Josh Patton

I write speculative fiction that lives somewhere between science fiction, satire, and myth. It tends to wander. It takes the long way around. That is not an accident.

My name is Joshua C. Patton. I write stories in different settings and at different scales, sometimes quiet, sometimes on fire, and I keep circling the same questions like a dog worrying a bone. Books like Zān, Seven Kelkers, and We Will Cross That Bridge While It’s Burning laid the groundwork for how I think on the page. Relics of Folly is the newest and fastest-growing place I have been spending my time, but it is not the whole map.

I have ADHD. On a good day it is a superpower. On a bad day it is a handbrake. My brain is excellent at making strange connections and terrible at taking the straight line. That means my stories meander, double back, and sometimes knock over a lamp on the way to the point. I used to fight that. Now I build with it. My dad always told me that if I could not be good, then I had better be good at it, and that advice stuck.

I tend to write about broken systems, misunderstood histories, rogue technology, and people who notice something is wrong and cannot let it go. I have a soft spot for fools, tinkerers, archivists, and anyone who asks the wrong question at exactly the wrong time. I believe humor keeps the lights on when everything else goes dark, and that sometimes the joke is the warning label.

I live in Ohio. I overthink things. I keep writing anyway.