Abby Goldsmith's Blog

Here are some hard truths about earning income, and passive income, as a creative in today’s Western countries. I am generalizing for all the arts, but especially the niches where I come from.

  Successful web series authors often write more than three chapters per week. Here’s how you compete when you only write one per week. Abby is preparing to launch her new epic fantasy series in 2026.

Okay, it may be impossible to top my favorite fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire and the Wheel of Time, but Michael G. Manning’s work is in that league. Here I rave about his Art of the Adept series, which starts with The Choice of Magic and ends with The Wizard’s Crown. Fans […]

  – The implosion of the official NaNoWriMo group. – Sit Down, Shut Up, and Write, a Meetup Group. – Royal Road’s Writathon.

I enjoyed this litRPG book series by Erin Ampersand. It’s refreshing to read a hero who’s not your typical young guy thrust into leadership. She’s a mom of 3 little kids, and she uses her mom skills not only to keep her kids safe throughout a system apocalypse where aliens pit humans against monsters, but […]

Here’s my inside look at the male reading crisis, which I believe is very much engendered by the book industry. Reading should be for everyone. 00:00 Why the male reading crisis shouldn’t be dismissed. 01:19 What do men prefer in a good story? Here it is. 02:44 The big best-sellers of the last twenty years […]

If you’re looking for some great modern classics to read for this spooky autumn season, here are my top five Psychological Horror book recommendations. 00:00 Pet Sematary by Stephen King 01:53 Geek Love by Katherine Dunn 03:08 Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice 03:44 The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris 04:31 Night […]

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time book series had a huge influence on my story crafting techniques and the importance of research and world-building. Here I reflect on my personal memories of rereads, and also of meeting the influential fantasy author in person. Here’s my old Wheel of Time fan site.

The Torth universe has a hard magic system, similar to superpowers. Here I walk through the power chart I created as the basis for the system in my 6 book sci-fi fantasy series.

It’s not learning a skill when you just press a button, but the economic and social pressure to use it (and to rapidly iterate low effort content) is intense. Here’s my hot take on writers and other creatives using generative A.I. to package and promote their otherwise high effort human endeavors.