Publications
A record of my published work across professional, academic, and fiction writing. Writing has been a consistent thread across my practice — as a way of formalising ideas developed through consulting, of contributing to research, and separately, of doing something else entirely.
Professional Books
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An IT Manager’s Guide to Disaster Recovery – A Layered Approach Jon Pertwee · 2025 This book presents the layered dependency mapping framework I have developed over more than twenty years of disaster recovery consultancy. It addresses a gap that ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, and most standard DR frameworks leave unresolved: how to map the dependencies between IT systems, business processes, and recovery objectives in a way that makes DR plans structurally sound rather than formally compliant. The framework organises DR planning across ten layers; from physical infrastructure through operational processes to organisational governance, and provides practical guidance on dependency mapping, recovery sequencing, team accountability, and plan testing. It is intended for IT managers, infrastructure leads, and business continuity professionals who need recovery plans that hold under real conditions. The methodology formalised in this book is also the subject of a co-authored peer-reviewed paper currently under review. |
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Securing the Cyber Realm – A Comprehensive Guide to Cybersecurity Strategies and Practices Jon Pertwee · 2023 A broad-scope cybersecurity reference covering risk management, threat mitigation, incident response, technical controls, cloud and IoT security, identity management, compliance, and disaster recovery. The book was written as a strategic guide and operational reference, drawing on practice-based knowledge at the time of writing. The disaster recovery chapter in this edition reflects the best practices available in 2023, prior to the formal development of the layered dependency methodology. A revised edition is in preparation to align the DR content with the framework published in the 2025 book. Note: A revised edition is in preparation. The 2023 DR chapter predates the layered methodology formalised in the 2025 book. |
Academic Work
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A Layered Framework for System Dependency Mapping in Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Jon Pertwee & Dr T. Lu · Submitted for peer review · 2025–2026 Under peer review — not yet published This paper introduces the layered dependency mapping framework as a formal academic contribution to disaster recovery and business continuity practice. The framework was developed during consulting work with a large international NGO and addresses a structural gap in current standards: the absence of a systematic approach to mapping IT system dependencies as a core DR planning activity. The ten-layer model provides a structured basis for recovery sequencing, team accountability, and the identification of cascading failure risks. The paper contextualises the framework within complexity theory, arguing that the layered approach reflects properties of non-linear systems and cascading failures that standard DR frameworks do not adequately account for. The paper is co-authored with Dr T. Lu, my MSc thesis supervisor at Arden University. It has been submitted for peer review; publication details will be added here when available. |
Fiction
Writing fiction and writing professionally are, in my experience, more connected than they appear. Both require precision, structure, and the ability to make complex things legible. The following is something else entirely, and also, in its own way, about all of those things.
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The Interdimensional Apology Initiative Jon Pertwee · Published 28 February 2026 For more information, see the book’s dedicated website
When Dean Hollister receives a formal apology for his existence, correctly filed and appropriately stamped, he becomes entangled in a bureaucratic structure vast enough to administer entire universes, yet fundamentally unprepared for someone who asks follow-up questions. The project was not intended to involve humans. This has proven to be an oversight. What follows involves a sentient memo that accidentally founded a religion, a lost property archive containing several missing Tuesdays, a planet whose entire culture is built around administrative fulfilment, an apology so large it required its own department, and tea as the only reliably stable constant in a universe that has stopped agreeing on what day it is. Dean navigates all of this with the weary resilience of someone who has always suspected the universe was badly managed and is now being proven right. Alongside him: Nora, whose mere presence seems to stabilise reality, whether reality has requested it or not; Jillex, who can make the incomprehensible comprehensible, and occasionally wishes she couldn’t; and Korl, an administrator who has a form for everything, deployed with the precision of a wasp’s abdomen around jam sandwiches. Together they will negotiate duplicate Tuesdays, survive mandatory happiness legislation, audit their own closure, and discover that the smallest apologies carry the most weight. The universe does not make this easy. It does, however, provide adequate tea. But this novel is doing something beyond comic science fiction. Gradually, quietly, the story becomes aware of itself. Characters begin negotiating the terms of their own ending. The author is put on trial for losing the plot and formally required to cede control to the manuscript. The paperwork files complaints. Working in the tradition of absurdist fiction that uses bureaucracy to examine what it means to be human, but going further than most, The Interdimensional Apology Initiative collapses the boundary between story and storytelling until the two are the same thing. It is, by any reasonable assessment, adequately written. No apologies are guaranteed. Several are pending. |