We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taylor Smythe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Though I find most of my creative endeavors to be significant, as they are each so personal, I would have to say three projects stand out as especially meaningful to me.

One of the most significant projects, and the one I’ve spent the most time working on, is my catalog of Florida fiction novels. Over the past six years, I’ve written ten novels, split across two series: Kingdom of Florida (a seven-book middle-grade fantasy saga) and Magic City Wonders (an ongoing science-fiction series set in 1980s Miami that follows individuals with superhuman powers). The inaugural installments in each series have won multiple state and national awards, but the reward of getting to craft a new mythology around a place I love so much is incredibly meaningful on its own. Beyond the high-concept gloss of these stories, though, is a deeply human heart. As I’ve spent years with these characters, I’ve watched as they’ve taken on a life of their own. Keeping sight of the characters’ humanity has allowed these stories to have a heart.

A second project that is meaningful to me is Multiverse, the debut full-length album of The Transient Friends—a pop band consisting of me, my good friend David Urbinati, and a rotating cast of other frequent collaborators. One aspect of what made this album so meaningful was the group of friends that contributed to it, which included our late friend Chris Wood, who passed away a week before the album’s release. And then lyrically, the album covers a lot of ground, including some very personal experiences, which are wrapped up and hidden under the fun, catchy pop hooks. As if creating a full-length album wasn’t ambitious enough, we also produced a film to accompany the album’s launch, which allowed me to flex my love for storytelling through visual media. To top it all off, we hosted a premiere party for the film and album; it was special to have so many of our friends in one room to experience the music together and to reflect on the people who made it possible.

Finally, I’ve spent the better part of the past year writing new music, which is some of my most honest and heartfelt creative work to date. There’s a lot of work still to be done to get it ready to share with the world, but when I do, I hope people can find themselves in the words and melodies.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

For those who don’t know me: I’m Taylor Thomas Smythe and I guess I’m what you’d call a “multi-hyphenate creative.” I’m a graphic designer by day, but I have my hands in a number of different creative endeavors: I’m a songwriter, singer, fiction author, hobby filmmaker, and novice screenwriter.

I think what sets me apart is that I don’t feel pigeonholed into just “one thing” creatively. While it can be both a blessing and a curse, exploring various creative outlets has allowed me the freedom to grow as an artist and to express my ideas and emotions through whatever medium feels most appropriate.

If I was forced to boil it down to what unifies all of these different avenues of art, though, I would say that the throughline is a love of storytelling and world-building.

As I’ve grown more comfortable with my voice as a storyteller, I’ve poured more of myself into my work. I hope this makes my stories feel more substantive and meaningful, as well as more relatable than if I were to keep my stories removed from my own experiences.

I’m most proud of and excited for my upcoming novel, Nightmare Array, which is the third installment in my young adult sci-fi-/fantasy series, Magic City Wonders. The book, which arrives this October, feels like a culmination of my growth as a storyteller up to this point, and I love how it dives deeper into the emotional arcs of some beloved characters while also maintaining the fun, exciting, and over-the-top fantasy elements that make its Miami Vice-meets-Marvel story world so enjoyable to spend time in.

Nightmare Array wraps up a sort of trilogy arc that began with Goldie a couple of years back, but my wheels are already spinning with other stories set in the world of Magic City Wonders (and beyond). I can’t wait to share more soon.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a creative is simply taking part in the act of creation. It can feel like such a magical, spiritual experience. At the start, something doesn’t exist yet. Then you step in, begin to develop something, work at it, and then eventually a completely new thing now exists in the world—and it didn’t exist before! I get very energized by the possibilities of what could be. I have so many (very) long digital notes and documents where I continually add new ideas or expand on existing ones. For me, even a morsel of an idea has the potential to blossom into something beautiful, cool, or interesting, so I’m somewhat of a hoarder when it comes to ideas. There is simply nothing that compares with the feeling of when a tiny seed of an idea (“what if there was a fantasy world parallel to our own real-world Florida?”) expands and grows into a fully-fledged work of art (seven-book Kingdom of Florida series).

Another rewarding part of being an artist is seeing my growth over time. I think a lot of people have the idea that they’re going to wait until they are good enough before they start creating or sharing their work, but the reality is that you’ll never become better if you don’t start somewhere. I recently remembered that, as a teenager, I wrote a serialized Star Wars fan fiction story, where I’d write and send a chapter at a time to a couple of my friends who were fans. I think this was an incredible training ground for me to get used to telling a story in a specific format, to create and develop characters, and to understand my audience. I didn’t just jump straight to writing my first novel; there were very amateur, mediocre baby steps that led up to that. To look back and see that trajectory is incredibly satisfying.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Simply put, what society can do to best support artists is continue to engage with the arts. Pay for artistic experiences (concerts, theatre, visual arts, etc.). Attend shows. Tell friends about this new book you read. And another thing that’s even easier and doesn’t cost you any money: like, comment, and share your artist friends’ content on social media. These days, accounts only get real reach if they pay for it or if their content gets shared widely organically (i.e. “goes viral”). Your sharing and engagement with content allows it to go further, and it helps our art find new audiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lamplightuniverse.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorsmythe
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TaylorThomasSmythe
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ttsmythe
• Other: www.magiccitywonders.com and www.kingdomofflorida.com

Image Credits

Taylor Thomas Smythe