Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today: Abby Goldsmith is the author of 6 sci-fi novels, the Torth series, which starts with Majority and ends with Empire Ender, all published by Podium, with starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus. Her short works have appeared in Escape Pod, Writer’s Digest Books, and anthologies. You can find her on social media, Patreon, and at AbbyGoldsmith.com.
Thanks so much, Abby, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: How would you describe your writing style/genre?
Abby Goldsmith: I go for big idea sociological fantasy or sci-fi, with a heroic male main character vs. an evil empire. When comparing myself to recognizable works, I’ll say, think Star Wars, Jim Hensen Workshop, Game of Thrones, Red Rising, Dune, Ender’s Game, with a dash of Stephen King. High drama, crazy situations, aliens, power progression fantasy, and wild interpersonal power dynamics.
JSC: Do you use a pseudonym? If so, why? If not, why not?
AG: I want credit for my work, so I publish under my maiden name. But lately I am questioning the wisdom of publishing my sci-fi and power progression fantasy as a woman. I write and read very much the way a male author would.
JSC: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
AG: Don’t take yourself so seriously. It’s a recipe for misery. Success is not in your control, because success in the arts is 95% luck, not 5% luck. Really. I know you can’t believe that, I know it goes against everything you were taught by the boomer generation and film media, but I have a mountain of evidence in my life experience. Sorry. The sooner you mourn your expectations and get truly cynical, the sooner you can adjust to the timeline we’re in and get a head start over the upcoming deluge of dreamers who haven’t realized this fact yet.
JSC: Who has been your favorite character to write and why?
AG: Thomas is the true hero behind the more obvious heroes of the series. He’s the most challenging character I’ll ever write, but the most satisfying to get right. Bitter, cynical, cold, yet fundamentally kind. I kept readers guessing right up until the final chapter whether Thomas was going to go renegade (again) and go rogue or evil. Also, he’s a telepathic mutant supergenius with zombified minions and a pet pterosaur.
JSC: What character gave you fits and fought against you? Did that character cause trouble because you weren’t listening and missed something important about them?
AG: Garrett Olmstead Dovanack, the guy who gave himself the initials G.O.D. He’s morally gray, but I think I let him veer too far towards being an asshole, despite being on the good guy team. I kept reeling back his jerk tendencies based on reader feedback. It was probably still too much. Scenes that I thought made for hilarious high drama might have had him coming across like an abusive grandpa for some readers.
JSC: What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about them.
AG: If I ever write a sequel series, I think readers will want to see more of Varktezo. He’s an exuberant alien super-scientist, but in this series, he is more or less in Thomas’s shadow. It would be interesting to see Varktezo blossom. Will he bioengineer a way for ordinary people to gain superpowers? Will he spread the use of telepathy gas? Will he ever find a suitable mate, or is he too obsessed with science?
JSC: Were you a voracious reader as a child?
AG: You bet. My parents let me have one fiction book for every two nonfiction books I read, so my room was full of books. The first series I read was Oz, all 33 of the original books, at age 6 to 8. Then I was obsessed with John Bellairs, Lois Duncan, William Sleater, R.L. Stine, and Christopher Pike. In 5th grade, I saw a girl at recess deep into It by Stephen King. I asked her if it was any good, and she nodded, not taking her eyes off the page. I decided to start with a shorter King book, Pet Sematary. That was my first adult fiction and there was no stopping after that.
JSC: What are some day jobs that you have held? If any of them impacted your writing, share an example.
AG: I used to work in video games as an animator and art director. It siphoned my creative energy, but the coworkers were some of the weirdest and most wonderful people to work with. It was also a great creative workout.
JSC: We know what you like to write, but what do you like to read in your free time, and why?
AG: I’m deep in the world of power progression fantasy, which I see as a rebranding of heroic fantasy. It’s an umbrella term that includes superhero and litRPG. I just love heroes who fight for justice. I always want to immerse myself in a character I can root for.
JSC: What are you working on now, and what’s coming out next? Tell us about it!
AG: Why not another hard to sell multi-book epic? My new project is Epic Fantasy, about a medieval scholar who invents his own magic system and uses it to undermine and defy a super powerful global magitechnocracy. If Oag is going to protect unicorns, rescue princesses, and triumph in a magitech arms race, he will have to muddle his way through magic systems without a tutor. He might also need to arm peasants with his homemade self-defense charms … including the mob that beheaded his parents.
I’m currently posting chapters on my Patreon, with plans to launch this as a web serial later this year. www.patreon.com/abbygoldsmith
And now for Abby’s new book: Empire Ender:
Thomas is a telepathic supergenius. He’s a celebrated thought leader, sure, but he’s also a slave. The galactic rulers know his every thought and won’t allow him to cure his fatal neuromuscular disease. They want him to die young.
So Thomas surreptitiously begins to befriend fellow slaves. Not the privileged ones, but the chattel, the ones who are ignored and forgotten.
He chooses slaves who might be able to defy kamikaze supersoldiers or space armadas. His first acquisition? An overpowered titan gladiator restrained only by an inhibitor drug.
The Torth series starts with MAJORITY, which is free to Kindle Unlimited and Audible+ subscribers. It gained momentum as a web serial on Royal Road, with 2200 followers.
Publisher | Amazon | Audible
Excerpt