I was lucky to get an interview with Abby Goldsmith, the author of Majority, a dark space opera epic.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I’ve always been a storyteller, but I used to aim toward film and comics as well as novels. I ended up doing character art & animation for a lot of SpongeBob games, and now I work as a video editor in Texas. I still create low poly art for my husband’s indie MMO game project. He is my favorite reader!

Why should I buy your book?
Have you ever wondered if you're a thought leader...or a slave? 

In MAJORITY, the rulers of the galaxy cannot unplug from their version of social media. The only way Thomas can rescue his enslaved friends is to trick his crowd-pleasing mentor–plus her thirty trillion fans. 

He might conquer the galaxy while he’s at it.  

This is a space opera in the vein of Vernor Vinge or Red Rising. The first book, MAJORITY, is forthcoming from Podium in September 2023, with the rest of the completed series coming out in 2024 and 2025. The series as a whole gained over 750,000 reads as a web serial!

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I was a storyteller as soon as I was old enough to talk and draw. I wrote a bunch of novels by the age of 12, including a 400 page sci-fi whopper. When that one got a scathing rejection from a Random House editor who had no idea I was a child, I switched my storytelling focus from books to film. I went to CalArts for character animation, and wound up working in the video game industry through my twenties and thirties. But I continued to work on my epic Torth series, as well as a few short stories and trunk novels.

Why did you choose to write science fiction?
Sci-fi and Fantasy offer a great way to exaggerate contemporary cultural issues so they can be analyzed in a fresh way. I wanted to take a closer look at freedom versus oppression, and individualism versus collectivism, and the effects of power imbalances in interpersonal dynamics. I needed to tell an epic story with the extremes of power and poverty. A galactic empire was ideal.

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
Just one? Ha ha.

Sorry…but yes.

If I have to just choose one, I will name Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time for its examination of interpersonal power dynamics and epic scope storytelling. That series inspired me on many levels.

Nice! I’d pick Jordan, too. Love his books.

But I could also mention Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Tad Williams, Vernor Vinge, L. Frank Baum, and many others.

I get it!

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Sharing my “wow” factor with readers!  I love the act of creation. I love being acknowledged for the masterpieces I create.

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
This industry, man.
There are huge market pressures that favor rapid release and superficial coverage of popular tropes and trends. It’s very hard to shrug off those pressures. There are always authors in your genre who are writing faster than you, or who squarely hit the prevailing trend, and their works gain more visibility as a result. It’s very noticeable. Meanwhile, I prefer to challenge my storytelling skills with deep dives into societal issues rather than going for superficial fun times. It is a conscious decision, but sometimes it feels like I’ve taken a vow of poverty. I do a lot of second-guessing of my life choices.

Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
Most authors sing the praises of Scrivener, so I’ll skip that (though I do use it) and shout out Dynalist instead. I use Dynalist for all of my series bibles and research notes. It’s a bunch of collapsible nested lists that you can edit and sync in the cloud. The app is very bare bones, which is perfect for writers who don’t want distracting bells and whistles. I love it. 

I’ll also shout out the Odyssey Writing Workshop, if you have the time and money. It’s a boot camp for creative sci-fi and fantasy writers, very worthwhile.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
My next huge project is an epic fantasy. In a world where magical spells drain life force (people are batteries), the peasants can’t guess why costs are skyrocketing. Healing spells that used to cost a penny are now unaffordable except to kings and queens. A book-obsessed orphan challenges the whole system by reinventing magic from the ground up. 

I also want to sell my stand-alone techno-thriller that touches on ChatGPT issues. A corporation imprisons workers in virtual reality, where they earn fake coins as customer service chatbots. They are transformed from wage slaves to true slaves.

Apps that are based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGTP and Midjourney, along with apps aimed specifically at authors, have caused quite a stir. Do you expect these new technologies will make your life as a self-published author easier or harder, and do you expect that they’ll mean you’ll earn more or less?
I think these so-called AI apps are a boon to science and technology, where rapid iteration of uncreative work is beneficial. But it doesn't mesh well with the arts. How can anyone feel okay with claiming credit for artwork they did not create? How can they take pride in that machine generated fantasy story, built off of echoes of other people's stories? I would never use it for any of the creative aspects of storytelling or worldbuilding or drawing or painting, because I enjoy feeling proud of my creations. Also, machines cannot innovate or be original. I can. So they are irrelevant to me as an author.

As for how they will impact my book sales... I think we are already seeing negative effects in the book retail industry, as generated texts flood the Amazon online bookstore, disappointing readers and reducing payouts for legitimate authors. The long-term fallout could be positive or negative. A positive outcome would be an impetus to majorly upgrade the online browsing experience, so people can avoid derivative mishmashes and instead find those elusive breath-of-fresh-air stories that have something new to add to a conversation. A negative outcome would be a creative Dark Age, where innovation and originality are completely devalued and everything becomes a bunch of stale echoes of movies and stories from earlier eras. I think that would have a negative impact on humanity in general. We need space for originality in the arts.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
Can I have a Torth theme park, like Harry Potter World?

If it was up to me, you could. But sorry, I’m just a broke author, so you’ll have to find the funding somewhere else…

I would love a major TV series adaptation, too.  Hey, I daydream about these things!

I hope you get there one day!

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
I’m a voracious reader. There’s a creative renaissance going on in the web serial world, particularly on sites like Royal Road. I’m finding a lot of fresh and new SF/F there, and I’m proud to have gained an awesome readership on that site.

I hope a lot of new readers discover your writing!
Thanks for doing the interview, Abby.