The Cauldron Stirs in a SF Bonanza
Gene DeWeese was a marvelous man. Brilliant, funny, generous, a pleasure to work with, and one of the most-respected Star Trek novel authors.
I was thankful to call him a good friend. I met Gene a long while ago when I organized a mass book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Wisconsin. I’d been tasked (I think I volunteered, but I can’t remember) to gather a bunch of SE Wisconsin authors for a several-hour event. I’d read a lot of Gene’s books … mysteries, Star Trek, Man From U.N.C.L.E., and he’d appeared in a few of my DAW Books anthologies. I coaxed him to Barnes & Noble, and we hit it off.
Later we’d appear at other book-related events, this usually because he’d been invited to speak and he didn’t want to appear at a function alone. So he’d coax me to join him.
Some years passed and he started to have health problems. A memory issue, mostly, that took forever for a diagnosis to come down: lewy body dementia, a nasty verdict. He was trying to write a sf novel, but couldn’t get things to work. So he passed me a few chapters and a rough outline and asked if I could do something with it.
The endeavor was a wonderful and awful undertaking. Wonderful because the plot was nothing I would have devised on my own, awful because I experienced my good friend falling apart. I’d write chapters and email them to him, and he’d offer comments and suggestions, try to add to it, and have “computer problems” that vexed him because he knew it wasn’t the computer.
One day he called me and said: “My mind is washing away through a sieve.” It was heart-breaking. Other times he would call me because his wife had gone out and he was nervous and just wanted someone to talk to.
Gene was nevertheless brilliant, and we finished the book and called it The Cauldron. I sent the manuscript to Mike Resnick, who told me he was envious of the characters and thought the story stunning.
Yeah, it was awesome ’cause it was Gene’s idea, and he was brilliant. I just put his ideas into words and expanded the book and the brushes with death.
Gene wanted an elephant in it … check.
He wanted a specific circus to play a role, as he’d read a book about the circus and once-upon-a-time watched a performance … check.
He wanted a resort in Indiana … check, but I crafted it based on a Wisconsin fishing resort I used to visit with my dad.
And he wanted to tell me stories about all of his beloved cats. Gene loved cats. I loved listening.
The Cauldron is part of a SF extravaganza book offering Craig Martelle put together. One of many books available for a tiny sum: $7.99 … a lot of books for the price of one paperback.
A Space Adventure Bundle that Is Second to None
Eighteen authors have joined the International Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors (IASFA) in a massive book bundle to send you to the distant reaches of a busy galaxy.
No one knows what waits for us beyond the void of interstellar space. Fantastic landscapes and wondrous peoples. Doing. Living. Just like us but completely different.
Explore those realms with us, places where multiple dimensions exist simultaneously and travel between them takes only a well-disciplined mind. The search for more war by mercenary armies. And so much more…
IASFA Book Bundles are a way for people to discover quality books written by popular authors. You know how it’s always hard to find something good to read? IASFA can help solve that with monthly free book promotions as well as through a massive Book Bundle like this.
https://20bookpacks.com/SpaceAdventure
The Space Adventure Book Bundle! From fantastic worlds to scowling spaceship commanders, from exploration to colonization to alien contact. There is something for everyone and probably your next favorite Science Fiction author can be found right here. We’ve compiled a bunch of hot titles and can offer them in a bundle for much less than a dollar each. Take a look and see what there is to see.
Books included:
Smuggler’s Moon – C.P. MacDonald
High Mountain Hunters – William Alan Webb
Warrior: Integration – Chris Kennedy
Storm Divers – Terry Mixon
Rediscovery – Lisa Silverthorne
Ambassador 1, 1A, 2 Omnibus – Patty Jansen
Safe Passage – Rachel Ford
Ravages of Honor: Conquest – Monalisa Foster
Sticks and Stones: A Trek Novel – Robert Jeschonek
The Cauldron – Jean Rabe and Gene DeWeese
The One: A Cruise Through the Solar System – Eric Klein
The Chara Talisman – Alastair Mayer
It Ain’t Over… – Robert M. Kerns
The Chiral Conspiracy – L. L. Richman
Assassin – Kacey Ezell
Dekker’s Dozen: The Armageddon Seeds – Christopher Schmitz
Slice of Entropy – Lawrence M. Schoen
The Starchild Compact – Robert Williscroft
Dragon Invasion – Craig Martelle & Valerie Emerson
This is a direct sale across all platforms of a massive bundle where the cost is way less than a dollar per title. Once you buy this set, you’ll have access forever.
https://20bookpacks.com/SpaceAdventure
The International Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors (IASFA) is a professional organization focused on aligning readers with authors. We are building the organization that currently numbers over 600 authors published within the SFF genres and growing. Stay tuned as each month we’ll offer full book samplers for free along with less frequent paid book bundle promotions. Help yourself to find your next favorite author. You can sign up for the IASFA newsletter here to find out about our monthly free promotions and our random book bundles. https://iasfa.org/get-free-books/
