David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 122386 | Since last entry: -392

Work on the bathroom resumed bright and early this Monday morning, when the tile guys arrived. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that we did not have the “bullnose” tiles (with one rounded edge) needed for some outside corners. Fortunately, those tiles are a stock item, and Pratt & Larson Tile is right nearby, so with the wave of a credit card they were quickly obtained. The tile guy set up his water-cooled saw on the porch and with many a cheerful “gzannng!” he began laying out the floor.

Unfortunately, laying out the floor required removing the toilet, and it won’t be back for a few days. We have a portapotty for the nonce. Whee.

While the tile guy was “gzannng”-ing away, the plumbers returned to complete the jackhammering-up of the rotted pipes in the basement. The good news in all this is that the next stretch of pipe proved to be in better shape than the first one, and so they didn’t have to carve quite as large a trench in the basement floor as they’d expected (this also implies that the sewer pipe beyond our basement wall is also in good shape).

In the afternoon I got an email from a friend who recently spent some time in the hospital and needed help with her grocery shopping (she’s not yet able to drive, and pushing a shopping cart is also a bit much to ask). I seized the opportunity to escape the noise, and instead went to Costco. This was only a slight improvement in terms of reducing my stress levels, but I can use the karma points.

After a nice dinner of Tomato-Miso Soup, I heard a cheery voice from outside: “Ahoy the house!” This turned out to be our friend Sam, who has been known to pop by unexpectedly and is always welcome. We showed her the progress on the bathroom and basement (the basement was finished when I got back from Costco, and we scratched the date and a peace sign in the wet concrete) and chatted most amicably for an hour or so.

Then I sat down and cut about 400 words from chapter 10. Less than desired, but better than nothing.

Word count: 122778 | Since last entry: -277

A rare day with no workmen. Took it easy: slept in, gym, laundry, dinner with friends, watched The Amazing Race. Edited one chapter, but couldn’t manage to squeeze out more than 300 words of cuts even with two editing passes. Some days are like that.

Word count: 123055 | Since last entry: -3233

So there I was, reading through chapter 8, unable to cut more than a sentence or two every dozen pages. It all seemed necessary.

And then I realized… it was all equally necessary.

Did I really need this chapter at all?

I’d gotten some feedback that this chapter was on the slow side. There were also some technical issues with the main conflict in the chapter (some readers found it implausible that anyone on the ship would seriously consider not letting the alien stay on board, given the kind of people they are). The conflict itself was also, perhaps, a false one… a problem dropped in to raise tension which didn’t exist before this chapter and didn’t have any effect afterwards.

So I cut the whole conflict — about half the chapter — which also allowed me to cut a page or two in the previous chapter that led up to it, for a total cut of 3200 words. It’s kind of late for me to tell whether I’ve plastered over the seams well enough (hmm, where did that metaphor come from?), and I feel bad about losing some of the little character moments in there, but I feel good about this. If I need any of those paragraphs back, they’re available… I always keep earlier drafts around.

Still probably won’t make it all the way down to 100,000 words, but the shorter the better, eh?

Word count: 126288 | Since last entry: -772

The bathroom remodel has been more than usually stressful today.

The plumbers came to unclog the basement drain. We knew it was bad, but it proved to be even worse than they’d thought. The drain pipe in the floor had completely disintegrated, which means that for the last no-one-knows-how-many years, every time we used the kitchen sink or dishwasher at least some of the wastewater went into the soil beneath the house rather than into the sewer as it was supposed to.

They had to jackhammer out six feet of rotten pipe from the basement floor, leaving an open a trench in our basement floor and dirt everywhere. They decided to leave it open until Monday so that the sodden dirt under the floor can dry out a little. Next week they’ll jackhammer out the remaining eighteen feet or so, then fill in the trench with concrete.

At least we can use our kitchen sink and dishwasher, though not the clothes washer, this weekend.

The few of you who have read the magic lesbian plumber story (which has now been at F&SF for over 40 days, which indicates they are at least giving it serious consideration… either that, or the rejection got lost in the mail) will be amused to know that the problematic basement drain is the same one that, right at the beginning of the story, has a nixie living in it.

One thing about remodeling a bathroom is that you get a real feeling for the bones, sinew, and nerves of your house. Also a real feeling that whoever did the plumbing for this place back in 1913 was an IDIOT! He had no sense of the fact that water is supposed to run DOWN and air UP, and a real tendency to cut through important structural elements of the house’s frame to make his plumbing life easier.

The other bathroom-related thing that happened today was that the plasterers came by to put on a second coat. But it’s been cold and rainy, and the first coat wasn’t nearly dry enough for them to do anything. So they’ll be back tomorrow (Saturday), and until then there’s been a constant roar of fans and space heaters in addition to the intermittent jackhammering.

I couldn’t concentrate too well today, for some reason, and wound up cutting less than 800 words. But more than the small number of words removed today, I’m concerned about the fact that I’m on page 245 of a 572-page manuscript and I’ve cut less than 3000 words in total. No way I’m going to cut 30,000 words at this pace… I might get 10,000 if I’m really ruthless. I’m either going to have to do a second and probably a third pass, cutting stuff I’d really rather keep, or go ahead and submit it at about 120,000 words. Currently I’m leaning toward the latter plan. We’ll see how far I get in this pass… maybe I’ll find a whole chapter that can be excised (though even that would only buy me 5000 or 6000 words.)

Word count: 127060 | Since last entry: -1129

If you’d told me two years ago that the Vice Presidential debate would be shown live at half the movie theatres in town, and that the Bagdad (our local) would be completely sold out, with crowds out the doors at every bar down the street, I’d have said you were crazed.

We watched some of the debate and heard most of the rest on the radio. I didn’t get the amusing Palin meltdown I’d been hoping for, though her insane policies and rigid adherence to preprogrammed talking points frightened and appalled me. Biden seemed confident, intelligent, and well-qualified. I was worried that a lot of people would find that Palin’s heavily-coached-beauty-queen-at-a-job-interview performance made her “someone I’d like to have a beer with” but the post-debate polls are encouraging.

If she’d said “9-11” (maybe she did and I didn’t catch it) I would have gotten a bingo. I was playing card 4 from the linked site, though not paying really close attention.

After the debate we went to square dancing, then I got to the heavy cutting of the one scene I mentioned yesterday. 1129 words cut in less than an hour’s work. Yay.

Word count: 128189 | Since last entry: -600

One year ago today was my last day at McAfee.

In the last year I’ve traveled to Ashland OR, Seattle WA, Saratoga NY, Vancouver BC, Kennewick WA, Washington DC, Pasco WA, Seattle WA, Victoria BC, Seattle WA, Lincoln City OR, Palm Springs CA, Austin TX, Milwaukee WI, Madison WI, Taos NM (while Kate went to Guanajuato MX), Cleveland OH, Seattle WA, Laramie WY, Denver CO, Montreal QC, San Francisco CA, and Redmond WA. We’ve also seen a lot of live theatre and music and attended many cool events right here in Portland, such as Wordstock and Orycon, and planned and began executing a bathroom remodel. Whew!

Today, as it happens, we attended a talk by our financial adviser to a bunch of his clients, explaining the current economic mess and how we got into it. The situation is worrisome but there’s no need for panic. I don’t expect I’ll have to return to work, but the timing of this meltdown is annoying. We’ll be meeting with him individually next week.

Cut 600 words from the novel today, below quota but still respectable. I also got about halfway through a scene that needs major cuts, but decided not to begin deleting words from the file until I figure out what the scene as a whole really needs. (I’m marking up a paper copy, then performing the cuts in the file at the end of each day to determine the actual word count.) Tomorrow’s negative word count should be much better than today’s.

And Space Magic has received its first review, a comprehensive and generally positive review in The Fix. Money shot: “I hope that the volume does more to make this very worthwhile writer better known to the reading public.”

Word count: 128789 | Since last entry: -390

My goal for the month of October is to get this novel down to 100,000 words or less. As I’m starting at 130,000 words, that means I have to average 1000 anti-words a day. I thought I’d done that today — surely the cuts I made added up to at least four manuscript pages — but the word counter does not lie; I made less than half of my goal for this first day. But these early chapters have been pretty heavily edited already, and I hope that some future days will involve whacking out large chunks and entire scenes.

In other news… I’ve been asked to join the faculty of the Iron Springs Writers’ Retreat (next June on the Olympic Peninsula); an interview with me has been posted on the Nebula Awards website; my bio has been posted on the website for Wordstock, so I guess my participation there is official; and Danny O’Brien, blogging about my SF in SF reading, referred to me as “The Ted Chiang of Toontown,” which is a mighty fine epithet if you ask me.

Word count: 6050 | Since last entry: 2841

The above word count actually represents 4543 new words and 1702 anti-words, because the first draft of the werewolf story wound up at about 7700 words and the maximum for this market is 6000. I completed the story, got a real quick critique, and handed it in person to the editor, Esther Friesner, at Foolscap last weekend. It’s not a guaranteed sale, but the reactions the story has received so far make me cautiously optimistic.

We’d waffled until quite late about attending Foolscap, but I’m glad we went. Many friends were there, some of whom we hardly see at any other cons, and the new location had a lot to recommend it (in a hotel inside one of those “streets”-type shopping malls… corporate, yes, but a wide variety of dining options within walking distance). I did a reading of my just-completed werewolf story, and got a good crowd and a good reaction; my reading was followed by Esther reading her werewolf story (not for the same anthology) about a six-year-old werewolf who lives in the Plaza Hotel. Hilarious. Other highlights for me included portraying the alien bartender Asteroid Al in the radio theatre production of Buck Godot: PSmIth (adapted for audio by Phil Foglio himself, who was sadly not at the convention) and helping out with the auction. It was the first time I’d been an auctioneer since back in the Midwest mumbledy years ago, and I was a bit concerned, but I had a blast.

The previous weekend we attended the annual West Coast Gay Advanced & Challenge Square Dance Weekend, which went very smoothly and was a lot of fun. We skipped out Saturday night for my SF in SF appearance at the Variety Club downtown. It went really well. The small theatre was comfortably populated with about 30 people, including both new friends and old (and four square dancers). And it was recorded for Rick Kleffel’s “Agony Column” podcast. You can hear it in 3 parts: Nick Mamatas reading his Carver/Lovecraft mash-up, me reading “Charlie the Purple Giraffe”, and the following discussion between us and Terry Bisson. The podcast is also available from iTunes.

The bathroom renovation has turned our house into a miniature third-world country. It’s noisy and dirty and the power and water are unpredictably intermittent. But the tub’s in and we have the mosaics in hand — it’s going to be gorgeous. Kate has pictures over on her blog.

Lots of other stuff happening. A few highlights: Bento 20 is now online in HTML and PDF formats; my story “Sun Magic, Earth Magic” will appear in the premiere issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which is scheduled to go live on October 9; and Space Magic will be available soon from the Multnomah County Library system. My book’s in the library! I’m somebody!

One lowlight: novel #1 was rejected again and I haven’t yet managed to contact my agent about where we want to send it next.

October is my month to finish novel #2 and get it in the mail!!

Strangers entered our house some time during the day Wednesday. They came in through the front door with, apparently, a large crowbar, and really made a mess of the place. However, nothing seems to be missing except the tub, sink, and several walls, which are now piled in the front yard. At least they left us the toilet.

Having your only bathrom renovated is remarkably stressful. For the last couple of days I’ve felt like I haven’t been able to take a proper breath (or a shower).

Word count: 3209 | Since last entry: 1660

A thousand words today on the werewolf story. (Did I mention I’m working on a werewolf story?)

A sale! “Galactic Stress” to Mike Brotherton for Diamonds in the Sky, an online anthology of stories demonstrating astronomy concepts. It’s not the most literary story I’ve ever written, but I hope it helps some students understand just how freaking big the galaxy is. Thanks again to Elise for the title.

An email from Wordstock, “Portland’s Annual Festival of the Book,” acknowledging that I will be a speaker this year. According to the Oregonian, this year’s festival will have a focus on popular genres such as SF, mystery, and graphic novels.

A Google search reveals that “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” has been translated into Czech, in the Summer 2008 issue of the Czech edition of F&SF.

We attended a delightful Al Stewart concert, which Kate has blogged about.

I attended a workshop (well, it was more of a talk with extensive Q & A, but still worthwhile) with monologist Mike Daisey. He had some interesting things to say about how and why he does what he does, and some of it was applicable to writing, especially the four questions he asks himself when he’s creating a new show: Is it essential? (Does it cut to the essence of what you mean to say?) Is it disruptive? (Does it shake up the status quo?) Is it cathartic? (Does it take the audience to a place they could not have reached on their own?) Is it broken? (Art should be broken; if you polish off the rough edges it is no longer compelling. Don’t be a good student.) We also talked a bit about Nikola Tesla, and I went to the library after the workshop and checked out a book on Tesla. I feel a Tesla story trying to sneak up on me, but it will have to wait… after I’m done with the werewolf story I must must must edit novel #2 and get it out the door.

I’ve been reading an old Pogo collection. When I was a kid I hated it, but I know a lot of Pogo fans, so I thought I’d give it another try. Turns out I just wasn’t sophisticated enough for it. It’s sharp, witty, topical, and yet humane, with a keen ear for dialog, and just tons of fun to read. I’d thought it was a surreal strip like Krazy Kat, but apart from the boat (whose name changes from panel to panel) it’s extremely linear; even the little bugs and worms in the background have their own consistent stories (and some great little side gags) from panel to panel.

And one bit of bad news for balance: the lenses of my glasses were getting kind of scratched up, so I had new ones made (covered by the warranty on the anti-scratch coating) and I just got them today. Unfortunately I think there is something wrong with the left one: an area of distortion and bad focus like a tiny black hole just a little below and to the left of center. I hope they haven’t sent the old lenses back yet.