THE WORK OF JACK SEGRETO
ABOUT JACK
An Abridged History
Jack emerged fully formed from the Long Island Sound approximately thirty years ago - a concept, an experience, an omen - and has been in existential agony ever since. He channels that agony into writing, studying history, and singing songs for students in the bookstore at a local community college where key words are replaced with book titles.
He lives a relatively quiet life with his husband and dog in a small coastal New England city, where he plans to eventually become mayor (or maybe just a fringe candidate in a tutu). He has published two books and is working on a third. As a transgender creator, his focus is queer fiction. Jack has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Library Science from the University of Arizona and is currently working towards a Master of Arts in History at the University of Texas at Permian Basin.
PROJECTS
Current & Upcoming
SLEEVE & SHUFFLE
Spring 2024
Francis "Fish" Collins is a noted wardsmith hailing from a small town in Oregon. Raised by his nonmagical grandparents, he never knew his father—or where his talents came from. Between taking care of his aging grandfather and their farm, he makes charms to send to brokers around the country.
Noah Krueger, the latest in a long family line of cursebreakers, lives a boring predictable life at his family's antique store in Connecticut, where he spends his days neutralizing cursed objects. He doesn't expect his life to shift dramatically when he becomes a broker for a new ward maker from the opposite coast.
Neither expected to fall in love, but when a cursed object is stolen from Noah's warehouse, the pair are thrust together on a journey to recover it, while hoping a secret about Fish's parentage doesn't tear them apart.
Coming soon.
Feburary 19, 2021
SLUMBER.
A struggling artist often lost in his own world, Aubrey spends his days in his backyard studio, painting and watching black and white movies on a broken television set. In the midst of a creative fugue, he begins to have strange visions of Old Hollywood. In his dreams, he meets an actor famous for his suicide after a lifetime of living in the closet.
Roland Luther didn’t want to be an actor, but with no money in his pocket and no more stops on the bus line, he almost didn’t have a choice. Spending the entirety of his life pretending to be something he’s not, he’s shocked to find a companion in the mysterious Aubrey but cannot reconcile his new lover’s frequent disappearances.
Flitting through time and space, these soulmates must find one another and prevent a tragedy.
Available on Amazon Kindle. Read a sample now.
CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY
(AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS FROM A LOBSTER)
October 31, 2021
In the late 1800s, instead of finding dinner at the seashore, Leopold Cartwright found a freshly-molted lobster. One freak lightning storm later, Leo's life was permanently linked to that of his new lobster friend. Now, as long as "Brick" lives, so does Leo. Over 140 years later, the two are at last coming to the end of their extraordinary lives, and Leo is facing the possibility that his estate will languish with no one to protect it.
In the early 2020s, Wyatt Ellis is a young transgender man on the cusp of adulthood. Raised without a father and by a mother who does not understand him, he has sought out the company of others in his community instead. Confused, aimless, and trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life, he befriends the eccentric Leo, not knowing how the friendship will change both of their lives.
Conditional Immortality is a story of friendship, love, and what a telepathic lobster might be able to teach two people who are willing to listen.
Available on Amazon (Kindle/paperback).