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LETHAL JOURNEY
Noir 1892 Thriller
Lethal Journey is a novel (fiction) based on John T. Cullen's scholarly analysis (nonfiction) Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado. The Beautiful Stranger checked into the Hotel del Coronado on Thanksgiving Day 1892. Gorgeous and dressed like an actress, she was found dead five days later of a gunshot to the head. She had checked in under an alias, and nobody knew who she was or what her business at the great resort had been. Why did she die, alone and suffering, at the tender age of 24? The tragic enigma of the Beautiful Stranger instantly became a national crime-mystery sensation in the Yellow Press. It also became the subject of a famous ghost legend at the fabulous Hotel del Coronado, persisting to this very day. Solved at last, the enigma proves that truth is far stranger than fiction. Lethal Journey is a story of passion and violence, conspiracy and betrayal. She became the epitome of that greatest of Victorian heroines, the Fallen Angel, found in paintings, novels, and music of the age. The Fallen Angel is epitomized in fiction by Thomas Hardy's Tess of D'Urberville. The dead girl in San Diego was the real Fallen Angel, and tens of thousands gathered every day to mourn over her beautiful open coffin in the front window of a funeral parlor downtown.
The author reveals the gripping details of a wild blackmail plot gone wrong. The target of the plot, the mega-wealthy John D. Spreckels, who owned the Hotel del Coronado, was at that very moment negotiating with President Benjamin Harrison and the Congress over the fate of the Hawaiian monarchy and the future of his family's fabulous sugar cane fortune. The story thus has global implications, and the Hawaiian monarchy fell just five weeks after the plot at the Hotel del Coronado. The tragedy of Lottie A. Bernard--the name under which the mystery woman signed in at the hotel--gives us a snapshot of life in late Victorian times--all because of a beautiful young factory girl named Lizzie Wyllie who had an affair with her foreman, a married man with children. They eloped together and became involved with the ruthless and scheming Kate Morgan and her violent husband Tom, and what follows is truly a dark and lethal journey. From the author of Umnitsa and The Generals of October. |
Assisted Publishing - Put-down or Help? (June 2011) Letter from ** in Ontario, Canada: I love PIN. I enjoy reading the thoughtful and informative articles. I finally figured out what you mean by 'Assisted Publishing' and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with your view. By Assisted Publishing, you mean something like the old Subsidy Publishing, where an author fronted all or part of the money in return for the subsidy publisher's skills distribution. Are you putting down authors who pay money for services? JTC Reply: Not my point at all, but thanks for bringing the possible confusion to my attention. My point in writing this weekly magazine (PIN) is to help struggling authors who want to self-publish in both print and digital media. In a nutshell, I want to convince the average author, particularly beginners, that publishing is a business like any other, and therefore it should not be treated as a sacerdotal mystery that only gurus can understand. The waters of publishing have always been filled with sharks, gurus, book doctors, and witch doctors who prey on hopeful people. My point is: if you brush away the fog of mystery, and take a hard look, publishing consists of writing an interesting text, and then packaging it in an appealing manner so that people will buy it. To accomplish this takes some effort and a learning curve, but it's not rocket science, and most authors can learn the basics. Now here is where I think the confusion comes in. I do not disparage writers from using skilled, outside services or even getting a 'package' from a reasonable third party. I urge writers to become entrepreneurs, not victims. Most of us can only do so much. It takes years of learning and practice to become an effective cover artist, for example. The smart entrepreneur knows their limits, and knows when to ask for help. There's nothing wrong with that. 'Assisted Publishing' is the old flying-blind method, where you trust your life and your book to snake oil salesmen. Nobody loves your book as you do. The opposite of Assisted Publishing is Entrepreneurial Publishing, where the self-publishing author takes the necessary step of being a business person. It's not that hard. The channels are pretty much in place. You write your book, create the Package (title, cover or marketing image, promo copy or blurb), and then upload it for sale to Kindle, Nook, and other platforms. Beyond that, every author has a different strategy for promotion and marketing, which we'll discuss in future PIN articles. But again—no author will ever be disparaged or put down here, whether he or she is a New York Times bestseller, or a one-book self-publisher in a remote town. All of us who write and publish know the pain. Being in business is not an option. It's the only game in town. Every bestselling author understands that, and their smart and energetic self-promotion, 7-24, is what keeps building their success. Being in business is the only game in town. Flying blind and putting one's money and trust in the hands of smooth-talking strangers is not a real option. Treating publishing as a business is a reality, and it's the toughest game in town. What you may perceive as disparaging is actually helpful advice in a fundamentally difficult human endeavor—selling things to strangers who didn't know, until a minute earlier, that you or your product exist, or that they had a need for it. I think the assiduous reader of this magazine will come away with a much better understanding of the business. As to the harsh part—please don't shoot me; I'm just the messenger. (JTC 1 July 2011 Special to PIN. Copyright • John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.) top |
Sator Enigma: Ancient Roman Mystery Solved
The so-called Sator Square (also Sator Rebus, Puzzle) refers to a mysterious ancient text found on walls throughout ruins of the Roman Empire. Archeologists have found exemplars in such diverse ancient Roman locations as a government hall (aula) in Cirencester, Britannia; twice in Pompeii, pre-dating the city's volcanic destruction by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE; and in the distant frontier fortress of Dura Europos on Rome's Mesopotamian border with Parthia. Something about this strange, cryptic writing must have been so important that the Romans would post it in their government halls, public squares, and top military headquarters.
It is one of the most perfect palindromes ever created. A simple palindrome is a text that reads the same, backwards or forwards; e.g., "Madam I'm Adam" and ".madA m'I madaM". The Sator Square is a perfect four-way palindrome that reads the same left-right, right-left, up-down, and down-up. Nobody had a clue how to translate it, despite thousands of hours of research, hundreds of learned books and articles, and at least one Ph.D. thesis in Classics at Yale University.
John T. Cullen solved the puzzle in the summer of 2007, almost coincidentally, while continuing eight years of scholarly research for his nonfiction/Ancient History virtual tour guide A Walk in Ancient Rome, Revised 2nd Edition (Clocktower Books, Summer 2011). He had been aware of this baffling cryptogram from long ago, which has since become an object of superstitious reverence in certain Christian and Neo-Pagan settings. Suddenly, while taking a break from his Rome research, he looked at the Sator Square in a new way—and was able, within a few weeks, to both translate it and plausibly explain it.
Ironically, at the annual convention of International Thriller Writers, of which he is an Active Member, in New York City in July 2009, he was the only author present who had actually deciphered and explained a cryptic, ancient epigram of world importance—and lived to tell about it.
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