had written until it was published. I thought my story “Nucleon” was hard SF, an alternate-universe story about an atomic car. I even sent it to Analog. But it turns out it’s actually a fantasy, a variation on the well-known “mystery shop” trope, as David Hartwell pointed out when he bought it for Year’s Best Fantasy.

Just heading to the train station to pick up Laura Anne Gilman, AKA L.A. Kornetsky. She will be reading from her debut mystery Collared tonight, Thursday, November 15, at 7:00 p.m. at Murder by the Book on Hawthorne.

“In a departure from her fantasy series, written as Laura Anne Gilman, L.A. Kornetsky has begun a new series starring Ginny Mallard, the owner of a private concierge company in Seattle. With the help of a bartender friend and some four-legged, furry friends, she is on the case of a missing person.”

There’s a well-known science fiction trope that if, after years of faithful service, you are led away to a happy existence on the Pleasure Planet and are never heard from again, the secret truth is that Something Awful has actually happened to you (examples: Soylent Green, Logan’s Run).

This leads me to conclude that…

LEMBAS BREAD IS ELVES!!!

John Joseph Adams’s new anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, including my story “Letter to the Editor,” comes out Feb. 19. Story excerpts and free reads are available here: http://www.johnjosephadams.com/mad-scientists-guide/

My niece Isobel’s violin group is trying to raise money to travel from Seattle to Sweden this summer. Rather than selling chocolates or wreaths, they’re using Kickstarter. I think this is awesome and I hope you’ll kick in a few coins to help them out.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seattlelillalag/pursuing-tradition-young-musicians-on-tour-in-swed

E-anthology Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, including my story “The White Raven’s Feather,” is now available for Kindle from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and in a wide variety of e-formats from Smashwords.com. Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and others will follow soon.

Here’s a bunch of miscellaneous news, some of which I’ve been meaning to post for weeks…

• At the upcoming World Fantasy Convention in Toronto, I will be moderating a panel called “They Call Me the Wanderer” at noon on Friday in York B&C. Also on the panel: Rajan Khanna, Stefon Mears, Robert V. S. Redick, and Patrick Rothfuss. Assuming that Hurricane Sandy aka Frankenstorm does not prevent us from arriving in time…
• My story “Wavefronts of History and Memory” was accepted at Analog by new editor Trevor Quachri.
• My story “The White Raven’s Feather,” originally published in Daily Science Fiction, will be reprinted in e-anthology Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, coming soon to Kindle.
• My story “Moonlight on the Carpet,” originally published in Aeon Speculative Fiction,, will appear on Tina Connolly’s Toasted Cake podcast.
• I appeared on the Roundtable Podcast twice in September, first in an interview and then in a workshop in which the hosts and I helped a writer workshop a story idea. I had lots of fun doing it, and I hope you enjoy listening to them!

Kate woke up this morning and asked “why don’t we ever have dreams in which everything goes right? Mine were full of lost luggage and mutant goats.” And I had an insight I’m surprised I never had before.

Your brain did not evolve to make you happy. Brains evolved for the purpose of improving the organism’s chances to stay alive long enough to reproduce. This means that your brain’s job is worry, fear, and angst — the emotions that keep you away from stuff that might kill you. The positive emotions that drive you toward helpful stuff (e.g. food and sex) are less immediately vital to survival and therefore easily overridden by the negative ones.

No wonder we’re so miserable most of the time.

This is just a quick reminder that the SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series is having its next events in two weeks!

On Monday, in Portland, we’ll have New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire, accompanied by local favorites Jay Lake and M.K. Hobson. Wrigley-Cross Books will be on hand again selling books and all the authors will be available to sign.

When: Monday, October 15, 2012, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave. Portland, OR 97211

On Tuesday, in the Seattle area, Seanan McGuire will be accompanied by artist/writers Phil and Kaja Foglio and writer/editor Jennifer Brozek. The University Bookstore will be selling books and all the authors will be available to sign.

When: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: Wild Rover Restaurant and Pub, 111 Central Way, Kirkland, WA 98033

Both events are free and open to the public.

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).