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Patrick LaJuett — Writer & Author
Patrick LaJuett — Writer & Author
I have been writing ever since my 8th grade teacher made us keep a daily journal. I got a B+, I think, probably because I added a doodle to each page for extra credit. I've written everything from marketing copy and technical documentation (boring) to blog posts and press releases (still boring). Somewhere along the way, I got decent at it.
More recently, I turned that experience toward fiction, starting with my debut novel, Beneath the Cloudline.
Beneath the Cloudline, A Young Adult Sci-Fi Novel
Beneath the Cloudline, A Young Adult Sci-Fi Novel
About twenty years ago, I had a dream about maintenance crews ziplining between futuristic towers while the people inside watched them work. A city divided by height and glass.
Years later, I told my wife about the dream again, and she said, "Hey, we saw that movie."
Nope. That was my story.
The fact that she remembered it so vividly that she thought we'd actually watched it nudged me to finally write it down. That dream became Beneath the Cloudline.
Only afterward did I realize where part of that world had come from.
Read more about the Origins of Halidom
My Debut Novel
My Debut Novel
"Beneath the Cloudline", is a young adult science-fantasy novel set in a world divided by clouds. It's "post-collapse hopepunk," focusing on a society rebuilding after scientific hubris caused an ecological disaster known as "The Great Weathering".
Readers who enjoy Skyward, The City of Ember, and The Giver may find familiar themes here: young protagonists, hidden truths, broken systems, aerial adventure, and a hopeful story about rebuilding rather than simply surviving.
Plot Summary
Plot Summary
My story follows two main characters from opposite sides of a rigid social divide:
Jax: A boy raised on the ground among the "Rooted." The laborers, climbers, and rebels who keep the city functioning.
Elyra: A girl born in the heights of the gleaming "Ten Towers of Halidom." She was engineered for obedience and groomed for power.
Together, Jax and Elyra must navigate a world held together by lies and decide whether to protect the existing system or rebuild it from the ground up.
No One Climbs Alone
No One Climbs Alone
It's a fairly simple story on the surface: four people from different parts of a divided city have to work together to fix what is breaking.
But beneath that, it's a story about "surviving together." Faith and science. Workers and wealthy. People and machines. Humanity and nature. The systems we inherit, and what happens when we stop seeing one another as part of the same tribe.
There are echoes of things we're dealing with now: division, technology, distrust of institutions, unintended consequences, and the temptation to retreat into our own little bubbles.
I wanted to write a hopeful story about people choosing to repair what is broken... including ourselves.
Another Story in the Wings
Another Story in the Wings
Long before Beneath the Cloudline, there was The Flying Shield. The idea first came to me in 1982, but I didn't begin seriously writing it until 2022, using The Novel Factory to finally give the story some structure.
Along the way, it became something even more meaningful: a family novel, co-written with my son. What started as a childhood idea is now a story shaped by two generations of imagination.
After more than four decades, The Flying Shield may finally be ready to fly.
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