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New, Strange Properties
The Last Missioner follows humanity’s surviving Remnant a thousand years after a catastrophic event as distinct cultures struggle to preserve civilization in a world shaped by technology, theology, and biblical prophecy. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The story evolved rather slowly. It all started when Salvador Dali’s The Last Supper came to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL in 2005 or 2006. I was living in Tampa at the time and already knew the painting well. When I saw the original at the museum, something in me clicked on, and I had stuck in my mind the “flavor” of an exotic far-future world. I had already completed 2 feature film screenplays and wanted to think about another project. That painting got me going. Around the same time, I saw something about a city … I can’t remember which city (this was 18 years ago!) and how its name evolved over time. And I got caught up with that notion. I remember cutting grass on the church property where I lived and imagining how American city names might evolve over the next 100, 200 years. One was Atlanta, Seattle, New Orleans, St. Louis, etc. Eventually, all this came together. The far-future look (in my mind) of the Dali Last Supper made me think of Revelation 20:1-3 … the Christ reigning one-thousand years passage, which always fascinated me. For a long time, I had indulged in my meditations how that might look and how the Devil might be let out for a short time upon the completion of that utopian period. This spurred me into thoughts in terms of story. I immediately imagined a child being raised in the conventions of this age and being “pulled out” of it, instigated by the Devil. I jotted notes down as details emerged. Eventually, by 2009, I had enough ideas and direction to begin drafting my third feature film script. I completed it, got some reaction in Hollywood (the script placed in the top 20% in the Nicholl Fellowship of the Academy of Motion Pictures- but didn’t place). I did have a major Hollywood director’s attention, but his final verdict was that it was good, but too religious for the budget size in Hollywood. Finally, I came to “novelize” it and completed the novel in 2017. Over the years since—over the Covid lockdowns, especially—I rewrote and tweaked and spruced up, and added stuff on here and there, etc. while at the same time completing and rewriting its prequel. So, THE LAST MISSIONER is the first of two novels I have ready for the publication process. The second, waiting in the wings, is AWAKEN ELECT! … which takes place at the beginning of the thousand years, where the Eclecti (elect) awaken and come to know this changed Earth with its new, strange properties.
How did you develop the three charisms of the Jurans, Lewans, and Noochi, and what do their different abilities reveal about their cultures?
These three “nations” came about as my geography of a far future USA evolved. It was something that I was just fixated on and toying with in my head at the time (2006/2007) as I did manual work like cutting grass, mopping the parish center floor, walking on the treadmill, etc. Some cities I thought about were Atlanta, Georgia (Atalan Jur… Jurans), St. Louis (Lews.. Lewans), Chattanooga (Nooga… Noochi), New Orleans (Orlen’s Gate… Orlen), Seattle (Sydyl… Sydylis XII) a thousand years in the future. It was a silly, inane game, but it fired my imagination. The names become different, but the cities are in the same locations as in pre-tribulation times (our time). So, the charisms of the citizens in the three nations developed as I tried to grow a story concerning these three of these locations. So, that imagined far-future geography I conjured up was the springboard. The three charisms (reflecting the persons of the Trinity) followed gradually as I created the story. Then, while I was writing the screenplay and even more so while fleshing out the novel in 2016/17, details about the individual cultures and distinctive features began to take shape. I had LOTS of time and no pressure at all, and I was constantly thinking things out …. so, lots of ideas brewed and matured. I should mention that I was the vocation director for my province of Capuchins at the time. So, I had to make long drives for candidate interviews a couple times a year. 15-18 hours alone in a car, going from NJ to Louisiana to Florida and everywhere in between. I carried with me a digital recorder and brainstormed for long hours on those trips. This alone generated a wealth of detail regarding worldbuilding, plot and character development.
How did you balance the novel’s detailed theological and philosophical ideas with the demands of adventure and storytelling?
Much of the theological details, philosophical and scriptural references come from my background as a religious brother who is engaged daily in community prayer and private prayer and had a thorough formation during my initial years within the community. As a semi-contemplative, much of this is in the air I breathe. The adventure and storytelling are very much the result of me trying to make a great feature film! As a screenwriter writing spec scripts, I adhered faithfully to the screenwriting three-act structure: 1 minute per page, 120 pages complete with inciting incident, plot points, the Act II Curtain (low point in the protagonist’s journey), final drive and resolution in Act III, denouement, etc. So, when I made the novel, I kept that structure intact and expanded on it to make a larger, more detailed read of the same proportions, which was a lot of fun!
Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from John Micah’s journey and The Last Missioner as a whole? I aimed to portray familiar tenets of faith (those familiar tropes that we are so accustomed to that we might take them for granted) and apply a fresh angle or shine a different light, bringing new relief to the established truths. The exotic quality of THE LAST MISSIONER’s world should inspire and engage readers who are looking for an experience of fantasy, but in the end realize that THIS fantasy is really a metaphor for what exists in reality, now in our present time! How many high school kids, for instance, read Dune or Lord of the Rings, and afterwards say, “Wow, I wish Middle Earth or Arrakis actually were real. I wish I could live in that world.” Well in my book, I offer a far-future, exotic place and story and the reader could conclude, “Wow, that was a fun excursion and it’s a reflection of what is really here among us now! I can live in this world by embracing the Church or the synagogue or the mosque. There is an intentional blend of Christian (particularly Catholic), Jewish and some Muslim elements in my world-building. This is to demonstrate that we are all children of Abraham living under the same loving God—like under the constant sunrays falling upon the Grat-hemis in my story. I hope this comes through for every reader.
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John Micah Leers XIV was born into a utopia of unceasing light, a boy raised within the rituals and discipline of the Juran people. But when famine and rebellion threaten his world, he is called to leave the only life he has ever known. Guided by the enigmatic Orlen and his golden eagle, John Micah must journey into the uncharted dark side of the globe, where his powers of light falter and mystery and menace reign.
Pursued by Satan himself and a team of shadowy conspirators, John Micah’s path continually tests his faith and his endurance. With the support of a ragtag crew, he ultimately comes to discover the true heart of his mission in an act borne of trustful obedience and stalwart self-denial.
The Last Missioner is a scriptural fantasy of adventure and redemption, blending theological depth, imaginative worldbuilding, and pulse-pounding suspense to explore the cost of faith and the power of grace.
Fiction Rooted In Reality
No Pistol Tastes the Same follows a military veteran who is struggling with PTSD as he tries to repair his relationship his son, his wife amid earths impending doom. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
As a veteran who has battled the effects of PTSD and had friends who lost that battle, it was important for me to write a story that confronted the topic. I think PTSD is something worthy of a tale like this, fiction rooted in reality, to bring awareness, change, understanding, and maybe even hope to those affected by its symptoms.
Sergeant JP Grimm is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind his character’s development?
I think JP has a lot of myself in him. While a lot of my characters do, I think for JP, I really wanted the reader to see the mental struggle that plagues someone with PTSD. At the surface, he is a self-destructing character who is also destroying the one thing he cares so much about: his family. But on a deeper level, we can see the inner-workings of a tormented man, husband, and father that wants to fight his fight alone and his way, not passing his burden on to the ones he loves. But in his stubbornness to stand in the fire alone, ultimately, it’s his family that gets burned.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The mental struggle that comes with PTSD. The destructive phases that were prevalent in my own struggles with PTSD and alcoholism. The metaphor of PTSD being this slow-burn, apocalyptic disaster that if left unchecked can truly destroy the world you’re living in. Humanity. The bond and strength of family. The stigma that tough men often face when it comes to mental health and the barriers that get in the way of them seeking help.
What can readers expect in book two of your PTSD Disaster series?
Book 2 will see the characters trying to survive in their new apocalyptic world. We’ll see healing and hurting. PTSD still ravaging the Grimm family, but in ways the reader may not have expected. The reader will also see the darker side of PTSD (formed from my own thoughts and experiences) where JP and Sgt. Grimm will teeter on the edge of becoming this viscous beast bent on protecting his family at all costs and the loving, caring, funny, personable human being he once was before the war.
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Sergeant JP Grimm didn’t pull the trigger. Now his Marine brothers are dead. All victims of a child in a suicide vest…a child that resembled Sgt. Grimm’s very own. But how are you supposed to take a child’s life? How can you kill someone that looks just like your own son?
Those same hazel eyes he saw in his scope continue to haunt him long after he left the desert death lands as he tries to reconnect with his son, Adin. JP battles another war at home against PTSD and the worthless, dejected thoughts that he is the reason his friends are dead. His wife, Lisa, struggles to let her stubborn husband work it out on his own terms. She does all she can to give him space, support, and strength—but her love can only go so far.
As the world shows signs of impending doom from a weakening magnetic field and flaring sun, JP, too, shows signs of his own impending doom. After pushing everyone away, JP must face his nightmares to restore his relationship with his son, save his marriage, and save himself before the modern world burns out in a fiery, electromagnetic disaster.
No Pistol Tastes the Same
Sgt. Grimm (J.P) opts to serve his country. Away from his family, he takes solace in the camaraderie of his fellow Marines, including Joey, his best friend. But it all goes wrong when Grimm loses his friend and other men he could have saved if he had acted faster. The patriotic soldier later returns from the war into the arms of his wife, son, and grandparents. But burdened by guilt and haunted by the bombs, blood, and deaths from the war, Grimm is not the same man he was when he left home. And his new demons threaten to tear apart everything and everyone he calls home. The question is, will he let them?
Although its curious title doesn’t give this away, No Pistol Tastes The Same is a gripping novel on post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans. It peels away the layers of unfamiliarity and reveals the deeply disturbing and lingering effects war has on the minds and lives of those who fight in it.
This story reminds me of why storytelling is a powerful tool to evoke empathy. Author Jacob Paul Patchen’s writing successfully transports readers into his main character’s reality, making an unfamiliar situation seem like a shared reality. Patchen is also great with imagery as he improves the reading experience with evocative descriptions of settings.
The story is delivered with the elegance and precision of a true wordsmith. Make no mistake, there aren’t flowery words or unclear metaphors. Instead, readers feel the total weight of a narrative cobbled with tools whose sophistication is in their cultured simplicity. The writing is so good that it strikes the heart where it matters in many places, ensuring that you feel the raw emotions being communicated. Altogether, the story is free-flowing, mainly punctuated by the moments of reflection and concern it triggers.
No Pistol Tastes the Same is a captivating war novel dealing with life after returning from war. The plot is pretty straightforward but excellently executed. The characters are relatable and make readers care about this remarkable story.
In The Face of Oppression and Tyranny
The Emergence takes place in a vibrant future where machines, technology, and humans are integrated and a movement is underway to challenge the governments’ control and hierarchy. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
This story actually began in 1986 for me, where I explored the main ideas in a short story done for a writing class at the University of Washington. Themes about emerging technology and the struggles for identity, authenticity, and freedom were already prevalent in society, as well as the disintegration of social structures such as family, rigid gender roles, and the negative impact of patriarchy at that time. These issues became much more significant as time passed, especially the impact and need for surveillance technologies, and how their misuse was being rationalized by governments all over the world. I needed to explore this more fully in the novelized version of this story, and I wanted to do it while telling a good story.
Your characters were intriguing and well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
The struggle for personal freedom and autonomy versus conformity, the emergence of psychological independence and free-thinking as the juxtaposition between the struggle of free will and determinism was a driving force. Of course, I strongly wanted to show that individual and collective choices can still be made even in the face of oppression and tyranny. For the disempowered, there is always a struggle for assertion of identity and I wanted to show how the power of love can help sustain anyone, even in the face of what appears to be insurmountable odds to persist and achieve, even what they thought was not possible. Love triumphs and free choices and acceptance can help an individual reinvent themselves if they need to!
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I looked at dialectical thinking and dialogical relating, something which I’m quite familiar with in my long career as a therapist and my training. I see them both as important to psychological development. I also wanted to explore how technology impacts culture and community. Is it both good and bad, can it be used for the good or not? What would an emerging AI consciousness look like? And finally, how has patriarchy enslaved people and cultures? How does encountering and esteeming an existential Other make us more enlightened as persons and cultures? And what changes are possible as people embrace freedom? Lastly, I wanted to show that the inclusion of others, even those much different from ourselves, is a worthwhile pursuit.
This is book one of the Robochurch Trilogy. What can readers expect in book two?
In book two, the movement known as Robochurch continues to develop, but it is not an easy path. There is tremendous conflict between the status quo, government controls, and the promise for independence and freedom which many elites are seeing as a threat. The Robochurch continues to develop and in some cases, warring factions become more polarized in their struggles, and open war breaks out. There are betrayals and allegiances that are discovered and rediscovered. The characters develop further. The robots and AI become even more developed. What will be the outcome? Readers will have to read it to see!
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War Bunny
![War Bunny by [Christopher St. John]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Zh5nrLg1L.jpg)
War Bunny is a riveting post-apocalyptic tale with a wonderful twist that I thoroughly enjoyed. Humans have been consigned to history, and the land has returned to a lush world where sweet herbs grow by the side of rivers and the lives of animals provide the drama. In the world of the rabbits, the predators are the Blessed while a rabbit is doomed to live “only until it is needed” as a meal. They are taught to welcome dying as the natural order of things, and they’re held in such low esteem by the wolves and foxes who hunt them, that they call them “lunch meat”. Anastasia is a rabbit who cannot follow the rules, and she is cast out of her burrow for not conforming. She also questions the rabbits’ preordained destiny as food for predators.
Author Christopher St. John has created a uniquely imaginative post-apocalyptic story while also providing some subtle but poignant commentary on society. The story is creative and droll at times which helps to break up what could have been an overly dark novel. One way he does so is through the clever use of character names. Regardless of their species, the characters all have names in a variety of styles, from the elegant Anastasia and Nicodemus to the goofy Love Bug and Bricabrac. With humor, he draws attention to his use of names when Bricabrac, the craftrat, introduces himself to a mouse called Death Rage. “O, that’s nice,” he says, without irony. “Very feminine.”
Besides this, the story paints a picture of a bunny world that is much more gory and violent than you might expect for rabbits. For example, where you might expect a warren to be called something like Cowslip, as in Watership Down, in War Bunny the home warren is called Bloody Thorn. The very name War Bunny sounds like a contradiction of terms and I love how that seeming contradiction is used throughout the book.
The ending was satisfying and I enjoyed the journey. War Bunny is a fantastic post-apocalyptic adventure novel that provides readers with an offbeat but ingenious story that will stay with them long after they’ve put the novel down.
Pages: 378 | ASIN: B096D18C15
Fun and Terrifying to Imagine
Man, Kind follows two women on a headlong and perilous journey that may decide the fate of humanity. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I’ve always been fascinated with post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. It’s both fun and terrifying to imagine a demolished world where there are little resources left and even fewer people to share them with. However, the genre as a whole was beginning to feel a little stale for me. The question always is, “How do I get rid of most of the people on Earth?” and the answer has almost always been nuclear war, global pandemics, or zombie outbreaks. But why not the real, much more imminent threat of climate change? And why must a mysterious, indestructible male savior always lead the way in these tales? I knew there had to be a more interesting, compelling, and grounded way to approach the apocalypse, and that’s what I set out to do when writing “Man, Kind”.
Juno was an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Juno, the thirteen year old protagonist of “Man, Kind”, was meant to experience the post-climate-changed world alongside the reader. From the very first pages you discover that Juno had just been abandoned by her mother and now has to navigate this new, frightening, and violent world on her own. You both have questions, and you both want answers, and you get to embark on her epic journey together.
One of my favorite traits of Juno’s is that she’s also relentlessly curious. Whether she’s exploring an abandoned building, interacting with dubious characters, or simply taking a break to write down her own thoughts in a journal, you’re always right there with her; feeling what she’s feeling, wondering what she’s wondering, and smiling when she’s smiling.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Climate change is the primary one. Mainly, how does humanity live on after mother nature has exacted her revenge? It’s true that human pollution not only affects the weather, but also our own bodies at the cellular level. Plastics, fossil fuels, greed, they all play a part in our current world as well as “Man, Kind’s” future one. So how do we cope with such truths? And what can we do about it now?
The other themes I wanted to cover were grief and kindness; the “kind” of “Man, Kind”. Many, if not all, of the characters in this story are grey characters. They’ve all suffered losses, they all have their own motives, and not one of them fully trusts the other. I really wanted to drive home the question, “Will kindness still play a role in the wasteland?”
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am currently on the home stretch of an illustrated short story compilation called “Destination Earth”. Each story deals with existential questions we must ask ourselves throughout our lives, but told through weird, dark, and often humorous points of view. Available fall of this year.
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From the top of the tallest skyscraper in Denver, Colorado, a lonely girl named Juno watches the sun and sand torment the Rocky Mountains day in and day out. She wonders why she was abandoned so suddenly, wonders if she will ever see her mother again, and wonders why, on her thirteenth birthday, a mysteriously scarred woman has just shown up to kidnap her.
But there’s no time to explain.
Instead the woman makes three things painfully clear: Juno is being hunted, their only hope at safety is on the opposite side of the Rockies, and that this journey will be the hardest thing either of them has ever done.
As the resentful duo races across an unpredictable environment, Juno will also have to grapple with unpredictable changes of her own. She’ll stumble upon what mankind left behind, and learn why things ended up the way they are. Then, once Juno discovers how important she truly is, she’ll be forced to decide just who she can trust, and who she’ll have to leave behind…
Mad Max meets The Road and An Inconvenient Truth in this epic climate fiction adventure!
Armageddon and Beyond
![Armageddon and Beyond by [Adam Declerck]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kxpTrf7JL.jpg)
Adam Declerck’s Armageddon and Beyond provides reader with a profound exploration of spirituality, the secular world, and science. The book may read as a religious text at first, but soon one gets to realize that the idea behind this piece of literature is to get readers to think about the ordinary things they see in life, how they affect them, and the role of religion and science. This book will make you believe that religion and science can co-exist. The existence of God as a super being does not mean that the work men and women in science do should be disregarded. God created everyone including those that worship him and those that are unsure of his existence.
Some of the chapters in the book are deeply thought-provoking, especially for readers who are not familiar with topics that touch on end times. When talking about life and what happens after, Adam Declerck makes the reader understand why human beings should prepare themselves and make the most out of life, as it is short. The author makes one ponder about deep things in life and possible events that may destroy the world. Adam’s Declerck writing is nothing short of excellent. The explanation in every topic is reasonable and easily comprehensible. I appreciate the author for trying to create real scenarios despite this being a science fiction book.
Reading about the battle involving God, the devil, and everyone else was interesting. The author puts in perspective how the conflict would happen, why people are compelled to choose sides, and the role of humans in everything that happens. Are heaven and hell real? This is a question both believers and non-believers often ask. It is almost impossible to imagine a place where one will burn in eternal fire especially if one is not a believer. Armageddon and Beyond will help you answer this and other unsettling questions. The discussion about the Anti-Christ was another interesting topic. Reading about the existence of elements that oppose God and his ways sheds light on how humans can complicate simple things like the love and grace of God.
Armageddon and Beyond is a fascinating book. In between the beautiful narration, events created and the debates the author talks about, the reader gains knowledge on an array of topics. Some concepts in the book appear to be supernatural or even gory but the author makes everything clear. The text in the book is eye-opening and the lessons powerful. The book is lengthy at 895 pages. While I appreciated the smooth flow of the book, and how well it was organized, I do wish the text was a bit more condensed or broken up. As it is, it’s like sitting for a feast rather than a meal. Interesting discussions like evolution, the apocalypse, and the changes the earth experiences were the most intriguing for me. Armageddon and Beyond is a gripping science fiction novel that will challenge and entertain you.
Pages: 895 | ASIN: B074CSFYHW
A Dystopian Earth
Master Defiance follows the survivors of a post-apocalyptic earth who must defend themselves against invading aliens. What was the inspiration for the setup to this thrilling story?
I wanted to suggest that human beings can survive a series of natural and man-made disasters. The setting is a dystopian Earth, but humans are still humans. The hunter-gatherers in the remote regions are toughing it out. But they need a little help from the past. Far-thinking ancestors have left behind Mother, a benevolent AI entity, and a vast store of knowledge. Young bow hunters discover and befriend Mother during a desperate quest for help. Mother helps them with advice, and she can defend herself, much to the surprise of the arrogant Masters.
The Masters were intriguing and well developed characters. What were some driving ideals behind their development?
While I appreciate that faster-than-light travel sets up amazing sci-fi story possibilities, my books try to stay within the realm of the possible. Master Defiance suggests that intelligent beings can explore (and try to conquer) our galaxy at say 4% of light speed, if they are adapted (or genetically modified) to living for eons in a generation spaceship. This means vast expanses of time are required to move between stars, which could frustrate fans of ‘super warp speed’ using ‘ludicrous drive’ (a Spaceballs invention). The Masters are further developed during the series, as they are vindictive and persistent. They are also a tri-variant species, as revealed in Covert Alliance. And they view human beings as inferior, and only good slave material after gene-splicing. So, they are creatures that readers will love to hate!
I liked the contrast between the advanced aliens and the regressed humans. How did you want to represent this dichotomy?
Yes, the humans are technologically regressed, but they have retained their humanity. Yes, the Masters are technologically advanced, but they are inhuman. They view other worlds as theirs to conquer, and other species as theirs to enslave. Fighting the Masters is about saving our species, and about saving our humanity.
What do you try to do first when you write, inform or entertain?
Entertain a thinking person.
Author Links: Website | GoodReads | Facebook | Twitter
On a post-apocalyptic earth, the human species has reverted to its ancient native ways, surviving and thriving by hunting and fishing. It will be so easy for the strange invaders to take control.
But… there is one thing left from the old technological age of years before: a machine the earth hominids call “Mother”, which can teach them, through revisiting history, how to defend themselves.
Someone, many years ago, once said, “What have the Romans done for us?”
Well… now, their ideas might just save the planet!
‘Master Defiance’ is the first in a series.
