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Featured Projects
Explore more of Joshua's work to learn about what he does!
PAX AMERICANA, Or, Twilight of the Empire of Coca-Cola
Think of Joshua's debut literary novel, PAX AMERICANA, as The Corrections meets the film Traffic: a sprawling, relationship-driven saga that follows three broken Midwesterners from the Asian pop circuit to Syrian battlefields to Congolese mines and back home to a Fourth of July reckoning with ICE agents in Gary, Indiana, tracing American imperialism from its frontiers to the homefront. The novels reads briskly, will appeal to book clubs, and is grounded in humor, story, and character.
In PAX AMERICANA, cancelled, secretly homeless pop star K.T. Shine can barely pay rent or pick up her kid on time, but then a mysterious phone call sends her on a lucrative tour of a war-torn Asian nation that could either revive her career or torch what’s left of her reputation—or cost her life. A U.S. Green Beret in Syria risks his career to vouch for a seductive tribal chief to whom he’s powerfully attracted, even though he’s fought both with and against his unit. And a corporate rising star falls in love with a Congolese NGO director whose crusade to protect his township just might stop her from beating China to a billion-dollar mining contract—unless she betrays him.
The paths of these three compromised souls collide back in their rusting hometown of Gary, Indiana, during an ICE raid gone violently awry, as the tactics of empire come home.
In PAX AMERICANA, cancelled, secretly homeless pop star K.T. Shine can barely pay rent or pick up her kid on time, but then a mysterious phone call sends her on a lucrative tour of a war-torn Asian nation that could either revive her career or torch what’s left of her reputation—or cost her life. A U.S. Green Beret in Syria risks his career to vouch for a seductive tribal chief to whom he’s powerfully attracted, even though he’s fought both with and against his unit. And a corporate rising star falls in love with a Congolese NGO director whose crusade to protect his township just might stop her from beating China to a billion-dollar mining contract—unless she betrays him.
The paths of these three compromised souls collide back in their rusting hometown of Gary, Indiana, during an ICE raid gone violently awry, as the tactics of empire come home.
Dragons in the Stars
When the tolerant, idealistic Empire that long guaranteed the peace of Mana is on the verge of defeat by dark forces obsessed with purity and segregation, a sister and brother set out on a quest across three continents to rescue their diverse world. Sora, a famous warrior mage, seeks to rally uncommitted nations of humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and mixed forms to fight together before all perish divided; her brother Mars, a bumbling scholar, has an even more audacious goal: to find an ancient relic that will call down the legendary dragons said to live on the three moons. Between bickering and saving each other’s lives, the siblings accumulate a party of unlikely heroes, from a gigantic foul-mouthed pirate to a cynical halfling thief, a knife-spinning sandfolk nomad to an out-of-her-depth princess-diplomat, a magic-wielding feral child to a gentle priest with a brutal past. But what they find at the end of the world is not allies or dragons—it is contact with a high-tech, spacefaring civilization hiding in orbit around their planet, fleeing an even greater interstellar danger and seeking refuge on their world …
Look to the Stars is Game of Thrones meets Battlestar Galactica, an unprecedented mix of epic high fantasy and adventurous, idea-driven sci-fi. Featuring unforgettable and nuanced characters, pulsating adventure and humor, gritty and realistic emotions, complex lore and history and intrigue, and mind-bending ideas, this series will reshape the literary and fantasy/sci-fi landscapes, first in print and eventually on the screen. Currently in production by J. Scott Howes & M.J. Kolsky. Coming soon!
Look to the Stars is Game of Thrones meets Battlestar Galactica, an unprecedented mix of epic high fantasy and adventurous, idea-driven sci-fi. Featuring unforgettable and nuanced characters, pulsating adventure and humor, gritty and realistic emotions, complex lore and history and intrigue, and mind-bending ideas, this series will reshape the literary and fantasy/sci-fi landscapes, first in print and eventually on the screen. Currently in production by J. Scott Howes & M.J. Kolsky. Coming soon!
Corona Boys
June 2020. Covid has shut down the world. Chicago is entering its 12th week of lockdown. Shops are shuttered, schools empty, offices vacant. Even beaches, parks, and playgrounds are closed.
“What a kid supposed to do?”
- Sheila Cummings
This innovative coming-of-age tale shows two boys--Leo and Ja'Sir--who run away from home in the midst of the pandemic. In doing so, they bring their families together and restore their community in ways they never imagined.
Told with piercingly beautiful imagery, awash in sound and music, restless with the movement of childhood itself, this movie commemorates a dark time in a spirit of joy.
The film is being made by our family and friends, on weekends and holidays, shot on an iPhone, at free locations, with mostly used equipment bought off Amazon. Nobody involved in its production has ever worked professionally in film.
It is a labor of love. An act of hope. A testament to the power family, the creative arts, and community, commemorating a time of loneliness and sorrow, when so many of us were cut off from these things that animate our lives with feeling and purpose.
It is nearly finished and will be available soon. The opening 10 minutes of the film are available on this website.
“What a kid supposed to do?”
- Sheila Cummings
This innovative coming-of-age tale shows two boys--Leo and Ja'Sir--who run away from home in the midst of the pandemic. In doing so, they bring their families together and restore their community in ways they never imagined.
Told with piercingly beautiful imagery, awash in sound and music, restless with the movement of childhood itself, this movie commemorates a dark time in a spirit of joy.
The film is being made by our family and friends, on weekends and holidays, shot on an iPhone, at free locations, with mostly used equipment bought off Amazon. Nobody involved in its production has ever worked professionally in film.
It is a labor of love. An act of hope. A testament to the power family, the creative arts, and community, commemorating a time of loneliness and sorrow, when so many of us were cut off from these things that animate our lives with feeling and purpose.
It is nearly finished and will be available soon. The opening 10 minutes of the film are available on this website.
Award-Winning Fiction
J. Scott has published fiction and poetry in Ploughshares, Southwest Review, and The Best Young Writers in America; been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, the Nelson Algren Award, and the David Nathan Myerson Memorial Prize; and won the Bocock-Guerard Prize for Fiction at Stanford University. He is also an accomplished poet.
https://pshares.org/authors/joshua-howes/
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Young-Writers-Artists-America/dp/0439376181
https://pshares.org/authors/joshua-howes/
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Young-Writers-Artists-America/dp/0439376181
Community Filmmaking
Independent, community-based filmmaking is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor that requires creativity, determination, and the power of collaboration. J. Scott Howes considers himself a community filmmaker, which means that he makes films in cooperation with primarily local, often non-professional fellow artists and actors, drawn largely from his immediate family, friends, and local arts communities.
J. Scott has won multiple screenwriting awards, including the NYU First Run Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay (2010) for "Jackson Parish" and a National Golden Brad (Drama) for the feature "A House Divided." His short films "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (co-dir. Liam Brady), "Jackson Parish" (dir. Edward McDonald) and others have shown at film festivals nationwide. "Jackson Parish" was a Finalist in the Johnson & Johnson Lens on Talent competition and shown on BET.
As a writer-director, J. Scott creates innovative films in the drama, thriller, and psychological horror genres, which typically depict ordinary lives, especially of children and families, often with a touch of comedy, utilizing a stylistic palette of painterly beauty, rapturous music, and rapid movement, in homage to filmmakers such as Wong Kar-Wai and Martin Scoresese.
J. Scott has won multiple screenwriting awards, including the NYU First Run Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay (2010) for "Jackson Parish" and a National Golden Brad (Drama) for the feature "A House Divided." His short films "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (co-dir. Liam Brady), "Jackson Parish" (dir. Edward McDonald) and others have shown at film festivals nationwide. "Jackson Parish" was a Finalist in the Johnson & Johnson Lens on Talent competition and shown on BET.
As a writer-director, J. Scott creates innovative films in the drama, thriller, and psychological horror genres, which typically depict ordinary lives, especially of children and families, often with a touch of comedy, utilizing a stylistic palette of painterly beauty, rapturous music, and rapid movement, in homage to filmmakers such as Wong Kar-Wai and Martin Scoresese.
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