Jack of Harts

Featured Post
by on January 19, 2024 at 12:02 am
Posted In: Diaries

We found hyperspace in 2105 and the Great Space Race began. Alliances, nations, corporations, and religions reached out for the stars and humanity spread beyond the Solar System. We learned the answer to one of the oldest questions of all time in 2205. Are we alone? They brought medicines with them that nearly wiped out diseases, and extended the human lifespan into the centuries. They helped us study advanced technologies, and we expanded our colonies hundreds of lightyears from Earth. It was a golden age that many thought would never end.

Jack grew up in a world at peace, his only interests, partying and girls. But then an alien sneak attack killed millions of Americans, and wiped out almost everything and everybody Jack knew. He volunteered to serve and kick the alien scum back to the other side of the galaxy. But the Marines wanted more than people looking for revenge, and cybernetic partners demanded a far higher commitment. If Jack wanted to earn his commission as a Marine Corps fighter pilot, he had to grow up. He had to let himself be forged into something stronger than he’d ever wanted to be. He had to live up to the name of his squadron.

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps Fighter Attack Squadron 112. The Cowboys.

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One Billion Dollars

by on December 3, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

There has been a lot of government fraud over the years. Minnesota has recently had a fair share of it. Estimates are looking to be over one billion dollars sent to one group of individuals, recent Somali immigrants, and used to buy luxury cars and send home to pay for terrorism. One. Billion. Dollars. With a B. That’s the current estimate. It could be more. We don’t know yet. But it’s been going on for years, and every time it’s been talked about, the Democrats just put more money into the fund that was being raided which kept the fraud going. How much does that cost?

Well, estimates are there are 4.5 million citizens in Minnesota. Divide that into One Billion Dollars and you get something just a bit over 200 dollars. The Minnesota government has been giving money to Somalis, over 200 dollars from each citizen in the State. What could you do with 200 dollars? Do you think you could spend it better? Do you think you would like to get the chance to spend it better? This is merely one way in which the Minnesota government spends our money. I’m betting we can find more fraud if we look for it. But even that much is too much IMHO.

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The Battle of the Line

by on December 2, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve been operating a home for wayward electronics for a very long time. If people don’t want their old junk, I take it and make it useful. I’ve got a line of old computers I run for image generation and games and stuff like that. Pretty much all of them are old corporate rigs that were retired, and they are all in the 10 to 15 to 20 year old range. That makes them too old to run Windows 11 at all. Microsoft told me to buy something new or pay for extended support. Little do they know that I play chicken really well. I’m one of the people who waited them out for the free extended support and got it. Because I’m not getting new computers right now.

But I have been upgrading the ones I have. I just upgraded one of my Lenova M series slim desktops up to 32 gigs of ram and an old GeForce 1030 video card. Old and cheap by modern standards, but a real robust system when tweaked right. I just managed to log into Guild Wars 2 with most of the options on high or medium, and played the game without a hiccup through several big events and some roller beetle racing across the map. That was pretty awesome.

And yes, that means my Battle of the Line continues, as I seek to boost all of the machines on my line to the best I can get out of them. For writing, image generation, and web browsing, gaming… and yes…. AI is on my list of things I want to do.

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Daggers & Dark Powers

by on December 1, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Sword versus Sorcery is what we have here.
Defiance versus Demand. Challenge versus Command.

Though there are lots of evil foes in the stories ahead, S&S is not so much about good versus evil, or good saving the day, or even evil getting its just rewards. It is far more about an individual (though occasionally a team) spitting in the eye of impossible odds simply because he or she can, or wants to, or wants something on the other side of said odds. S&S protagonists may not actually be heroes despite their doing heroic things. And that’s part of the fun of it all.
Heroic storytelling can teach some amazing truths about being human. About what courage is, what growth and maturity are, how society and even the world works, what it means to be loyal, trustworthy, brave, compassionate. At its least, it entertains. At its best, it entertains and shares a value system for heroics; a passion for heroic stories and a belief in the possibility of heroes.

Check out Daggers & Dark Powers by Raconteur Press, if you dare…

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Wyld Magick

by on November 30, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Three Raven’s Wyld Magick anthology is out in the wild!

The veil has been torn and you can all see into a world alive with wonder, danger, and untamed magic.

In Trickster, Captain William Carter travels to Santa Fe to find a burned down church and a very unhappy Indian spirit. A coyote. A Trickster.

Check out Wyld Magick right now, if you dare.

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Stone and Sky

by on November 29, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Stone and Sky anthology by Opal Kingdom Press is available right now. They wanted us to write stories about gargoyles, so I had fun with them. I researched the earliest Gothic structures in America, found the Gothic Church on the New Haven Green, found the stories about a good guy Indian spirit putting a bad guy Indian spirit to sleep under the Sleeping Giant just north of New Haven, and I had a story.

And that is how Captain William Carter returned home to see gargoyles sitting atop the Gothic Church on the New Haven Green. Everything else is just what happens when an old school hunter of otherworldly creatures and threats to mankind sees something wrong and decides he needs to do something about it.

And that’s just my story. A full mix of fantasy, urban fantasy, and science fiction tales await you if you inside the pages of Stone and Sky.

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