Jack of Harts

I write stories where the times and places are the fabric, with the adversaries drawn from the legends of those places and times.

Captain William Carter is the viewpoint the reader sees those times through, from the beginning of American to now. From 1776 and the Tea Party until the present day. From Boston to the City of Angels. He’s been everywhere. He is always 25 or 30 years old. And if people in the story recognize him, he just says that his father used to come through this way and they accept it, because most real people would know that of COURSE the person they saw twenty years ago couldn’t be the same person they were seeing now. It had to be his father, now that he mentioned it. It’s an easy dodge that is real in a nation with two hundred years of history.

People alive right now talked to Civil War veterans before they died of old age, so there is always a way to slide someone in who can walk in and walk out, and the only memory that will reach the public consciousnesses is that he was a nice man. He showed up, he did something, and he left. What was his name? Carter something… If he even mentioned a name. Or maybe he used one of many manufactured identities. Whatever name he wore, he was just a young man. Seemed to know what he was doing. Confident. Square jawed. He saved that girl down the street. The Johnson kid. From those drug dealers. Man they are a piece of work. And just like that, the news reports focus on the girl and drug dealers, not the nameless person who walked away.

The sheriff very likely may tip his hat towards Captain William Carter on the way out of town. The newsies leave him out of their reports, even if they know about him. Even if they are read in. Most are not. And the few who try to write about him get a visit from some nice young men in black suits, wrap around shades, and ear pieces who guide the news away from him.

Captain William Carter is an excuse for me to show off America in all her times and places, from the view of someone who loves it but is just a step outside it, and to give the reader a taste of what we do and have done. It is fun to write him, and I plan on writing him a great deal more in the times to come.

Captain William Carter is a man of faith. Sometimes it is very explicit that he is a Puritan of New Haven Connecticut. Sometimes he is merely a man of faith who believes. It depends on the story and the type of story. In my purely alt history story about the Last Ride on the Asia Express, I did not advertise his nearly 200th birthday. He did carry a pair of antique cavalry sabers as a nod to that, but the story itself was purely alternate history, and he was just the viewpoint the reader had into what was happening. A reader of alternate history did not need to know that he was a monster hunter, so it was not mentioned. And the anthology didn’t want it, so it wasn’t there.

Of similar style is the story about combating drugs and other vices in Miami in 1988. There are enough monsters in that time and place to fight, that one need not delve into the lands of angels and demons to find a threat to face. Drug cartels are more than enough threat to deal with on their own. But the 1992 arcade story ties directly into the oldest parts of his life, dealing with the same Indian spirits he has dealt with his entire life, spirits who know full well that he is a Puritan of New Haven Connecticut beneath the uniform of the Texas Ranger that walks into the arcade.

I have not yet written a story closer to the modern day than that. I don’t know if I will. Two hundred years of history and world wide events gives me a great deal of real life situations I can twist into an interesting story. What ifs and maybe this, and what could this new article be hiding? Two centuries, a continent, and a world encompass a great many opportunities I can use to find a place and time I want to write a story about.

The last day of Castlecon is always a bit slower than Saturday. Heavy gamers are here on Saturday. Families come on Sunday, and there is a lot more browsing as well. People who don’t game as much come over to see what games there are to try out. It is an awful lot of fun and I’m happy to be here.