Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Call for Submissions: First Round of The LLL LOST Mailbag

Hello my dear friends -

How have you been? How has 2011 been treating you all so far? Good, I hope. For those of you checking in for the first time in a long time, my finale recap can be found here.

Things continue to be nutty on this end, but I'm determined to follow through on my plans to post at least monthly here on Long Live Locke. While I know this realization probably hit all of you quite a while ago, for me it was just last Tuesday when I finally came to terms with the fact that Lost isn't coming back. The depression sank in while I was watching V, which of course stars Elizabeth Mitchell, aka Juliet. It was like all of a sudden it dawned on me that I'm not going to see her doing anything new as Juliet ever again -- I'm not going to see any of the Lost cast doing anything new as their characters ever again. There aren't going to be any episodes I haven't already watched. There aren't going to be any new mysteries. There's not going to be that thrill of anticipation every week before the show comes on... because the show's not coming on again.

Damn.

If you're sitting there thinking, "Geez, e, why'd it take you so long?", my response would be that we're actually just now entering the time period when Lost would usually return. In fact, the one-year anniversary of my trip to Oahu for the Season Six Sunset on the Beach premiere is about a week away. So perhaps, for me, the reality of Lost's conclusion didn't sink in because the series would normally not be back on the air yet anyway. At this time last year, however, we would have already been bombarded with "spoiler alerts" and promo photos and episode titles to ponder over and dissect... and man, do I miss all of that. I miss it horribly. Many of you have written to me asking if I've found another show to take Lost's place. The answer is no. The answer is I don't think that will ever happen.

Over the past few months it's become clear that nothing motivates me to write quite like Lost did. I freaked out during Season Six because my manuscript was due right as Lost was coming to an end, and I didn't know how I'd be able to juggle both this blog and my responsibilities to my publisher. But now I realize that if Lost hadn't been on during that time, I probably wouldn't be as pleased with how my book turned out. The show got me in The Zone -- the writing zone. And it just hasn't been the same since.

On that note, I'm hoping that by starting to discuss Lost again on a regular basis, I'll be more inspired to write about other topics, too. I'm assuming there won't be nearly as many people as there were before who are still up for reminiscing and debating, but quite frankly I don't care. All it takes to ignite the spark on my end is one other person who is willing to send in a question or theory they'd like to discuss. (Though I have a feeling -- and hope -- there are more mega-fans out there than that.)

Speaking of mega-fans, I was psyched to be able to meet up with three other Losties last week. Here we are, in the midst of drinks and dinner in Chicago:


You've got me, ObFuSc8, Lottery Ticket, and Anna in Indiana (from the Jacob's Cabin podcast). Yes, Ob is wearing a Geronimo Jackson shirt. Lotto and I were also sporting Lost tees (mine was actually made by Lotto), but you can't see them in the picture. Does that mean Anna wins the Least Nerdy award for choosing a Normal Person shirt?

During dinner we discussed how it was going with my book. Truth be told, it's been extremely tough. I am so, so, so incredibly proud of the book and thrilled that everyone who reads it seems to enjoy it, but I've been running myself ragged trying to get the word out. And so I am going to do something that is against my nature (remember how I revealed in my finale post that I most closely associate with Jack?) and ask for your help. It would mean so much to me if you (yes, you) would buy a copy of my book. But only if you've got about $20 (or $14.99 for the e-version) to spare -- I don't want anyone going into debt on my account!



In the two months the book's been out I realized that I was wrong about who I thought would like it. I have heard from students, veterinarians, homemakers, health-care workers, church officials, lawyers, consultants, auto assembly plant workers, and tons of other people who don't ever deal with the financial services world -- but who have all followed my pop-culture-related writing for some time -- and the feedback has blown me away. They liked it, they really liked it!

At the risk of sounding desperate, I'm bringing this up because I know that I owe it to myself -- after trying to get this freakin' thing published for three years -- to not sell Zero-Sum Game short. It's a story, from my perspective, about my totally bizarre final year working for The Man. It mostly revolves around a historic merger (one that affects all of us... which I explain in the book) that I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat for, and it's also very much about the people I worked with, who I dare say are just as interesting as many of the characters on Lost. Definitely more compelling than Nikki and Paulo... and only slightly less fascinating than Ben or Locke.

So there. I've shown my vulnerable side and confessed that I really want you to buy my book if you have the means. While the links I provided above are for the US Amazon site, it is also in most bookstores in the US and also available on Amazon in other countries. If you do buy it, remember that my personalized bookplate offer still stands. I've got a fun little Lost-related message that I'll mail to you if you let me know you're a LLL reader. Details about all that can be found here. And by the way, to all of you who already bought Zero-Sum Game -- you ROCK. Thank you thank you thank you!

OK, enough begging. So now what?

Oh yeah, the entire point of this post was to ask you to send in questions, ideas, topics, or anything else you'd like me to cover in my first official LLL Lost Mailbag post. (Should I call it the L4 Mailbag? Is there some other, obvious name for this thing I'm missing?)

My goal is to look over what's on everyone's minds until January 28. Then I'm hoping to have a post up during the February 4th weekend, as that will be the one-year anniversary of the Season Six premiere on ABC. Right now I have no idea if I'll just cover one question, or multiple topics, or what. We'll just see how it goes.

Sound good? OK -- let's hear it! What burning questions do you have?

And one more thing -- THANK YOU for sticking with me! What would I do without you?

- e