State of the Schafer: Another Big Catch-up

 Once again, it's been a while. This time, my silence has mostly been due to work. In addition to being Head of Data Science at New Zealand's national weather forecast provider MetService, back in December I also took on the role of acting Head of Atmospheric Science. Double the people to look after, double the projects to run, and a steep learning curve, ooof! But it was really important for the atmospheric team to have someone advocating for them and ensuring their work gets visibility and appropriate priority - especially in these days of increasing threat from extreme rain events. My double role shouldn't last forever, as MetService will be merging into a new "earth sciences" institute that will also contain climate research center NIWA and geological science center GNS. But for now, there's lots to do and many trips to MetService and NIWA offices in Wellington. 

The supercomputer at NIWA where weather models are run. Yes, it takes a huge amount of electricity, but in NZ 88% of our electricity is now from renewable sources (hopefully soon to be even more, with offshore wind farms in development)

Working in the weather forecasting space, it has been deeply dismaying to see the gutting of NOAA and national weather service and other vital scientific organizations going on over in the US. (Among so many other dismaying things!) But...it's not exactly a surprise. The current administration was pretty plain about what they intended, and people voted for them anyway. Now the consequences of that vote will play out. My heart goes out to everyone who didn't vote for this future but will have to endure it regardless. On the science front, at least those of us in other countries can work to pick up the baton and keep moving forward. The ECMWF, for example, is doing terrific work in providing open data access and research platforms such as Anemoi (a framework for building machine learning weather models). 

Enough about work, though. On the writing front, I have been chipping away at revisions on some short stories, and inching toward publication of The White Serpent. Inching here means creating an ebook and having a friend test it on a host of platforms (thank you, Lada!). Last step is finding a cover artist. I know, I know, I've been talking about finding an artist for ages...Dave Palumbo who did the art for the first three Shattered Sigil books is a bit too expensive to hire for a brand new piece for something self-published without the aid of a Kickstarter, so I just need to set aside the time to do some research and find someone in my budget range. (No, I won't be using AI. AI is awesome for weather modelling, but when it comes to art, I'd prefer to support a human artist.) 

I'm also still making time for outdoor adventures. It's so easy to get sucked into a spiral of doomscrolling and feel like there is nothing good going on anywhere. But even if the world's future turns out as bleak as many scientists fear, there's still beauty and wonder out there right now. Go out and enjoy it, because the world may well never look quite like this again. Here's a sampling of my own adventures of the past months:

Rock formations in the Whitsunday Islands, Australia

Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef - after all the recent bleaching events, there are no longer so many soft corals as I remember, but lots of hard corals and giant clams and fish remain

View of the Canadian Rockies from Revelstoke - the skiing was steep and excellent

The kiddo charging down his favorite Revelstoke run

We always forget to take family selfies while actually adventuring, so here's a city shot of all 3 of us, taken by a friend while we were in Vancouver

Back at home, the kiddo spent many summer days bodyboarding in the whitewater park on the Hawea River

Perfect dogwalking day at the lake

Veteran SFF authors Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner stopped in Wanaka during their travels around New Zealand - it was great to spend time with them!

View of Lake Hawea from Breast Peak, which I hiked up as part of the "Hike for a Cure" fundraiser for breast cancer research

Autumn colours in Arrowtown - one of the few spots in NZ where you get a really vibrant display (due to non-native trees)

Celebrating my birthday with a hike to Lake Marian in Fiordland

Fiordland is full of waterfalls

On the way to Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound - I took about a million pictures but none of them do the scale justice

Misty mountain walking

First snow of the year on the peaks backing Lake Hawea

Evening view of Lake Wanaka from the track up Roy's Peak

State of the Schafer: Still Not Dead

 Right, well. It's been long enough this time that I've been getting the occasional email from a reader wondering if everything is okay, so I figured I'd better confirm that yes, I'm fine. Still very busy with my job at Narrative Muse (which I'm still loving), and still writing (very slowly), but if I'm honest, being busy isn't really why I haven't been posting or interacting much on social media in the last year. Not to get too heavy, but I feel like the COVID era has destroyed any hope I had in humanity. If people can't come together against an infectious disease that kills and disables, what chance does the world have against the far more difficult and insidious challenge of climate change? Far more likely that we will just keep right on accelerating toward a terrible future. 

I don't want to talk about big issues online when I have little that's hopeful or useful to contribute, and it's hard to talk about anything these days without veering into big issue territory (witness this post!). So mostly I just stay silent online--or avoid social media altogether and spend time outside. There's still beauty in the world, and it won't be here forever, and I'd like to appreciate it while I can. 

On a day to day level, though, all is good at Casa Schafer, which I know we're very fortunate in being able to say. For anyone interested in what we've been up to, I can catch you up in pictures, and maybe share a little beauty that way. Let's see, the last time I posted here was May 2022, so let's start in just afterward...

June 2022: This was a pretty quiet month, because the kiddo caught COVID from school and we were isolating with him. (My husband and I wore N95 masks while caring for him, and thankfully avoided getting sick.) The kiddo had a miserable few days and then took about two weeks to fully recover his energy. He was particularly annoyed that while he was ill, we had snow all the way down to lake level (rare in Hawea). What a bummer to miss out on playing in backyard snow with Comet! 

July 2022: With the kiddo recovered and NZ's borders fully open, we traveled to Sydney to see our Aussie family for the first time since the pandemic began. It was really lovely to be together again, and a bit of an eerie experience to see some of the changes wrought in the Sydney by the pandemic. (The international terminal, for example, was still something of a ghost town. Hardly anything was open past security, which was quite a difference from the plethora of shops and restaurants I recalled.) 

Our first view of Sydney in years

August 2022: Despite avoiding COVID on our Australia trip, my husband and I finally succumbed after he returned home from a work trip. He was 3 weeks past his 4th shot, at the absolute peak of protection the vaccine could provide him, which was a very good thing as he's in a higher risk category. He had mild symptoms but took a long time to feel 100% recovered. Happily he did finally get back to normal, unlike so many of our friends who ended up as long haulers. I was more like the kiddo--a few miserable days, then some lingering fatigue that cleared up after a week or two. Plus I too missed out on great snow--while I was ill, our local ski fields had some epic powder days. Alas!   

Comforted by Comet in my time of COVID. (Though actually after the first day of me being sick, the pupster decided hanging out in bed was pretty boring.)

September 2022: Feeling very fortunate to have recovered, I returned to the ski slopes. Thanks to a nice deep base from all the early season snow, the skiing remained good into the spring. Getting in some time in the montains lifted my mood in a way nothing else does! 

Springtime view across the Matukituki Valley

October 2022: The pupster turned 2 years old--officially an adult! He still has enough energy to power a small country, though. Happily, as you can see from the photo, he does now sometimes chill out. (So long as I have provided him with a solid hour of rabbit hunting beforehand, that is!) 

November 2022: Hawea enjoyed a glorious start to spring. Rhododendrons aren't native to NZ, but lots of people grow them in their gardens, and the floral display seemed extra spectacular this year. 

December 2022: This month was meant to be all about family. First, our Aussie relatives came over to Hawea for a visit, and when they headed home, we headed off to North America to meet up with my family for a wintry Christmas. Or at least, that was the plan. Snowmageddon hit Vancouver, our flight was cancelled, we scrambled to piece together new flights and still managed to make it to our first intended destination of Victoria. My family got stranded while connecting through Toronto, and had to spend Christmas there. Due to minimal availability and maximal prices on any open seats, we weren't able to meet up at all, which I felt pretty sad about. Yet there remained lots to enjoy about our first ever trip to British Columbia and Washington's Cascades. The Christmas lights were epic, especially in Victoria's Butchart Gardens, and the town of Leavenworth, WA. Tree skiing is something we don't have in NZ, so we delighted in skiing glades at Stevens Pass in Washington and Whistler in Canada. Some of our Colorado friends were able to join us in Whistler, and it was wonderful to hang out with them again.

Lights at Victoria's Butchart Gardens

Leavenworth, WA

The kiddo and I enjoying powder in Stevens Pass trees. (And yes, the kiddo is taller than I am now.)

Dinner with friends at Whistler

January 2023: It's definitely an odd experience to return from the dead of winter into the heart of summer! The Auckland area of NZ has been hit very hard with flooding and heavy rain, but down south in Hawea, it's been hot and dry. A good excuse to head to the uncrowded beaches of NZ's southern coast...my quest to learn to surf continues, with plenty of wipeouts. 

Our fav surf spot, Colac Bay

Like most things on social media, this quickie recap leaves a whole lot out. What about writing, some of you might ask (assuming anyone's actually stopping by this blog, after all this time, ha!). After receiving comments from beta readers on The White Serpent (the Cara story), I did some more revision on it. I'm about to finish up this 2nd revision, at which point it'll go off for a paid edit pass. I'm still working on the Lena and Ruslan stories and The Dreaming Sea. The writing has to fit in and around the day job and household tasks, so my pace remains that of an arthritic snail, but I do keep inching along. 

In past years, I've agonized over how to write faster. For 2023, I've decided to chill out about it. I'd rather have fun with writing than turn it into a source of stress. I guess that's my theme for the year ahead. More chill, more mindfulness, more treasuring of small joys. We'll see what lies ahead.  

Summer colors

2016 in review

Well, it was a hell of a year. But right now I don't want to focus on the dark parts of 2016, whether personal or global. I've spent more than enough time thinking about those. I want to remember the bright spots, so I can go into 2017 with some joy in my heart. As Edward Abbey once said, "Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless."

And really, I had many wonderful moments in 2016. It's funny how hard it can be to remember the good things, sometimes. Thank goodness for pictures (and friends and loved ones) to remind us. So what'd I find, looking back through the year?

Writing-wise, not only did I finish all the mailing for The Labyrinth of Flame's Kickstarter, and work out a deal with the printing company to make the illustrated edition available to the general public, but the book won an award! The denizens of r/Fantasy voted Labyrinth of Flame the Best Self-Published/Independent novel of 2015, and I got this very cool dagger as a result:

Oh, how I wish I could say I'd finished the Shattered Sigil short stories as well. Yet here it is, 2017, and I'm still only 20,000 words and 2/3 of the way into the Cara novella The White Serpent, 1/3 of the way through the story of Dev escaping an assassin on his first convoy trip (this one's for one of the Ultimate Fan backers), and I have the Ruslan story and a Lena story plotted out but not yet written.

I did complete and turn in a 8,000-word Lizaveta story called A Game of Mages for the forthcoming Evil is a Matter of Perspective anthology--and boy was that completion a struggle, as the story required three rewrites. On the non-fiction side, I wrote three pieces for Lady Business's Readers of the Lost Arc feature, covering under-read books of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (that last post is turned in but not yet up on the blog). Still, I'm terribly ashamed to admit A Game of Mages is the only piece of fiction I finished all year.

The simple truth is that I didn't make writing a priority in 2016 the way I did in previous years. Some of that was by design: I wanted to put my husband and son first for a while, and reduce stress by enjoying more of the activities I'd put on hold while trying to finish The Labyrinth of Flame and run the kickstarter. But I think I let the pendulum swing a little too far over to the non-writing side.

For 2017 I'm resolving to adjust yet again and find a better balance: one that lets me finish all the Shattered Sigil short stories and finally start work on the new fantasy novel I'd like to write. (Still untitled, but this is the one with deadly sea magic, tropical islands and coral reefs, freediving, and a team of spies.) My ultimate goal would be to finish all the stories by summer and complete a rough draft of the new book by the end of the year. That may be too ambitious for a slow writer like me. We'll see.

So what did I do in 2016 instead of writing? Apart from the usual day jobbing...

1) I skied many excellent runs with my kiddo, who just this year got skilled enough to handle black diamonds and trees (woo hoo!):

Powder day at Winter Park

The snow's always best in the trees

Winter wonderland at Steamboat

2) I spent more glorious days hiking in Colorado's mountains. In the words of John Muir, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

Lovely day at Andrews Tarn in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain panorama

Nothing like climbing a nice cold glacier on a hot summer day

Indian Peaks wilderness

Pointing the way toward 14,309-ft Uncompahgre Peak, highest in the San Juans

On top of Uncompahgre--my first new 14er in many years!

3) We returned to our favorite haunts around Moab and the San Rafael Swell and explored some new-to-us areas, like Behind the Rocks, Medieval Chamber and Morning Glory Arch, the Goblin's Lair, and some off-the-beaten-ranger-path parts of the Fiery Furnace. One thing I love about canyon country is how you can visit the same areas again and again and discover new amazing things every time. (As Mary Hunter Austin said, "This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough.")

"Behind the Rocks" wilderness area

Desert flowers

The kiddo tackles his first major rappel (into Medieval Chamber)

On rappel beside Morning Glory Arch (technically a natural bridge rather than an arch, but hey)

Exploring the hoodoo canyons of Goblin Valley

At the entrance to the Goblin's Lair (a.k.a. the Chamber of the Basilisk)

Inside the Goblin's Lair

The Fiery Furnace: so many enticing routes to explore

4) I smile every time I think of our June trip to visit family in Australia. We had plenty of fun in and around Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and enjoyed a 3-day sailing adventure in the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands (our first time there, but hopefully not our last!).

The Vivid festival lived up to its name: constantly changing projections of color decorated the Opera House and many other buildings near Sydney Harbour

Avast me hearties, yo ho! The Schafers sail the Whitsundays

Catseye Beach on Hamilton Island

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Rainbow view from the Ruined Castle

4) I didn't go to many cons this year apart from WorldCon in Kansas City, which was awesome. Yet I was lucky enough to spend time with some wonderful authors and SFF folk:

In May I got to hang out with Janny Wurts for a few days: definitely a highlight of my year!

Another highlight was getting to meet New Zealand author Helen Lowe while I was in Sydney

And having a lovely lunch with Pellinor author Alison Croggon while in Melbourne

Yet another was a summer hike with blogger/reviewer/all-around awesome guy Paul Weimer and author Alex Acks in the Indian Peaks

5) I read a lot of excellent books. I had plans to do a whole big long "reading review" post with cover pics and mini-reviews, but in all honesty I prefer to focus on short-story writing right now. So instead I'll do a quick list of the reads that stood out most to me this year:

• Janny Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow series--I just recently finished book 8, Stormed Fortress, and I continue to be hugely impressed with the careful plotting and layered reveals
• Helen Lowe's Daughter of Blood--book 3 in her excellent Wall of Night epic fantasy series. Her world is rich and fascinating, and I love what she's doing with the story and characters.
• Mark Lawrence's Wheel of Osheim--final book of his Red Queen's War trilogy. Mark really knows how to stick a landing. Tons of great action, character work, and sly humor.
• Teresa Frohock's Los Nefilim--her three excellent dark fantasy novellas featuring half-daimon, half-angel Diago, all collected into one volume. My God, these are good. Terrific characters and atmosphere.
• Jeff Salyards's Chains of the Heretic--another great trilogy-ender. If you love military fantasy, you've got to read this series.
• Kate Elliott's Poisoned Blade--2nd in her YA Court of Fives series. I'd liked the first one well enough, but this one I thought took the series to a whole new level.
• Laura Ruby's Bone Gap--magical realism done right. Powerful and beautiful.
• Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree and Cuckoo Song--I'd seen lots of people raving about Hardinge but the first book I tried by her (A Face Like Glass) didn't entirely work for me. These two did, big time, and I'm now a convert. Her imagination is amazing.
• Megan O'Keefe's Steal the Sky and Break the Chains--oh, how I loved these, because they pushed a lot of my personal buttons as a reader. Addictive yet dangerous psychic-power-style magic, strong bonds of friendship, scoundrels with hidden depths...yes, please. 
• Alison Croggon's The Bone Queen--a haunting, lovely prequel to her epic Pellinor series. Tied for my favorite Pellinor book with the 3rd of the main series, The Crow.
• Ben Peek's The Godless and Leviathan's blood--beautifully written literary epic fantasy, thoughtful and weird and unique in all the best ways
• Scott Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char--dark and imaginative and compelling. 

So, yeah. 2016 definitely wasn't all suck, by a long shot. I hope 2017 will likewise have some victories and joys, not just for me, but for everyone who fears the path the world is taking. Hope and kindness and courage and compassion still matter, now more than ever, and it's not all darkness out there. So many people are trying in whatever ways they can to make the world just that little bit better. For one small example, check out this currently running charity fundraiser from Booknest.eu, where 100 SFF authors (including me) donated signed books for a prize lottery; all money raised through ticket sales will be given to Doctors Without Borders.

Sometimes everything we do, whether donating or writing letters or volunteering or simply offering kindness to a stranger, feels negligible in impact. But as Mark Helprin wrote in his sublime fantasy Winter's Tale, "No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile."

In 2017, my biggest goal is to focus on what's worthwhile, no matter how unimportant my actions may feel.