Hope. Dreams. Life... Love: Xnor

XNOR

by Anand Purohit

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GENRE: FICTION / Fantasy / Historical

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BLURB:

1759 was a defining year for the colonies that became Canada. It was also the year the British Empire rose to preeminence over other European nations and empires. All that changes when technology deployed in 2047 to shield Canadians from an escalating world conflict inadvertently teleports a group of scientists, engineers, teachers and medical people back to Nova Scotia, 1759. Despite their technological superiority, they, like many new settlers, struggle to establish a homestead, feed their community and deal with the constant threat from a violent world. Established empires with their large populations are not about to let a small group of upstarts interfere in their lucrative slave trade and subjugation of whomever they please.

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EXCERPT:

May 15, 2046

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Chan Wei is skeptical anything important will happen. I’ve been here before. Scientists and engineers are always excited about their latest project or idea. I’m willing to take risks. Sometimes it pays off immensely, but I must avoid the duds no matter how enthusiastic the supporters are.

Peggy Doyle meets him as he walks to the AI & Physics lab. “Hi, Peggy. I hear we’re in for a really big show.”

“So says Neil!” she laughs. “In all my years, I’ve never met a more erratic yet brilliant individual. You’ve given him a long leash. I hope he hasn’t strangled himself with it.”

“Thanks to your sales team, we’re having our best year. We can afford a misstep. What will our revenue be this quarter?”

Peggy smiles broadly. “I predict we’ll pass the billion mark for the first time! Our laser and AI divisions are steady thanks to our military sales. Graphene power storage has really taken off. We’re the world leaders.”

“Fantastic! When we go public, we’ll all be very rich,” Chan boasts.

“I’m thankful for the share options. The salary and bonuses go down well too,” she replies as they enter the lab.

Neil Gargano is bouncing around in his usual style. His project partner, Dr. Wu, is seated, smiling, and displaying more emotion than usual.

Chan asserts a challenge as only a company owner can: “Gentlemen, I’m prepared to be amazed or issue a pink slip. What will you be showing us today?”

Neil can’t contain himself. “Space is alive! We’ll show you proof. Space is alive!”

Chan is amused. “Peggy, is this something you can sell?”

Peggy takes the cue. “Let me see. I don’t see a fit with our laser division. Maybe we can sell the military some Alive Space. They buy some of the darndest stuff and pay well for it.”

Dr. Wu surprisingly backs Neil up, somewhat. “if this demo goes as planned, I think you’ll be recalibrating your expectations.”

“Great!” Chan enthuses. “Blow us away!”

A Word With the Author

Did you always want to be an author?

No, I never gave it any thought. Here’s a real experience I could have written about many times …

As I lay quietly meditating, the usual signs an event was happening began to intensify; the buzzing and ringing starting first as sound then intensifying to become part of my whole body. It was close. Soon I would be ‘out’. It might start with just an arm raising, then another; the final push through my chest, upward. It was close. Any moment now.

My girlfriend at the time, a nurse at a local hospital, was asleep beside me. Suddenly, I see her sit up in bed and then stand beside it … except she was also still laying there sleeping beside me. My pulse raced. Could this be the event I had hoped for, for so very long? Several years of meditation slowly improved my ability to step-by-step leave my body. The experiences I had were profound. The many encounters in that strange, other world were both exhilarating and a strain on my mental health. I had no conclusive proof. No one would believe me.

Now, maybe the time had come. If my transition ‘out’ could happen at the same time as hers, even though she was probably asleep, it could be the breakthrough I longed for. I watched as she left our bed and moved to the end of our long bedroom. She stood there leaning over something I couldn’t see. The ringing and buzzing kept intensifying but I was still not quite ready for the final push. There was nothing I could do but let it happen when it was ready.

She suddenly left whatever she was leaning over intently and rushed to my side of the bed. Was she going to help me out? I had several previous experiences where others came to my side during meditation and helped, but never someone I knew. She hovered over me for a moment and then left, returning to the end of the room and leaned over the mysterious object I could not see.

Then she moved back to her side of the bed and reentered her body. Oh! The disappointment. What should I do? Should I quickly put an end to my meditation and wake her? Ending an experience at this late stage is unpleasant, nauseating. She might not even remember her dream.

Decision made, I stopped the meditation and woke her up. “Were you dreaming?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember it?”

“Yes, I was at the hospital and alarms were ringing. Buzzers and ringing. I went to the nurse’s station to see what was wrong. I noticed you were a patient in the hospital. I rushed to your bedside to see if you were OK. You were. I waited for a moment, then I went back to the nurse’s station to see why the alarms were still ringing. Then, I left the ward and you woke me up.”

I worked as a software engineer for over 40 years. Mathematics was always my best subject in school, and I was almost always the person with the highest grades. I cannot calculate the odds of her experience, with so many similarities to mine, being nothing more than a random coincidence. Was it the ‘proof’ I yearned for? No, but it was one I will never forget. This is the first time I have written about it … an exclusive, you might say, for your blog.

P.S. For readers who might wonder if I still have out-of-body experiences … no, after several years and hundreds of OBEs, then travelling to India and living purposefully on the edge of death, my meditations took a different path … one I allude to in one of the chapters of my first book, XNOR.

Tell us about the publication of your first book

I had no intention of writing a book. I had a series of vivid dreams. One night after another, the same theme. Cannons flashing. Eighteen-century warfare. On the fourth night, I decided to get up and start writing down the dream I just had, only hoping it might get the story out of my head for good.

Hours later with the sun coming up, I closed the document and emailed it to my wife, a voracious reader, and went back to bed for a restful sleep. Later that day, she asked me, “Where did you get the story from? Who’s the author? I’d like to buy the book.”

So, I wrote the book. I had no idea if I should publish it or how to even go about it. Thankfully, the folks at Tellwell took good care of me.

Who is your favorite author?

I spend most of my time reading documents from historical archives. I’ve purchased several books by long-dead authors to gain their insight and perspective. Maybe someday I will get my head back into the twenty-first century.

What are you working on now?

My second book, XNOR: Air, Blood and Fire. It’s a continuation of the XNOR story.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

ANAND PUROHIT was born and raised in a Caucasian, Christian family. After several years of inexplicable experiences, he travelled as young man to India for insight. The shocking immersion, alone in a chaotic and foreign culture, forever changed him. Wandering among the slums, always on the edge of death and disease, his perception was shattered. He returned to Canada with a new name and legalized it to cement his commitment to a life of mindfulness.

While enlightenment proved elusive, the quest for greater understanding remained strong. Forty years of software design and business ownership did not quell the thirst. Constant study of history, logistics, physics and metaphysics watered the desire to weld a nexus between analyst and mystic.

The days of designing complex software systems have passed. A new door has opened.

CONNECT WITH ANAND

WEBSITE: https://xnorbooks.com/

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21824579.Anand_Purohit?from_search=true&from_srp=true

PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON.COM

https://amazon.com/dp/0228858232

KINDLE

https://amazon.com/dp/B09FQY5BBY

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/books/xnor/9780228858232

INDIGO CHAPTERS