'The World'

By Dan Ronco

Daphne Hayden, DNS News Anchor, interviews Dan Ronco in 2012 regarding Unholy Domain, his visionary novel. Ms. Hayden appears as herself in both PeaceMaker and Unholy Domain.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: I've found your biography online at Dan Ronco, and I know you have not one, but three degrees: Chemical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering and Computer Science. Why so many?

DAN RONCO: It's my nature. I'm never satisfied, always looking for the next challenge. My career has been like that, too. First I designed nuclear reactors, next I became a Partner in a huge accounting and IT consulting firm, then President of a small software company and finally a General Manager with Microsoft.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: So how did you go from technology guru to writing a novel?

DAN RONCO: After more than two decades in the IT business, I felt that it was time to do something else. Although I loved working at Microsoft, 70 hour weeks and heavy travel take a toll. Besides, I had been thinking about writing a novel for years, but hadn't made much progress. It was time to choose. So I left my job and concentrated on writing.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: You're much better looking in person. Trash that photo on the cover of Unholy Domain.

DAN RONCO: Well, I was trying to look author-ish. Guess it didn't work.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: In your first novel, set in 2012, PeaceMaker a Windows-like operating system is infected with an intelligent virus, leading to a shutdown of computers across the globe. With Windows computers so widely used, could this really happen?

DAN RONCO: Software terrorism is already a threat, and it will grow over time. Every time a new virus attacks Windows, someone has to detect and report the problem, programmers have to develop and distribute a fix, and millions of users have to apply the fix. A relatively slow process, but it works as long as the virus isn't too destructive, doesn't spread too fast (or secretly) and doesn't evolve too rapidly (the fix won't work if the virus can change tactics). In PeaceMaker, I envisioned a fictional virus attack that exceeded these parameters. At some point within the next decade, a terrorist may be capable of launching such a sophisticated attack.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: PeaceMaker and Unholy Domain have been touted as the first two books of an anti-technology trilogy. Is that true? What are the books about?

DAN RONCO: My stories dramatize the question: how much technology is too much? The first novel, as you know, illustrates the consequences of a runaway, lethal computer virus. My new novel, Unholy Domain, set in 2022, considers the meaning of being human as artificial intelligence begins to approach human intelligence. It takes a hard look at what I believe will be accelerating conflict between science and religion. The last book of the trilogy, set in 2025 and tentatively titled Tomorrow's Children, considers the risks and benefits of genetic engineering.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: You didn't really answer my question. Don't your books warn against the continuing growth of technology?

DAN RONCO: It's clear to me that the exponential growth in technology over the next two, three decades will bring incredible change to our society, possibly beyond our ability to cope. Whether that's anti-technology, well, I'll leave it for the reader to decide.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: Scientists and the clergy are already in conflict over issues such as evolution, homosexuality and abortion. You believe it will get worse?


DAN RONCO: Without a doubt.
Consider a few emerging issues. Should we enhance capabilities such as intelligence, athletic ability, beauty or health through gene manipulation or artificial components? If so, who gets the enhancements? Should human cloning be permitted? Should an intelligent robot have the same rights as a human? Does God care if we evolve into a new species? Should we allow artificial intelligence to approach and possibly surpass human intelligence? These issues will shake the foundation of organized religion as never before.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: I see what you mean. Complex issues, no easy solutions. Must the novels be read in chronological sequence? Do you have to be an engineer to understand the technology in the novels?

DAN RONCO: First and foremost, I wrote the novels to entertain a reader who enjoys thrillers or science fiction. If you can use a computer, you will have no problem with the technology in my stories. Although the novels are all consistent with each other, each is a self-contained story. You can read them in any sequence, so just start with the one that most appeals to you.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: How long did it take to write your novels?

DAN RONCO: Including research, I have been working on the trilogy for about eight years. Not full-time, but I try to write three to four hours per day on average. Tomorrow's Children will be complete in a few months, so I have dedicated a big chunk of my life to this work.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: What lessons have you learned as a writer, and what changes would you make if you could start over?

DAN RONCO: When I started, I had no idea how difficult it is to write well. I thought that once you had the concept for the story, the words would just tumble out of your mind onto the page. Man, was I wrong. Every word in your story must have a reason to be present, and it must convey the right shade of meaning. Extremely difficult, but what a feeling of satisfaction when you get it right.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: The women in your novels are highly unusual to say the least.

DAN RONCO: I knew we were going to get into this.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: Don't get alarmed, I think it's a good thing. Your female characters are beautiful, smart, tough and physically strong. I particularly like Darlene Duboski, DoubleD as you call her. How did you come up with this amazing woman?

DAN RONCO: DoubleD isn't really that unusual, if you think about it. She’s the culmination of a long-term evolution. Today's females are bigger and more athletic than previous generations. Go to any workout facility and what do you see? Plenty of women. And not just doing aerobics, either. Pumping iron, pushups, building their strength against all manner of exercise machines. They're dropping baby fat and showing off lean, hard muscles. Not that they are becoming bodybuilders (although some do), but they are not the women of your mother's generation either.

Drive around town and you'll certainly come across a jogger. What's the gender most of the time? And she's probably setting a fast pace, too.

Muscles are no longer solely a masculine domain. Check out the ladies playing basketball or tennis, let alone the boxers. Not a wimp in the bunch. Title IX has opened the door for women to excel at sports, and they are succeeding. You want to see Serena Williams or Mary Pierce getting ready to serve a cannonball at you? I don't. That doesn't mean today's women aren't as beautiful or sexy as previous generations. I think they look better, actually, with their lean, athletic figures.

DoubleD — and many of my female characters — are based upon this new model of femininity. They are just as tough and smart as the men, and they don't take a backseat to anyone. Damn sexy, too.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: Kudos to you! I couldn't agree more.

By Angela Booth

Among writers, there are often arguments about writer's block and whether it even exists. However, all writers will experience it at some stage. Here's how to handle it.

Writer's block manifests itself on a continuum which ranges from mild resistance to writing at one end, to the complete inability to even think about writing at the other end.

If you're experiencing resistance to writing, it's the mild form of writer's block. It often happens when you're missing a step in the writing process. For example, you may not know enough about a subject to be able to write about it with authority. Do more research, and you'll become enthusiastic and your block vanishes.

At the extreme of the continuum, when you're completely unable to write, it's because your life has changed in a fundamental way and you're highly stressed. You need to accommodate the changes, and get yourself mentally healthy enough so that you can write. With this debilitating form of writer's block, therapy can help, because such a block is often part of depression.

We can't deal with extreme writer's block in a short article, but there's a method to manage milder forms of writer's block.

Writing Resistance - Managing your Writer's Block

If you're not writing, it's important that you don't try to confront your resistance head-on. Chances are you've tried that, and the more you try to write, the more you sit staring at the computer screen wondering what's wrong with you.

Here's a four step process which I've used, and have recommended to other writers. It's worked for us, and it should work for you.

1. Don't Write at All for a Week


The first step is acceptance. Just
accept that at the moment, you can't write, and give yourself a break from writing for a week. Put off deadlines. Write email messages, but let all your other writing go.

Think of your writer's block as a form of writing flu. You're sick, but you're healing, and you'll feel better in a week.

2. Go on a Trip, Take Your Pen

The old saying, "a change is as good as a rest" is true. On the weekend, take a trip. It can be a short trip, but go somewhere you've been meaning to go. If possible, go alone. Take a camera, and a notebook. You don't have to write, but take some pictures.

3. Accept Your Fear

During this self-imposed writing drought, you'll experience many emotions: fear, guilt, anger, and apathy. Although they're unpleasant, these emotions are good for you - they're a sign that you're releasing your resistance. So don't resist the negative emotions: allow yourself to feel them. Breathe deeply, and the surges of emotion will pass.

4. Get out of Your Head and Into Your Body

Emotions arise in your body, and trigger thoughts. Try to stay with the sensations in your body: the feeling of the emotion in your body - the tightness in your chest, the hollow pit in your stomach, the heaviness on your shoulders.

Take deep breaths, and allow the feelings to pass - don't get caught up in your thoughts about the feelings.

When you begin to experience the surges of emotion in your body, your writer's block is almost over. These surges are what you've been repressing: they form your writer's block. There's no way to release them except by feeling them fully, and letting them go.

At some time during the week, after the strong emotions subside, you'll feel like writing again - you've recovered from the writing disease.

By Daniel Millions

A research proposal is a bit similar to a project proposal. Most students and researchers themselves do not know what the meaning of a research proposal is but they do know everything about its importance.

A research proposal is a document written to convince others that you have a research project and you have the work plan to complete that particular project Leaving aside the area where you are researching, the proposal must fulfill some of the questions which are unique for that proposal: Here are some of the basic components of a research proposal.

(1)What are you planning?
(2)Why do you want it to be done?
(3)Which technique will you be using?
(4)Why that specific technique?

One should take notice of the fact that the proposal that you are writing should be done in such a manner that the one who is reading that proposal should be able to understand it completely. There should be enough knowledge and information presented of the general issues taking place. The writer must step forward and take command over his or her own literature. The research thesis should only be approximately 300 words. One should also know how to frame their research question as it is one of the most difficult tasks in research

Proposal: To write a good and unique proposal you should have unique ideas and have a great level of understanding of that field. An introduction should also be written that will grab the attention of the researcher .One very important step is literature review. There are also good chances that you are writing this for a person who may already be a specialist.


Now here are some common problems
that could arise while writing a Research proposal. Before writing the proposal you should think in advance about the different kinds of problems you may face while writing the proposal. Most people are caught off guard! For example, texts might be unavailable, internet sites might be down or no longer available, books may be checked out etc. The description of the proposal-is very important. The project that is being completed by us should have the details of what kind of research you will conduct to complete this project.

For example: reading, newspapers, internet engines, personal interviews, etc. Also state the significance of the proposal. You should put up in your proposal why it is worth considering and for this you will have to answer a number of questions.

What do you hope to learn from it? Who might you decide to share your findings? Will it be published some day also, the background of the proposal? .etc. You should also share your background about any previous researcher that's been done and how did you generated interest in it.

They may ask what has led you to do more research then them. A proposal is a qualitative research A research proposal normally has a few aspects (researches) i.e., qualitative and naturalistic .etc, But here under research proposal one is the qualitative research aspect.

The purpose of this section is to introduce you to the idea of qualitative research. How it is related to quantitative research and give you some major types of qualitative research data, approaches and methods. Things to be avoided in a proposals: broad topic areas, vague descriptions and so on. These are just some of the steps to research proposal writing if one keeps in his/her mind he can prepare a winning proposal.

By Daniel Millions

Here is a quick how to guide on the research writing process. I will break it up into parts using a standard research writing method. This may not be for everyone. Certain subjects require specific information that may not be covered in this article. Overall though I think the knowledge found here will prove itself useful.

Topic: If you needed to do a research paper about stars specifically, you may also need to include information throughout about outer space in general. You're going to have to research gravity, solar systems, planets, constellations, star types, solar systems and galaxies just to have a basic understanding of astronomy. Dealing with what has been observed opposed to theories is the best option when writing about scientific research. However, you may be asked to write about both.

Research: Now that we have decided on a topic it's now time to do some research. A few places you can research are the library, internet, magazines, television and professionals. Now, when I say professionals I simply mean people who have hands on experience in dealing with that particular topic.

There may be a professor at your local college who may be willing to sit down and have a discussion with you. If the opportunity presents itself to speak with someone, remember to take notes. They may even be open to you recording the conversation(s). In any event make sure you document your findings so you can verify them later. If you don't do the research about the topic you are writing about, it will show in the final draft.


Compiling Data: Assuming you have gathered all of the research required for your paper,
it's now time to review and compile it all. The best thing to do is to put everything in order for easier access. Lay everything out and review each piece to determine what you want to keep and what you want to discard of. Take notes and quote each source along the way. If you obtained a certain point out of an encyclopedia for example, make sure you have the volume and page number to go along with it.

This will make writing your draft easier and take up less time. Double check everything to make sure your sources are legitimate. You may want to go the extra mile and places some phone calls or e-mails with the sources to verify them. That way you can be confident in what you are writing is actually accurate.

Writing: We have covered choosing a topic, research and compiling our data, now it's time to begin writing. Have a few snacks close by if you know you will be writing for a few hours. Consider this your rough draft but write it as if it were the final draft. When you write a point that requires a source, make sure you find them in your notes and list them.

The more documentation you can provide in the paper, the better it will appear. After you have completed the rough draft take some time off and relax. Once you have proofread it, make the areas of your document that you can approve upon. Make any and all revisions and proofread it again. Check for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors and revise it once more.

When you feel you have the paper the way you want it, have others read it for feedback. You may need to revise it several times until it is complete. After all of this has been completed then you will be done with your well written research paper.

By Simon Barrett

This is James Ross' first exploration into the literary world, and he should pat himself on the back for producing a very well designed and executed story. I like my heroes heroic and my villains villainous, and Ross delivers.

Being a book reviewer, I maybe treat reading a little different from most people. I pick up a book, check the number of pages, the typeface, and font size. Lifetime Loser based on my reading criteria looked like a two, or at most 3 day adventure.

How wrong I was, it took me over a week to read this book. The plot lines are intricate, and the character development intricately and cleverly handled. I knew I was in trouble when at the end of my first day of reading I had barely scratched the first 50 pages. I took some time out to think about this shocking statistic. It wasn’t that I had lost my touch at the art of reading, it was just that there was so much detail that was so well written, it took time to assemble and file the information.

OK, I suppose you want to know what the book is about?

Our hero is J. W. Schroeder (aka J Dub), we meet him as a young man who has a flair for the game of golf, his father having taught him all he can about this gentleman’s game. J Dub has a chance to make it to the big league, a player on the PGA. One momentary lapse of concentration wrenches defeat from the jaws of victory, and J Dub loses his
opportunity. What next for this young man and his pregnant wife? A life giving golf
lessons at the local driving range?

J Dub's angel comes in the form of one Lewford E. Zerrmann. Lew is a 'land man' and has recently purchased a rather run down golf course, he needs someone with a knowledge of the game to run it for him. Better still, because Lew is such a nice guy he will offer a partnership, J Dub can have have 20% of the business, and a first option to buy should J Dub wish to become a sole owner.

15 years elapse, and about the only thing J Dub knows for sure is that his partner is no gentleman, he has no people skills, and seems to be hell bent of driving customers away. The golf course on the other hand is a popular spot, cash flow is great, yet their never seems to be any money left in the bank after expenses have been paid.

As the relationship becomes increasing strained J Dub is forced to start looking around, and talking to people. What he hears and sees does not make for a pretty picture. He must know make a decision, to walk away from 15 years of sweat equity or stay and fight?

This is a great book, it has murder, swindles, forgery, tax evasion, pretty much everything you could want in a great read. Lew has all of the social skills of Rattle Snake, while naive J Dub plods gently along at his own pace. In a David Vs. Goliath battle who will win?

I will not give the intricacies of the plot away, and neither will I spoil the ending, but I will whet your appetite with the fact that the ending will come as a big surprise.

You can pick up your copy from Amazon.