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Meet Dan Ronco
Dan Ronco was sitting in his office at Microsoft,
frustrated by a couple of emerging problems: the increasing number of
virus attacks on his client’s systems and the ongoing litigation with
the DOJ. And, it seemed, just about anyone else who knew an attorney.
The more he thought about these problems, the more
frustrated he became. Dan was General Manager for consulting in the
East Coast, having joined Microsoft after years of leading information
technology consulting practices for other hi-tech firms. Suddenly the
obvious solution hit him – get out of this business and write a novel.
What if a great (fictional) software company lost
an anti-trust lawsuit and was ripped apart by the DOJ? What if the
leaders of this once-great company decided to have their revenge by
building an intelligent, deadly software predator into their flagship
software product? That's the premise of
PeaceMaker, Dan’s first
novel.
Dan has had a distinguished career working with computer
systems in both the scientific and business communities. A cum laude graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology
with a BS in Chemical Engineering, he was awarded a full fellowship
by the Atomic Energy Commission and gained a MS in Nuclear Engineering
from Columbia University. He designed submarine nuclear reactors while
attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at night and earning a second
MS, this one in Computer Science. After that, he served clients in all
parts of the USA, held several technical and management positions and
had a great time as a computer industry insider.
That is … until that day in his office.
Do you really believe a software predator
such as PeaceMaker is coming?
Yes, something like PeaceMaker is inevitable – but
not for at least a decade. Remember,
PeaceMaker is speculative
fiction. No existing software can plan and execute at a level
approaching human capabilities. In my novel, PeaceMaker has the
ability to shut down the host computer, change or destroy data, send
warning messages to its master, destroy hardware and attack anyone
interfering with its objectives. A software predator could be developed
today to perform many of these acts, but not with such sophisticated,
adaptive decision-making abilities; one with PeaceMaker-level intelligence
is still quite a few years away. I set the novel in 2012 because
that's
probably the earliest point such a predator could emerge. The critical
breakthrough is speech recognition and response; once that happens,
we’re on the fast track to the software predator described in
PeaceMaker.
Is PeaceMaker a hi-tech thriller or science
fiction?
Damned if I know. Probably cross-genre, but
it doesn't really matter if you're intrigued by the premise.
PeaceMaker is the start of a series, right?
Guilty as charged. I’m fine-tuning the second book
in what will become a trilogy. Tentatively titled
The Church of Natural Humans,
it’s set in 2022, ten years after the PeaceMaker attack. But I
have to warn you -- this is not a cookie cutter series with basically the
same lead characters repeating a familiar story. It's very
different; a story about
the impact of ... well, you'll see.
The protagonists, Ray Brown and Dianne
Morgan, aren’t your typical lead characters. Why not the flawless,
charming hero and sweet but sexy romantic interest?
Once you read
PeaceMaker, you’ll understand. The
story grows out of Ray’s passions and flaws, as well as those of his
one-time lover, Dianne Morgan. Push Dianne and Ray together and you get
a critical mass; the story takes on a life of its own and pulls us
along. You’ll be surprised by many of the twists and turns.
I leave plenty of clues, but you’ll
never guess the ending. Once you get there, though, you’ll see it had
to be this way; anything else wouldn’t have been true to the characters.
Read what Ray and Dianne
have to say about the situation.
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