More than once, the broken moon would cast through the window a silver light and remind me of independent events yielding to their own momentum and interacting under natural laws while my mind would impose happiness, grief, beauty, ruin, justice and chaos.
Meditation on Space-Time, Leonard Seet
Meditation on Space-Time Quote
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Midwest Book Reviews Recommends Meditation on Space-Time
In its March 2013 issue, Midwest Book Review recommends Leonard Seet’s novel Meditation on Space-Time from Excelsior Publishing, as “a strong pick” with “plenty of humor about life.” According to the review, the novel “follows one man who tries to consider the world around him and considers the very personal side to the universe-spanning question, trying to understand natural laws in an unnatural world.”
Meditation on Space-Time, A Novel (236 pp., tpb, $14.95) portrays a man’s struggle to discover his identity in contemporary society, to sacrifice for his friends and to take the road less traveled. For readers who would eat up the hero’s every morsel of laughter and tear as if each were bittersweet chocolate. While sifting through clues to the characters’ true identities and hidden agendas. The protagonist proclaims “More than once, the broken moon would cast through the window a silver light and remind me of independent events yielding to their own momentum and interacting under natural laws while my mind would impose happiness, grief, beauty, ruin justice and chaos.”
According to David Lentz, author of Bloomsday: the Bostoniad, “Leonard Seet has left no literary devices on the table to narrate his tale…I was enthralled by the pure beauty of the writing among all the plot points. The scintillating writing is elegant, pure, grownup, originally cast, heartfelt, intelligent… The writing is simply breathtaking… brilliant bit of poetic science… If you prefer intelligently crafted novels, then do yourself a favor and by all means read this unforgettable novel by Leonard Seet: the writing is to die for.”
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Mastering Point of View in Fiction
For those who want to understand point of view in fiction, please take a look at an article I wrote for Blogging Authors. Feel free to let me know of other topics that you are interested.
Mastering Point of View in Fiction
Mastering Point of View in Fiction
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Free Poetry Writing Workshop
The George Washington University’s Jenny McKean Moore Free Community Workshop for Spring 2013 will be READING AND WRITING POETRY. Bruce Snider, the author of two collections of poetry, will lead the workshop. The workshops will take place from January 24 to April 26, 2013 on Thursdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
To apply, submit a letter of interest and a 5-10 page sample of your writing. Include your name, address, home and work telephone numbers, and email address. Applications must be received at the following address by close of business on Monday, January 14, 2013. For more information, contact the George Washington University’s Department of English.
JMM Poetry Workshop
Department of English
The George Washington University
801 22nd Street, NW (Suite 760)
Washington, DC 20052
To apply, submit a letter of interest and a 5-10 page sample of your writing. Include your name, address, home and work telephone numbers, and email address. Applications must be received at the following address by close of business on Monday, January 14, 2013. For more information, contact the George Washington University’s Department of English.
JMM Poetry Workshop
Department of English
The George Washington University
801 22nd Street, NW (Suite 760)
Washington, DC 20052
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Creating Memorable Characters
Here is an article I wrote on developing characters in novels and short stories. I hope it will be helpful to writers who are working through the art of the trade. Please feel free to let me know of other topics that you are interested in.
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
David Lentz's Praise for Leonard Seet's Meditation on Space-Time
"Father Lawrence is a complex protagonist: an intellectual man of the cloth with an unwavering faith in God along with a daunting grasp of physics, logic and philosophy. In graceful exposition here is how the modest monk views himself: "I am an imperfect man living in an imperfect world, trying to weave through the chaotic interactions of semi-causal events with linear logic, contradictory emotions, dialectic wisdom, and mortal integrity. On a dark night, I would search Polaris to guide me, but on life’s journey only the internal North Star could lead to that instant when eternity freezes time." The priest's professional work draws him into a complex series of crimes committed by a preacher named Jim Whitfield who is the antagonist representing penultimate evil -- a devil who cannot be killed as he brings waves of misery through the epic deceit upon which he immensely profits. The battle beyond good and evil between the priest and the preacher reminded me of the battle between Crucifer and the teacher in Alexander Theroux's brilliant novel, "Darconville's Cat." In becoming invested in his drive to overcome this satanic force, Father Lawrence understands that his own inherent goodness and worth may become diminished and in the process he risks becoming more like the evil that he seeks to overcome.
The priest yearns through a shift in the logic of space and time to discover an oasis in a grain of sand and so he finds himself dealing with life's grand existential questions on the shore of Thoreau's Walden Pond in Concord: “I had gone to meditate at Walden Pond. That morning, under the rising sun, the water sang and danced to the rhythm of the morning breeze, and the ripples crisscrossed to weave a lattice of light. The clouds drifted in the stream of air. No one else to taint the birches or to corrupt the morning or to smear the lark’s melody. I chanted Veni Creator Spiritus. Peace. Yet, a squall-laden peace. I wanted to search for peace, for kindness, for love in hypocrisy’s rubbles but the desert had opened its arms. I would enter, not hesitating, and choke on the dry air and collapse under the sandstorm. And yet, among the sand dunes rippling into the horizon would sprout an oasis if I could endure and embrace the desert as it had me. These hands and feet of flesh and bone, this heart of fear and hunger, under the sun and in the sand, to seize the fleeting peace at Walden Pond.”
Leonard Seet’s novel is about polar opposites and the dynamics of their conflicts and how these dynamics drive the laws of physics of a compelling, indeed riveting, story line. Leonard Seet has left no literary devices on the table to narrate his tale: people simply aren't who they appear to be, nothing is as it seems, what's done isn't always really done. As much as I enjoyed this story line of Leonard Seet, I was enthralled by the pure beauty of the writing among all the plot points. The scintillating writing is elegant, pure, grownup, originally cast, heartfelt, intelligent: there are dozens of examples of this beauty and here a just a few of the dozen passages that I read and re-read because they were so artfully crafted. Check out this poetic rhapsody from the priest: “Woe and joy to mortals who have tasted heaven, who have seen the dark night, who have encountered THOU. No eyes could gaze the midday sun; no ears could listen to the Siren’s songs; no hands could touch the stove flame. But the brilliance, the sweetness, the warmth.” And this brilliant bit of poetic science: “Bright night surfing upon the crest of a probability wave by a Fourier transform reached Hilbert space the wilderness beyond existence the phantom space of mathematics the mirror world where a kick there would cause a jerk here through sinusoidal ripples in the uncertainty between yes and no space-time emerged from nothing to exist for a million years before returning to the void for another eternity. In the horizon of the next galaxy a positron and an electron mated and gave birth in annihilation to twin photons streaking at the speed of light toward opposite infinities to re-encounter at the other pole of the space-time hydrosphere birth life decay death the cosmic cycle beyond space-time beyond matter-energy beyond I-thou beyond Alpha and Omega.”
The writing is simply breathtaking: Seet gives you credit for being a thinking person, a serious reader, a person of substance and high intelligence. As a Bostonian I reveled in the finely wrought stagecraft of the settings there. This literary novel is layered so that it can be enjoyed by those who simply want a good story and yet it satisfies those who want a book written poetically with substance and a style that is grown-up and intellectually complex enough to open new intellectual avenues. If you prefer intelligently crafted novels, then do yourself a favor and by all means read this unforgettable novel by Leonard Seet: the writing is to die for."
-David Lentz, author, Bloomsday, the Bostoniad
The review is on Amazon under the name Wordsworth and on Goodreads.
The priest yearns through a shift in the logic of space and time to discover an oasis in a grain of sand and so he finds himself dealing with life's grand existential questions on the shore of Thoreau's Walden Pond in Concord: “I had gone to meditate at Walden Pond. That morning, under the rising sun, the water sang and danced to the rhythm of the morning breeze, and the ripples crisscrossed to weave a lattice of light. The clouds drifted in the stream of air. No one else to taint the birches or to corrupt the morning or to smear the lark’s melody. I chanted Veni Creator Spiritus. Peace. Yet, a squall-laden peace. I wanted to search for peace, for kindness, for love in hypocrisy’s rubbles but the desert had opened its arms. I would enter, not hesitating, and choke on the dry air and collapse under the sandstorm. And yet, among the sand dunes rippling into the horizon would sprout an oasis if I could endure and embrace the desert as it had me. These hands and feet of flesh and bone, this heart of fear and hunger, under the sun and in the sand, to seize the fleeting peace at Walden Pond.”
Leonard Seet’s novel is about polar opposites and the dynamics of their conflicts and how these dynamics drive the laws of physics of a compelling, indeed riveting, story line. Leonard Seet has left no literary devices on the table to narrate his tale: people simply aren't who they appear to be, nothing is as it seems, what's done isn't always really done. As much as I enjoyed this story line of Leonard Seet, I was enthralled by the pure beauty of the writing among all the plot points. The scintillating writing is elegant, pure, grownup, originally cast, heartfelt, intelligent: there are dozens of examples of this beauty and here a just a few of the dozen passages that I read and re-read because they were so artfully crafted. Check out this poetic rhapsody from the priest: “Woe and joy to mortals who have tasted heaven, who have seen the dark night, who have encountered THOU. No eyes could gaze the midday sun; no ears could listen to the Siren’s songs; no hands could touch the stove flame. But the brilliance, the sweetness, the warmth.” And this brilliant bit of poetic science: “Bright night surfing upon the crest of a probability wave by a Fourier transform reached Hilbert space the wilderness beyond existence the phantom space of mathematics the mirror world where a kick there would cause a jerk here through sinusoidal ripples in the uncertainty between yes and no space-time emerged from nothing to exist for a million years before returning to the void for another eternity. In the horizon of the next galaxy a positron and an electron mated and gave birth in annihilation to twin photons streaking at the speed of light toward opposite infinities to re-encounter at the other pole of the space-time hydrosphere birth life decay death the cosmic cycle beyond space-time beyond matter-energy beyond I-thou beyond Alpha and Omega.”
The writing is simply breathtaking: Seet gives you credit for being a thinking person, a serious reader, a person of substance and high intelligence. As a Bostonian I reveled in the finely wrought stagecraft of the settings there. This literary novel is layered so that it can be enjoyed by those who simply want a good story and yet it satisfies those who want a book written poetically with substance and a style that is grown-up and intellectually complex enough to open new intellectual avenues. If you prefer intelligently crafted novels, then do yourself a favor and by all means read this unforgettable novel by Leonard Seet: the writing is to die for."
The review is on Amazon under the name Wordsworth and on Goodreads.
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Meditation on Space-Time News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Richard Henderson
rh0188@gmail.com
Physicist-Monk Rejects Salvation to Cast Preacher into Hell
“Meditation on Space-Time is a strong pick for those seeking a metaphysical twist…”
-Midwest Book Review
Either mercy or justice; either salvation or friendship. Either choice: a flawed solution for a fallen man in a broken world.
Even as Father Lawrence was hearing the stranger’s confession, he dreamed of probability waves, black holes and temporal loops. He wanted to look for his friend, not mess with a penitent’s vices: seducing women, framing rivals, and laundering church-funds.
Except, his friend was pregnant with this man’s child.
If only Lawrence could free himself from his emotional baggage… If only he could marshal the courage to polish off his search for enlightenment…Only to discover the secrets inside his friend’s heart…and the liaison between the villain and her…
Meditation On Space-Time, A Novel (236 pp., tpb, $14.95) portrays a man’s struggle to discover himself in contemporary society, to sacrifice for his friends and to take the road less traveled. For readers who would eat up the hero’s every morsel of laughter and tear as if it were bittersweet chocolate. While sifting through clues to the characters’ true identities and hidden agendas.
“Leonard Seet has left no literary devices on the table to narrate his tale…I was enthralled by the pure beauty of the writing among all the plot points. The scintillating writing is elegant, pure, grownup, originally cast, heartfelt, intelligent… The writing is simply breathtaking… brilliant bit of poetic science… If you prefer intelligently crafted novels, then do yourself a favor and by all means read this unforgettable novel by Leonard Seet: the writing is to die for.”
-David Lentz, author, Bloomsday: the Bostoniad
While working overseas as Project Director for a consumer electronics company, Leonard came upon a parchment, which he had drafted in college after booing a novel’s ending. The chicken-scratches had begun to fade, but he succeeded in deciphering the text. The writing was amateurish, but the plot had potential. So, to relieve work stress, he began rewriting the story, along the way learning the art of the trade. Several years later, he resigned from the company to write short stories and literary novels. In the fall of 2011, Leonard attended the Jennie McKean Moore Fiction Workshop at George Washington University to learn from author Tim Johnston, Art of the Story. He is the author of The Spiritual Life.
Meditation On Space-Time is available in most brick-and-mortar and online bookstores.
###
Meditation On Space-Time
by Leonard Seet.
http://LeonardSeet.blogspot.com
Tpb edition. 6 x 9, 236 pages.
ISBN 978-0-967-49372-5. $14.95.
E-book edition
ISBN 978-0-967-49371-8. $6.99.
Publication Date: November 2012
Excelsior Publishing
rh0188@gmail.com
http://excelsiorpublishingweb.blogspot.com
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Quote: August 8, 2011
"More than once, the broken moon would cast through the window a silver light and remind me of independent events yielding to their own momentum and interacting under natural laws while my mind would impose happiness, grief, beauty, ruin, justice and chaos." Meditation on Space-Time, Leonard Seet
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
The Accident
Desmond Lu was heading home for Thanksgiving dinner, when an SUV swerved around the corner and plowed down Fifth Avenue at the teenager in front of him. As if for the thousandth time, he leaped off the evening sidewalk and pushed the dazed boy away but slipped on the photo of a blonde girl that the boy had dropped onto the crosswalk.
In the middle of the gusts, the screams, and the headlights, his mind projected kaleidoscopic scenes onto a dark screen¾this afternoon at a sushi bar eating nigiri, this morning arresting a minister’s wife for murdering her husband, last night convincing Simone to move to London together and five years ago meeting her near the Seine while staring at a painting and pretending to admire it.
But against the headlights, all scents faded into ashen specters.
In a single instant, an instant as fleeting as eternity, to reflect on a lifetime, a lifetime as permanent as a flash. Somewhere between an instant and eternity, somewhere between a lifetime and a flash, a lily blossomed and withered, a lake froze and melted, a business rose and fell and a society emerged and collapsed but time’s current flowed toward another lily, another lake, another business and another society.
The streetlights, the jingling bells, the pretzel-scented air, perhaps from a past evening, stung his senses and awakened him to the carbon molecules oxidizing in his cells, the photons plunging from the neon signs into his pupils, the two men arguing about Sunday night’s football game and the stock prices rising and falling according to stochastic greed and fear.
Crossing the street, listening to the jingles, nabbing crooks and murderers, rushing home to celebrate Thanksgiving: just distractions on the way.
At the crosswalk a homeless man beckoned Desmond to dodge the SUV. Across the street a restaurant’s display enticed him to try the Memphis barbecue ribs. But as the chasm under his feet opened its void, he smiled and looked up at a star. As peaceful as Lake Louise’s blue surface, the Mount Fuji snowcaps or the Tidal Basin cherry blossoms. In the peaceful inferno the years, the days, the hours, the seconds decomposed from its continuous stream and disintegrated into jumbled stills.
As expected, the tires screeched and the SUV swerved, flipped and, decapitating the hydrant and releasing a water plume, slammed sideways into the lamppost.
As the SUV burst into flames, the fear prowling in Desmond’s guts surged onto his bosom, the tingle cruising through the spine and spreading throughout the rigid limbs. Again he felt death caressing his cheek and blowing into his nostrils. Only five feet further and he would have missed the murder investigations, the Manhattan skyline, the Broadway musicals, and Simone’s sensitive but determined lips. And yet, he could taste in the air a different flavor. Above Fifth Avenue the mistletoes seemed fresher and at the corner the jingles sounded more melodious but above all his heart beat more joyfully.
The handsome teenager had been covering his face and sobbing. As the homeless man helped him to his feet, the boy grabbed the soggy photo from the puddle and spitted into the Good Samaritan’s face. He sidestepped the plume’s drizzle and in the middle of sirens and screams crossed Fifth Avenue.
After witnessing the expected frames of the event, Desmond chased after the boy but after crossing the street lost him. Turning around, he could see the firemen jumping off the fire engine and rushing toward the burning SUV while cars and pedestrians converged upon fire and plume. The SUV’s drunk driver suffered third-degree burns and while the paramedics revived him, Desmond reported the incident to Dmitri and requested the sergeant examine a nearby surveillance camera to identify the teenager.
At the coffeehouse on Forty-Seventh Street, Desmond had cappuccino to steady his nerves and mull over the incident images and notes. Across the aisle two teenagers were holding hands and discussing about running away from home. At the counter a young banker was persuading a client to put fifty thousand dollars into a pharmaceutical stock. In the corner a software contractor was consulting his lawyer on a lawsuit against a client. At the door, a young boy was demanding the latest smart-phone for Christmas. Desmond watched the moving lips and listened to the accented words until snow began to pave the sidewalk.
Looking forward to candlelight dinner with Simone but expecting otherwise, he rang her twice but couldn’t reach her and was about to try again when Dmitri called.
"Bad news, man."
"Always ready for bad news, especially during Thanksgiving."
"Very bad news."
"On second thought, maybe I’ll pass."
"Simone’s dead. Shot in the head just ten to fifteen minutes ago."
Desmond dropped the phone as his ear continued to ring and a white flash flickered above his eyes. The noises faded while the waitress dragged her feet down the aisle. He pinched his lap to awaken from the nightmare. But Dmitri’s voice echoed in the vacuum as he recalled Simone’s serene eyes and gentle smile. A new season, where the snow had melted and the larks began singing to earth’s fragrance, awaited them in London but outside the café the flurries danced to a silent tune.
Though he shuddered at her death, he dreaded more forgetting her warm touch and harp-like voice, which already had begun to fade. He dreaded relegating this day among the other twenty-thousand sunrises and sunsets into his memory’s vault and in thirty years, waking up and strolling along the Seine as indifferent to today’s holiday lights and snowy sidewalk as toward a childhood dream’s rainbow.
As expected, Dmitri arrived at 7:28 PM and showed him a photo found next to Simone’s body, "Apparently, she was helping this pregnant girl leave her abusive boyfriend but he tracked her all the way here from Atlanta." The same soggy photo, the same blonde girl in blue dress, only now stained with Simone’s blood.
Desmond dashed out of the coffeehouse past the lame beggar and ran down the street until the snow had stopped. As he reached Fifth Avenue, the SUV raced around the corner toward the boy and the jingles mingled with the screeches. Having seen the incident perhaps a thousand times and knowing that Simone’s silent forgiveness and unfulfilled dreams could ease the numbing pain only as vinegar a cut, he wanted to fold his arms and salute the drunk driver.
The teenager dropped onto the crosswalk a photo, not of the blonde girl, but of Simone.
END
Leonard Seet is the author of the novels Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Banana Writers and Pilcrow & Dagger. Through his writings, he probes the dynamics of existence, including human consciousness, good and evil, and rationality and spirituality.
He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.
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