An Interview with an Author: P.S. Patton
It’s Author Thursday on my blog! Today, meet Christian author P.S. Patton.
P.S. (who goes by Patrick) has a debut novel titled The Withering that is due to be released sometime around Fall 2021 to Summer 2022 according to his publisher, Ambassador International.
Prefer video? Check out Patrick's video version of the interview, here!
Patrick is a husband and father, a photographer/videographer by trade, and a songwriter/musician when time allows.
Patrick has always been a writer and has written hundreds of songs, many of which were recorded and performed by my rock band Oh My Land ( www.ohmylandmusic.com), though Patrick says is “has been sort of dormant ever since kids came into the picture for all the members of the band around the same time, though we often talk about starting things back up, and I don’t doubt we will make another record at some point in the not-too-distant future.”
Aside from songwriting, he has always enjoyed writing both poetry and prose. He won first place in the only poetry contest he’s ever competed in, which was a countywide contest he entered in ninth grade.
Patrick was the editor for the “Investigations” page of my high school newspaper, through which he discovered that journalism and nonfiction in general was not a passion. For his entire adult life, Patrick has been writing screenplays, graphic novels, teleplays, and novels, and even a musical, all in various stages of completion. The Withering is the first of these long-form projects that he has brought to completion.
“For someone who is used to the relatively instant gratification of songwriting, I couldn’t be more excited to actually have something to show for the years I spent chained to a desk hammering it out!” he says.
Learn more about Patrick through the links at the end of this interview.
—By Jessica Brodie
JB: Tell us about yourself and your faith journey.
Patrick: I can’t remember a time when I did not have a strong faith. I never had that moment which most Christians speak of where they make a decision to accept Christ, I had just always known Him, and have spent my life getting to know Him better. In high school, I became absolutely fascinated with the STORY of the Bible from start to finish, the use of actual human lives and the rising and falling of empires as metaphors and symbols to convey a deeper message to the reader. It instilled in me the incredible truth that God was the first and best author, and that my passion for creating a complex interwoven story comes from the fact that I was made in His image. Deep dives into the Bible helped me to develop a passion for seeking the truth where it is concealed. Proverbs 25:2 declares “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter (KJV),” which is something I have taken to heart as both a challenge during my studies and as an example to follow in regards to my own writing.
JB: When did you know you wanted to become a writer?
Patrick: I spent my childhood and teenage years drawing/writing comics, writing/playing songs on my guitar, and wandering the house with a video camera, trying to convince my little brothers to make a movie with me. Inspiration was all around me, from the films I watched which sparked my imagination, to the comic books I read and tried to emulate, to the song lyrics I admired that kicked off my passion for songwriting and entertaining. As I grew older and began to fall in love with literature, I was so intrigued with stories that weren’t afraid to go deeper, and employed strong uses of symbolism and metaphor such as East of Eden (my all-time favorite), The Catcher in the Rye, and The Great Gatsby. In the other direction, I couldn’t help but wonder at the sheer adventure and creativity of many a genre fiction series such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Dark Tower, and the Ransom Trilogy. Film franchises like Star Wars, and pretty much any good sci-fi/fantasy of course had an enormous influence on my drive to write as well. All in all, I would say that my decision to become a writer was much like my decision to become a Christian - it never really WAS a decision at all; it had been happening all my life.
JB: How does your faith influence your writing?
Patrick: Naturally, my life influences my writing; and seeing as my faith influences my life, I don’t see how my faith could not influence my writing. A story can have a strong influence on a reader’s emotions, and that is something I do not take lightly. I hear too many people speaking of philosophies that they “like” for this or that reason, deciding what they want to believe based on how agreeable its tenets happen to be with their own preconceived notions. I have full confidence that God’s word is true, and that so long as I stick to what is true in regards to the heart of my story, I will never find myself in a position where I mislead anyone into a vein and hollow philosophy simply because of its appeal. With genre fiction, which if taken in the most literal sense stands clearly at odds with the Bible, even atheists have an innate ability to discern the temporal details of the fictional world from the eternal threads of truth or deceit by which the story is stitched together. As far as I’m concerned, I can write about anything, real or surreal, so long as I make sure that eternal message is one of truth.
JB: When did this particular story first stir in your heart?
Patrick: I think it was 2009, and I had finished reading Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. I fell in love with the author’s voice, and with the unbound depths and brilliance of his imagination, yet I was utterly unsatisfied with his lack of direction and purpose. Often, general market fiction will not point to God intentionally, but will do so indirectly with a strong message of that which is good standing strong, enduring, and eventually overcoming that rising and seemingly insurmountable force of evil which threatens the world as our character knows it (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.). However, the world of the Gunslinger was one of an unquenched hopelessness. Reading it turned out to be one of the most inspiring wastes of time ever. It was a glittering generality; beautiful, powerful, and ultimately meaningless. Upon finishing, I was left with a new inspiration to tell a story set in a similar world, one of hopelessness, despair, and darkness, and to infuse it with the truth that there is a light, there is a redemption, and there is always hope, even in the most dire and inescapable situation. As I mentioned above, you can read a story on two levels, and so Stephen King’s 55k word assertion that there is no real meaning or purpose to any of this became the spark which ignited my 83k word reply to that eternal incongruity: The Withering.
JB: Do you have other books coming out in the future?
Patrick: Yes! I have a lot of projects in various stages of (in)completion, and I’m not sure exactly when or what will be ready to share next. I do have a short science fiction story that I entered into the Writers of the Future contest, so I am excited to see if anything comes of that. I have two completed manuscripts which are the first two installments of a children’s picture book series that I have not found time to properly pitch to agents just yet. I have one manuscript that I feel really good about that I’ve finished the detailed outline phase and have moved on to the first draft, though I’ve only just begun. I have had one world which I’ve been building for over a decade now, and has undergone many, many variations, none of which have felt as meaningful or grand as I’ve intended, so I’ve scrapped many iterations of stories that take place there. It’s more than just a world to set a story in, it’s a war that I’ve given much thought to, and a star system which is brimming with interesting characters I’ve developed, races of humanoids I’m excited to introduce, and complex stories I’m still figuring out exactly how to tell. I have a pervading feeling that the stories in this particular star system will be my favorite to write and my most exciting bit of writing, so I’m taking my time and letting the ideas form for now. There will be a time to sit and start crafting, but I’d like to save this world for when I can dedicate a proper amount of regular time to doing it justice.
Finally, I’ve been writing a lot of songs lately, including worship songs that I have plans to share in the very near future. Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you are interested in hearing more on that!
JB: What do you hope for readers to take away from your book?
Patrick: I hope that readers will take away an experience, a journey, and characters that they loved getting to know. At the end of the day, if readers wanted to hear the Gospel, they’d read the Bible or go to listen to a sermon. Readers pick up a novel because they want to go on a journey, and while Christian readers would hope that the underlying message is one of truth, they still want the journey to be incredible and impactful. They want to see something new and inspirational, and they want to feel a range of deep emotions. I hope that Christian readers come to the final page and feel inspired to write something that rings true, and challenged to write something even better.
Check out Patrick online:
Website/blog: https://www.pspatton.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnvAh--46tT4A_r-oOqqYXg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pspattonwrites
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p.s.patton/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pspattonwrites
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pspattonwrites/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/3372977325
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/103633563-p-s-patton
