Diane Duane

Diane Duane (born May 18, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her works include the Young Wizards young adult fantasy series and the Rihannsu Star Trek novels.

Born in New York City, she grew up in Roosevelt, Long Island. After school, she studied nursing and practiced as a psychiatric nurse for two years until 1976, when she moved to California and worked as an assistant to David Gerrold. Her first novel was published by Dell Books in 1979; Gerrold wrote an "overture" to that novel, on the grounds that he'd rather be making overtures than introductions to Duane. She subsequently worked as a freelance writer. In 1981 she moved to Pennsylvania. She married Northern Irish author Peter Morwood in 1987; they moved to the United Kingdom and then to Ireland, where she resides in County Wicklow.

Duane has worked in television since the early 1980s, initially becoming involved in script work at the Hanna-Barbera animation studio (now Cartoon Network). After writing numerous scripts for such series as Scooby and Scrappy-Doo, Captain Caveman, Space Stars, Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, Biskitts, and Laverne and Shirley in the Army, she moved on to work in development and serve as a staff writer at Filmation, and in 1985 was hired to story-edit the DiC animated series Dinosaucers. During this period she also wrote scripts for Sunbow Productions (Glo Friends, Transformers, and My Little Pony) and Walt Disney Productions (Duck Tales). In 1986, she co-wrote (with Michael Reaves) the script of one of the earliest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Where No One Has Gone Before".

In the early 1990s Duane was brought on board as the head writer on the BBC Television educational series Science Challenge. Shortly thereafter she co-wrote (with her husband) scripts for Batman: The Animated Series and for Gargoyles. She also wrote the screenplay for the 1996 space adventure game Privateer 2 - The Darkening, which starred Clive Owen, Christopher Walken, Jürgen Prochnow and Mathilda May. Other screen work from that period includes the screenplay for the Space Island One episode "Not In My Back Yard" (1998–1999).

In 2003, after doing nearly four years' development work with the production company Tandem Communications of Munich, Germany, Duane and Peter Morwood co-wrote the script for the German TV miniseries Die Nibelungen. The miniseries aired in Germany on the Sat.1 network in late November 2004, and a feature version (titled Sword of Xanten) screened in the UK in December 2004. A "megafeature" cut of the entire miniseries was aired on Channel Four television in the UK in December 2005. The miniseries aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in the US in late March 2006 under the title Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King. The miniseries has also been released on DVD in the US and numerous other markets, under various titles (the previous US title was Curse of the Ring).

Duane was also a co-author of the Barbie movie Barbie: Fairytopia.

An adaptation of So You Want to be a Wizard is currently in the works.

• "Midnight Snack" (Cassette version): Award for Excellence in Education from Media & Methods Magazine, 1987.
• The Door Into Fire: Two-time John W. Campbell Award nominee for best new writer.
• "Young Wizards" series: special commendation in the Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize in Children's Literature, 2003.
• Wizard's Dilemma: Mythopoeic award nominee, 2002.
• Wizards at War: Mythopoeic award nominee, 2006.

• " So You Want to Be a Wizard" got the Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers award, 1984 "Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize: Previous Winners". Archived from the original on 2007-04-11. Retrieved 2007-07-11. In addition to the prize-winning book, the Committee of judges issued a special commendation to the Young Wizard's series by Diane Duane "for its courage in tackling moral and emotional issues set on the frontiers of magic. In addition, the author's diverse worldview enhances the appeal of the series." 
• ^ "Nominees for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award". Mythopoeic Society. Retrieved 2007-07-11.