The Continuing Time Mailing List FAQ v.3 created by Rob Walsh and Sol Foster Welcome to the Daniel Keys Moran/Continuing Time FAQ, version .3 (Last updated 1/15/2000) This is not a complete version of the information available online regarding DKM. It gives some background and answers the most frequently asked questions (hence the title). It is highly recommended that you visit one of the following web pages for more detail, including list archives, online text (LOTS!), pictures, and more (maybe someday a search engine!) http://www.kithrup.com/dkm http://www.eponymous.com/ender/dkm Many thanks to Sean Eric Fagan and David Silberstein for the pages at kithrup.com -- much of this document is taken from the fruit of their efforts. Most of all, we are infinitely grateful for the efforts of Daniel Keys Moran, without whom the *world* would be a darker place. He has graciously opened himself to the ravages of being available to his fans on this list (and in private email), and he frequently makes pieces of his work available online (whether they are old stories, speeches, pearls of wisdom, rants, or teasers from upcoming books.) Thanks, Dan! I. The Basics 1. Who is Daniel Keys Moran? Daniel Keys Moran (DKM) is an up-and-coming science fiction author. First published in George Scithers's _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_, he achived some prominence with three novels published in close succession in 1988 and 1989. _The Long Run_ reached as high as number three on the Internet Top 100 SF list, and it and _The Last Dancer_ are both still doing quite well in these charts. 2. What is the Continuing Time? DKM's multiverse, _The Great Wheel of Existence_, has a section of universes where the _Time Wars_ rage. The Continuing Time is the one universe in this section where the Time Wars have stopped. The _Tales of the Continuing Time_ is a projected 33-book series dealing with this timeline. 3. So then the Continuing Time mailing list... is for the discussion of DKM's works. (All of them, not just the CT books.) To join the list, send a message with the word "subscribe" in the body (not the subject) to continuing-time-request@ralf.org. You can also send a message with the word "help" in the body for more information. To remove yourself from the list, send a message with the word "unsubscribe" in the body. The address of the list itself is continuing-time@ralf.org. II. The Books 1. Biblography A. Short Stories "Correspondence", with Jodi Moran (*) "All the Time in the World", in _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_, May 1982 "The Gray Maelstrom", in _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_, February 1983 "Realtime", with Gladys Prebhalla, (*) cover of _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_, August 1985 "Given the Game", (*) cover of _Aboriginal SF_, Nov/Dec 1990 "Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale", in _Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina_, Bantam Spectra anthology, 1995; edited by Kevin Anderson. A Star Wars(R) book. (ISBN 0-553-56468-4). "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett", (under the pseudonum J. D. Montgomery) in _Tales from Jabba the Hutt's Palace_, Bantam Spectra Anthology, 1995; edited by Kevin Anderson. A Star Wars(R) book. (ISBN 0-553-56815-9). DKM writes: "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." "Roughing it During the Martian Invasion", in _War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches_ with Jodi Moran; edited by Kevin Anderson. (ISBN 0-553-10353-9). "On Sequoia Time", (*) in _Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_, September 1996. "The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett" in _Tales of the Bounty Hunters_, Bantam Spectra Anthology, 1996; edited by Kevin Anderson. A Star Wars(R) book. (ISBN 0-553-56816-7). DKM says: "_I_ like my story. It's long enough to let me tackle a couple of characters -- Solo and Boba Fett -- in something approaching depth; and Lucasfilm messed with me less on this story than on either of the two previous." "The Star", in _The Tales of the Continuing Time: Emerald Eyes/The Star/The Long Run_, limited edition from Queen of Angels Productions. B. Novels _The Armageddon Blues_, Bantam Books, 1987; (ISBN 0-553-27115-6). _Emerald Eyes_, Bantam Books, 1987; (ISBN 0-553-27347-7). _The Ring_, Bantam Books, 1987; (ISBN 0-385-24816-4). _The Long Run_, Bantam Books, 1989; (ISBN 0-553-28144-5). _The Last Dancer_, Bantam Books, 1993; (ISBN 0-553-56249-5). _Terminal Freedom_, with Jodi Moran, Queen of Angels Productions, 1997. C. Screenplays "A Moment in Time" (*) "The Long Run" (*) "Street Angel" (*) "Another One Bites the Dust" (*) (A screenplay for the series "Dream On" on HBO) D. Upcoming Works _The A. I. War_ (*) _Lord November: The Man-Spacething War_ (*) (*) indicates that all or part of this text is available on-line at the web sites. There is quite a lot of material available on-line -- not just what is noted above. It is well worth your time to at least browse, if not read every word. 2. How do I get old books? Scour the used book stores. Often, list members who find copies will announce them to the list and make them available at cost (plus shipping) to the first interested party. There was some talk of starting a lending list, but nothing ever came of it (raise the issue if you're interested.) DKM has released a limited edition version of _Emerald Eyes_ and _The Long Run_, but it was such a pain in the neck he's not planning to do it again. Phlizkin@aol.com writes: > It was really quite easy....I went to my local Waldenbooks. (Once > in Manhattan, KS...twice in Denver, CO) They had me fill out a card > including the author and title I was looking for. The card was > mailed to the outside locator (don't even ask me to try and remember > the name of that service) and I was notified when the books had been > located. We negotiated a price (including handling.) And presto! 4. Coauthors (in the words of DKM) A. Gladys Prebehalla Gladys was a woman of about my mother's age (her children were all roughly my age), in a writing class I took when I was about 20. She came to me with an idea for a story about an old woman -- "Maggie Archer" -- who was being forced to have a computer in her house; she didn't know where to go with it. I was reading "The Three Musketeers" at the time. The SF storyline is mostly mine; the emotional resonance was mostly hers. We wrote the first draft together; she wrote Maggie, and I wrote D'Artagnan. I did two more drafts essentially on my own, which she then corrected. Where she is today I do not know. Our relationship was more intimate (and I do not mean physically) than was perhaps stable for a 21-year old and a woman in her mid-to-late 40s. The relationship degenerated and finally died. I don't want to be more specific than that; it would be disrespectful and unfair to a woman I remember fondly. B. Jodi Moran Jodi Anne Moran is my younger sister, born March 9, 1964. (Trent's birthday...) She is the author of one novel that is currently looking for a home; "Devlin's Razor." DR concerns the adventures of the Prophet Harry, who is frequently referred to in my novels -- I like to think of her novels as belonging to the Continuing Time, but this is purely my own conceit. If this conceit ever interfered with Jodi's storytelling, she would ruthlessly ignore it ... She is a better natural writer than I am. I plot better than she does, but that's a result of years of study; I am certainly a better editor. But she has a gift for observation, for language, that supercedes mine. 5. Miscellany The series _The Keys to Paradise_ by "Daniel Moran" was *not* written by Daniel *Keys* Moran, but by Robert Vardeman under a pseudonym. You may see _The Flame Key_ in used bookstores next to DKM's works -- this is the first book of the trilogy. I can't say I recommend them. [Thanks to David Silberstein ] III. Plot points (Here Be Spoilers!) 1. How does Trent walk through the wall? Here's what DKM has to say on this: I don't know and I don't care whether Trent walked through that wall. It was specifically set up so that people could think whatever they liked; the material about the holo generators, put there to suggest that Ralf was using them to project a holo of Trent, was added literally at the last minute (long after the bit about Trent walking through the wall) ... I'm glad I did it. My editor, Amy Stout, never even considered the possibility that Trent actually walked through the wall; David Gerrold, a pretty bright fellow, never even considered the possibility that it had been faked -- and that was the response I was looking for. I will say that one argument I've been told about is incorrect. Trent did not cut through the wall with an emblade, and then display a holo of the wall over the hole in the wall. The wall was solid. So ... either Trent walked through the wall, or Ralf animated a holo of him walking through the wall. It's not an accident, BTW, that all that setup regarding the holo theory is there. By the time of _The AI War_, Mohammed Vance has figured out that it was just a holo, and tells Trent so just before killing him. Whether that's a correct deduction or not, I ain't saying. 2. What???!? Vance kills Trent in _The AI War_? But what about those quotes of his from the War with the Sleem (which is scheduled to take place some 30 years after the AI War)? This is the one major published gaffe in the Continuing Time books. Trent was originally slated to survive for a _long_ time, but DKM realized that Trent would come to dominate his work (ala Holmes and Doyle) if he let him live.