Fiction Manifest

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!! 🙅‍♂️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅

These are notes to myself. Because I’m literally just writing everything on the fly serially starting on Jan 8, 2026 —500 words per day; I am a “Pantser!!” 🧐— so this page is a kind of scratch pad to track my progress and chapter/character notes as I get to my 90,000 words. There are absolutely spoilers below, so definitely don’t read beyond this point if you wish to experience the story fresh as it is intended!!

Again, my background is software development and I am super-inspired by Open Source Software (OSS) and its whole “#buildinpublic” mindset which is why I decided to write this novel in public, which I’ve never done. So let’s give it a go!! 🥳🎉 As Robin Sloan says, “work with the garage door up!”

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Preamble/Progress: 11.67%

• #59 | Fiction Project

  • Started: Jan 8, 2026

  • Target finish: Jul 7, 2026 (180 days)

  • Progress: 10,500/90,000 words

  • Days written: 21 days

  • Currently writing: Chapter 4

Part I: The Gathering Storm

Chapter I

• #59.1 | Europe: “All our best days are behind us”

  • Martin Nielsen ~ American cinema ~ Thucydides ~ Europe ascendant

• #59.2 | “Why we must own”

  • Jon Hofstadter ~ The tragedy of Hong Kong ~ A question ~ The Premier League

• #59.3 | “The master plan for Greenland”

  • Churchill ~ Dare greatly ~ Frontier spirit ~ Caring

• #59.4 | “On power”

  • A grim realization ~ A rarified club ~ Eight billion monkeys ~ On power

• #59.5 | “Fame or fortune?”

  • Professor Ilya Kovačević ~ Invention ~ Marie Ryndel ~ Fame or fortune?

• #59.6 | “We do not discard our children, no matter the suffering we know they will surely bring”

  • Beauty ~ A compulsion for truth ~ Heinrik Ryndel ~ Choice and legacy

Chapter II

• #59.7 | “Agent of the Panopticon”

  • LIV Oakleys ~ Binders full of tsunderes ~ Bork ~ Global population collapse

• #59.8 | “In the ballroom at the Jefferson”

  • Maggie Henderson ~ AI's true value ~ Gwendolyn Kostek ~ Jackson Greenwich

• #59.9 | “Money is the universal solvent”

  • Genghis Kahn ~ The importance of imagination ~ Total annihilation ~ Septuagenarians ~ Decades are for losers

• #59.10 | “Senate Judiciary hearing gone wild”

  • Stupid games ~ Damaging children ~ Class A ~ What to do with Greenland ~ Juliana

• #59.11 | “The letter”

  • Teddy's dozen ~ Wind and snow ~ 33 ~ Jesus and Alexander the Great ~ The letter

• #59.12 | “Escalation”

  • The Nordic Wall ~ Surreal ~ ZIRP ~ A developing situation in Ørestad Square

Chapter III

• #59.13 | “Main characters”

  • Masters of the Universe ~ Efficient Market Hypothesis ~ Mecca ~ "What's the worst that could happen?"

• #59.14 | “Back in Zürich”

  • Global world order ~ Cars > Trains ~ 41,000 deaths ~ Swiss neutrality and flexibility ~ Ryndel Corporation ~ EMEA HQ

• #59.15 | “Bärengasse”

  • Heinrik Ryndel ~ One True Loves ~ Cincinnatus ~ Bärengasse ~ Supersonic terror ~ “Money serves us” ~ Time and tide

• #59.16 | “Annual shareholder meeting”

  • Bedlam ~ Class B ~ Ryndel Corporation ~ Ariana Ryndel ~ Eisner Bentham

• #59.17 | “Variable geometry”

  • “The end of rules-based international order” ~ Václav Havel ~ “If we are not at the table, we are on the menu”

• #59.18 | “Big daddy’s goin’ home”

  • Company reorganization ~ Unpaused nuclear programs ~ Big daddy ~ “Make it rain, baby”

• #59.19 | “Reunion”

  • Butterflies ~ Father Time ~ Labyrinth ~ Reunion - Part I

• #59.20 | “Doors”

  • Reunion - Part II ~ Cancer ~ Rosecliff ~ Playthings and afterthoughts ~ Even more sisters ~ Lifetime drama ~ Doors

Chapter IV

• #59.21 | “???”

  • ???

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

Part II

Chapter ??

• #59.?? | “Consequences of Kurdish abandonment”

• #59.?? | “Even kings cannot command the hour”

  • “Shuffled off this mortal coil”

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

Part III

Chapter ??

• #59.?? | “After all this time, despite it all, it’s still you”

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

• TBD

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Characters + Notes (spoilers below)

1. Martin Nielsen

   1. Deputy Undersecretary at Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

   2. Anna - 37 years old

   3. Hanne - 7 years old

   4. Mette - 5 years old

2. Jon Hofstadter

   1. Special diplomatic envoy at the US State Department

   2. President of EMEA and the Americas division at Ryndel Corporation (#59.18)

3. Dr. Ilya Kovačević

   1. Professor Emeritus at the Sorbonne

4. Marie Ryndel

   1. Mom: Lynn (née: ???) Ryndel (Heinrik’s second wife) - died from cancer when Marie was 30

   2. Age: 31

   3. Fair-colored hair

   4. Lynn takes Marie away when Marie is 11 years old. Marie is separated from Ariana for 20 years. They reunite in Chapter 3 (#59.19).

5. Ariana Ryndel

   1. Mom: ??? (Heinrik’s first wife)

   2. Age: 39

   3. Black-colored hair

6. Heinrik Ryndel

   1. Married and divorced five times. Currently single. World’s first trillionaire.

   2. Age: 81

7. Christian “Buckles” Buckley

   1. 39

   2. Cofounder and CEO - LIV Technologies

   3. Wife, Juliana, died in her thirties when he was 38 from cancer (#59.10 + #59.11).

8. Maggie Henderson

   1. Chief of Staff - LIV Technologies

   2. Extreme lightweight: gets tipsy super-quickly after just a couple shots. Likes bourbon (#59.10).

9. Jackson Greenwich

   1. Head of Legal - LIV Technologies

   2. Constantly drinking a “bottomless flask” of whiskey (#59.10).

10. Gwendolyn Kostek

    1. Christian’s “PR fixer” - LIV Technologies

    2. Incredible capacity to consume alcohol (#59.10).