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

The better half of 2023

2023 has been a rough year for the world, from wars to extreme weather events. Yet for me, the latter half of the year has certainly been a better experience than the first. It's been such a relief to have a relatively clean bill of health. I know some women really struggle with anxiety in the aftermath of treatment, worrying about recurrence. That hasn't been my experience--perhaps because I've always been good at procrastination. I've been able to shove off worries to the future. Probably I'll be a mess when it's time for a follow-up scan, but until then, I've been able to throw myself headlong into enjoying adventures again.

View from the summit of Treble Cone. NZ did not have a great ski season this year, but I enjoyed the heck out of the mountain anyway. 

Revisiting Nugget Point in the Catlins

Walking a wintry beach near Toko Mouth

Glorious coastal sunrise

View of Lake Wanaka from Roys Peak

Mt. Alpha and the Skyline track

It's also been great to spend some quality time with family, starting with a trip back to the U.S. to see my mother and brother (plus meet my new sister-in-law for the first time, since I wasn't able to make my brother's wedding due to the pandemic). Boy, I could write an entire post about the weird reverse culture shock of visiting the U.S. after 4 years away. Suffice it to say that it was a surreal experience, and confirmed that there's not much I miss. But I do miss my family, so it was lovely to see them again after so long apart. 

Hiking with my brother near Harpers Ferry in West Virginia

The kiddo and I hanging out with my mom

My husband's mother, father, and sister came over from Australia to visit us, and that was wonderful too. 

Family dinner at a local restaurant

Best of all, I got to take my Aussie sister-in-law hiking in one of my favorite areas of New Zealand, Aoraki Mt. Cook National Park. No matter how many times I visit Aoraki, I can't get over the mountain's beauty.

Ideogram cloud over Aoraki

Aoraki at sunset

Nothing like the blue of a glacial lake

My sister-in-law on the trail to Red Tarns

We've also enjoyed plenty of family fun closer to home, in the local rivers and lakes.

Playing in Lake Hawea's waves on a windy day

Tubing on Lake Hawea

Bodyboarding in the Hawea River

A local guy built a surf wave machine on his farm, and holds occasional open sessions for the community. Now there's a good use of Kiwi ingenuity!

All this adventuring and playing outdoors does have one downside. I haven't been doing much writing. I've got the professional edit in hand for the Cara story, The White Serpent, and I just need to sit down and push through the last changes. I think maybe in a way I've been scared to finally finish it, because then I'll need to publish it, and after everything I went through to get out the third book in the original trilogy, I associate publishing with stress. The last thing I've wanted in these past months is anything stressful, I suppose! But I think it's time to push past that ambivalence and get this story out into the world, in case there's anyone who'll enjoy reading it. So that can be one goal for 2024.

I do have other goals. One big one has to do with my day job. I have said farewell to my role at Narrative Muse, after accepting an offer to be Head of Data Science for a new Research and Innovation Hub over at MetService, New Zealand's major weather forecaster. I hope to help them improve their forecasting with machine learning and AI, especially for extreme weather events. As the climate changes, New Zealand will be particularly vulnerable to heavy rainfall events and high winds, and it'll be vital to predict dangerous weather in time to save lives. Prediction here is pretty challenging due to limited data and convoluted topography, but it's a challenge I'm eager to tackle. (I still wish Narrative Muse the best, though! I loved my time there and I still 100% believe in what they're trying to do with content-based recommendation. They've got a great team and a good foundation, so I hope they'll be tremendously successful.) 

So yeah, I have lots of plans for 2024. But I'm also trying to embrace flexibility and resilience, because you never know how life will go. I do know that regardless, I want to savor the good things. The world may be a mess, but there is still love here, and kindness, and quiet moments in the sunshine. May we all enjoy as much as we can of those. 

An excellent SFF adventure: a day with Janny Wurts and Don Maitz

I didn't want to leave for Australia without sharing pics from another recent adventure. These last months I've been enjoying the hell out of Janny Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow series, which is a masterwork of epic fantasy--one of the best combinations of grand scope and tight plotting I've ever read. Plus, the Empire trilogy Janny co-wrote with Raymond Feist is my husband's favorite SFF series of all time! So I was beyond delighted when Janny invited me to visit her home in Florida after I finished a business trip last week in Orlando.

Hanging out with one of my heroes: veteran author Janny Wurts

Not only is Janny an amazing writer, she's also an immensely talented artist, as is her husband Don Maitz. They've been doing cover art for the big SFF publishers for decades, along with their own personal paintings, and every wall of their home is covered in absolutely stunning examples of their work. It was like being in a museum of fine art--I tell you, I could have spent hours admiring all the paintings on display. Just look at this:

Some of Janny's gorgeous art for her Wars of Light and Shadow series

Don Maitz in his & Janny's studio

Janny in her art workspace

Don with some of his recent work

What you can see in the above pics is only the smallest sampling! Check out the art catalog on their website for a whole lot more.

Janny and Don were wonderful hosts, and after their decades working in art and publishing, they have a wealth of fascinating (and sometimes heartwrenching) stories to share. I knew about the changes in the publishing industry that have been squeezing out the midlist, but I had not realized a similar sea-change happened in the art world, as publishers turned to photoshop/stock-art covers and stopped commissioning many original paintings. It's a hard thing to see income streams vanish and have to reinvent yourself at a time when you should be enjoying the fruits of a long career. But Janny and Don are not the sort to bemoan changes they can't reverse; instead they are seeking out new ways to reach readers and art patrons alike, and continue doing the creative work they love.

Janny with her Paravia sketchbook, full of beautifully realized scenes from the Wars of Light and Shadow. Seeing this was a huge treat for a fan of the series like me!

Janny's also a horsewoman, a skilled bagpiper, a search-and-rescue volunteer, and she's passionate about conservation and wildlife. She and I spent a lovely few hours hiking together in Myakka River State Park, one of her favorite local haunts. The Florida forest is quite a different experience from anything we have in Colorado! I got to see alligators, black vultures, blue herons, egrets, and some beautiful spring flowers. I only wish I'd remembered to bring my real camera! I had to make do with my cell phone, but I still got a few decent shots:

Oaks adorned with spanish moss

Black vultures sunning themselves

Hiking through native forest

We don't get green like this in Colorado!

Janny at Clay Gully: watch out for the alligators!

Janny with her favorite tree, a truly massive oak

Myakka Park has a "canopy walk" that was pretty neat: a swinging bridge high in the forest canopy that leads to an observation tower with a 360-degree view of Florida forest (and building thunderstorms!).

Enjoying the view from the tower

They just need to add a Faraday cage to the tower and it'd be the best place ever for thunderstorm viewing

Looking down at a forest clearing

After hiking, the fun was just starting. Janny's husband Don loves all things piratical and has participated in quite a few pirate re-enactments. I got to see a real flintlock pistol and fire off a (small) black powder cannon, a.k.a. swivel gun.

Don's swivel gun; Janny had a wonderfully funny story about how she got him the cannon as a present, and how hard she had to work to keep the gift a surprise

Don getting ready to fire. (Note he's wearing earplugs. The cannon is seriously loud. The first time we fired it, Janny's horses spooked and ran. But the 2nd time, the horses were all, "Oh yeah, that's just the crazy humans doing their crazy things again. We're over it.")

We finished off the day with a quick trip to Siesta Key to watch the sunset. The beach has really interesting sand--it's 99% pure quartz, crushed very fine, so it's blindingly white and has the consistency of powdered sugar. The sky was overcast so we thought we might miss seeing the sun actually set into the water, but just at the last minute, the sun peeked out beneath the cloud layer in a blaze of pink.

A perfect ending to a perfect day

Can't thank Janny and Don enough for opening their home and lives to me. The best part of publishing has been the amazing people I've met that I might never have otherwise. If you're not familiar with Janny and Don's art and novels, you really, really should check them out. As for me, it's time to get back to packing for Australia...