Fantasy Literature welcomes back Sarah Beth Durst, whose new novel, The Lost, is out this week. I’m currently reading The Lost and really enjoying it — it’s eerie, and filled with mysteries. In the spirit of The Lost, Sarah has a question for you. One commenter (U.S. address) will win a signed copy of The Lost. Thanks for stopping by, Sarah!
My question for you this Thursday is: What have you lost that you’d like to find?
I’ve lost earrings — a little silver gecko, a blue butterfly. When I was in college, I sold my Barbie mobile home in a yard sale. Always regretted not saving that and giving it to family instead of letting a stranger have it for a few quarters. I’ve lost friendships, frayed by distance and time, that I wish I could have back. I’ve lost memories — events that are hazy or only remembered from photographs…
I’ve been thinking about this because of my new novel: The Lost. The Lost is about a woman trapped in a town full of only lost things and lost people. One morning, Lauren gets into her car to drive to work, but instead of going left at the light, she drives straight… and drives and drives until she runs out of gas in a town called Lost. And once she’s there, she can’t leave, not without the help of a mysterious man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl.
To create this town, I started with a list of everything I could think of that could be lost: socks, shoes, umbrellas, pennies, dogs, children, memories, minds… The people of Lost are not exactly what you’d call stable, and to survive in Lost, you need to scavenge and barter. You see, it’s not just that the town is full of lost things — it only has lost things.
So this is my question for you: What would you find of yours in Lost?
Well, what I’d love to find there would be all the books I’ve ever loaned out that were never returned! But with my luck, I’d just be up to my ears in hair ties.
Sandy, if you live in the USA, you win a copy of THE LOST!
Please contact me (Marion) with your US address and I’ll have the book sent right away. Happy reading!
I lost a lot of hopes and dreams over the years, but how would you see or recognize such things in Lost? Would they just return to your mind, or would they have some kind of corporeal existence that you could somehow sense with your eyes or even touch?
More likely than that, I would find a special brooch that I lost, one that I bought at the Jorvik Viking Center in York in England, which was based on a Viking knot pattern.
And some tableware in a special pattern that has long since been discontinued. I’d actually expect to see lots of my old spoons in Lost!
I lost a gold ring that I still hope to find someday. It was a spiral that wrapped around my finger and I loved it because it was so unique. I keep hoping to find it in a pocket or a purse.
The book sounds really cool!
People of course. Innocence. The ability to not see 90% of things coming in movies. Oh Kelly, so many books (books should come with barcodes and every front door should have a scanner that logs them out with an attached photo of whoever walks out with it). All the Commander Matt Mason stuff I haven’t been able to justify buying via Ebay (you know, as opposed to all the Matt Mason stuff I somehow did justify buying via Ebay). Green space. At least some of my hair–not all of it, but some. 20-20 eyesight. The 400+ comic book collection my younger brother traded away while I was at college (hmmm, nope, the burning rage still hasn’t gone away I guess). All those first times you heard a great song/band. The joy of new school supplies. Not knowing exactly how every Hardy Boys Book would end (wait, Chet’s hobby turned out to be useful? And their father’s case was connected?!). The box with most of my elem-high school mementos and notebooks of early writing my grandfather tossed while I was at college (“it was just a bunch of papers”). The ability to stop making lists at a reasonable point . . .
Oh gosh. So many lost things. The watch I sold at a garage sale because we badly needed the money that I didn’t want to get rid of. The job opportunity in France I didn’t take for the wrong reasons. That other elephant earring, my favorite purse with the hidden compartment, my youthful skin, the best friend who abandoned me into adulthood, Boots, Winston, Cousteau, Auscious, Kimba, Tio and Cleo my long lost furry companions.
I’d love to find the books I couldn’t take with me the last time I moved.
Sandy, if you live in the USA, you win a copy of THE LOST!
Please contact me (Marion) with your US address and I’ll have the book sent right away. Happy reading!