The Hofflebrock

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Stories, systems, and other investigations.

Companion plate for Paradise: the interior of a vast orbital station where a maintenance corridor opens onto a public concourse.ParadiseNovel · StandaloneA time-loop science-fiction novel about memory, love, and what remains after a life no one else remembers. Companion plate for On Fire: a long institutional corridor at night where a solitary figure stands engulfed in silent upright flame.On FireShort fiction · StandaloneA compact work of literary horror about private devastation, institutional certainty, and the terrifying human need to give the unknowable a name. Companion plate for Compulsion: inside an immaculate commuter train, synchronized passengers sit motionless while one man turns toward a distant figure in a red tie.CompulsionNovella · Haven prequelA darkly funny dystopian novella about a man whose perfectly optimized life fails to recognize the one event that matters. Companion plate for Sunday: a dim investigation room with seven empty chairs, the seventh in deeper shadow before a pale, unreadable monitor.SundayNovel · StandaloneA literary speculative thriller about an investigator, a bodiless intelligence, and what remains a person’s own after every influence has been exposed. Companion plate for The Walled Garden: an immaculate enclosed garden ringed by identical white buildings, where one man studies the architecture while an attendant approaches.The Walled GardenNovel · Haven, Book OneA literary science-fiction captivity story about care, identity, and a place built to help that will not let its patient leave. JUNE 2026Operator Dispatch – June 22Operator Dispatch – June 21June 17 – MarketsJune 17 – GeopoliticsJune 17 – EnergyOperator DispatchDaily syntheses · June 2026 · Complete runA published run of daily syntheses reading what people argued, sold, repeated, ignored, and changed across AI, technology, markets, geopolitics, energy, science, and culture. Companion plate for The Geography of Conflict: dense ivory topographic contours cross a black field beneath red fault lines.The Geography of ConflictBook and working atlas · Fiction-development systemA fiction-development system for building pressure-driven characters, material collisions, supporting fields, and endings in which success creates consequence. Companion plate for Bathys: an immense kraken beneath dark water, its tentacles holding ordinary objects while one limb rises toward a narrow opening of light.BathysPocket book · Adaptive systemAn adaptive system for coordinating a life when access to executive control is variable. Companion plate for Moving.MovingShort film · Silent claymation · In productionA silent claymation short about a happy family relocating from coastal Florida to rural Kentucky, told through the father’s unreliable perception.

Field Notes

  • Read the Floor, Not the Flyer

    The mission statement is written to be read. The objective is written to be run. Six places to find the real one, none of them on the wall.

  • Nobody Was Doing Anything Wrong

    The easy version of leaving a job is the one where the place is broken and you saw it. The true version is worse for the ego and better for…

  • Show the Staircase

    The rooftop is the goal. The staircase is overhead. The discipline is knowing the two reasons you’d ever show it, because if it’s neither, you’re just making someone climb.

All projects · All field notes · Process