My goal as a writer
Stories that awaken sense of the fantastical were my first love as a creator. Film can achieve this without asking as much of its viewer as a book. Because of that, I and my brother focused on short films, many of which can be found on my YouTube channel. As I grew older, with new responsibilities for myself and my family, it became prohibitively difficult to coordinate productions.
Books are more demanding on the consumer but greatly broaden the boundaries of what’s possible to portray in a narrative, even with zero budget. Beyond that, I’ve increasingly found that books are the a powerful root from which cultural phenomena sprout. I want to write stories at that root-level transformation, so writing is where I stand.
A raging sea of alienating and revolutionist ideology is currently in vogue at all levels of the culture, and this is no accident. It’s a simple fact that whatever manner of boys and girls grow up today will fundamentally shape the world of tomorrow for the better or the worse. As a former one of those myself, my hope is to become a positive influence in their lives amidst that storm, particularly the growing boys.
Above all, I hope to glorify God, both through direct means and also indirect means. In own my fiction writing, I prefer the more indirect route, helping readers rediscover the same truths unexpectedly, stemming somewhere deeper than the linguistic, rational mind.
A few key principles behind my writing:
- Persons and relationships are what’s valuable
- Aim deeper and pull the reader higher
- Tell a story that embodies truth, beauty and goodness, as opposed to spotlighting mere criticism
- God is active in the conflict but usually hidden
- Certain natural categories, such as human nature, limit the speculative elements
- In movie-terms, I keep sexual content and language to a PG rating, and try to keep violent elements to PG-13
What else distinguishes my writing?
- Along with the above principles, I aim to consistently limit my writing in various ways by embracing certain tropes and rejecting others. I very much prefer broadly medieval European fantasy elements and finding ways to intermix them with elements of sci-fi. A setting like that of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) is a great example of what gets me excited as a viewer/reader. Somewhere in my mind, that medieval world with its valiant knights beating the snot out of each other in heavy armor, the joyous courts of kings and queens, and majestic stone castles are the default state from which anything else is a fleeting diversion. It’s been done many times already, and there are many incredible stories within that mode still waiting to be written.
- I find that both time-travel elements and the existence of “multiverses” violate my fifth principle and create too many problems on careful inspection to be worth trying. These elements have also been overdone to the point I’ve committed to banish them from my stories. Readers can rest assured no such strategy will be used to overcome a difficult problem in my writing.
- There is a certain malignant cliché that’s flooded into fiction so fully it’s become the default. I’m talking about snide remarks or “snark.” In this faux humor, characters whom readers are meant to smile upon will constantly make light of that which is important and tear away at that which is sacred. This wholly insincere mode of characterization is a crutch writers use to smooth over poor plotting and lazy character motivation. These kinds of characters merit derision, not laughter, as they slash at the beating heart of what should be a good story. I endeavor to write characters with a radical sincerity, wherein snide remarks are limited to the harmful elements.
- C.S. Lewis is one of the two authors I’ve read most extensively–fiction and non-fiction. I loved his Chronicles of Narnia series ever since hearing it involved children finding another world in a closet. Still for my part, I endeavor to write stories in the vein of his friend Tolkein, with applicability to real life rather than any direct allegory.
- There’s a trend in modern fantasy of adhering to highly consistent rules for magic, which can be important for telling a compelling story. However, sometimes the rules become so well-defined that the magic loses its mystical luster. An example of this can be found in Brent Weeks’ Light Bringer series (and Weeks says he likes it that way). On the other hand, the One Power in Robert Jordan’s popular series is an example of “hard magic” that seems to retain its luster. I personally aim to keep the sci-fi elements cool and magical elements fantastical.
Form the blog
My writing journey part 1
My parents joined the boycott against these movies and books, along with many other Christians at the time. Yet, Harry Potter became the first book series I ever read and continues to be one of my favorites of all time. Leading up to the release of 4th Harry Potter film, The Goblet of Fire, my…
First book proposal
May 29, 2024 At long last, yesterday I finally submitted my first ever book proposal. It’s taken me months to actually complete this task, with all the bells and whistles, but the next one should be much faster. I will not pontificate a little bit about my experience in this pre-publishing process so far. First…
A little about the site
What is meant by “The Upper Horizons?”
The Upper Horizons, “TUH,” is a fictional future continuity within which The Starlight Monad takes place.
Dave “The Distributist’s” essay provided the first inspiration for TUH. While I didn’t hold to all the rules laid down therein, many key aspects of TUH’s continuity came from the essay.
With only one manuscript in this continuity completed, many of the factors behind TUH have not yet been revealed. Here are a few things to hold you over: The term, The Upper Horizons refers to new, bounded landscapes mankind would discover, living on other planets.
A horizon is a boundary of perspective, not an absolute boundary. Therefore, TUH is fundamentally about exploring without limit, despite the apparent impossibility of the endeavor. Also, in Spenglerian terms, TUH could indicate a melding of the Faustian view of history with that of the Russian.
Finally, TUH concerns a future in which Earthlings manage to colonize lifeless planets, increasingly spreading Earth-life across the galaxy. The Eldenvolk make terraforming feasible, even on planets deficient in vital elements. No one in TUH has managed to discover a way to travel to new worlds faster than light. Nevertheless, a generational starship manages to travel all the way to a foreign world which they christen “Tew.”
What is the meaning of the site logo?
This current logo for this website is the identifying mark for The Upper Horizons. It’s designed in the official colors of the Newmund Mayorship (found in the Starlight Monad) and is designed to give the impression of a Norman-style helmet with a pointed nose guard. If you squint a bit, you may even find the letters T, U, and H therein.
Who is “T. Eddeutzsche?”
Theodorick Eddeutzsche (last name pronounced: “Ed-oo-chee”) is a future philosopher with many ideas which serve as a backbone to The Upper Horizons. He wrote in the times before the Storm, while writing still existed, and his works are well known to Steve, who appears in The Starlight Monad.
Alexander Patten 