Are you locked in a creative mode while your family (or day job, or dog) begs for your time?
In this post-scarcity era of creative content, why do we do this to ourselves? There are enough books/films/games/art in the world. And we all know that exponential and constant growth is unsustainable.
Sometimes it’s best to step back from all the pressures, the incentives, and the societal guilt that urges you to produce and produce and generate even more content.
Just breathe.
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 had problems with the tragic ending, but he wrote an ongoing sequel series to address that. I enjoyed Wizard in Exile and Daughter of the Dragon.
– 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 also to rally humanity into defiance against their true enemies instead of fighting over loot and scraps.
Meghan’s character shows a lot of strength without being muscle-strong. She has to keep emotions controlled and her wits sharp while secretly yearning for her husband and fearful for the safety of her family. She is thrust into trolley problem dilemmas and comes through them with sensible solutions, fueled by her emotional intelligence.
I just enjoyed this whole series, which is up to Book 4 so far. There’s a lot of cleverness in terms of fights and challenges and aliens.
The downside, for me, is that these books are just a touch too cozy for my tastes. Alien monsters that can’t even kill little kids (albeit kids with powers) seem kinda incompetent, no matter how threatening they are, no matter how many adults they kill off-screen. But plot armor is a common thing in a lot of litRPG, so I give it a pass.
After reading this series, I still don’t want kids. But it’s nice to get one version of a glimpse into motherhood. Holy smokes.
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 cater to teen and female audiences.
04:13 Why the book industry leans female: a feedback loop of risk avoidance driven by analytics. Also…
05:34 The tastemakers of the book industry are mostly underpaid, stressed out young women.
07:12 And big publishing avoids epic series, aka big and heroic tales.
07:59 Where do men go for stories? Videogames, manga, and underground niches such as web serials.
09:27 Some hope for male-oriented fiction going mainstream.
10:48 Men who read are sexy.
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 of Sorrows by Frances Sherwood
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.
