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.

 Comment 

DAKKA DAKKA Liberty

by on February 5, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I had a bit of fun today writing a song. A parody based on a song you probably know. Total parody. Written for fun because I got a lyric stuck in my head and couldn’t get it out. And then it snowballed into trying to find a way to get it sung, discover Suno, and… well… things were made. Here it is for your, I hope, enjoyment.

You can view it for free on my substack.

https://jackofharts.substack.com/p/dakka-dakka-liberty

Lyrics
When I find myself in times of trouble
Moses Browning comes to me
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty
And in my hour of darkness
He is standing right in front of me
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty

DAHKA here, DAHKA there
DAHKA here, DAHKA there
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty

And when the freedom-loving people
Living in the world agree
Moses Browning answers, Liberty
For though the Tyrants ranted
There is still a chance for you and me
Moses Browning answers, Liberty

DAHKA here, DAHKA there
DAHKA here, DAHKA there
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty
DAHKA here, DAHKA there
DAHKA here, DAHKA there
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty
DAHKA here, DAHKA there
Ah DAHKA here, yeah, DAHKA there
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty

And when freedom is clouded
Moses Browning brings to me
Browning auto five, Liberty
I wake up to the sound of music
Browning Automatic Rifle
Brings us DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty

DAHKA here, DAHKA there
DAHKA here, yeah, DAHKA there
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty
DAHKA here, DAHKA there
Yeah DAHKA here, yeah, DAHKA there
Bringing DAHKA DAHKA, Liberty

 Comment 

Brain Tired

by on February 4, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

It has been twenty six years since I last had to train for a new job. I forgot how brain draining it is to learn new skills like that. I have been struggling to stay above water and my brain has felt like mush each night. This is tough business.

 Comment 

New Job

by on February 3, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I just started my new job this week.

It has been twenty six years since I’ve gotten a new job.

I forgot how much work it was learning how to do new things.

My brain has been on overload from all the new stuff coming in.

It is hard work to learn new things.

 Comment 

Story Submissions

by on February 2, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I came off the Covid Lockdowns and my mother’s long fight with cancer and eventual death with a hard time coming up with stories to write.

I used to be able to sit down and just… write. Now I have to plan it out. Research. Prepare.

But I came out in 2023 and submitted the first two stories I had submitted to other people in many years. Raconteur Press accepted one for publishing and passed on the other.

I rolled into 2024 by submitting to twelve different anthologies at two different presses. Raconteur Press and Three Ravens. Five stories were accepted in all, but the Three Ravens story was not published until 2025.

2025 saw me sending to twenty-eight anthologies and twelve publishers. Only four were accepted, but the publishers willing to print my stories expanded to four. I consider that to be a major victory. I will note that many of my submissions were previously written stories that were reworked for other anthologies. And I’m still waiting on word from two anthologies. A few I never received a rejection letter, but when I saw that publication was moving forward without any contract coming to me, I figured I was not selected. No news is not always good news after all.

So far in 2026, I have submitted to six anthologies by four publishers, with two of those stories being freshly written in January, and the other four being previously rejected stories that I sent to other markets. I just found out today that four of them have been accepted for publication.

I was at Castlecon a week ago, a local gaming convention to my town, and I was talking to a guy I know who is an author himself. And so his daughter. And he was talking about this really good editor and publisher he likes who does a good job with their stuff, and he said he is really lucky that she chose to work with him. And he told me that she had some anthologies coming up that were really good. So I contacted her, she told me that she was coming up on the end, and that if I had anything I should get it in by the end of the weekend. So I looked at the three anthologies she was planning to publish this year, looked at my written but not accepted stories, and one that I thought could fit in each of those three anthologies. Well, she agreed and all three were accepted. And it seems she got such a good turnout of stories, that she’s putting out FOUR anthologies this year, instead of the planned three.

That makes FIVE publishers who chose to print my stories since 2023, by the way.

And I have plans to submit to five more anthologies this month, by five different publishers, two of which have chosen to publish me before.

This is a good day, and a good way to start a year of creating more stories.

 Comment 

Gen X Watching

by on February 1, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I found out over the last couple days, that everybody is not like me.

Pretty much everybody in America knows that a guy who used to be a nurse joined a protest against ICE, got into a physical altercation with Border Patrol, and was shot dead during it. That is about the most sanitized description of the event that I can write.

And like the woman who drove her car into an ICE agent and was shot dead for doing it, there are a lot of narratives about it. The fact that two of these events have happened in a matter of weeks is disturbing. More disturbing on a different level, is the politics of what photos of the dead people are used.

For the woman, they picked a much younger picture to use. For the man, they created one. They used AI to give him a better tan, and more attractive facial features. That is what I saw and I thought that was dishonest of the media. But they are dishonest, so that was par for the course.

Other people saw something else. Other people saw the modifications and said that he looks like a Jew. The original picture. The modified picture that the media used for him does not, as many people are saying, look like Jew. They shorted his nose, changed his skin color, shifted his bone structure. They made him look more handsome. They made him look less Jewish.

I’m shocked that this is a thing. That people could act like this. And yet they do. I’d like to think it was not on purpose. But this is the Democrats here. Maybe it was on purposed.

What think you?

 Comment