Writing Portfolio

The Testimony of Calvin Lewis

August Williams, a World War III veteran, is chosen to participate in a groundbreaking therapy using the Uberman Device to confront his painful memories. But when his therapist urges him to destroy a mysterious object in his dreamlike memoryscape, August is forced to question the government’s motives and risk everything to uncover a dark conspiracy.

Told through the eyes of a U.S. senator, The Testimony of Calvin Lewis is a gripping tale of morality, truth, and the struggle to overcome trauma. With nods to C.S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man and Augustine’s Confessions, this thought-provoking novel challenges readers to consider the existence of objective morality and the consequences of rejecting it. Follow August on a journey to uncover the truth and rediscover his humanity in this thrilling adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.


A Compass for Deep Heaven: Navigating the C.S. Lewis Ransom Trilogy

Unlike more popular works like the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy is lesser-known and often perplexing. Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra take readers on adventures through the heavens; That Hideous Strength delves deep into topics much closer to home. In the process, these books allude to everything from H. G. Wells and the World Wars to Medieval cosmology and Arthurian Legend; therefore, there is much to be gained from an introduction to Lewis’s broad and eclectic interests.

Written to be accessible and useful to fans and scholars alike, A Compass for Deep Heaven provides the background information, historical context, and literary insight readers need to navigate the cosmos of Lewis’s science fiction. It does not merely inform; it shows how these contexts clarify key messages and reveal the real-world warnings hidden there.

“The Cosmic Way” — Chapter 9 written by Daniel J. Friend — looks particularly at how the idea of natural law played an influence in the three books of Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy.




The Texan

From June 2019 through June 2022, Daniel worked as a state politics reporter for The Texan, publishing over 600 articles on a wide range of political, cultural, and historical issues related to the Lone Star State.

Some major issues he covered included elections, COVID-19 case numbers and government lockdown measures, major election law reform, the passage of Constitutional Carry, and redistricting in 2022. Daniel also developed the Texas Partisan Index, a metric of partisan leanings of congressional and state legislative districts.

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