Jack of Harts

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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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Studying

by on June 11, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I spend a lot of time studying history as part of my Captain William Carter stories. Weapons. Ships. Fortresses. Cultures. Nations.

I’ve learned more in the last three or four years writing these stories than I have in decades, and I actually studied stuff like this for fun before. Now I’m more targeted, and it is really interesting to see what is out there. What we have done. How the world has changed. How it hasn’t. Language is one obvious bit that has changed. But its interesting that the intents we speak with the changing words are often very much the same.

Don’t hurt my friends. Respect my property. And if you don’t, we’re going to have to do something about that. A lot of people have found out a lot of things over the last few thousand years of human civilization, after they spent a lot of time messing around with other people. Civilization is a never ending wave of people coming and going, and every few centuries there’s a big change where one people fall and another rise. There’s not a single piece of land that hasn’t been fought over. The places don’t change. The cities remain. The names change as cultures fall and rise. There’s a lot of history in the names.

And it is awful fun to study them.

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Music

by on June 10, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Music is important to my writing. I pretty much always write with music turned on and playing. Fast music. Driving music. Music that makes me want to think and imagine and create. And makes me move forward while doing it. Not always bright and happy, but never depressing. I don’t write characters that mope around and wonder why they do what they do. I write competent heroes who see what needs doing and go do it. So I want music that brings that attitude with it. And sometimes in fight scenes I’ll have one song on repeat as I write with it in mind. The beats of the song often become part of the staccato rhythm of the conflict. The back and forth. The ebb and flow as the foes move and the heroes respond. The story isn’t interesting if its all about what the hero does after all. There must be a foe that does things, and that foe must have agency or the story won’t be believed. I try to play music that helps me get into the mood to give all sides I write that agency and drive.

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Missed Story

by on June 9, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I missed a deadline for an anthology today. It should have been an easy story to write, but every time I tried to write it, the story did not come easy. I love my new job, but it has been busting my brain for months. Trying to get quality time to write has been a real struggle, and the quantity of my writing has suffered for that. Something like at least a third of the anthologies I wanted to submit to have fallen off the edge into my “yeah, I’m not going to get that one done” bin. The stories I have completed this year I am darn proud of. And I think they are better than ones I’ve written before. My Captain William Carter stories have really been taking off for instance, and they continue to trickle out into publication every month or so. I’m not making a living on them, but I’m getting money, and many editors are seeing my work and choosing to take my stories. So that is all good.

I wish I could write more, and as I get more comfortable in my new job I think I will. Also there is the promise of a new system that will kick my butt a lot less. But there is always a learning curve with new systems, so maybe I will get hammered again. Time will tell. In the meantime, I have a good job that I like. And I’m still putting out good stories. Not as many as I would like, but every good story I get out makes me smile. And a fair number of them also make me money.

So that is all kinds of good. 🙂

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1952

by on June 8, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Absolutely NOTHING important happened in 1952. Nothing at all.

Well… there were some disagreements going on in Korea. And there was a nuclear test in the Marshal Islands. And there was a tsunami that hit Soviet Kamchatka after an earthquake that had nothing at all to do with the nuclear test over a thousand miles a way.

But nothing about any of that was important… right?

Well… here’s the thing. When I write Captain William Carter stories, I like to bring real life stuff that doesn’t connect and try to connect it. And I found the connection for another story. And this one has the full story already in place. I know what is going to happen. All I have to do is write it.

I’ve had this idea for a while that the American military did NOT sink the I-400 boats after they captured them from the Japanese at the end of World War II. That they were in fact taken over by the monster hunting organization Captain William Carter works for and were repurposed to fight America’s supernatural threats. An open call gives me the perfect opportunity to play with her in a way that complements both the open call and the story I’ve wanted to tell for a while.

I-401 charging west out of Alaska in 1952, making for Soviet Kamchatka with storm warning flags flying from her conning tower. Flags that warn everyone to stop and stay away because she is sailing into danger. A flag combination that Old Sailors recognize as a warning against the kind of dire supernatural threats that even international enmities must bow to. All flying off a Japanese boat crewed by Americans sailing into the Soviet Far East in the middle of the Cold War.

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1917

by on June 7, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Every one of us who has any idea of history knows that 1917 was a rather big year in human history. The Great War. The end of empires. The end of the world as we knew it. The War to End all Wars. We often call it World War I here in America, but many historians say there were many global wars before it. The Spanish War against the Ottomans and their allies. Our French and Indian War was part of a much larger war between England and France that was fought all over the global. The War of 1812 was part of the Napoleonic Wars. And while the Crimean War was fought only in the Black Sea, it sucked in the most powerful empires of the time.

I have been writing a series of stories with my Captain William Carter where he takes part in many of these conflicts. He is a monster hunter who does not age and fights the various supernatural forces that would twist our world. And one thing I do is I always try to make my stories align around real world things that really happened. And then I tell the “real” story of what “really” happened that day. What history records to cover up the real history. That means I take a lot of time studying history and figuring out what places and times would make for excellent stories where reality meets mystery and can be written in many ways.

I just found another time and place that I intend to write a story about. Syria. 1917. November. Many historians will have an idea or five about what I intend to write about based on those three words. I have the characters. I know what officially happened. Now I just have to decide what will happen in my story that will result in that official history being written. 😉

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