Daniel Keys Moran

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Daniel Keys Moran (born November 30, 1962), also known by his initials DKM, is a computer programmer and a science fiction writer. He was born to Richard Joseph Moran and Marilynn Joyce Moran. He has three sisters, Kari Lynn Moran, Jodi Anne Moran and Kathleen Moran.

A native of Southern California, he once lived (with his former wife Holly Thomas Moran) in North Hollywood. DKM, his third wife Amy Stout-Moran, and their sons Richard Moran and Connor Moran, along with Amy’s two daughters and one son live in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. All of DKM’s books, and many of his short stories, have been dedicated to one or more of these family members.

Daniel Keys Moran had ambitious plans for a 33 volume series, The Tales of the Continuing Time, of which three novels have been published. He is also the author of several short stories and essays, some of which were featured on National Public Radio. Moran withdrew from SF fandom around the turn of the 21st century, but he still maintains an active presence on his Lakers Talk site.

In early 2005 he lost his vision in one eye to wet macular degeneration.^[1]

Contents 1 Bibliography 1.1 The Great Wheel of Existence 1.1.1 Human/Praxcelis Union 1.1.2 The Continuing Time 1.1.3 The Sunset Strip 1.2 Other stories 1.2.1 Star Wars 2 Concepts in the Continuing Time 2.1 The Crystal Wind 2.2 Images 3 Co-authors 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] The Great Wheel of Existence

The multi-verse in which most of DKM’s work is set.

• “The Gray Maelstrom” — Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Vol. 7 No. 2 (whole no. 62) February 1983. Story art: John Pierard.

[edit] Human/Praxcelis Union

1. “All the Time in the World” — Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Vol. 6 No. 5 (whole no. 52) May 1982. Story art: Laura Buscemi/Artifact.
2. 

   

   Stepping through a “doorway” in The Armageddon Blues
   The Armageddon Blues — Bantam Spectra paperback (1988-04-01). ISBN 0-553-27347-7. Cover art: Jim Burns.
   • The Armageddon Blues — Quiet Vision Pub. hardcover (2001-04-01). ISBN 972-1-57646-576-5.^[2] Jacket design: DKM.
   • The Armageddon Blues — Quiet Vision Pub. tradepaper (2002-06-01). ISBN 1-57646-637-X. Cover design: DKM.
3. “Realtime” with Gladys Prebehalla — Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Vol. 8 No. 8 (whole no. 81) August 1984. Cover art: Hisaki Yasuda. Story art: Ron Lindahn.
4. The Ring — Bantom Doubleday hardcover (1988-10-01). ISBN 0-385-24816-4. Jacket art: Shusei. Jacket design: Jamie S. Warren.

based in part on a screenplay by William Stewart and Joanne Nelson.

[edit] The Continuing Time

1. Emerald Eyes — Bantam Spectra paperback (1988-06-01). ISBN 0-553-27347-7. Cover art: Paul and Stephen Youll.
   • Emerald Eyes — Quiet Vision Pub. hardcover (2001-06-01). ISBN 1-57646-577-2. Jacket art and design: DKM.
   • Emerald Eyes — Quiet Vision Pub. tradepaper (2002-06-01). ISBN 1-57646-638-8. Cover art and design: DKM.
2. 

   

   The PKF chase Trent in The Long Run
   The Long Run — Bantam Spectra paperback (1989-09-01). ISBN 0-553-28144-5. Cover art Jim Burns.
   • Emerald Eyes • “The Star” • The Long Run — Queen Of Angels limited edition^[3] hardcover omnibus (1998-08-01). Jacket art and design: DKM.
     “The Star” is a new short story set between the two novels, and is also included in the Quiet Vision printings of Emerald Eyes.
   • The Long Run — Quiet Vision Pub. hardcover (2001-08-01). ISBN 1-57646-578-0. Jacket design: DKM.
   • The Long Run — Quiet Vision Pub. tradepaper (2002-04-01). ISBN 1-57646-639-6. Cover design: DKM.
3. The Last Dancer — Bantam Spectra paperback (1993-11-01). ISBN 0-553-56249-5. Cover art: Manuel Pérez Clemente Sanjulián.
   • The Last Dancer — Quiet Vision Pub. hardcover (2002-03-01). ISBN 1-57646-579-9. Jacket art and design: DKM.
4. Players: The AI War — (written, but unpublished — first three chapters available on-line at the semi-official DKM fan site)
5. Lord November: The Man-Spacething War — (believed to be written, but unpublished — first two chapters available on-line at the semi-official DKM fan site)

[edit] The Sunset Strip

1. Terminal Freedom — with Jodi Moran. Queen Of Angels hardcover (1997-03-01). Jacket design: DKM.
   • Terminal Freedom — with Jodi Moran. Quiet Vision Pub. tradepaper (2002-02-01). ISBN 1-57646-643-4. Cover design: DKM.
2. In Cool Blood — with Jodi Moran. (unpublished)

[edit] Other stories

• “Given the Game” — Aboriginal Science Fiction. Nov.–Dec. 1990 (No. 24). Cover and story art: Charles Lang.
• “Hard Time” — Story, with Lynn Barker. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, episode 4×19. (1996-04-15).
• “On Sequoia Time” — Asimov’s Science Fiction. Vol. 20 No. 9 (whole no. 249) September 1996. Story art: Steve Cavallo.
• “Roughing it During the Martian Invasion,” — with Jodi Moran. War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches anthology, edited by Kevin Anderson — Bantam Spectra paperback (1997-05-05). ISBN 0-553-10353-9.
• A series of commentaries for NPR Sirius’ The Way In, airing in 2001:
  • “The Road Goes Everywhere”
  • “A Freeway in My Back Yard”
  • “The Vast and Endless Sea”
  • “It’s Great to Be Me”
• As of 2006-02-22, Moran was working on a couple of books (Symphony in Black & The Hotel California) in the vein of Travis McGee.

[edit] Star Wars

all three short stories below were published in Bantam Spectra paperback anthologies, edited by Kevin J. Anderson, with cover art by Stephen Youll.

• “Empire Blues: The Devaronian’s Tale” — Star Wars: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (1995-08-01). ISBN 0-553-56468-4.
• “A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett” — Star Wars: Tales from Jabba’s Palace (1996-01-01). ISBN 0-553-56815-9.

Published under a pseudonym, about which Moran had the following comment on his website. — “Editorial changes that were unacceptable to me were made to ‘A Barve Like That,’ which is why the ‘J. D. Montgomery’ pseudonym, but on balance it is perhaps not a bad story, and I won't disown it if people understand that the final product is only perhaps 80% mine.”

• “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” — Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters (1996-12-01). ISBN 0-553-56816-7.

[edit] Concepts in the Continuing Time

Daniel Keys Moran’s Continuing Time stories cover an abnormally large number of standard SF/F themes and story devices. There are multiple universes, time travel, cyberpunk (written long before it was called cyberpunk), alien invasions, martial arts, dance, paganism, the politics of world government, an interesting twist on non-violent protest, and any number of everyday technologies that were unheard of in 1985 but are surprisingly common today.

[edit] The Crystal Wind

This fanciful name for the virtual space created by a global network of interconnected computers is Moran’s extrapolation of what the Internet would become. Aside from its everyday uses in his stories it also provides another environment in which good and evil can do battle. Surprisingly, the most significant battle in the series is a fight against excessive governmental control of this fundamental quasi-public space.

[edit] Images

Characters who have a significant presence in the Crystal Wind are called Players, one such is ‘Trent the Uncatchable’ in The Long Run. But when Players ‘Dance’ in the Crystal Wind they can easily incur the wrath of the authorities, corporate entities, or other denizens of the Crystal Wind. All competent Players carefully craft an Image that they use to interact with the virtual world. This Image is a set of customized code that the Player slowly builds and improves over time. Its primary tasks are to filter the overwhelming amount of available data into understandable information, and to put into effect (through complex technical means) the wishes of the Player. In this way, the Player automates as much of the slow human search, analysis, actions and reactions that are much faster using suitably advanced Image algorithms and hardware. In effect, they create a computer version of themselves that requires only occasional input from the slower but more complex Player.

Prior to the beginning of the stories, the aforementioned Trent character spent some years developing an Image called ‘Ralf the Wise and Powerful’. The juvenile nature of the name reflects Trent's youth as he was not yet a teenager at the time. As the events in the stories unfold, it is a seemingly minor point when an eleven year old Trent is forced by circumstance to abandon his Image code in the net. Trent's impressive capabilities are confirmed by the fact that his Image was sophisticated enough to make the leap (with some assistance) to becoming a full sentient AI. As Trent’s Image it was an online representation of his skills, outlook, ethics and morals. As an independent being Ralf closely adheres to his origins, and acts to support Trent in his efforts to serve the greater good according to his pacifistic moral code. It should be pointed out that the Trent character is portrayed as an exceptional Player, perhaps the best ever. After leaving 'Ralf the Wise and Powerful', Trent created (and later semi-merged with) 'Johnny Johnny'.

[edit] Co-authors

Neither of Moran’s co-authors has published independently, and there is little public information about them. However, of that which is known, much of it is stated on a website of his.

Jodi Anne Moran 

DKM's younger sister, born March 9, 1964. She is the author of an unpublished novel, Devlin’s Razor.

Gladys Prebehalla 

A woman approximately the same age as DKM's mother whom he met in a writing class when he was about 20 years old. They collaborated on a story, “Maggie Archer”, about an older woman forced to have a computer in her house

[edit] Notes

1. ^ http://lakerstalk.net/CS/forums/51522/ShowPost.aspx
2. ^ The hardcover printing of The Armageddon Blues only lists an ISBN-13 of 972-1-57646-576-5, but online sellers—AbeBooks, Amazon, etc.—use a 10-digit ISBN 1-57646-576-4
3. ^ While the book itself says it is a limited printing of 1000 copies, only 500 were printed before DKM decided to publish through Quiet Vision Publishing.Limited Edition FAQ

[edit] External links

• Queen Of Angels (archive) — DKM's own site; no longer viable itself
• Semi-official DKM site — Created by fans with DKM's permission (last updated in 2001)
• The Continuing Time mailing list DKM is currently a very infrequent poster ("ct-announce" contains his archived postings through 2006)
• Lakers Talk DKM runs this L.A. Lakers site (and is active on it as “FatSam”)
• Daniel Keys Moran at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database