Joshua C.
Patton

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September 19, 2026 — Reports From the Writing CaveWell, I appear to have forgotten that websites require updating. In my defense, I’ve been writing. A lot.Sometime after the last update, I got tired of standing on the internet with a little cardboard sign that said PLEASE NOTICE MY BOOKS while the algorithm drove past without making eye contact. So I more or less gave up on the grand adventure of marketing and crawled back into the writing cave. It’s nicer in here. There are snacks. Anyway, something actually happened while I was hiding.I am officially announcing Book II of Relics of Folly: The Long Descent. The first book, The Mad River Prophecy, looked at a broken future Earth where humanity survived by forgetting almost everything about the world that came before it. The Long Descent looks at the other side of that story. And apparently I had a lot to say about it.The current draft is sitting somewhere around 730 pages, which is an impressive accomplishment if my goal was to kill a reasonably sized tree and frighten prospective readers from across the room. So now comes the less glamorous part. The book exists. It has a beginning. It has an ending. It has characters I care about, parts I’m extremely proud of, and considerably more middle than may be legally advisable. Now I have to go back through the whole enormous bastard and figure out what actually belongs there.Some things will get tightened. Some things will get cut. Some sentences will discover they have been saying the same damn thing as another sentence three paragraphs away. A few beloved pieces will probably have to be taken behind the shed and put out to pasture. Such is literature. The important part is that the story is there.And after spending a long time trying to figure out how to convince strangers on the internet that I am a Very Serious Author Person Worth Paying Attention To, I’ve remembered something useful: I like writing considerably more than I like marketing writing. So that’s what I’ve been doing.The cave remains operational. The Long Descent is coming. I’ll have more to say about it soon. Probably. Assuming I remember I have a website.— JoshMay 15, 2026 - A few quick updates from the strange little writing desk.First, The Mad River Prophecy is now available through Kindle Unlimited. That means if you are a Kindle Unlimited reader, you can jump into the first book of Relics of Folly at no extra cost.This is the big weird post-apocalyptic one. Ancient machines, forgotten knowledge, misunderstood history, strange religion, dangerous questions, and a boy called the Mender who finds something buried beneath the ruins that probably should have stayed quiet.Second, Zān currently has a reduced Kindle price. If you like loud, strange, chaotic sci-fi about a girl who notices the seams in a world that thinks everything is fine, this is a good time to grab it.Third, We Will Cross That Bridge While It’s Burning is free on Kindle for the next week. That collection is a mix of satire, speculative fiction, absurd little nightmares, and stories about trying to live like everything is normal while everything is very clearly on fire.So, in short:The Mad River Prophecy is on Kindle Unlimited.
Zān is discounted.
We Will Cross That Bridge While It’s Burning is free for the week.Also, in tiny author milestone news, I officially have more followers than accounts I follow on X. This does not mean I am famous. It does mean the void has begun whispering back, which I will choose to interpret as progress.If you read, share, review, follow, repost, or even just quietly tolerate my nonsense from a safe distance, thank you. Indie writing is a weird uphill march through fog, algorithms, and emotional weather. Every bit of attention helps.More stories are coming. More ruins are being dug up. More questionable decisions are being made.That is, apparently, the whole operation.
-JoshMarch 24, 2026 - The Mad River Prophecy is here! the first book in the Relics of Folly Series is available for y'all consumption so go check it out!
-JoshJanuary 18, 2026 - BIG NEWS!!!! My newest book is coming out March 24th! The Mad River Prophecy is about a young man who is always curious about his broken world, who may have let his curiosity change his whole entire world! Stick along for the ride!
-JoshJanuary 13, 2026 - "If you can't be good, be good at it!" - Charles D. Patton, my dad.December 10, 2025 - Surprise!!!! I released a surprise book with zero fan fair! (silly right!?) I have released a compilation of my Seven Kelkers short stories in a kindle format. I'm also considering a paperback release but still working it out. so that's out there if you go looking for it. Meanwhile I am on the final pass of The Mad River Prophecy and I hope to have it available soon.
-JoshNovember 13, 2025 - This month I have come up with a few new distractions that may turn into new stories. One is about surviving an apocolypse in real time. Another about a man who hates baseball who is the lone survivor of a plague. There are many more and I really hope i can find the time to pull those stories out of the ether. But the main goal is to finish The Mad River Prophecy. Its getting closer to being tamed. Stay Tuned Y'all!
-JoshSeptember 18, 2025 - This month, the ADHD goblins have been winning more battles than I’d like to admit. My brain has been bouncing around like a loose marble in a tin can, plenty of ideas, half a dozen distractions, and yes… actual writing, too.The result? A handful of new stories are up on Medium, each spun from the chaos in my head. If you haven’t read them yet, go check them out, I promise they’re worth the ride.And of course, The Mad River Prophecy is still coming. I might zigzag to get there, but the work continues. The world keeps expanding, and every detour somehow feeds back into the big story.Thanks for sticking with me through the noise. More words, worlds, and wildness are on the way.– JoshP.S. If you haven’t yet, you can also grab my novella Zān
on Amazon.July 21, 2025 - Kicking Tires, Lighting Fires
We’re closing in on the end of editing for Relics of Folly: Book I – The Mad River Prophecy.
Which means fewer chapters being rewritten from scratch and more obsessing over things like whether the word “rusted” appears too often (it does), and whether a comma can change the fate of a sentence (it can).But here’s the twist:
I'm not sending this book out into the world alone. It'll be launching with a companion piece, The Scrolls of Books the Bibleman, a delightful pile of questionable memories, rewritten history, and emotional monologues from everyone's favorite scripture-hoarding disaster linguist.
Think less encyclopedia, more uncensored confessional with footnotes and occasional hallucinations.Meanwhile, because I thrive on creative overcommitment, I’m also hammering away at a second volume of short stories—tentatively titled We Will Cross That Bridge While It’s Burning: Volume II.
If the first one dipped its toes into chaos, this one dives in headfirst with a lit match between its teeth.So yes, things are happening. Too many things. Probably all at once.
Updates will follow. Or explode. Either way, you’ll hear about it.– Josh