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.
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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.
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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.
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Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D.
a novel
by John T. Cullen
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22.
The next day was overcast and chilly, and he had little incentive to go exploring.
Luckily, there were only short periods of slight drizzle, and during those he stayed in his shelter. He patched a few leaky spots, but overall the shelter was dry. He realized by now that he must get down to those cattle and make a hide for himself, or he would die here from hypothermia next time it really rained.
He was pleasantly surprised that his primitive water-still yet seemed to be working. When he inspected the bits of slate he had stood on edge in his water puddle, he found that the puddle was nearly overflowing. The wind from the sea, moving past the slightly angled rock, had cooled it sharply, making the plentiful moisture in the night air condense on the surface and flow into the puddle. He drank deeply, savoring this small victory. He came to treasure the beetles as a delicacy, and between them and dry grass, he managed to keep his stomach, if not full, then at least from pain. He tracked down a nesting spot of his flightless birds. They laid their eggs in the thatch between groups of coarsely separated fist-sized rocks on the eastern edge of the clearing. He managed to grab one egg and run before the violently squawking chicken chased him halfway across the hill. This wouldn’t do, of course. He’d have to figure out some way to mine that resource without driving its providers off, or depleting it. He resolved to limit himself to one egg a day, which he slurped with great satisfaction after punching a small hole in the egg. The yolk went down intact in a mass, leaving him to savor the slick egg white. He took the broken eggshell and laid it back where he had found it. His theory, which proved correct, was that the chickens (except perhaps the one who had chased Alex) would think those were eggs that had hatched, and therefore this was a great nesting spot. No matter that the eggshells smelled of predator (me)—plenty of nests were invaded after the hatching and inspected too late.
By and large, he ignored the big butterflies, and they ignored him, forming as innocuous a backdrop as the trees and the cliffs. At night the things he called moths came out, and once or twice he awakened to swat at one feeding on his blood, but they came out mainly at night, and kept to sea level where they had evolved.
Even as he kept exploring this new world, he kept having those dark dreams of the old. He kept reliving certain moments from that other man’s lifetime, particularly that haunting nocturnal scene in the gloomy bedroom: curtains blowing in the breeze, TV flickering, Maryan sleeping nude beside him, and the night sounds of a city wafting in: a car horn, a shout, distant music, and more wind…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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= 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.
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