J. D. Patterson
Enter into Peace
John Harrison and his son Jimmy are taking the overnight Wabash train from Des Moines, Iowa to Centralia, Missouri. They are returning from visiting John’s mother as a tenth birthday present to Jimmy. It is Sept. 10, 1944 and a rainy night. John over ate before leaving and is suffering from heart pains. He is particularly worried as he had a heart attack five years ago. During a night of little sleep he reviews his past life as he struggles to hang on at least until getting home.
As good or better than Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea"
"Enter into Peace" has many of the same strengths and themes as Ernest Hemingway's classic novel "The Old Man and the Sea". I enjoyed it immensely!
By Jack A. Weyland on August 4, 2014
J. D. Patterson was born in Gilllette, Wyoming in 1934, and grew up in Missouri. He had a successful career as a Physics Professor but was always interested in writing. As an undergraduate at the University of Missouri he won the Mahan Freshman Prose Prize. Since retiring in 1999 he has written articles which appeared in Capper’s Weekly, Vignettes, Hard Row to Hoe, and The Storyteller. Twice he has won second place in the People Choice Award for essays which appeared in The Storyteller magazine. In addition he has numerous publications in the scientific literature. Not surprisingly, considering where he was born, he has retained a vivid love for and interest in the American West—see for example South of the Bear Lodge. Missouri has also played a pivotal role in what he has written about. JDP’s musing on Missouri are contained in his book, The Prince of Possum Walk. Sample parts of these books can be read. Click on the button, My Books, below, then click on J. D. Patterson.
His objective in writing is to gain better insight into what we as people do and why we do it. Sometimes this is a pretty picture and sometimes it is not so attractive, espwcially when unwise choices are made. His favorite authors include Ernest Hemingway and Joseph Conrad. As an aid to writing a philosophy professor recommended he read Chrome Yellow, by Aldous Huxley, A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. This still seems to be a good list of examples of good writing.
JDP has an A.B. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, a S. M. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, all in Physics. Teaching and research has taken him many places. Besides the above, these include Idaho State University, Pocatello, The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, plus several visiting and summer positions at other universities, industrial laboratories, and government labs, as well as extensive travels.
In retirement, he lives in Rapid City, SD with his. wife. They have two daughters, one is an attorney in private practice and the other is a physics professor. He also has a granddaughter. His writing is primarily done in his cabin in the Black Hills near Hill City, SD. Reading, hiking, and his dogs occupy his time when he is not writing.
Fiction (in protagonists' chronological order)
Short Stories and Essays
"A Perfect Day," Vignettes, Ed. Ella Dillon, Redrosebush Press, 2001
"Bah on Bach," The Storyteller: A Writer's Magazine, Ed. Regina Williams, Fossil Creek Publishing, 2002
"Nails Mean Jails," The Storyteller: A Writer's Magazine, Ed. Regina Williams, Fossil Creek Publishing, 2002
"A Battery for Christmas," The Storyteller: A Writer's Magazine, Ed. Regina Williams, Fossil Creek Publishing, 2003
"Mule Deer In Our Yard," The Storyteller: A Writer's Magazine, Ed. Regina Williams, Fossil Creek Publishing, 2004
"The Meaning of Life," The Storyteller: A Writer's Magazine, Ed. Regina Williams, Fossil Creek Publishing, 2005
Physics
Solid State Physics: An Introduction to the Theory
Fun
Career Advice for Physicists
JDP books
