We were lucky to catch up with Crystal Storm recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Crystal thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My “adult” career began in Corporate America as a records manager. It could not have been farther away from creativity. But, while working a 9 – 5 I was immersed in the arts. I wrote my first novel working my Corporate job. Years later, I was no longer in Corporate America, but I wasn’t fully invested as a creative yet. I worked a full time job at a small luxury hotel, and wrote my second novel. Shortly afterwards, I started writing freelance for a small indie comics company, got into podcasting, and everything snowballed from there.

I don’t know the exact moment I started to take myself seriously as a creative person. But over the years (for context I’m 43 now, 44 in November!) it never left me and I sunk deeper and deeper into my hearts desire to be a full time creator. I’m Gen X. I grew up hearing a lot about getting real jobs, and what I needed to do to support myself and nothing in the conversation was ever about my creative path. But I never let it go, I just couldn’t. You could say that I always knew I wanted to pursue this my creative path professionally. I’ve spent twenty years figuring out how to do that, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m still figuring that out.

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

Today, I’m a Showrunner, Voice Director and Voice Actress. I’ve fused my love of writing, podcasting, and lessons learned in Corporate America to create the Tales of the Forgotten Fiction Network. Tales is a joint project between myself and my wonderful fiancée, Hannah Cardeilhac. At Tales we develop and produce audio dramas, fiction podcasts, and very soon tabletop shows. Our stories center around: Strong, flawed, characters of color, diverse sexual orientations and gender identities going on fantastical adventures.

The Tales of the Forgotten Fiction Network was born after we completed our first show, Legacy A Star Wars Audio Drama in 2022. I fell in love with the creative collaboration that creating Audio Drama’s provides. Two years later, we’ve got a catalogue of six complete shows spanning multiple genres, and a packed production schedule for 2025 and beyond. We have ambitious goals for the future of network. Over the next five years in addition to audio dramas, we will create and publish novels and audiobooks based off our original shows such as A Fairy Tale for Adults, Vampire Beginnings, and Don’t Look. Our future goals also include finding ways to employ a team of artists and writers to create graphic novels and comics to expand our universe. In ten years, mark my words, Tales will be a production company that also creates original TV show and movies.

Our community is at the heart of everything we do. We seek to bridge the gap between listeners and artists with a unique approach. Every time we release a new show we host a live listen party on our Youtube channel, open for everyone to join! After listening to the episode, we continue the live stream and invite our voice actors and show creators onto the stream. We chat with them about the show, share behind the scenes details, and take questions from the fans. This has been incredibly powerful in building community, and connecting with each other. In addition to our live stream events, we created an inclusive, moderated discord community for both listeners and the team behind our shows. This allows us to get to know our listeners on a personal level, and build lasting connections. Through these connections our voice actors and creative team have seen the positive impact their work has on the lives of our listeners.

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

There seems to have always been this struggle in society for the arts to be supported and taken seriously, and that needs to change. I challenge anyone who doesn’t think the arts are just as important as any other career to go a month without watching anything on tv, don’t listen to music. Don’t listen to a podcast. Don’t read a book, magazine, or comic. Don’t go to an art musem. Don’t look at art, or graphics, or memes. Don’t watch youtube or tiktok. Don’t engage with art in any way, then come back and tell me how your life is. People need to be reminded that every day we consume the arts. Every day the arts does it part to make lives better. The arts as a whole should be celebrated just as much if not more than any other field because it is so intrinsically a part of who we are as a species and part of our daily lives.

Artists can be supported more in big and small ways. First, there needs to be more focus on supporting the things we love, instead of being addicted to our rage and pain. The voices of those who love and support diverse storytelling needs to be louder than the ones who bash it. Consumers of art, no matter what they art is, need to take the time to leave reviews, to like and subscribe, to stop being silent supporters 24/7 and instead find ways they can engage and support the art they love. This can be as simple as leaving a review, a like, a comment, a private message. Word of mouth marketing is powerful.

All in all, speak more about the art you love. Shout it from the rooftops. Support the creators whose content you enjoy, in as many ways as you can.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Being an artist should be a sustainable full time job for anyone who wants it. It should be as simple to be a creator of the arts, as it is to get a 9 – 5 job and it should be supported as such.

I don’t want to hear anymore stories about starving artists, I don’t want anyone else to have to be told to work a “real” job, and do their art on the side, loosing parts of who they are just to try and survive.

I am passionate about this, and I am building Tales to be a place that is a space where artists in my field can find a home that not only supports their creativity but also supports them financially so they can do more of what they love.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://talesoftheforgotten.com/
• Twitter: https://x.com/directorstorm | https://x.com/TalesNetwork

Image Credits

Cover art for A Fairy Tale for Adults, Vampire Beginnings created by Gerald Hill.