Photos by L.G. Patterson
Have you ever wondered if it’s too late to pursue a new career, follow a new passion, or chase a dream? For Autumn Walker, a local chef at Irene’s, it was easy to start the transition of trading the bustling kitchen for the quiet solitude of a writer’s desk. “I love food, I will always love food, but that’s not where my heart is anymore,” Walker says.
The goal was not to give up cooking, as Walker loves her job, but to create more time to give her passion for writing. “One thing I love about Irene’s is how understanding my boss is, and when I expressed my concerns to him, he assured me that he wasn’t expecting me to devote my life to this role. He knew my heart belonged to writing, but he still trusted me to help lead his staff.” While she still loves being in the kitchen working with her team, she feels as though her creativity truly thrives at her desk. “The lack of creative control is kind of what’s pulling me away from kitchens,” she says. “That’s something you don’t really get as a chef until it’s your restaurant and your menu.”
But returning to her passion for writing has given her much more room for creativity. “I’ve always had an affinity for writing. I used to write random stories when I was a kid. And then it kind of fell off when I, for whatever reason, convinced myself that writing wasn’t something I wanted to pursue. Because at the time, I was more passionate about food and becoming a chef.” But finding that creativity once again through writing has been a game changer for Walker. “The creative freedom is definitely my favorite part,” she says. “The idea of just having this idea and bringing it to life. All from your head, you can build an entire world, you can create an entire story. And that’s just really cool to me. It’s so limitless.”
While she is still figuring out the right balance for her, she feels lucky that she is in a position where her current boss offers complete and utter support for her passion for writing. “I’m incredibly grateful to have a boss that supports me in such a way,” Walker says. “When I’m at the restaurant, I’m there to do my job. But my time off the clock is my time to pursue my passion.”
And now, what started as storytelling as a kid, drawing picture stories for her parents, has blossomed into a dream of creating a full series of books under her pen name: Autumn Journey-Walker. “I like to write the stories I enjoy consuming,” she says. “So, for me, I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy that focuses more on superpowers, not so much mythical creatures.” This stemmed from her love of futuristic and fantastical elements that have been influenced by “X-Men” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” as she loved the idea of, “building a world with a lot of different powers and magic systems.” “I always fantasized about having abilities like manipulating the elements or becoming a giant or flying. So I thought, why don’t I just write it?”
Journey-Walker hopes that her series will satisfy sci-fi and fantasy lovers alike. After nearly finishing her first draft in June, Journey-Walker had a dream about an alternate plotline for her first book. “I woke up the next morning and was like, I’m going to have to rewrite this now.” This led to her scrapping her almost finished draft to incorporate this new idea, which now focuses more on worldbuilding. “I want my readers to fall in love with the world I’ve created, and I feel like this new plotline focuses more on that,” she says. And so began her composition of “draft 1.5,” as she calls it.
“While my very first draft will never see the light of day, I’m not going to get rid of it. I still plan to use it as a reference point.” And this time around, Journey Walker plans to be easier on herself, letting her enjoy the writing process rather than focusing on harsh, self-imposed deadlines. “I was kind of making myself miserable for no reason,” she says. “This deadline doesn’t have to exist for anyone but me. I’m at liberty to change it.” The most important thing for Journey-Walker is to continue to love writing because as we all know, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Journey-Walker says right now she is planning for her series to be a five-book multiverse series, where each book takes place in a separate universe with specific sets of powers. “All of the characters’ stories are going to start weaving throughout the books,” she says. “Each book is going to focus on a specific character and their journey throughout their respective world. And in the fifth book, they will all come together.” But the twist? Only one of those universes knows the others exist, so throughout the series, Journey-Walker’s characters will start to discover more about the other worlds. “Their stories will intertwine, culminating in a final book set in a new, all-encompassing world that was created to inhabit people from every universe. But establishing a new world order is obviously not something everyone can get behind, and that will be the main source of tension in my series.”
Even though the passion for her newfound career has come easy, there have been vulnerable moments for Journey-Walker as she opens up to the world about her new career change, including starting a social media account where she posts about her journey as an aspiring author, the ups, the downs and everything in between. “I haven’t posted a lot yet. For now, I’m just using it as a way to talk about the thing I love when I want to talk about it, not necessarily on a specific schedule,” Journey-Walker says, as she hopes to keep a healthy relationship with social media since stepping back from her personal page in 2021. “This new page is not about me, it’s about my passion. And that’s easier for me to talk about.”
While she doesn’t have a secure date in mind for when she will publish her first book, she says she hopes to finish “draft 1.5” by the end of January 2025. To stay up to date on Journey-Walker and her journey as an aspiring author, visit her on Instagram, ajw.author.
