Jack of Harts

Now the United States of America had come a long way to negotiate with the Mexicans over the border, and some of the exchanges had been unkind. Some unkind words had been thrown back and forth. Some bullets. But the United States is a generous neighbor, so we chose to forget those unkind words and gave Mexico a bunch of gold in exchange for Mexican territory west of Texas all the way to the West Coast. California, here we come. As is sometimes the nature of agreements, there was some disagreement over what territory exactly belonged to whom. So a few years later, the United States bellied up to the bar with some more gold, and asked if Mexico wanted to negotiate some more, American style, or take the gold and come to a final agreement. Mexico took the money, walked out of the bar, and we’ve been in agreement over the border ever since. Oh… wait…

The United States and Mexico settled on the border between our nations after the Republic of Texas and Mexico got into their second dustup over whether or not Texas existed. Mexico said no and we’re going to kill you dirty rebels. Texas said yes and we’re going to shoot you first. And the United States bellied on up to the bar and said we’d like to have some input on this. Maybe we can talk things over? In Mexico City. So the United States Marines and the Texas Rangers took a little road trip down to Mexico City. Mexico did not by the way agree to the road trip, and in fact tried to stop it. And that’s how the Marines added “To the Halls of Montezuma” to the Marine Anthem. It’s amazing how many lines in that anthem were inscribed via extreme violence.

Raconteur Press is releasing the first of two Wyrd Warfare anthologies this week. The two anthologies are geared towards showing you how warfare might be pursued if wyrd and magical powers were available to us. I am looking forward to it, even if I am not in the first anthology. My story of Captain William Carter during the Revolutionary War will be in the second anthology though. And if you wish to check out another example of him at war while you’re waiting for Wyrd Warfare, check out Last Ride on the Asia Express in The Big Ones. That anthology is devoted to alternate histories of World War II, and I can say without any reservation that the Marine Raiders never rode the Asia Express in Manchuria, and the Japanese never sent a terrible weapon on the Asia Express to Dalian where a submarine that could travel around the world was absolutely not waiting for it. There is nothing at all wyrd about any of this. Nothing at all. None of it ever happened. Or did it?