“The Damned Son and the Witch’s Necklace” came from the genius and dedication of UT San Antonio senior fine arts student Cris Dixon. The story follows Alan Goode, who travels from Austin, Texas to Salem, Massachusetts after his dad’s passing. Goode moves in with his mom, head of the witch’s council, to study in a witching college where he meets his two best friends: August Baker and Ember Crowley.
Having worked on his first book for six years, Dixon reflected on his process.
“I’m very proud of it because it started with me through high school, when I was in senior year trying to apply to colleges,” Dixon commented. “Now I’m almost graduating and it’s finally out. So it took me six years. I always say it took me two years to write two years to edit, and the rest was all publishing.”
The book was published by Dorianne Publishing earlier this month. Dixon dreams of continuing the saga with a three or four book series.
“I was watching a bunch of old 90s witchy movies like ‘The Craft,’ and realized I wanted to capture that vibe in a book,” Dixon shared. “I love spooky. I love mythology, and I love researching mythology before putting it into my book.”
Taking inspiration from works like the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series by San Antonio native Rick Riordian and “Macbeth” by Shakespeare, which shaped Dixon’s motivation to write this book because he felt the fantasy genre needed more LGBTQ+ representation.
“I realized that a lot of the fantasy books and media I was consuming didn’t really have trans or queer representation outright, so I decided to just write my own thing,” Dixon reflected. “I thought, ‘Why not just write the story I wanted to read growing up?’ Representation matters because it lets people see themselves in the story.”
The story is packed with action, the pursuit of belonging, emotional scenes and a “slow-burn, friends-to-maybe-lovers storyline,” in which the reader can dive into this magical world and following adventures of Goode and company, written from the mind of Dixon who modeled the characters from his own friends.
“It’s kind of like letting people read your diary a little bit. This is so personal,” Dixon said.
The book is sold in Barnes and Noble and online on Amazon for paperback, and an e-book version is purchasable via a link in Dixon’s Instagram with the handle @theghostlywriter.
