David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 2890 | Since last entry: 2890

For some reason, since returning from Wiscon I’ve been very low on energy and generally feeling swamped by life — certainly too overwhelmed to blog about the con. I mean, yes, it was a con and I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but usually I’m not this derailed by the experience. In any case, I seem to be mostly recovered now.

It’s not because I had the stomach bug, norovirus, WisCholera, or whatever you want to call it. Kate have gas and threw up once, but we think now that it might have been a reaction to some iron pills she had just started taking rather than The Bug. It certainly didn’t lay her out flat like it did many of the other people at the convention.

The con itself was great fun; all of my favorite people were there. In fact, I kept saying “I have too many friends!” because I saw so many of them only in passing. But I had many fine meals with many fine people, and the hallway conversations were varied and stimulating. One in particular stands out: talking with Barth Anderson about the precautions everyone was taking to prevent coming down with the bug and how much they reminded me of the things people did to try to avoid the Black Plague (ring around a rosie, pocketful of hand sanitizer, ashes ashes all throw up). Later Benjamin Rosenbaum and Sean M. Murphy joined us and it turned into a discussion of the appropriate Hebrew prayer for applying Purel. I also distinctly remember Sarah Monette demonstrating the magical utility of her corset by pulling a variety of useful objects out of her cleavage. (I really wish there were something for guys to wear at cons that was as sexy, yet socially acceptable, as a corset.) My best meal of the con for both food and conversation was on Monday, I think, when we joined enthusiastic Australian bookseller Ron Serdiuk at Dotty Dumpling’s for fried cheese curds and one of the best burgers I’ve had in years (mine was bison, but the beef ones also got rave reviews).

I was rather annoyed that we’d failed to snag a Governor’s Club room (we’d waited until a mere ten months before the convention to reserve our room, by which time they were long gone), not only because I missed the free breakfast but also for the hanging out with con people in a quiet and convivial space. The number of times someone said “well, look for me in the bar” (meaning the Governor’s Club bar, inaccessible without the right flavor of elevator key) made me so determined to not repeat this experience that I set an alarm for 8am Monday to make my reservation for next year. Good thing I did; Governor’s Club rooms were gone by 10:30am.

I didn’t attend a lot of programming, but the two panels I was on (“Get Out Your Decoder Rings,” on fiction that requires knowledge from outside the story to understand, and “The ‘Real City’ of Urban Fantasy,” which turned into a general discussion of the value of cities in fantastic fiction) both went very well, with rapid-fire and meaty discussion. The Fretful Porpentines reading (me, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Ellen Kushner) was well-attended, although I’m afraid the noise of the coffee maker made it a less satisfying experience for the audience than I’d hoped for. I also participated in the Sign-Out for the first time, as I finally had a whole book to myself, and it went pretty well… I signed about ten books and had a nice time talking with tablemates and passersby.

The best program item I attended was the Mid-Career Writers’ salon on Monday afternoon. This is an opportunity for those of us who have achieved some success to compare notes and complain about the problems that newer writers think they wish they had. One theme of the salon was that everyone described themselves as being in a weird transitional phase (I think this is just the human condition) and that success and happiness are both heavily influenced by the expectations set beforehand.

Since returning home, I have written a story for the Taos Toolbox workshop (for which I leave a week from today, ack). Thinking back to Clarion, I decided to really challenge myself — try new things and risk failure. The resulting story is very different from my usual. It’s the bleakest thing I’ve ever written, a grim tale of despair and honor killing in the wake of catastrophic global warming. It uses thematic imagery (of flood, storm, and collapsing levees), which is something I don’t think I’ve ever done consiously. It’s only 2800 words long. It has an unreliable narrator. And it’s written in second person present tense. Why? Well, I just started out thinking about the main character talking to herself, and her voice kind of took over the narrative. I don’t yet know if it’s the most emotionally powerful thing I’ve ever written, or a complete failure. We’ll find out in less than two weeks.

In other writing news, I got a rewrite request on a story which I think is very likely to turn into a sale. I’ll get to that rewrite in the next couple of days. One of the many things I have to do before leaving for Taos.

Word count: 6053 | Since last entry: 633

From left to right: Kate, Dave the owner of the Safe House, my dad, me, my mom

We’re in Milwaukee. Sold and signed 11 copies of Space Magic at Panther Books this afternoon, mostly to friends of my parents’, followed by a wonderful dinner at Kincaid’s. We’re staying at the Art-Deco-styled Hotel Metro. Having a great time and looking forward to Wiscon in a few days.

I finished and submitted the story I’d been working on and I’ve been doing my novel crits for Wiscon. Once I finish those I must immediately begin work on another short story for Taos Toolbox, which is due June 1. It’s going to be a challenge for me…

Last night’s reading at Powell’s went very well: just about every chair was filled, with people from all my various communities (fandom, writing, work, square dancing, Clarion, neighbors, and even a few people I don’t know). I read my story “Nucleon,” an old favorite I haven’t read in a while, and signed bunches of books. The 36 attendees bought 27 copies of Space Magic, out of 32 in stock, plus 4-5 other books of mine (um, by which I mean anthologies containing one story of mine each). Peter from the bookstore says that’s some kind of record for proportion of attendees buying the book. I’ll post some pictures when I get them.

And then today I got an email indicating that Esther Friesner is buying my story “Midnight at the Center Court” for her anthology Witch Way to the Mall. Two sales and a book launch in one week, not too shabby.

Other things are happening, though, some good, some not so good (maybe very not-so-good). More news as the information becomes available.

I mentioned a while ago I had some good news I couldn’t yet share. Well, it’s official now: I sold short story “Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven” to Realms of Fantasy (my third sale there).

This is my “bureaucracy in Heaven” story, which I originally wrote at Clarion West (2000). It was the best-received of the lot and I knew it wouldn’t take very much to make it publishable. And indeed I didn’t make a lot of changes to it… it just took me until 2006 to get around to them. And then it took two years and eight rejections before it finally sold. Just another overnight success.

This story is the bookend to “The Curse of Beazoel”, my “bureaucracy in Hell” story, which appeared in the anthology All Hell Breaking Loose (2005). However, although “Beazoel” appeared first, “Joy” was written much earlier.

One last reminder for Portland folks: I have a Space Magic reading tomorrow (Wednesday May 14) at Powell’s in Cedar Hills at 7pm. Hope to see you there! And if you aren’t in Portland, after tomorrow you should be able to order a signed copy from powells.com. Or you can order an unsigned copy from wheatlandpress.com and get it in front of me somehow, and I’ll be happy to sign it.

Whee!

Word count: 5420 | Since last entry: 4436

My first collection, Space Magic, can now be ordered from http://www.wheatlandpress.com! Also, don’t forget that I have a reading and signing at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon this Wednesday, May 14, at 7pm.

Yesterday I finished the first draft of the story I was working on, and it’s now in the hands of my crit group. This was an interesting and difficult story, for some reason. I just couldn’t get motivated to start work on it until a week before the deadline (actual deadline is June 1, but I had to have it done by yesterday in order to get it critiqued before then), and once I did start it just refused to take off. On Wednesday I realized that I’d written 3500 words, out of a maximum 5000, and the conflict hadn’t started yet. My protagonist wasn’t protagging — it was all exposition and backstory. I spent the day cutting exposition and got it down to 2500 words, but it still wasn’t going anywhere. Thursday I cut some more, but I couldn’t see how I could get all the necessary information in before the reader got bored.

I thought hard about the problem for a day or so and decided to use a trick: I would cut the climax into pieces and distribute them throughout the story, starting at the beginning, so that all that exposition becomes flashback. I started doing that Friday, and also cut more exposition as it became clear which pieces I could do without. Then I spent basically the whole day Saturday pounding away at it — about 2600 words in one day (hard to say for sure, because I took out a lot I’d already written as well). The result is satisfying — a real pulse-pounding adventure, I think. We’ll see what my critters think of it.

On Friday I was the guest of the Immaculate Novelists’ Kult writing group in Vancouver, WA. They made me very welcome, let me talk about myself for four and a half hours, and gave me a lovely parting gift (a basket of fruit, chocolate, cheese, crackers, pens, a notebook, and a Powell’s gift card). I’m overwhelmed.

Saturday I attended the Diet Soap issue 2 launch party at the Writers’ Dojo. Interesting space, great people, and I got to participate in the reading even though I’m not in the magazine (I read an excerpt from “Falling Off the Unicorn”, the Space Magic bonus track). Fun stuff.

Also, we went to Ikea and bought shelves. Two assembled, two more to go. Whee!

Word count: 984 | Since last entry: 360

Wednesday, May 14: I will be reading from and signing Space Magic, my first collection of short stories, at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon at 7:00 PM.

Tuesday, May 20: Another Space Magic signing, at Panther Bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 12:00-2:00 PM.

Friday-Sunday, May 23-15: Wiscon, at which I will be appearing on the following panels:

• Saturday at 4:00 PM: “The ‘Real City’ of Urban Fantasy” with Ellen Kushner, Richard Bowes, Karen Healey, and Julia Starkey.

• Sunday at 1:00 PM: “Get Out Your Secret Decoder Ring” with Catherynne M. Valente, Lesley Hall, Janine Young, and Tisha Turk.

• Sunday at 2:30 PM: “Like Quills upon the Fretful Porcupine” (Reading) with Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Ellen Kushner.

There will also be a Space Magic launch party at Wiscon, Friday night at 9:30-ish in Suite 611. Wheatland Press is sharing a party with Electric Velocipede and Scribe Agency and Farago’s Wainscot, ’cause the more the merrier!

If you can’t make it to any of the above, Space Magic can now be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and should be available from Wheatland Press shortly.

Word count: 624 | Since last entry: 624

Apparently if I’m not writing, I’m not blogging either. But I’m back on the horse, producing words for a theme anthology with a deadline that seemed luxurious when I got it but has shrunk to only a couple of weeks. More deadlines loom meyond that. Aiee!

I’m back from the Nebulas, as well. I did not win, alas, but it really is an honor to be nominated, and I can’t fault the voters for selecting Karen Joy Fowler’s “Always.” But even if I didn’t win the shiny, I was the best-dressed guy at the banquet in my new vintage tux (which I inherited from a recently-deceased writer known to many of you). Unfortunately, my camera died just before the trip and no one else has posted a picture of the tux online yet. But I hope that it will be in the next Locus and Jayme Lynn Blaschke has posted a fine photo of me and Kate. You can also see me accepting my nomination certificate and a group shot of the nominees. We had a good time in Austin hanging out with such notables as Jennifer Pelland and Mary Robinette Kowal and eating, well, like Texans on vacation (I gained about five pounds over the long weekend).

The sting of losing the Nebula has also been lessened somewhat by the arrival of a contract from Ellen Datlow: “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” will be reprinted in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2009. I also have some other good news that I hope to be able to share with you shortly.

While we were in Austin, Kate sprang a very accurate faux Amazing Race clue envelope on me, directing Team Bento to drive 30 miles to the town of Spicewood, Texas. We soon found ourselves at Cypress Valley Canopy Tours, where we were fitted out with harnesses and helmets for a trek through the treetops by zipline! (Technically it was neither a Roadblock nor a Detour, since we didn’t have any choice and both of us did the same thing, but what the hell.) I hadn’t expected to find so many large trees in Texas, but the tour was fun and educational (zipping from tree to tree as we float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia) and too short. Again, camera died so no pictures. I love my sweetie.

One last thing before I fall over: my friend Katy King pointed out a strong coincidental similarity between this XKCD strip and my story “Fear of Widths” (saying “I like your version better”). I am amused.

Heading to Austin for the Nebulas, where I expect to lose to Karen Joy Fowler, but it really is an honor just to be nominated. I realize from reading Jennifer Pelland’s blog just how blase’ I’ve been about the whole thing so far. My heart will probably start to pound when we sit down for the banquet.

Sorry for the last couple of weeks’ radio silence. I’ve been distracted. Haven’t done a lick of writing or editing since the novel workshop, though I’ve nibbled around the edges — collecting notes, outlining, writing character sketches for a short story. I may be in the same sort of post-novel funk/recharge period that Elizabeth Bear has mentioned.

Most of the last couple of weeks, it seems, has been spent on the bathroom remodel. The bathroom seems to be even harder than the kitchen (or perhaps it’s just fading memory of how hard the kitchen remodel was) because the room is so small — everything is a game of inches. For example, there’s exactly 37″ between the door and the toilet, and that is where the sink must go. There are plenty of 39″ wide sinks (consoles and vanities) and plenty of 30″ wide sinks (mostly pedestals) but not much in between. However, I recently realized that the current wall at 37″ might be movable, by at least a couple of inches, which might allow us to use a 39″ Villeroy & Boch that looks great. But even if it can be made to fit, will that impinge on one’s elbow too much when sitting on the toilet? And we haven’t even begun to decide on colors yet.

Other items I would have blogged about in the last two weeks if I’d been paying attention: Rob Vagle and Ximena Hernandez’s wedding in Eugene (the most amazing wedding I can recall, it was staged as a silent melodrama complete with sneering mustachio’d villain), a couple of science fiction writers’ events at the Mount Hood Community College library (at which I got to spend much time with Camille Alexa among others), performances of Sweeney Tood and A Streetcar Named Desire, and a square dance in Palm Springs.

I have miserable airport karma in Palm Springs. I’ve been there maybe ten or twelve times in my life, and on at least four of those occasions I’ve had some kind of “issues” getting there and back. Last year I was stranded in Phoenix overnight. This year, when I got to the airport I found that I could not get a seat assignment for my PSP-LAX flight because it was overbooked, and I was told I would only get on the flight if someone with a seat volunteered to be bumped. I asked if there was any alternative, and after some kerfuffle one of the gate agents suggested that they were already sending some other people (who had been in the same situation and failed to get on the previous flight) to LAX via taxi. So they put me in the same cab.

A taxi. From Palm Springs to LAX.

It was a $300+ fare, but it was United’s nickel and, because technically I volunteered to be bumped from my flight, I got a free round trip ticket too. (I’ll be using that to get to Albuquerque for Taos Toolbox in June.) There was some traffic, but I got to LAX in time for my connection and made it home fine. I don’t know if the other people made their connection, which was a lot tighter. If they missed it, I feel bad because they were delayed a few minutes waiting for me.

One last thing before we board: if you’re in Portland, don’t forget that I have a reading and signing of my first collection of short stories, Space Magic from Wheatland Press, at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing on May 14, 2008 at 7pm. I hope to see you there!

Back from the Oregon Coast and the novel workshop led by Dean Wesley Smith. My novel was very well received and there was much writerly schmoozing. More details to come.

While at the coast, I received word that I have been accepted into the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop. This is a NASA-funded “crash course” in modern astronomy for SF writers. Copyediting goddess Deanna Hoak, Paul Witcover, and the incomparable Mary Robinette Kowal are also attending.

I also got an email from my mother, who has set up a signing of my collection Space Magic at Panther Bookstore in Milwaukee in May 20, right before Wiscon. Local boy makes good!

The project is finally complete! All 19 back issues of our tiny little fanzine Bento are now available online, at http://www.bentopress.com/bento. All issues are available in HTML format, and all but the first 3 are available in PDF format as well.

Mind you, the onine edition doesn’t have all of the illustrations. I will try to get more of them scanned in in the future, but don’t hold your breath.

Please let me know if you spot any formatting or other problems.