The Fifteen Minute Novel is a novel written fifteen minutes at a time with each week day’s section starting with the sentence from the previous day. At least it is attempting to be a novel. For now I am just aiming at one continuous story, worked on for fifteen minutes each day. Started Friday January 1st, 2021 (in case you want to search for the beginning. I can’t wait to see where it ends up. It could be good, or it could be a mess. We’ll have to see. For now, here is today’s fifteen minutes.
Day 119: As he studied it, something clicked into place.
As he studied it, something clicked into place. James could almost see a thread connecting events. “It’s a set up,” he said to himself.
There was a meeting coming up, a project that was important enough that it could spin their company into an entirely new league. His family company was partnering with Cassie’s company for different sections. Final decisions hadn’t been made and the people funding the project had yet to determine who would take point.
“The propaganda in this piece is a like lies on a job interview,” James realized. Now that he saw the events and the time lines for the events he realized they coincided with different aspects of the company prospectus. Cassie and his step brothers were trying to look like they were in tune with the Company, RealNet International.
“Except a step ahead.” James remembered researching the company before deciding whether or not to apply as one of the companies vying to work on the project. There was work to figure out their bid offers on the contract, but his job was not only to see if the company was solvent and could afford to pay the bills but to look behind the corporate curtain and see if they were a company with whom them wanted to do business.
“They went through a section of corporate espionage which ended in a court case,” James recalled. He looked at his whiteboard. There was an incident of corporate espionage on the list of events dealt with. James couldn’t remember the exact time line, but he thought RealNet’s dealings were several months after the listed event in Cassie’s book.
“I wish I could remember the exact dates,” James said.
“Exact dates for what?”
The voice startled James and he jumped, sending the hospital bed he was leaning on rolling back a few inches. He turned to find Tucker standing in the doorway. He held a sack of food from a fast food restaurant in his hand. He held it up.
“Figured you missed dinner.”
“Right,” James said.
“So what do you need exact dates for?” Tucker asked. As the hospital bed was the only flat surface in the room, he walked over and put the bag on top of the folded blanket.
“RealNet’s corporate event’s time line,” James said, seeing no reason not to tell him.
“RealNet,” Tucker repeated
“I investigated them when we were looking into working with them on a project. The time line in the book, sounds like it is set up to mimic their corporate time line.”
“Mimic?”
“Kind of a we went through the same things you did but we dealt with them a little earlier and came out of the event a little better than you.”
“So we can understand you but are still better than you?”
“Pretty much,” James replied.
Tucker looked to the whiteboard and studied it a moment.
Ten til Midnight 