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You can use this page to email Gerald M. Weinberg about The Quantum String Quartet.
About the Book
In California, Ember, a determined blind girl tries to control her angry heat that mutilated the man who attempted to molest her.
In New Mexico, Bolton, an ingenious, angry, crippled youth mentally reprograms casino computers to finance his toy robot cars and rockets.
Ember runs away to Las Vegas to escape her overprotective father. She meets Bolton, but they rub each other the wrong way.
When Ember is set upon by unknown attackers, they must fake a marriage and use their powers to escape. When they learn of all they have in common, they become friends, but not lovers because of Ember's fear she cannot control her power when sexually aroused.
Meanwhile, in a small city in Iowa, Gina Red-Bear, a beautiful but alienated half-Sioux, half-Swedish girl, mentally controls the emotions of all the people around her. She dominates her wheel-chair-bound twin brother, George, forcing him to use his own cerebral power to synthesize illegal drugs.
Bolton locates George through an ingenious internet search. He leaves Ember for Iowa, where he encounters Gina. She forces him to fall in love.
Ember, intensely jealous, heads for Iowa and meets George, saving him from his sister. In spite of her feelings, she risks exposing her powers to rescue Gina, first from greedy drug lords and then from her own attempted suicide.
The Quartet decides to try to set aside their differences and band together for mutual protection, though that's easy to say but hard to do. All four return to New Mexico, seeking to find others of their kind.
About the Author
I've always been interested in helping smart people be happy and productive. To that end, I've published books on human behavior, including Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, The Psychology of Computer Programming, Perfect Software and Other Fallacies, and an Introduction to General Systems Thinking. I've also written books on leadership including Becoming a Technical Leader, The Secrets of Consulting (Foreword by Virginia Satir), More Secrets of Consulting, and the nine-volume Quality Software series.
I try to incorporate my knowledge of science, engineering, and human behavior into all of my writing and consulting work (with writers, hi-tech researchers, software engineers, and people whose life-situation could require the use of a service dog). I write novels about such people, including The Aremac Project, Aremac Power, Jigglers, First Stringers, Second Stringers, The Hands of God, Freshman Murders, Where There's a Will There's a Murder, Earth's Endless Effort, and Mistress of Molecules—all about how my brilliant protagonists produce quality work and learn to be happy. My books that are not yet on Leanpub may be found as eBooks at <http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JerryWeinberg>; on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B000AP8TZ8; and at Barnes and Noble bookstore: http://tinyurl.com/4eudqk5.
Early in my career, I was the architect for the Project Mercury's space tracking network and designer of the world's first multiprogrammed operating system. I won the Warnier Prize, the Stevens Award, and the first Software Testing Professionals' Luminary Award, all for my writing on software quality. I was also elected a charter member of the Computing Hall of Fame in San Diego and chosen for the University of Nebraska Hall of Fame.
But the "award" I'm most proud of is the book, The Gift of Time (Fiona Charles, ed.) written by my student and readers for my 75th birthday. Their stories make me feel that I've been at least partially successful at helping smart people be happy.