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Author, Author
 Three Major Pen Names. At present, all of these galleys are my own work. I write nonfiction and thrillers under my English-language name (John T. Cullen). I write genre fiction (SFFH and suspense) as John Argo. And I occasionally use my real (birth) name, Jean-Thomas Cullen, for sentimental and romantic fiction. I have used other pseudonyms, for various reasons not to dwell upon here. As the San Diego, California based small press publisher of Clocktower Books and Far Sector SFFH, I have published the work of many other authors over the years (see the Clocktower Books Museum Site for details).
Jean-Thomas Cullen That's my real birth name. Long story, and I don't care to talk about myself but I guess I must, because it will explain a lot about my 40+ published books under various pseudonyms. I was born a U.S. citizen in West Germany (FRG) after World War Two. My father was a U.S. Army sergeant-major from New Haven, Conn. stationed in post-war Germany as part of the Allied Occupation forces. My mother was a Luxembourg national, working at the I.G. Farben building (then HQ for Allied forces including the U.S. in Europe, today a university) in Frankfurt. That's where my parents met. In fact, I am one of well over a million U.S. citizens born overseas to military, State Dept., or other service families. My mother's father in Luxembourg was Jean, and my father's father in New Haven was Thomas. So I ended up with a hyphenated first name and no middle name. Because of the constant difficulty in using the French 'Jean' (John) in English speaking countries, I have gone by John T. Cullen all my life. My parents separated for a few years, so I spent my childhood with my mother and her parents in Luxembourg. My first language in this world was Lëtzebuergesch, the language of Luxembourg. In first grade we started learning German, in second grade French, and I learned English on my own when my parents reunited, my father retired, and we settled in New Haven…
John T. Cullen …which brings me to the next point. Most of my life, I have gone by John T. Cullen. Still today, I have to almost daily explain 'Jean' (or Dzheen!?) to puzzled U. S. persons who are looking at me weirdly while examining my documents. As one example of this struggle: when I was 18 and applying for colleges, I applied to Wesleyan, a fine university in Connecticut. I got a letter back, saying "Dear Ms. Cullen: While we are very impressed with your academics and talent, and we would love to matriculate you, we regret to inform you that we do not accept girls at Wesleyan." Once they learned of their gaffe (failing to look at the gender on my application), they apologized and put me on the waiting list, but no openings materialized, so I went on to the University of Connecticut (UConn), at the beautiful Storrs campus, to earn my B.A. in English with relateds in History and Languages (German, Latin). By age 19, I was a published poet, and had completed my first full novel (finally published 2016, now titled Far Wars: City of the Universe (SF). I began my professional writing life at 17 as a summer interne newspaper reporter at a New Haven paper. After hitch-hiking around the country, settling in the San Diego area, I enlisted in the U.S. Army. I was stationed in West Germany, not far from Luxembourg, for five years. During that time, I made sergeant and learned to speak the Pfälzisch dialect of Deutsch as well. Today, I'm a citizen of both the U.S. and of Luxembourg (therefore also of the European Union). And yes, I loved to travel over there…for example, Paris is a four-hour drive (nowadays more like two hours by hyperspeed TGV train) and I spent many happy hours there and in other great cities from Brussels to Berlin, from Vienna to Rome, and many more. There were good times and bad, to be sure, but it was a glorious time overall.
John Argo Back in 1996, a friend at work (the brilliant and talented Brian Callahan) and I got the bright idea to publish the first digital novels online (proprietary, not public domain; entire; full standard length; in HTML online, not portable media; and more…). That whole history can be found at the Clocktower Books Museum Site. In those pristine days of the early World Wide Web (basically, the Internet systems command line with a user-friendly GUI imposed on it), I reveled in the sense of wonder. It was a new age, requiring a special pseudonym for my science fiction and suspense fiction. What came to mind, mirabile dictu, was that amazing ship of wonder, the Argo, on which Jason and the Argonauts (literally: Argo Sailors) traversed the Aegean Sea in search of mythological adventures. The source of those stories lies in the mists of time, in the lost Bronze Age over 3,000 years ago. The Aegean Sea was the space frontier of its age, and the Argo (built by shipwright Argos at Iolkos in Thessaly) was in effect a starship. Ironically, Argo Navis (literally 'Ship Argo') was treated as a constellation in the Southern skies until 19th Century astronomers disassembled it into three constellations, namely Carina ('keel'), Puppis ('poop deck' meaning 'stern'), and Vela ('sail'). It was with a sense of wonder that I sailed the early Internet, in the genesis of the World Wide Web, as John Argo starting with the launch of my suspense novel Neon Blue online in early 1996. So now you know. And yes, I get as many blank looks for John Argo as I do for Dzheen!?.
The Rest of the Story. Summing up my life, I'd say the first half was a dark struggle toward light. The second half has been a wonderful dream in the light (despite of course life's occasional jolts), happily married to the same wonderful woman for over a third of a century, proud of our human offspring, and doting upon a succession of illustrious cats. We have both lived in various countries (on three continents between the two of us), speak multiple languages, and appreciate San Diego as the finest city on earth. It's a balmy, palmy, sunny paradise that serves as a great home base for continued travels, primarily in North America and Europe. I've seen both the dark and the light of life, and have much to write about (in this home office, 'my happy place' with just the booksy, cluttered, poster-hung look I treasure). The fated (to be fêted) glass is half full, with confetti lying about.
Again: If it's a thriller (fiction) or a nonfiction article or book, I go by John T. Cullen pretty much as a rule. If it's SFFH or suspense, I'll use my magical ship name, John Argo. And occasionally I'll write a sentimental, romantic piece as Jean-Thomas Cullen. Oh, and having finally published much of my earliest work, I have used the pseudonym A. T. Nager to do justice to the long-ago kid I once was. Not long ago, upon publishing my 19-year-old's SF novel (Far Wars) I asked one of my wonderful clerk friends at a bookstore to look it up and see if it was available yet in their system. She went brightly and eagerly to the task, and exclaimed full of happiness (for me, her friend) "Yes, I found it! Here it is! But who is Ay Tee Nogger?" Some days, we cannot win, no matter what.
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