Meet our SFF Indie author of the Month, Joshua Walker. He currently works as a primary school English teacher, and likes to read, brew beer, and hang out with his wife and BFD (Big Fluffy Dog) in his free time.
1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
Thanks for having me! I’m originally from the Blue Mountains region in Sydney. I was raised there, and attended school in Western Sydney. Eventually, I moved away to Melbourne to study and work, and I got married there and continued to live there for nearly a decade before returning back to my roots in the Blue Mountains in 2024.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was twelve, I was convinced I wanted to write something, and it often deviated between stories and comics. I’d write a comic book series with a friend at school, and we’d photocopy them, and distribute new issues every other week to our friends. We had our own publishing company, logo, branding … everything. It was really cool.
At eighteen I was nearing the end of my first uni degree, and decided I wanted to be a teacher, as well as a novelist. As of 2024, I was both those things, which goes to show commitment goes a long way.
Thankfully, I’m not yet thirty, but if I could make a prediction for when I am, I’d say I’m most excited about writing more often, establishing further work/life balance, and maybe taking up my career as an author full time.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
When I was a teenager I held the belief that change hinders one’s progress. You might say I was a bit of a hobbit, philosophically speaking. In the years that followed however, I learned to handle ambiguity in better ways, and be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that taught me a lot about character, the impact of stoicism, and the more existential idea of one’s purpose.
4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
I might split this into three different things for the sake of the question. Three is hard to round down to, though!
The first is the painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai. There’s a sense of movement, progression, and devastation in this picture that capture the feelings I equate to kicking my life goals. You can be caught up in the wave, swept away by it, or you can ride the wave, command it to lead you to your ultimate destination.
The second is the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. It’s a poem that ultimately helped me understand that there are so many aspects life that are out of my control. Additionally, there is a sense of power the narrator finds in choosing the less common ‘path’, and I’ve always found some kind of kinship in this notion: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.
The third is the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Not only is nature greater than us, but the spiritual dimension to that story, and Pi’s survival, struck a chord with me for a very long time after reading it. I won’t say much more, but I highly recommend you read it if you haven’t. It’s a stunning work of fiction that gives credence to much of our real lives.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
In some ways, (and I don’t mean for this to be a cop-out answer) I don’t think I did choose at all. Storytelling has been a compulsion of mine since I was quite young, as a result of the influence stories had on me themselves. So I guess, upon reflection, the process of becoming an author was quite organic. It’s not to say I haven’t dabbled in other creative areas. For example, I used to draw and paint for fun, and also attempted to be a professional musician and producer for many years. But I always came back to writing.
6. Please tell us about your novel An Exile of Water & Gold
An Exile of Water & Gold came about over many years, in small sparks that eventually got fused into the overall plot and world. It tells the story of a character called Drift, who is exiled from his homeland, the Great Tree of Aobia, and doesn’t understand why. In the background are several instigations of a resource war, and so what essentially takes place is a mystery story crossed with epic fantasy in the vein of Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, and more. Thematically, the book’s largely focused on environmentalism and the idea that the earth is greater than the sum of our parts. In addition, there is a hard magic system inspired by bioluminescent science, and, wait for it … anthropomorphic fighting weasels!
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
That we are stewards of the earth, and it is our job to tend it, use it for what it provides in a responsible manner, and give back to it in whatever ways we can.
8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I can’t proceed without mentioning JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, and Robert Jordan. They form much of my ‘classic’ fantasy influence, and are huge reasons I am a writer of the genre today. But I also have found a lot to learn in the works of Betty Smith, John Williams, George Eliot, and Yann Martel. In terms of other fantasy writers, I have been hugely influenced by Brandon Sanderson, Bradley P Beaulieu, and Peter V Brett.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
I want to be a full time author, but I won’t do so at the expense of sustaining my family. So, I need to make it. I’m very serious about that. Initially, I had a sticky note on my wall for years that set my publishing goal as 2025. I ended up beating that by a whole year. I won’t say I can repeat that again for the goal of going full time, but I’ll do my darnedest.
10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
Find a community, immerse yourself in a wide catalogue of storytelling and art, and create authentically that which is yours.
An Exile of Water & Gold
For centuries, the Aobians of the Great Tree have shared the continent, Q'ara, with humanity. War has come and gone, and tensions for true rulership are beginning to rise once more. In Aobia, Sleepers share a symbiotic relationship with the Tree in which they live, empowered by Luminosity, the Tree's predominant blessing upon a select few people. Elsewhere on Q'ara, an unknown organisation seek to weaponise Luminosity for their own purposes. Meanwhile, Drift, a young Aobian who feels cynical towards the mysterious inner workings of his people's government, is exiled from Aobia - forever. Traversing the land of humans below, he must find his purpose in an ever-changing world, while his betrothed back home, Tarri, seeks to do the same.
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