This site contains materials relating to the Doctrine of Distance and The Proximity Cycle.

Documents include selected entries from the Encyclopaedia of the Doctrine. Some records are complete. Others have been preserved in partial or amended form.

Readers should proceed with an awareness that not all materials align.

About Rowan Q. Lorne

Rowan Q. Lorne is a writer concerned with the ways institutions shape memory, behaviour, and belief. Their fiction examines the quiet pressures of ordered systems—and the people who slip through their edges.

Rowan is the author of The Proximity Cycle, a sequence set in a regulated Ireland where the Doctrine of Distance governs the terms of human connection.

Alongside the novels, Rowan is developing a companion work: a curated selection of entries from the Encyclopaedia of the Doctrine. These materials—official, redacted, and at times contradictory—offer a closer view of the Ministries, the language of stability, and the fractures that persist beneath it.

This site gathers these strands: the published work, and the evolving archive of the Doctrine’s world.

The Quiet Proximity

In a world ordered by distance, connection is regulated, memory is managed, and every life is measured within its assigned radius. Eoin has learned the rules. Aren has learned to obey them. But when a name lingers where it should not, and a presence returns where it cannot be explained, the quiet certainty of their world begins to shift.

As proximity itself becomes dangerous, even the smallest closeness can break everything.

The Quiet Proximity is the first volume in The Proximity Cycle, a literary dystopia exploring distance, memory, and the fragile boundaries between safety and intimacy.

Support This Work

The Quiet Proximity is published through Lulu.

This is a deliberate choice. I write independently, and Lulu allows that independence to remain intact. Each copy ordered there returns a fairer share directly to me, supporting the time and space needed to continue this work.

Books are printed on demand—produced only when they are needed—so there is no excess stock, and no long gaps between printing and reading.

You may occasionally see the book listed elsewhere. These listings can involved limited availability, extended delivery times, or reduced returns to the author.

If you are choosing where to buy, ordering through Lulu is the most direct way to support the writing behind this project.

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The Quiet Proximity is available through Lulu.
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Invitation

Every world asks something of its reader.

Attention. Patience. A willingness to remain close to what is not fully explained.

The Quiet Proximity is the first entry point into a wider sequence. What begins here will extend, deepen, and return in time.

You are invited to enter, and to remain—at your distance.