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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This Shoal of Space
a novel
by John T. Cullen
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48.
Mary-Shane packed a few things. She wanted to take a long hot soak in the tub to wash away pathetic Mabel, the shack, most of all her strange sick satisfaction at seeing Mabel meet justice. Am I becoming like Vic? There was a phone message from Roger: “Please call.” She started a pot of soup while she dialed. She drew the drapes over the curtains and turned on a lamp.
“Hello?” Roger said.
“Hi, it’s me,” she said unbuttoning her blouse, cradling the portable phone under her chin. The sound of his voice, so strong and calm and sane, made her smile. Mabel kept coming, kept getting shot. Mary-Shane shut it out of her mind.
“Oh Hi Me,” Roger said.
She tugged off first one sleeve, then the other. It was cold in the apartment, and her nipples hardened under the flimsy bra. “It’s good to hear a friendly voice.”
“Amen,” Roger said.
She dropped her wet jeans. “I’ll tell you about it some time.” The tea kettle whistled and the microwave dinged.
“Mary-Shane?”
“Ymf?” She had a mouthful of mushroom bits and crackers.
“I called to ask you to dinner tomorrow night. Think you can come? And bring Kippy?”
The house on Mulberry Street was buttoned up tight. Rain lashed its windows. Wind tore at the trees outside, banging limbs against the walls. What about the Cold Thing? She sat on a third floor potty with a crossword puzzle and shivered. The seat was cold and made her bottom goosepimply. Outside, rain splattered endlessly on concrete by the trashcans. When she was a little girl she’d come up here when Daddy was home from his sales trips and the downstairs bathroom was busy. It had been a happy, secure feeling. After Daddy died and things got dark, she’d come up here to be alone, trying to pretend that Daddy was really home again downstairs. Mother had called her a lunatic. She’d started dating and sleeping with guys and met Frank...old, old, old history. Cold. She hoped that now Evvie would be free and have a happy and safe life. And even the Cold Thing (it was still there, yes) slumbered; no, it was too busy elsewhere to bother with her.
Alone, after Kippy and Mother had gone to their beds, Mary-Shane wished Roger were with her. She’d liked the way he’d held her and she meant to ask him again. She slipped between the cold sheets and cuddled in a ball, hands between her thighs. She was still tense from the evening’s unbelievable horror. Gradually, her own warmth massaged her. She thought about Roger. She reached down and touched her hair sleepily, then noticed wetness. Her finger moved sleepily. She sighed. Well-lubricated, her fingertip moved up and down, slowly, the pressure each way on her clitoris causing a wave of arousal to move through her gut. Another storm front was moving in. She yawned. It was that time of year, and good to be indoors with a fire and a book if you couldn’t be in someone’s arms. Yawn! Whose arms? Dinner with... Rain spattered against the window in slow rhythms. Warm under the covers, finger becoming leaden with sleepiness, she rose to a small climax (woke herself with a faint cry) then tumbled wetly down the hill into sleep.
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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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