Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Taylor.
Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
From the moment my mother started reading me bedtime stories, I tried my hardest to learn how to read, write, and draw. I wanted to write and illustrate my own books, and I wanted other people to read them.
By kindergarten, I could already read on the third-grade level, and I was printing well and learning cursive. After school, I was banging away on my mother’s electric typewriter, trying to get everything in my mind onto the page as quickly as I could before I lost the thread of my thoughts. Writing scary stories was my favorite thing to do at this time.
My inclination to write horror stories infiltrated the classroom, and in the later years of elementary school, I periodically found myself not allowed to read my creative writing assignments in front of the class, like the rest of the students did, because my stories were considered too scary or else too gory.
In fourth, grade, I wrote a story for a competition my library was having. The winning story was to be published in one of the city newspapers, but my story was rejected on the basis that it wouldn’t do to have people reading about a giant going on the rampage in my hometown, destroying infrastructure and decimating the population.
Not discouraged at all by this setback, I redoubled my efforts. By the time I made it to college, I felt I was ready to start submitting to literary and “little” magazines (little magazines are literary magazines that publish experimental literature and the non-conformist writings of relatively unknown writers), and it was then that I published two stories, and I won an award for one of them. Neither was horror, but because professors and scholars and critics would be reading these stories, I was optimistic that since I had gotten published in a magazine with that audience, I could count myself among other accomplished authors if I kept at it.
And that was what I did. I continued writing and submitting throughout college, and then afterward when I worked in the banking industry, and then after that when I worked for a consulting firm for nonprofits.
As of now, I’ve self-published sixteen books under my name and a pen name, have been published in multiple anthologies, and I have also developed my artistic skill to the point where I was asked -along with Elyse Bruce, my wife- to paint the paintings used for the posters for the Rose Glen Literary Festival four years running.
I have other paintings that I’ve done, and prints of these are hanging in the US, Canada, and Hungary.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I paint (acrylic on canvas) and I write. These days, everyone wants to be a writer, and everyone wants to be an artist. Amazon is loaded with works put together by self-published authors. Bookstores and libraries are crammed full of authors who have gone through a publisher. The competition between artists to get their works hanging and selling in galleries is fierce.
The struggle comes with getting your work recognized in the first place and then demonstrating that your work ranks up there with authors or artists who are more widely known. The paintings that wound up being used for the Rose Glen Literary Festival posters were not just going to be on some promotional posters. They were going to be in magazines as well. So while they needed to capture the mood of the festival, they had to double as commercial art. The contract for the first year was to do just one painting. We were brought back for three more years. So I believed the paintings served the purpose the festival organizers had in mind.
An additional struggle is being true to myself while producing a product that will ultimately be bought by others. My style of painting is unique. I call it Precise Impressionism. I use vibrant colors and fine brush strokes to bring out the essence of the subject matter. I am not interested in producing something that is photographic. I am interested in painting something the way I see it. But because this style is distinctive, I’m not always sure how the finished works will be received by people viewing or looking to buy the artwork.
Similarly, I write for myself. Someone who buys one of my books, or comes across one of my stories in an anthology gets what they get. That they happen to like what I write is a good thing. I do have quite a few people who count me among their favorite authors. However, as with the artwork, I am never sure how what I write will be received.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As far as writing goes, I’m known for my horror stories, although I also write science fiction, fantasy, cloak and dagger, literary fiction, and nonfiction.
There are very few authors that I would consider really good horror writers. H.P. Lovecraft would be number one. While I enjoy reading Stephen King, I find that reading his works is like panning for gold. You can find some nuggets quite a bit, but not enough for me to want to go at it too often. Anne Rice’s vampire stories are heavily weighted in romance. No one should get the idea that I am criticizing either author. They write what they want to write in the way they want to write it. It’s just that the bulk of their work doesn’t do it for me.
I like when a horror author grabs you, locks you into his story, and steadily ratchets up the scares and the tension until you’re nearly frozen with terror. That’s what I try to do. Just when you think it can’t get any more terrifying, it does. Just when you think you’ve reached your limit in terms of what you can mentally and emotionally deal with, you turn the page and words even harder to internalize are there for the reading. For all of that, I tend to steer clear of gore unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Additionally, you won’t find much comic relief. My stories all have a supernatural or fantastical element to them, but the characters in them think and act as average everyday people do. What I am most proud of is when a story scares someone so much, they have to set it aside for a few days before they can finish it. More than a few readers have told me they have had to do this.
With the paintings, what makes me proud is that I have always been true to myself never deviated from my style, and have still managed to be successful. It means I can make a profession out of doing what I want to do the way I want to do it. Is there more to happiness than that?
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
When I was in high school, I got it into my head that it would be a great idea to submit a script to Doctor Who, the British science fiction television series. This was the classic series, and at the time I’m writing about, John Nathan Turner was the producer of the show.
I had read in a number of different fan magazines that Turner never accepted unsolicited manuscripts from anyone, and the likelihood of him accepting anything from authors overseas was even more remote for the simple reason that there were difficult contractual and copyright issues to navigate. Of course, I was also underage, so, really, my chances of getting the script accepted were probably zero.
Realizing I had to be innovative if I was going to succeed, I decided that I would give the script to him in person. My idea semmed audacious on the surface, but my plan was very well thought out. No, I wasn’t going to run away to England. Instead, I asked my parents to buy me tickets to a Doctor Who convention for my birthday, where Turner would be in attendance.
My parents fell for it, and by the time I went to the convention, my script was ready for Turner’s inspection. My idea had been to seek him out, corner him, and shove the script into his hands, but things worked out much better than that. He was on a question-and-answer panel. I stood in line to ask questions, and when it was my turn, I asked Turner if he accepted scripts from unsolicited authors. He gave me a one-word response: ”No.” I said, “Would you accept mine?” The audience clapped, either to support me or to encourage him to accept the script. I’m not sure why they clapped, but Turner reluctantly said he’d take it. So… I marched up on stage to his table, and I handed him the script.
I truly expected something would come of it, but I wasn’t sure what precisely. Getting hired to write for Doctor Who was what I was aiming for, but I would have settled for anything. Months later, the rejection letter came. However, with it came a “newsletter” typed by Turner, telling me what the next season was to look like. Regrettably, that season never happened, because the series was put on hiatus for an indefinite period.
So, no, I didn’t get to write for Doctor Who. But the interesting thing is, I have a letter signed by John Nathan Turner, and I may be the only one in the world who has his personally typed “newsletter.”
Had I not made the effort, I would not have gotten the letter. And this is how I feel about risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Something ventured, something gained. You may not always get what you are looking to get, but something -usually something good- comes of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thomasdtaylor.wordpress.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author-Thomas-D-Taylor-Fan-Page-Official-271277696233883
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ttaylor_author/
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Taylor/e/B005LLGQU6
Image Credits
Elyse Bruce, Rose Glen, and Thomas D. Taylor
