Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Cander.
Hi Chris, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I’m a writer and a fighter.
As a child, I wrote poems. Stories in my teens and early twenties. Non-fiction during my thirties. When I started my first novel at age 37, I realized that was where I wanted to focus my literary energy. Since then, I’ve written over a million words in various drafts and have kept about a third of them. Now I’m 54 and releasing The Young of Other Animals–the seventh novel I’ve written and fifth I’ve published.
I’ve been an athlete all my life. I swam competitively starting at age 9 through college. Later, I became a competitive bodybuilder and fitness athlete. I’ve studied various martial arts, eventually earning my fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a certification in Krav Maga-based tactical self-defense.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Are any roads through life smooth? Mine has been winding and filled with interstitial potholes (though not nearly as many as on our beloved city’s roadways.) I’ll put it this way: when I was young, I wouldn’t have predicted where I’d be now, but I wouldn’t change anything. It’s much like writing a novel in that I don’t outline ahead of time; I start with an idea, and I follow it to its own organic conclusion, enjoying the surprises and challenges I encounter along the way. It seems like a good way to live an interesting life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I freelanced for dozens of magazines for twenty years or so, writing on the topics of fitness, health, nutrition, parenting, and lifestyle. Then, I switched to novel writing full-time. My fiction is inspired by underdogs—the kinds of women and men that we tend to look past as we crane our necks in search of something or someone more dazzling. I’m compelled by their untold stories, their harbored secrets, their unfulfilled passions. Convention dictates that I shouldn’t do what my characters do shouldn’t be as honest or wicked, or reckless. But through them, I can be, and I can make them do wonderful, terrible things. Mechanics and superintendents and priests, musicians and housewives and hoarders—they hold their breath while I plot their obsessions. It helps me understand my own.
What do you think about happiness?
The simple things: time with my family, laughing with my friends so hard it feels like an ab workout, listening to the wind rustle through the trees, a good night’s sleep, a job well done.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chriscander.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriscander/
Image Credits
Paula N. Luu
