Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexzander Christion.
Hi Alexzander, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
As a member of the U.S. Army, my therapist suggested writing therapy to deal with the aggression I didn’t have a home for. So, I started writing, and when I hit 100 pages, I thought, “Maybe I should do something with this.”
So this story, while completely fantastical in every sense of the word, it is all based on feelings, situations, and circumstances I actually found myself in.
By the Hand of Dragons is a story about Shefa (his name means abundance in Sanskrit), a boy with an incredible natural talent for war, who comes to see his life as not his own. He’s a weapon, a tool, and he can’t be free until he masters his gifts, and when the Armageddon war that most people don’t even believe is coming. So he tries to speed everything along. his arrogance, his brashness, and his selfishness eventually lead him to become as vile as the villains he wants to defeat.
It’s a bit of a cautionary tale about fighting monsters and losing you’re humanity along the way.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I googled black fantasy authors and got ZERO results. I had no idea I was a unicorn. There is ALOT of pushback, People expect people of color to write “struggle stories” about abuse and being downtrodden, and when you step out of that box, they squint and look at you sideways. The biggest obstacle I’ve faced is just finding my audience. My degree is in Film, I was trained to write screenplays, so my books don’t “feel” like traditional novels. It’s not YA, not quite Grimdark – my favorite description is “It’s like Game of Thrones if it was directed by Quentin Tarantino.”
The rest is just finding time to write, edit, promote, learn how to make ads, interact with fans and potential fans, and keeping up with every development happening is the vast world of literature and indie publishing lol.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My father was a professional kickboxer, 80% of the men in my family served in the military, I was born in South Florida in the 70s, and managed to survive the 90s with my health and sanity intact. I have been into the martial arts since I could walk, and there was a time when I knew more words in Japanese than I did in English. My voice, my writing voice, is as eclectic and multicultural as my upbringing. Most people don’t get me, but the ones who do say it feels like my books speak directly to them.
If I’m known for anything, it’s my action scenes. I like to use a wide, varied vocabulary and paint pictures with my words. If you notice a typo, then I failed. You shouldn’t see words when you’re reading a fight scene or a chase scene. I have a lifetime of experience, and if I can’t get that right, then there’s no hope for anything else.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
My advice is what R.A. Salvatore of Drizzt fame said: Try to quit. Find something with less pain, fewer requirements, and less rejection. If you can quit, you have saved yourself a lifetime of misery. But if you can’t, you’re a writer, so get as good as you can, as fast as you can, because it takes a long time to get a return on your investment in this particular medium.
What I wish I had known is that nobody knows what they’re talking about. Covers, titles, writing style, subject, genre, age group: none of it. When Tim Burton came along and wanted to make Edward Scissorhands, no one had done it before, so everyone told him it wouldn’t work. Well, it worked. There is only one rule to art: make it good. If it’s good, you can ignore every convention and break every rule. As long as you hit your mark, do what you were trying to do, then it’s art and someone will appreciate it. The trick, then, is getting your art to those people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bythehandofdragons.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bythehandsofdragons/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexzanderChristion/
- Twitter: https://x.com/HandofDragons
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Garner2415
- Other: https://bsky.app/profile/bythehandofdragons.bsky.social
