Smale Christmas 2023

Welcome once again to the Smale Christmas Letter!

2023 was a transition year in many ways. For Alan, it was dominated by preparations for {drumroll} his retirement from Federal service. Yes, after working for NASA for thirty-five years in a wide variety of roles, the past twenty of them as a civil servant, including five at NASA HQ and the final fifteen as Director of the HEASARC (NASA's premier high energy astrophysics archive), Alan finally took the plunge and retired at the end of August to become a full-time writer and gentleman of leisure. ("Leisure." Ha. He's busier now than he's ever been.) Karen is still working and she and her team delivered the new website they've been working on for the past few years.

Travel-wise: we went to Florida in March, first to St Petersburg to be tourists -- visiting the Chihuly and Dalí museums, historic sites, and gardens -- and to be beach bums and hang out with Rick Wilber, a writer collaborator of Alan's, and then to Orlando for the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, where Alan went to sessions and schmoozed with fellow authors and Karen hung out by (and in) the hotel pool, and we both had good dinners and partied. Alan went to Pasadena, California in May for what would be his last work trip: a Readiness Review for a new mission science center. In October we went to England for ten days, of which more later, and in November went to Arizona to visit Karen's mom. That was pretty much it. But hey, we have quite the array of travel plans for next year, and years to come.

Writing-wise, Alan was a busy bee as usual. In March he submitted the Hot Moon sequel, RADIANT SKY, to his publisher, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy. The book should be out in August 2024, because the wheels of publishing run slowly. He's now working on the third book in the series, in parallel with several other book pitches and projects. With Rick Wilber (see above), he's working on a series of lighthearted and futuristic "Alien Baseball" short stories for the popular hardcore baseball podcast, "Effectively Wild." Aside from ICFA in March, Alan also guested at Balticon (Baltimore, April), Awesome Con (D.C., June), and the virtual fall ICFA in November. He also attended the Rio Hondo pro writers workshop for the third time in September, and spent a happy week schmoozing, critiquing, and talking shop with his peers, surrounded by some pretty impressive New Mexico scenery.

The Chromatics! Yes, we're still singing and rocking. We performed at the Farpoint and Shore Leave science fiction conventions in February and July, and in October we headlined at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. for their Family Day centered around the annular solar eclipse. And once again we did our festive Greenbelt Arts Center gigs just before Christmas.

We attended a swanky reception at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where three of Karen's photos were displayed. Some of her photos were also on display at the Bowie Senior Center later in the year. Karen went on a few field trips -- the most exciting one was to "abandoned" Lonaconing Silk Mill in western Maryland, where she spent several amazing hours getting her fix of rust and decay. Her photo of Byodo-in Temple on Oahu won the Bowie-Crofton Camera Club's "travel photo of the year" so Karen got to take home the trophy for a year -- just like the Stanley Cup! ;) She displayed five abstract photos at the Goddard Photo Club's Showcase in November and she continues to serve on the board of two photo clubs. But a great deal of her photography this year seems to have centered on meals we cooked (over 140 from scratch and more than 95 unique recipes) and progress in the bathroom...

Because, at home, this year's big story was our master bath renovation. We had our existing bathroom space completely torn apart and put back together again, almost from scratch: we had a new wet room with shower and air bath put in, the toilet moved and enclosed, a bigger and better sink and countertop arrangement installed, and much more cupboard space. We love it, and now have the "spa-like retreat" we were talking about in last year's Christmas letter. We also like our new living room fireplace install, which makes having fires a lot smoother and safer.

On a more somber note, a central part of this year's "transitions" was the passing of Alan's father on November 9th. Alan's dad was interested in everything -- science, culture and history, constructing and making musical instruments ancient and modern, travel, painting, and more. He lived a good life and died in his sleep aged 92; not unexpected, but a kick in the heart nevertheless. We got to visit in his twilight days at the end of October, which we'll always be glad about.

We wish everyone a great holiday season, and a Happy New Year!

Alan     alansmale@gmail.com
Karen     karen.smale@gmail.com

• Alan's writing life
• The Chromatics
• AstroCappella: our astronomy-related singing
• Alan's Facebook
• Karen's Facebook (including lots of photo albums of the above events)
• Karen's Flickr albums
• Karen's Pixels site
• The Chromatics Facebook
• AstroCappella Facebook