last updated: 27 April 2026
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rethinking & reshaping
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easy town books
In chronological order
book 1
beginning
Alice Adler sets out to convince the US billionaire Tom Holbon to build a town experiment. The aim of the experiment is to rethink — well, everything.
Eventually Tom Holbon agrees to assemble a team of experts who compile a first draft for the town and for the experiments.
The experiments will help the teams to create an environment which will allow humans to thrive.
While the focus is initially on the neurological patient, and everything that is beneficial for the recovering brain, additional features gain importance, such as business ideas and business compositions, town layouts and architecture, ecology and agriculture, the role of arts & crafts in a vibrant town, digital approaches, special gardens such as the Senses Garden or the Challenge Garden, educational squares, work/life balance and job shaking and quite a bit more.
The characters bring their personal stories, and the occasional flare-up, clash and heartache are unavoidable.
Some of the other characters include: Jack, a famous actor, who struggles to find his place in the project. Andy, a talented but kind of insecure programmer, who is responsible for the simulations. And Andy’s two young colleagues Daria and Noel, who are their very own characters. Andy, Daria and Noel become anchors for Alice and are involved in some of the big secrets in the story.
While most of this story takes place at Tom’s estate, and some of it in New York, the team is international from the start, and the overall story connects to all corners of the planet.
e-book, 531 pages, 134k words
pdf file, optimised for mobile phone & tablet
Price: €8.08 (incl. VAT)
ISBN 978-3-00-060915-2
Chapters
The Letter
Beginning
Week 1 — Settling in
Week 2 — Health & Care
Week 3 — Economics & Business
Week 4 — Ecology & Agriculture
Week 5 — Arts & Crafts
Week 6 — Admin & Society
Week 7 — Research & Education
Week 8 — Design
New York
The First Easy Town Conference
Back at Tom’s
Epilogue
Next: book 2, travelling
Coming up: book 3, shaping
Coming up: book 4, building
Author’s notes
About the author
book 2, travelling, part 1
Travelling around the world, Alice and her team build an international network for the Easy Town Project.
Travelling with them are the past, personal demons and unwittingly the issue of sex.
Alice isn’t happy about being on this handshaking mission. She would much rather be with her main team in London and work on the town ideas.
But as each encounter in the different countries adds a challenge, an inspiration or a new question, Alice eventually concedes that this journey is worth all the trouble — and that the experiences will shape the future of the town project.
Besides, Alice enjoys most of the adventures, and her recklessness has the occasional field day.
The first part of the journey takes the travelling team to San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, South Africa and Australia.
While book 1, beginning, introduces the town project, book 2, travelling, places the town ideas in a broader and international context.
book 2/1 includes the chapters:
Prelude, Happy Flying, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, South Africa, Flight to Sydney, Australia, Time off
book 2/1, travelling, offers a recap of book 1, beginning, at the end of the book.
e-book, 509 pages, 128k words
pdf file, optimised for mobile phone & tablet
Price: €9.09 (incl. VAT)
ISBN 978-3-9821289-6-2
Chapters
part 1
1 Prelude
5 Happy Flying
26 San Francisco, California
101 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
176 Buenos Aires, Argentina
242 South Africa
353 Flight to Sydney
402 Australia
477 Time off
Next: book 2/2, travelling
Author’s notes
Recap, book 1, beginning
book 2, travelling, part 2
Refreshed from the holidays in Australia, the travelling team begin the second part of their journey around the world.
However, the visit to China is very different from everything the team have encountered so far, and the following stops couldn’t be more different either.
There are secret meetings, revelations, unexpected adventures, big questions regarding politics, economics, religion and society, the past bubbles up, new ideas take shape, danger keeps closing in, and that’s not even the half of it.
This second part of the journey takes the travelling team to China, Otaon in the Middle East, Romania, Russia and Berlin.
book 2/2 includes the chapters:
Flight to Beijing, China, Otaon, Romania, Flight to Moscow, Russia, Berlin, Afterthoughts, Postscript
book 2/2, travelling, offers a recap of book 1, beginning, and a recap of book 2/1, travelling, at the end of the book.
e-book, 789 pages, 197k words
pdf file, optimised for mobile phone & tablet
Price: €11.11 (incl. VAT)
ISBN 978-3-9821289-9-3
Chapters
part 2
512 Flight to Beijing
555 China
677 Otaon
854 Romania
953 Flight to Moscow
962 Russia
1141 Berlin
1290 Afterthoughts
1295 One more step
Next: book 3, shaping
Author’s notes
Recap, book 1, beginning
Recap, book 2/1, travelling
book 3, shaping
part 1
arrivals & shaping
‘Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our live stream on this mild September morning. Today is the first day of the second phase of our town project.’
This is the beginning of book 3/1, arrivals & shaping.
The first day alone is packed with encounters of all colours and vibes, allowing the reader to dive straight into the heart of the town project and also into the hearts of some of the main characters.
Two weeks later, members from the international teams arrive and add yet more layers to the project and to the connections within the team.
By October all teams ride the waves of enthusiasm, rethinking, shaping and creativity – some clashes included. Highlights are the Yards complex, the Roof Gardens and the stunning town library, the purposefully composed town layout, the contemplations about tourism and community, questions concerning gender, and Halloween.
A project like this doesn’t go unnoticed and both interested people and the opposition allow for some comical and sharp dialogues, placing the project ideas again into the broader context of the outside world.
Two new movies have made it into this part of the story, another one gets a mention again.
And there is more: family ties and demands, dealing with trauma, a princess in distress, playing piano, spies, religions, relationships and still more.
As this book reaches its final pages, some might already sense that the wind is changing, and that some things which have been brewing in the background are about to bubble up.
e-book
132k words
ISBN 978-3-9821289-3-1
Contents
Arrivals
1 September
Straight into the heart of the town project and of some of the main characters
15 September
The arrival of the international teams, royals, spies, toilets & rethinking
Shaping
3 October
big & crossover meetings, shaping key buildings, anchors & a squad
15 October
The opening of the Front House and many callers
31 October
The town layout & composition plus Halloween
book 3, shaping
part 2
entanglements & silences
In the second part of book 3, personal entanglements take centre stage. It is a textbook case of what happens if we can’t, for whichever reasons, talk with each other openly.
Meanwhile the teams complete their final draft for the town, and there is a wonderful chapter with Alice, Andy and chickens. Mind you, Daria bursts the bubble, but Raiden has the idea that gets them back on track – with chickens.
After days of all-teams meetings in the atrium, the plans for the town are finally complete, and Leo’s team send them out far and wide to countries who might be interested in hosting the town experiment.
In the evening, the teams come together for a final and memorable winter party before the winter break.
And then there was silence.
Christmas Eve falls into this silence for Alice.
But the Christmas chapter starts with Andy and in an unlikely place, in a setting, we haven’t seen him in before. With his scene a chapter unfolds which is woven from five different stories and allows glimpses into many more.
I dedicate the Christmas chapter to everyone who has trouble with that night or with all Christmas days. And I hope that the many layers and the very different stories, can bring some soothing and some smiles to many.
After Christmas, Alice, still on her own, is faced with the fact that no one has made an offer for a town site.
The New Year passes, the teams begin to return, and still no offer. That’s when a big question begins to loom above all their heads: Where do we go from here?
Previews on other project websites:
Hub town features on The Hub >
e-book
282 pages, 90k words
ISBN 978-3-9821289-8-6
Contents
entanglements
11/12 November – Decisions
Consequences & entanglements
26/27 November – A dance and a fall
More entanglements, a dance and a fall
2 December – A night shift
concentration, body sensations, the town plans, experiments, chickens and millions of eggs
And then there was silence
14-16 December – And then there was silence
last days, photo sessions, parents, a winter party, departures, silence
24 December
Christmas Eve, travelling, family, racism, expectations, coping with Christmas, closed doors, homelessness, grief, many glimpses into many stories
28 December – At the piano
There was silence and it felt like kicking, candles, songs, surprises
6 January – A new year
A cliff, Oh, oh, oh, testing, punching, a talk and others, a win and ambiguity, tourism and new worlds around every corner
book 3
shaping
part 3
Where do we go from here & decisions
Returning to the project from their winter break, the teams bring back many new ideas for the town. This sort of helps them to deal with the fact that the future of the project hangs in the balance.
An unexpected event shakes the teams to the core and a crisis between Alice and Tom deepens as the end of January looms, the day when the future of the town project will be reviewed.
The 31 January is a hard day, but at the end of it, the team emerge with a new vision.
Two weeks later, we see how that vision unfolds and how differently the main characters deal with it.
As Tom and Alice clash over the future of the project again, a new, unexpected and secretive player enters the stage and asks for a meeting.
Alice, Jack, Andy, Farid and Security agree to the meeting, eventually. But whomever they might have expected, it was not this person, nor the other one.
There is some kind of game involved, but in the end, the new players offer the project land for the town.
The next day, Alice and some of her team take a look at the proposed site.
Alice is not the only one who wonders what to make of this offer, though it is Andy who goes on a full meltdown of anger and opposition.
But by the time, Alice takes her decision, things have happened, she never expected.
Previews on other project websites:
Tree, sun, attack on The end of all wars >
e-book
295 pages, 97k words
978-3-9821289-2-4
business ideas, books
dot.story
Edinburgh, Tunis and the world
A story illustrating the ideas for dot.
Rethinking business practices was the starting point for dot. The dot.story illustrates that an approach which empowers creators and craftspeople as well as communities is possible, sustainable, and luckily, also fun.
The story starts with Leathan, a young designer in Edinburgh, who begins to work with dot. at a time when the local dot.station is in trouble. Together with Calli, a local dot.designer who takes him under her wings, they come up with an idea for the Edinburgh festivals in August. An idea that gets everyone talking — and laughing, and that might turn the dot.station’s fate.
That is the beginning of the dot.story.
As the story proceeds other locations and characters take centre stage, and each of them illustrates aspects of the workflows and dynamics within dot., and in the process the story spans the net across the world, brings creatives and craftspeople from around the globe together, and interweaves the individual stories.
The main locations of the story are: Edinburgh, Scotland; Tunis, Tunis; Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ghent, Belgium; Panama, Panama; Nairobi, Kenya; Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand; New Orleans, US; and Colombo, Sri Lanka.
And the characters — well, they are from all corners of the world, connecting the dot.story to over a hundred countries, regions and locations.
The dot.story in numbers: 29 stories from 14 locations intertwined with each other and connecting to over a 100 countries, regions and locations. Also included are over 70 fashion ideas, nearly 30 ideas for new fashion collections, over 25 ideas for innovations, nearly 15 additional ideas for dot.stations, and 7 additional ideas outside the above categories.
For more see the dot.website >
ISBN 978-3-9821289-1-7
e-book
dot.story
268 pages, 69k words
dot.appendix
77 pages, 13k words
2 files pdf files, optimised for mobile phone & tablet
- dot.story & appendix
- dot.tour
Views from around the universe
The end of all wars
planet one, the roots of war
Have you ever wondered how the people of other planets deal with war?
You can find out now! The end of all wars is the first of a collection of testimonies of planets who managed to end all wars — and that for good.
The first story, planet one, digs into the roots of war and follows a group of thinkers who try to understand what makes us resort to violence.
The group have to face the odd challenge anyway, but their biggest challenge, towards the end of the story, is to leave the safety of their hiding place and to take their findings to a world steeped in wars and destruction.
This is the beginning of a project which aims at inspiring us to end all wars — for good.
e-book, 192 pages, 41k words
pdf file, optimised for mobile phone & tablet
For more see the website The end of all wars >
ISBN 978-3-9821289-0-0
coming up
book 4, building
part 1
Campaigns for Our Future
& getting started
The town project have been offered an incredible site for the town and that by a powerful person. The only catch is that the uninterested government of the country in question needs to approve the project and the experiments, and that within six weeks, or the offer will expire.
What follows is a breathless account of how the project teams put together campaigns for the future on our planet to convince both the government and the public to support the project. At the same time another project team prepares everything near the construction site so that building the town could start without delay.
Because the campaigns in this story are so relevant, I publish an early draft chapter by chapter to make the ideas accessible to everyone who works for the future of our planet.
You can find all published chapters on the easy town books website >
Previews on other project websites:
Campaign empowerment on Views from around the universe >
e-book
towns & cities with a purpose
What if towns had a purpose, a mission, a focus? Something to aim for?
These questions were not on my mind when I started to make notes for Easy Town. Then, my questions were: How to improve the recovery process for neurological patients? And how could the relatives and friends of patients be supported in such difficult times?
But as I kept working on the ideas for Easy Town, and later started to write the easy town books, more town ideas emerged, and at their core are these questions: What if a town had a purpose, or a mission, or a focus? Or something to aim for?
By now more than 77 town ideas are on my radar, and I will publish the first 77 in the collection Towns & Cities with a purpose.
This collection has become a journey into what is possible if we allow for new ideas, and if we do some rethinking.
And it seems to me that every single one of these town ideas has advantages over towns which simply house people, or guard the memory of some dead person or some historical event or some old church.
The towns presented in the collection would not only be alive, they would create, inspire, thrive and live, I guess.
For more visit the website: https://www.towns-and-cities-international.org/
