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!

Sarah Beth DurstMy 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…fantasy and science fiction book reviews

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?

Author

  • Kelly Lasiter

    KELLY LASITER, with us since July 2008, is a mild-mannered academic administrative assistant by day, but at night she rules over a private empire of tottering bookshelves. Kelly is most fond of fantasy set in a historical setting (a la Jo Graham) or in a setting that echoes a real historical period (a la George RR Martin and Jacqueline Carey). She also enjoys urban fantasy and its close cousin, paranormal romance, though she believes these subgenres’ recent burst in popularity has resulted in an excess of dreck. She is a sucker for pretty prose (she majored in English, after all) and mythological themes.