First, a few excerpts from letters, taken from readers of the novel responding at the author's web-site: "I have finished the book because I couldn't stop reading it...it was like taking a trip for me. The images of St. Nikolaos and the people and the circumstances are still fresh in my mind. As are the images of Vermont... I have to tell you that the entire novel flowed beautifully and the voice of the main character was so strong and so honestly written. I thought it was (for me) perfect. I know when I've read a great story when part of me is still living there and can feel the atmosphere of what has been described..." And from another; "... As a somewhat fussy "literary" guy who is easily disappointed in first novels, I was delighted to find that A Signal Waves revisited the imaginative storytelling of days-gone-by when the audience (me at least) was treated to artfully woven tapestries of ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Complex and entertaining, I was pulled into the mystery of the narrator's life, hoping to see redemption for this Kennedy family but not wanting it to happen too quickly... I wasn't disappointed!" The story: Greece, 1973. The turbulent days of the Vietnam War are coming to an end when American Tom Kennedy arrives on Crete with a small band of expats. Adapting quickly to life in what appears to be an idyllic fishing village, Tom is befriended by two Greeks who are still feuding over the death of their older brother, executed by the Germans during World War Two. Tom soon finds himself drawn into their family conflict and attracted to their beautiful niece Aspasia, who views him as her ticket to escape her provincial life on Crete. But a telegram arrives informing Tom that after seven years, his father has finally succumbed to the wounds that he received during a robbery. Unwilling to face his family's troubles, Tom delays his departure for the States. As winter sets in and letters continue to arrive from home with more bad news, Tom decides to set off on one last journey through Europe; in the process risking the ultimate betrayal of the Greek family that had welcomed him into their lives. Vermont, 1988. Fifteen years later Tom Kennedy is now a popular high school history teacher who has carved out a respectable life in a small rural town in Vermont. But for the second time in Tom's life his father's crime is reemerging; this time in the hands of an unscrupulous writer who intends to use it as the basis for her true-crime story. When the coming revelations of her book threaten to dismantle his carefully constructed identity, Tom begins to write his own narrative of the events, hoping to make sense of his family's troubled past and to find a way to escape the upcoming scandals. What emerges instead is a gripping confession that examines the healing power of a love that has never been extinguished, and the bonds of family that so often endure despite our unwitting attempts to destroy them. Set in the beautiful surrounds of Vermont and Europe, novelist Bill Cullen offers up a soul-searching tale of the forgotten battlefields of love and war and the lives that must be lived after the last bullet has been fired and the faded photographs of old lovers have been hidden away. Be sure to stop by the author's web site, Haydenwrites.com for the back-stories and photos of Europe in the 1970's that form the real life settings of A Signal Waves.
About the Author: A year after graduating from college with a BA in Political Science with a minor in international law, Bill began his working-career in the fast-paced world of Manhattan in International Marketing while his new bride Holly worked on Wall Street in investment banking. Four years later they exchanged their lucrative careers and Park Avenue address for an expat's life in Europe... And were not disappointed by what they found there. From harvesting grapes alongside Spanish migrants workers in Narbonne, France to climbing in the Pyrenees Mountains, they traveled on through Spain, France, Italy, and Yugoslavia before returning and settling down in Vermont where they renovated an old mountainside farmstead and began their family. Bill and Holly currently live in Portland, Oregon where Bill writes when he is not biking, hiking or working in their large garden... And of course, where Bill is currently busy working on his next big novel, set in Vermont in the 1980's and due out in December 2016. Valentine's Day, a short story pulled from his upcoming novel, was published by the Saturday Evening Post in their anthology; Best Short Fiction of 2016. More information about the writer's life including photos and vignettes from their travels, you can go to the author's website, Haydenwrites.com.