About Alan
Alan Smale writes alternate and twisted 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. The sequel, Radiant Sky, is scheduled for release in November 2024. (All books are also available in audiobook format.)
Alan has also sold over forty 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, Alan lives in Maryland and recently retired from a career as an astrophysicist and data archive manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. In what is humorously referred to as his 'spare time', Alan also sings bass and serves as Business Manager for high-energy vocal band The Chromatics, who have performed at various science fiction conventions (DC Worldcon, Balticon, Shore Leave, Farpoint) and were Music Guests of Honor at Philcon.
Alan is represented by Caitlin Blasdell of Liza Dawson Associates Literary Agency.
