Jack of Harts

The editor working on my Mishipeshu Rising story sent me back a round of edits that included a suggestion that something needed to be added in one spot. That escalated into three spots when I realized that what I added should be referred to in two other places. That ended up with a slightly reworked end that is even better. I can’t wait until you all get to see this story.

I recently completed another orbit around the sun. Another anniversary of the day I was born. I’m another year older, and happy for all the birthday wishes. Thanks for all the fish. I’m not going anywhere.

The Space Cowboy I write, Captain Jack Hart, that Raconteur published in one anthology was raised Christian by his parents but kinda-sorta lost his faith when they were murdered. I wouldn’t say he walked away from his faith, but he definitely didn’t remain a daily practitioner thereof. Whenever questions of religion came up in my stories, he generally answered that his parents would have said whatever they would have said to that question. And when asked what he thought, he would just say “I don’t know.” So he’s not the kind of guy to go on preaching about religious stuff. Two other publishers, Bayonet and Lucy’s Lantern Literature, have chosen to publish stories that he is in as well, so I think that is going well.

My Wierd West monster hunter has gotten a fair bit of interest from publishers as well. Raconteur published him multiple times. Captain William Carter is a Puritan of New Haven, CT. Well, his family was Puritan, but by the time he was growing up, the Puritan movement had largely transformed into the Congregationalist movement. And by the time most of his stories are written in, nobody has seen a living Puritan in a century or more. And he goes places and fights enemies no Puritan ever saw. But because I know people read stories for fun, not for preaching, he is more of a smiter than a preacher. And he’s more about protecting civilization against the things that go bump in the night, or the things that ARE the night, than he is about converting people to the particular sect of a faith that hasn’t been seen in over a century. So no preaching in those stories either. I would note that a recurring character in those stories is this guy who goes by the name Michael who shows up wielding a flaming sword, who often shows up when the monster hunter is out of his depth. And he is often out of his depth. I would note that Raconteur, Opal Kingdom Press, Lucy’s Lantern Literature, and Three Ravens have all chosen to publish my Captain Carter stories. With most of them picking more than one.

My primary goal is to write sci-fi and fantasy stories that people want to read, and that my very Christian family and friends can enjoy reading. I call it Christian Friendly Sci-Fi and Fantasy. So I generally keep them clean, keep bad language to a minimum, and make sure the main characters are generally nice people. I want readers to want to like the main characters. The fact that a half-dozen different publishers in the last couple years have chosen to publish my stories tells me that my primary goal has traction. People want to read stories about generally nice people doing good in worlds that are not always nice, but can be made better.