Last Words Anthology Interview with Christina Walker
Confused? This anthology is a set of awesome dystopian stories all taking place in different worlds and characters. You can preorder the anthology here and it will arrive on your Kindle June 10th! All proceeds go to help JDRF and kids with diabetes. Check out the interviews from last week too!
Please welcome Christina Walker to the blog today!
How did you become a writer? Any people, books, or movies inspire you to fulfill your dream?
I’ve always loved reading and writing, but the first time I seriously thought about wanting to be an author was in junior high after reading a fantasy series called The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The world-building of those books is INSANE. Every book had at least one appendix with tons of background information, like how the rune magic worked, or the complicated dwarven technology, or cultural things like music and language. Those books completely captivated me. More current inspiration comes from Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series, which also has amazing world-building, as well as fantastic character arcs.
But I didn’t really become an author until I went to my first writing conference. Spending money to hang out with other writers made it real for me, and I made a ton of friends who inspired me to keep writing and learning how to improve.
How did you become involved in The Last Words anthology?
I met the organizer at a conference. She’d quickly become a friend, and a bunch of us were going out to lunch when she said she had an idea for an anthology. Everything blossomed from there.
What is your story about? How did you come up with this idea?
My story is about a teen girl who discovers her idyllic community is not as perfect as it seems, and her best friend is next in line for a terrible fate.
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When we decided to write dystopian, I knew I wanted to explore freedom versus security as my main theme instead of the traditional apocalyptic, end-of-the-world dystopian story. Don’t get me wrong–I love post-apoc as much as any dystopian fan, but I was really intrigued by the idea of a welfare system taken to the extreme. I also wanted to include diversity. So in “The Weeding,” the government provides everything for its citizens: homes, jobs, education, food, etc. Money is a thing of the past because everyone contributes to keep the system running smoothly, so everyone is taken care of. The problem happens when some people take more resources than others because of old age or disability–such as the main character’s best friend, who has debilitating juvenile arthritis. The leaders of the community come up with the Weeding to balance the scales, and it’s not pretty.
I’m also a bit of a prepper–someone who stocks up skills and supplies in case of emergency or disaster. One of the biggest components of prepping is food storage. Since prepping and dystopian go hand-in-hand, food storage also makes an appearance in my story. 
