John T. Cullen has authored over 20 books, including The Generals of October (Simon & Schuster, 2004)—pulse-pounding political-military suspense fiction set in a near-future U.S. Constitutional crisis.
|
John T. Cullen also writes screenplays, including one for Nebula Express (adapted from his SF novel) and the violent, darkly glistening, utterly strange tale of a serial killer in Scorpion.
|
If you like what you read here, please send at least two other avid readers here so a growing readership can enjoy these books. That would be a great, painless, easy way to provide a huge assist. If you'd like to do more...click.
|
The Christmas Clock a holiday fantasy for everyone
by John T. Cullen
|
|
2. MOOD
One night right after the turn of the century--in a city we shall not name, at a time just before Christmas--snow fell silently on the rooftops, and the very air smelled of snow. The white crystals were dry and thick, and plummeted from an ash-colored sky.
A custard-bright moon with a shocked face floated behind drifting ships of cloud. Moonlight glittered on the river, under the bridges, on the frozen streets.
The snow flakes disappeared among the black zags and zigs of the skyline. They briefly reappeared in the gritty circles of lantern glow on street corners. Then they again lost themselves in rapidly accumulating flows and drifts along darkened house walls.
Snow muffled the slam of a door, a shout for a cab, a laugh at a joke, a goodnight, and a gunning motor. The air smelled briefly of exhaust. Gloomy pines in the park sighed in the wind, and their clean scent brushed the air clean.
Night and snow dimmed the glow of a clock's blue neon edge in a hairdresser's shop, and a yellow beer sign in the corner of a tavern window, and the high-tech stainless steel lettering on a shop selling fancy glass and steel coffee machines colored bright yellow or red or green or blue or just plain glossy white. One by one, the shop lights winked out and the doors rattled, being locked by departing employees. Their footsteps were muffled on the white sidewalks.
The streets were nearly empty, with a few last cars going here, and a few last pedestrians hurrying there. It was too late for the buses, and too early for the city plowing trucks. Here a Christmas wreath hung on a door, and there a string of colored lights traced a window frame. Somewhere on a chilly porch in a poor part of town, a row of children's boots stood in a row, and a kitchen was alive with pots banging and parents talking while the house smelled of macaroni and children laughed by the fireplace.
Most of the big city office buildings dimmed down, except for the glow of corridor lights. Most of the offices were empty, except for cleaning crews who had the courage to venture out. The shopping center with its neon and bright windows emptied quickly. There was a traffic jam, but it thinned out. Silence and emptiness reigned as the night deepened. The train station had been jammed with rush hour traffic, but now stood closed and abandoned for the night. The clock over the concrete platform read 11:50, barely visible through the ice crystals gathering on the glass and wrapping around the black, wrought-iron arches. Oh yes, and a very slight, cold wind moaned lightly, and keened as it circled around in ghostly white swirls.
|
If you like what you're reading, please send at least two other avid readers to this website.
—Thank you! …Your grateful author, John T. Cullen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other gripping books by the author:
Copyright © 2005 by John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.
John T. Cullen has been a pioneer in digital publishing since 1996. He is listed by digital publishing historian Karen Wiesner as the sixth digital publisher in history, and the second person to publish serialized chapters on line (starting 1996). His web magazine Deep Outside SFFH was the first to be listed along with the professional pulps in Writer's Market (1999) and was at one time the oldest professional SFFH magazine in the world. John T. Cullen continues to explore new ways to adapt the primordial power of storytelling to emerging new digital opportunities as the Third Millennium springs to light.
|
|
|
A Walk in Ancient Rome John T. Cullen (Simon&Schuster May 2005) innovative, acclaimed walking & teaching tour—explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history—smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome.
|
= Summer 2008 =
A Walk in Ancient Rome, Second Edition John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books 2008)—New! Many new maps; images from the unique scale model of AndréCaron of Quebec. Read this innovative book, with its acclaimed walking & teaching tour. Explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history. Smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome. The new edition is bigger, like an atlas. Some people have carried the 1st edition with them to Rome, and found it greatly enhanced their experience.
Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, 2nd Ed. John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, Summer 2008). John T. Cullen has tackled the mystery of the ghost at the Hotel del Coronado. He has assembled a dramatic new theory about how and why she violently died on the back steps of the hotel in 1892. A first-class ghost story and whodunit wrapped in one.
|
