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
|
|
3. LATCHLOOSE BUILDING
There was one older brick building at the edge of that dimly glowing downtown. The Latchloose Building's battered red walls were covered with a lacy filigree of snow dust, like white ivy crawling up to drink in moonlight. The old office building's windows were so dark they look like shiny black marble reflecting the amber street lights. But there was one window filled with a faint green light, and a lone figure dimly visible at a corner computer screen. The elderly man working in the solitude of his office late at night was one Arthur Latchloose, banker and real estate financier, who was exceedingly rich in money and exceedingly poor in all else. There he was again in his office--long after the staff had left, like just about every other day of the year.
He barely noticed the monotonous clanging of three bells in a nearby clocktower on the quarter hour, so close that one could almost feel the ga-wump, ga-wump of the mighty steel works thundering in their sturdy lumber containment. He ignored the bells, focusing instead on the computer whose greenish glow illuminated, in a sepulchral manner, his aging but still craggily handsome features.
Mr. Arthur Latchloose acquired a tidy fortune in banking and real estate, and lived an exemplary life, as he saw it. He and his late wife Gretchen raised two children, prayed in the right manner, did all the good and proper things, donated to charity, and supported worthy causes. In recent years Mr. Latchloose had a series of heartbreaks--his wife died of cancer, his children grew up and moved away out of contact, and it seemed to him the world had passed him by. He had memories aplenty, wonderful ones, of Christmases and other holidays when the children were small and Andie was still young and beautiful, but it had long since faded like the leaves on an autumn tree. He didn't think of himself as bitter, but more like disappointed. Some would say he was just sad, others that he was depressed, others that he was just a cranky and self-centered old man.
Arthur Latchloose did have one joy in life besides counting his money. He had a hobby--collecting antiquities; not antiques, because those were just recent bric-a-brac, but really old and very valuable stuff. He had long since stopped sending or receiving Christmas cards, and he had not exchanged gifts in a number of years since his grown children had abandoned him. Every year, however, he rewarded himself with a fine present. This year was going to be the best, for an old Army acquaintance had just offered to sell him a rare and unique clock. Latchloose had been waiting all evening for the other man's call-so long that he'd forgotten he was waiting.
|
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.
|
