Alexander Blevens is an Air Force veteran and retired orthopaedic surgeon who lives and writes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. While growing up in Northern California, the gritty writings of John Steinbeck and Jack London influenced his literary taste. He relishes stories of adventure, human frailty, family bonds, sacrifice, and endurance.

In Alexander's debut novel, Bycatch, Southern and Vietnamese cultures clash on the shrimp-rich waters off the coast of Biloxi when two Vietnam War veterans meet unexpectedly in America. Their families must heal old war wounds through reconciliation and forgiveness to find peace in the present and past.

The idea for his second novel, Arkansas Black, grew from a faded early twentieth-century family photo taken in Bentonville, Arkansas, showing twin brothers with their sister wives in front of a fruit tree nursery. This sparked the author's desire to know more about this era and the people who lived it. There was a story here. Alexander combed through historical records, periodicals, historical accounts, land deeds, local museums, and period maps to bring this unique time in American history to life. The collapse of the Southern apple industry in Northwest Arkansas is only briefly noted in history books, and rarely appears in historical fiction, despite its rich stories of prohibition, corrupt politicians, and natural disasters. This period is frequently overshadowed by the subsequent calamities of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

Actual events frame the story of Arkansas Black; however, all the characters are fictional. Alexander Blevens included four short essays on apples and diseases at the end of the book to add depth and create connections to the broader world of which Arkansas farmers in the 1920s were most likely unaware.