#Episode

Описание: Whether you’re a student, a young professional dreaming of publishing your first book, or simply curious about the future of storytelling, this conversation with Salina Christmas will inspire you.

Salina is a Malaysian-born, London-based author — an anthropologist by vocation, a marketer by profession, and a self-published writer whose work draws on childhood memories of wartime, exile, and mythology. In our talk, she opens up about:

The roots of her debut The Constant Companion Tales — stories of survival, royal fugitives in the jungle, and otherworldly encounters.

Why she chose horror as her genre, and how much of it is real experience versus imagination.

The craft of storytelling and its role in shaping who we are.

What it truly takes to become a writer today — especially in an age where AI can already generate books, yet regulation and recognition lag behind.

And, on a lighter note, the superpower she wishes she had and the advice she’d give her younger self.

Here’s the full list of questions I asked Salina (scroll below 👇) — and I promise, the answers are as powerful as the questions.

If you enjoy the episode, let us know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to The Future of Skills Podcast — your support means the world!

1. Before we get into more details of your 'becoming a writer' pathway, how are you seeing yourself (in a 60 sec intro)?
2. Your debut as an author has paved its way based on a set of stories stemming from childhood. Many would refer to them as horror stories, given a breath of details you've shared about the atrocities from wartime, hunger and colonial occupation period. Let's start here: how long have you been brewing working on this 'The consistent Companion Tales and its succeeding title?
3. This is the story about the horrors of the war, royal family turned fugitives in the jungle, witnessing out of this world experiences. What's the core message behind 'The Constant Companion Tales'? What would you like the reader to know, more so - feel after?
4. You used to play hide and seek at the cemetery as a child. Your first 15 years you've lived in the middle of a jungle following your father's regiment across the Malayan peninsula. How has your childhood helped build (on purpose, instead of 'grow':) Salina of today?
5. What skills have you built in childhood that are serving you today as an Author, keeper of Malaysian mythology/post-colonialist Malaysian cultural identity who you seem to be personifying through the pages of your books?
6. Knowing you as a cheerful person with a warm, tactful personality - why have you chosen the horror genre? How many of the accounts described in the books are based on real-life stories, and how much is left to imagination/your author-styled interpretation? How many of the accounts described in the books are based on real-life stories, and how much is left to imagination/your author-ish interpretation?
7. Becoming a writer these days. Can you talk us through the process especially since you're an independent published author? From ideation to 1st draft/manuscript and seeing your book on bookstore shelves: What does it take to become a writer these days given that it's no longer a secret AI can release its own books/stories?
8. Humans don't have 'instant learning' self-instructing skills AI can display today, so in your view - what's the future of book writing/book reading habits?
9. Let's talk about the art of storytelling. How important is it to develop these skills for... life as a whole?
10. If you were to gain a superpower - what would that be and why? (I'll explain why I'm asking this:)
Bonus question:) A message for the younger self: the young writer who started writing her first stories at 15 years of age, what would you pass on to her?

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