Seven years, one month, and 15 days before the meal on which you’re about to eavesdrop, Alan Smale and I got together to chat about his Clash of Eagles trilogy. Now that he’s completed yet another trilogy, we decided to grab lunch during Awesome Con to discuss how his Apollo Rising books came to be.

Smale writes alternate history and hard SF. His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, “A Clash of Eagles”, won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and his series of novels set in the same universe, Clash of Eagles (2015), Eagle in Exile (2016), and Eagle and Empire (2017), are available from Del Rey (US) and Titan Books (UK and Europe). His Roman baseball collaboration with Rick Wilber, The Wandering Warriors, came out from WordFire Press (2020), and Hot Moon, his alternate-Apollo “technothriller with heart,” set entirely on and around the Moon, was launched by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy in July 2022, followed by sequel Radiant Sky in November 2024 and the concluding volume in the Apollo Rising series, Burning Night, in November 2025.

Smale has also sold over fifty pieces of shorter fiction to Asimov’s and other magazines and original anthologies. His short story, “Gunpowder Treason,” set in London in 1605, the lead story in Tales from Alternate Earths Vol. III from Inklings Press, won the 2021 Sidewise Award. His non-fiction essays have appeared in Lightspeed and Journey Planet, and he wrote a regular column about scientific and historical turning points for Galaxy’s Edge.

Born and raised in England, he lives in Maryland and recently retired from a career as an astrophysicist and data archive manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also sings bass and serves as Business Manager for high-energy vocal band The Chromatics, who have performed at various science fiction conventions (D.C. Worldcon, Balticon, Shore Leave, Farpoint) and were Music Guests of Honor at Philcon.

We discussed the three projects he’d told me in 2019 he was going to write next (and what became of them), how what was originally intended to be a standalone novel turned into his latest trilogy, the synergy of writing an alternate history about the Apollo space program while working at NASA, how the constraints imposed by science helped improve his plot arc, the way astronaut personalities have changed across the decades, how to write alternate history to be entertaining both for those who know actual history and those who don’t, the advice he wishes he could give his younger self, how we don’t really dislike info dumps (only the ones which aren’t done well), and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at Mariscos 1133 restaurant — (more…)

This episode’s conversation came together thanks to Facebook, which is where I learned the multifaceted Steven H Silver would be visiting Washington D.C. earlier this month. That was an opportunity I couldn’t let pass. So late one morning, after he’d wandered the National Air and Space Museum, and I’d enjoyed the Monets at the National Gallery of Art, we got together for lunch — one to which you’re now invited.

Silver, a 21-time Hugo Award nominee, was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB Books. His novel, After Hastings, was first published in 2020. In 1995, he created the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference 5 times, as well as serving as the Event Coordinator for SFWA. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7. Steven has maintained In Memoriam lists for Worldcon, the Nebula Conference, and the World Fantasy Con for several years.

We discussed our shared status as record-breaking losers, my morbid suggestion about what he’ll need to do upon my death, the reason he found The Silmarillion more interesting than The Lord of the Rings, how meeting Mel Brooks and other luminaries made him more at ease once he began attending science fiction conventions, the way a cancelled contest resulted in his first short fiction sale, what it was like to be in a writing workshop taught by Gene Wolfe, the allure of the alternate history subgenre (and how it differs from secret histories), what he learned publishing a novel in the middle of a global pandemic, the Easter eggs he scattered through After Hastings, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at Dolan Uyghur restaurant — (more…)

Ten days from now, I’ll head off to Birmingham for my first Eastercon, because in a world where the U.S. has been transformed into an unsafe destination for international travelers, I figure that’s the only way I’ll get to see my UK friends again.

I’m scheduled to appear on four programming items, and have arranged to record four episodes of my Eating the Fantastic podcast.

If you’ll also be attending Eastercon, here’s where to find me —

Reading
Sunday, April 5th, 9:00 a.m. (Balmoral)
with Emily Tesh and Wole Talabi

Why Writing and Making Tactile Art is Revolutionary
Sunday, April 5th, 10:30 a.m. (Gladstone-Churchill)
Creators have always been under pressure from commercial and other forces and now face the challenge of AI. Artists and writers talk about the joy and revolutionary power of creating art with your own hands.
with Tiffani Angus, Aliette de Bodard, Nikita Andester, and Penny Hill

Writing about Darkness in an Ever Darkening World
Sunday, April 5th, 1:30 p.m. (Salisbury-Wellington)
In a world faced with climate change, war and creeping authoritarianism, how do we write about dark themes responsibly?
with David Ketelby, Emily Inkpen, Justin Lee Anderson, and Anna Smith Spark

The Joy of Podcasts
Monday, April 6th, 12:00 p.m. (Gladstone-Churchill)
Podcasts are everywhere: discussions, narratives and enthusiasm for SFF. Our panel looks at their favourites and talks about the care and feeding of podcasts.
with Michael Ireland (M), Robin C.M. Duncan, Kat Kourbeti, and Devin Martin

Hope to see (some of) you there!