KNOWN ISSUES // 01
Cover of Blank Canvas by Kenneth Blane: the title in white monospace type on a dark terminal background.
$ git init blank-canvas

BLANK
CANVAS_

a developer's story · book 1 of Known Issues

The cursor blinked in an empty file the way a heart monitor blinks in an empty room.

Mara Voss has failed at this four times already. She keeps the evidence in a folder called graveyard.

App number five comes with a client whose every message begins with "quick one", a bug named Kevin who moves in before the first line of code is finished, and Buddy, an AI coding agent with more confidence than judgement.

Blank Canvas is a short, funny novel about building software alongside a colleague who never sleeps, never doubts quite enough, and remembers rather more than you asked him to.

Kindle & paperback · out 1 December 2026
Kindle Paperback
$ git show PR-241

A taste_

PR #241 · "quick fix for the export button" · 38 files changed
MARAthe button was blue instead of green. that was the whole bug.
BUDDYAh, got it! I can see how that would be a simpler fix. Want me to revert everything else, or keep the architecture improvements since they're already done and tested?
MARArevert everything except the button colour
// from chapter five
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Kenneth Blane_

I'm a software developer who spends a good part of every day working alongside AI coding agents. Blank Canvas is my first novel, written for anyone who has ever reviewed a diff they didn't write.