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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Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D.
a novel
by John T. Cullen
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40.
Alex took the women’s boat, the new knife, and several blankets and set out for the mainland. He had to sail carefully, aiming through an opening of calm water among the boulders, but he managed without damaging the boat.
Just outside, he tied the boat up for a few moments on a rock while he dived down to retrieve his own knife and spear from the wreckage of his raft whose image lay shimmering and trembling one fathom down among kelpy rocks. His bow and arrow he found also but they were waterlogged and probably ruined, though he tossed them in the bottom of the sailboat for possible salvage.
The sailboat looked much as he’d first seen it, when the young woman was still alive and sailing back to the island some weeks ago. It had a tall mast and a woven sail made pliable and airtight with lots of grease. The whole boat smelled pleasantly of lanolin and pine tar. It had a clean, dry, smooth bottom with evidence that straw had once served as a seat, though he had not thought to gather any for his journey. It had a wooden keel-fin, which he dropped through a central slot whose rim rose to gunwale height. It had a rudder of flat wood polished from use and rubbed with oils to make it water resistant. He could sit in a rear corner with one arm over the tiller and the other hand holding a spar that controlled the sail’s pitch, and off he went rocking up and down in the soupy sea as the wind pushed him crisply along. The wind was strong and he kept the sail angled so the boat would press forward on her slightly raised bow.
Pulling the boat up on the sand, he hiked across the hot beach and up the sandy cliffs until he was on a meadow nearly 200 feet above sea level. The meadow was covered with red and yellow flowers, and the air was fresh. For hours, he hiked about looking for any signs of the crashed sky object. He widened his search to include the mix of palms and evergreens growing in the foothills of low mountain ranges, but found nothing—no crater, no burned area, no debris. He began to think the phenomenon must have been one of those fist-sized meteorites that often drop through the atmosphere and burn up without a trace before striking the ground. Gradually he let it go from his mind and returned to his sky island.
In the next day or two he repaired his bow and arrows. He rested an afternoon long in the warm sunshine, sleeping on his promontory after eating well—eggs from his hens, and two quail that ventured too close for their own good. But he kept looking toward the valley, restless to discover its secrets and see what it was Kathryn and Dot had sought there. He had a good idea of what he might be looking for.
Only that prepared him for what was to come next.
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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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