David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 93459 | Since last entry: 2405

Here is The Plan for completing novel #2:

I have a large printout of this on the wall near my writing chair. I will put a star on the calendar for every day that I write 1000 or more words or spend at least an hour and a half editing.

It has stars on every day so far.

Meanwhile… Edd Vick has blogged his recent trip to Portland, including our expedition to Glowing Greens, a pirate-themed underground black-lighted (blacklit?) miniature golf course. It was, as Amy Thomson said, like playing mini-golf in a cheap carnival dark ride, but it was fun and very silly.

And if Edd ever invites you to mini-golf? Beware. Total shark.

Word count: 91054 | Since last entry: 2396

New Year’s Eve was a pirate-themed party at Willow Cottage. Despite the fact that we’d known for months about the theme, did we start work on our costumes before Thursday? We did not. And there wasn’t a decent tricorn hat to be found anywhere. So Kate knitted me one. Yes, she knitted a tricorn, and it was fabulous.

The party itself was a little strange at first, being populated by large numbers of young people that we didn’t know. Turns out this was the children of the household, who used to run around underfoot, then had their own party upstairs, and now were the party. After midnight things quieted down a bit and we got to chat with Howard and some of the other folks our own age. The first thing on the iPod when we got in the car to head home was “League of Notions” by Al Stewart, followed by “My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend” by Must Be Tuesday (MP3), which both seemed incredibly apropos in a difficult-to-explain way.

New Year’s Day brought the usual potluck brunch at the home of our friends Marc and Patty, which marks the 23rd anniversary of the day Kate and I met.

January 2nd we had a professional organizer come in and help us de-clutter. Kate blogged it, so I don’t have to. Personally, I got rid of at least three large boxes of papers and old diskettes (the diskettes are going to GreenDisk today) and we’re both jazzed up and will keep chipping away at it for the rest of this month.

All during this time I kept up with my quota of 1000 words a day. Sleep? What’s that?

And this morning I learned that “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” qualified for the Nebula preliminary ballot, with 12 recommendations. At least, it’s on the draft ballot that was posted this morning for inspection. So it’s on the preliminary preliminary ballot, and there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip. But it’s still very encouraging news.

More decluttering today, more writing, more great stuff. Happy 2008, all!

Word count: 88658 | Since last entry: 4586

2007 was a heck of a year. We traveled to Singapore, Thailand, and Japan, and I retired from my day job. From a writing perspective, it was mixed — focused on my next novel, I only wrote one new short story and made only two new sales (one of which was to a market that folded before the end of the year). But I saw a lot of stories in print, including my second in F&SF, a bunch of translations, and my first Gardner Dozois Year’s Best appearance. I also sold a collection of my short fiction to Wheatland Press, and “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” got at least 8 Nebula recommendations (I’ll find out soon, I hope, if it made the 2007 preliminary ballot… even if it didn’t, it has until April to pick up 2 more for the 2008 ballot).

In 2008 we plan to do a lot of travel. We’re seriously considering 7 science fiction and 6 square dance events, plus at least two writing workshops and a trip to Germany in December. There will probably also be more travel that we don’t even know about yet. I’ll post a travel calendar when we get a few more details sorted out.

Last year’s resolution was to finish my second novel. I didn’t make it — got 12 chapters out of 16 — but I think I made a good effort. My resolution this year is to write 1000 words, or do the equivalent amount of revision, every single day. (Not yet sure how to measure revision or what the equivalent amount to 1000 words is. Maybe an hour.) That’s two or three times as much as I’ve managed in previous years, but I’ve been doing it for at least a couple of weeks now and I think it’s doable.

At that rate I should finish up the first draft of novel #2 by Groundhog Day. I’ll spend February revising it, send it off to the novel workshop on or before March 1, and workshop it at the beginning of April. Then I’ll do whatever revision it needs and get it in the mail as soon as I can, hopefully by May Day. After that, short stories, at least for a while (though I have a couple of novel ideas fidgeting in the waiting room).