Win a Copy of LOST Thought!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Hello my dear friends -

As I mentioned in my last post, I was totally honored to contribute a chapter (which was a joint effort with my good friend and fellow LOST blogger JOpinionated) to Pearson Moore's LOST Thought. Our chapter, entitled "Disguised Culture," takes the form of an instant-message chat, and we had a blast doing it. We rip on The Haters of the Finale and The People Who Just Didn't Get It, have a debate over just how much Desmond knew during Season Six, complain about how Sayid got shafted in the afterlife... etc, etc. Trust me, you will laugh. It'll be just like old times.

The book was published a few days ago, and the copies I ordered to give away to 10 lucky LOST fans just arrived. Even though Pearson had forewarned me about how big the book was, I was absolutely blown away when I saw it. I mean, this cover shot to the right does not do it justice. This thing is like a college text book (only in paperback). It is freakin' HUGE, and it is full to the brim with LOST goodness. I'd meant to just quickly flip through it right as my little Des was waking up, but when I saw the chapter that Andy Page (aka DarkUFO) had written about the incredible history of his most-popular-of-all LOST fan site (which, as many of you know, I contributed to for the last half of the series' run), I was totally sucked in. Don't call Child Services on me, please.

And then of course there are equally awesome chapters written by my man Ryan Ozawa from The Transmission podcast (remember that Ryan was the one responsible for me getting to meet "Locke" (Terry O'Quinn)!), the esteemed Nikki Stafford of the Finding LOST book series, Lostpedia administrator extraordinaire (and overall cool dude) Sam McPherson, and a second chapter (in the form of a thought-provoking essay) from Jo. And that's in ADDITION to approximately ten bazillion more chapters from other leading LOST scholars and writers. I am not exaggerating--this book is amazing.

I asked Pearson to sign 10 paperback copies for me to give away (I'll add my signature and a little note as well, if the winners would like that), and then I'll also give away 10 eBook versions (through Amazon) to those who prefer that format. Why? Because I miss LOST tremendously and I miss all of you terribly, dammit.

Here are The Rules to enter. Please make sure you read them carefully!

1) I will pick the winners at random, but I'm still gonna make you work a little bit. In the comments section below this post, tell me about something that's made you think of LOST in the past few years since the series has ended. I'm not talking about a direct LOST reference in another show or anything like that. I mean something like, "I saw some dude with a ridiculous facial hair at the grocery store and immediately thought of Mr. Friendly and his fake hillbilly beard." You get what I mean.
2) Along with what's reminded you of LOST in the recent past, please also include your first and last name (but NOT your email address--I'll ask for that if you win) AND whether you'd like a paperback version or the eBook version. You have to pick one format or the other--if you say "either is fine" I can't count it.
3) I can send the paperback copies anywhere that I'm allowed to ship to from the U.S. And I can gift a Kindle version through Amazon to anyone with an email address.
4) Just like "it only ends once," you can ONLY ENTER ONCE. Any scammers will be disqualified.

That's it! Remember, you MUST indicate whether you would want a paperback or Kindle version.

I'm going to keep the contest open until midnight Central Time on Sunday, March 11. I'll do my best to post the winners shortly after that, but bear with me because Little Des is kind of running the show in my condo right about now. When I return to announce the winners I will also comment on all of the new series I'm watching (or attempted to watch and then gave up on) this year, including: Once Upon a Time (though I already wrote a bit on that here), Alcatraz, Person of Interest, Hawaii 5.0, Awake, Touch, The River, Smash, and probably a few others I'm forgetting because I'm sleep-deprived.

I review all comments before publishing them, so if you don't see what you submitted for a while after you send it in, don't worry. It'll eventually be there.

That's it for now. I can't wait to hear what's reminded you of LOST!

Oh, and if you wanna just buy the book for yourself or another LOST nerd, you can do so through CreateSpace or Amazon. And a whole bunch more information on what the book covers can be found here.

Good luck and I'll see you back here at some point shortly after March 11. I promise.

- e

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. ANY SUBMISSIONS LEFT AFTER 10 AM MONDAY 3/12/12 WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Thanks to all who entered -- be sure to check back shortly for the winners!

Welcome to the World, Little Brotha!

Hello my dear friends -

How in the heck are you?

Those of you who keep up with me via my personal blog, According to e, were aware that for the majority of 2011 I was pregnant. And so now I'm happy to share that little Desmond Fox arrived the morning of January 24. Like his namesake, I dare say he is uniquely and miraculously special (see video below if you don't remember that line from LOST's Season Five premiere...)—but I bet all parents think that about their kids, huh? And yes, the middle name is a shout-out to none other than Agent Fox Mulder from The X-Files, the show I loved the mostest (as evidenced here) before LOST hit the scene.

For those of you shocked that I didn't name my firstborn Locke, let me remind you of two things: 1) since 2008 I'd been writing for Redbox alongside film critic Locke Peterseim, who (nicely... and justifiably) banned me from naming my son Locke and further diminishing its originality (let's just say he wasn't a fan of the show), and 2) do y'all not remember John Locke's fate? Um... it wasn't too pleasant. I don't want my kid to end up possessed by an evil Smoke Monster guy. Whereas not only was Desmond a universally beloved character who had a happy ending, but his name also has other significance for my husband and I. I'll keep those reasons private, except for this one: Desmond means "man of the world," and seeing as how we love to travel and intend to take Des with us on many adventures, we thought the name couldn't be more fitting.

Since it's taken over a month for me to post some pictures of my little guy, you can bet that I'm a bit pressed for time most days. However, we're slowly but surely getting into a groove, and I'm hoping to resume posting on a regular basis over at According to e (and a few other sites) soon.

What finally got me off my behind to check in with you all today is that within the next week (probably within the next few days, actually) I'm going to be running a LOST-themed contest here on Long Live Locke, for which there will be 20 winners of the soon-to-be published book LOST Thought by Pearson Moore. I'm going to give away 10 (signed) paperback copies and 10 eBook versions to lucky readers, so stay tuned! My good bud JOpinionated and I contributed a chapter to LOST Thought, and I think you guys will really get a kick out of it. But more on that when the contest goes live.

Until then I will leave you with ridiculous pictures of teeny Des getting his first glimpse of both LOST and his namesake (during D. Hume's most famous scene from "The Constant," of course), as well as him with some oh-so-nerdy "toys."







The "uniquely and miraculously special" line from Faraday to Desmond comes shortly after the 1:19 mark:

Now remember to check back within a few days for the contest and your chance to win a copy of LOST Thought!

I also plan to write about the TV shows I'm watching nowadays (in one big block on the weekends, thanks to the miracle of DVR technology) as I get many questions about that on Facebook and Twitter. So you've got that discussion to look forward to (and hopefully join in on) in the near future, too!

Hope you have all been well and that 2012 has been as good to you as it's been to me so far.

- e

Time Flies

Hello my dear friends -

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Lost's series finale, "The End." Can you believe it? I don't know how you're feeling about things, but to me it really does not seem like a whopping 365 days have passed since the show wrapped up. (Insert "Maybe that's because it took you five months to write your finale post!" jokes here. Oh, and speaking of my finale post, it was brought to my attention that the email system over which I have no control never sent that post out back in October. It was probably too long. So those of you receiving my write-ups via email can access it here.)

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed about the show by Josh Wigler over at the MTV Movies Blog, and in preparation for that conversation I spent some time reminiscing about Lost's six seasons and whether or not I feel as strongly about the series one year after the final credits rolled.

The answer is yes, I feel as strongly as ever -- probably even more so now than I did before.

DON'T WANNA BE AN AMERICAN IDIOT

Ever since the series ended, there's been a constant stream of people hating on it -- people who didn't actually take any time to think about the finale and instead simply ran with their knee-jerk reaction (which, as you may recall, was also my knee-jerk reaction): "They were dead the whole time!?!?"

Since all anyone had to do was take a deep breath and replay the final minutes in order to understand exactly what happened, I have zero tolerance or patience for those who refused to spend a few extra seconds to comprehend what was going on. If you acknowledge that everything we saw since 2004 actually happened -- that all of the characters' Island experiences took place (which Jack's dad was nice enough to spell out for us) -- and you still didn't like the finale, that's one thing. I respect that lots of folks weren't fans of what the sideways flashes ended up representing. What I can't respect, however, is when someone is too stubborn or stupid (yeah, I said it!) to spend ten minutes reflecting on a show they invested so much time into in order to ensure they walked away with a clear understanding of how it drew to a close.

I realize that a lot of people continue to holler about the show because they know it gets a rise out of the rest of us. The fact that they still bother to chime in at all is what proves to me that the series had a huge impact on them. So the joke's on the haters.

There's another group of people who aren't actively speaking out against the series, but who vehemently disliked the finale and feel like it ruined Lost's entire run for them and subsequently harbor a great resentment toward its creators. This is another thing I just can't wrap my mind around. To me that's the equivalent of going on an all-expenses-paid trip around the world for five-and-a-half years -- a vacation during which you learn all about religious, philosophical, scientific, and literary theories you'd never been exposed to before, in addition to making a ton of great friends. On the last day of this vacation you and those friends go to dinner, and the dinner ends up being kind of unspectacular.

Does that final dinner wipe out how amazing the rest of the trip was!?!?!?! Um, I would certainly hope not. Would you NOT go on the trip again if given a second chance?!?! Really, wouldn't you? All because of one lousy meal? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. I don't get it. As with almost everything else in life, it's about the journey, not the destination.

OOH, WE USED TO WAIT
OOH, WE USED TO WAIT

What I've missed most this past year is the build-up to each new episode. Since the advent of DVR technology, Lost is the only show I ever made a point of watching live. I couldn't stand to not know what was going down on the Island as soon as I could. Each airing was an event. We all had our own rituals when it came to watching the show. And then afterward everyone digested and analyzed the episode in his or her own way. Finally, we'd discuss and theorize together all across the interwebs until it was time for the next installment.

I miss that profound sense of escapism. I miss being part of a truly global phenomenon. I miss how the show forced me to put my brain to work. I miss having intelligent debates with other fans. I miss how I would wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea about what could be going on. I miss the anticipatory butterflies in my stomach as each new episode began. I miss caring about characters. I just miss it all.

The good news is that I honestly don't think a week has gone by since May 23, 2010, where I have NOT read something about the show -- be it an article, a tweet, a blog post, or what have you. There's always something that reminds me of our friends on the Island. And I think it's going to be that way for a long, long time. Though I haven' t been able to post as often as I'd intended on this site since the show went off the air, the bottom line is that I know I WILL continue to write about the series for years. There will be no letting go!

The MTV Movies interview I spoke of at the beginning of this post is embedded below -- it features the wonderful JOpinionated and The ODI as well, and I know we all had a blast doing it. The full post can be found here.

LOST CHAT -- TONIGHT!

Have you missed talking about Lost? Suffer no more!

My fellow Lost bloggers and friends JOpinionated and Doc Arzt will be holding a live LOST chat TONIGHT at 9 PM ET right here. Jo will be giving away some incredibly cool swag to a few lucky participants, so don't miss out!


OTHER FUN LOST-RELATED TIDBITS

- Evangeline Lilly (Kate) just had a kid!

- NBC's Awake looks VERY Lost-ish, no? (Watch its trailer here. And yes, that's Jack's Alt son, Dylan Minnette.)

-Michael Emerson (Ben) is going to be a lead in the CBS show Person of Interest (watch its trailer here).

- Jorge Garcia (Hurley) is going to be a lead in the FOX show Alcatraz, from Lost writer Elizabeth Sarnoff (watch its trailer on JOpinionated's "Inside Alcatraz" blog here).

- Lost writers Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are behind ABC's Once Upon a Time (watch its trailer here).

- Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) will be in ABC's Scandal (watch a clip here). No more Scottish accent, though? Boo!

- I really enjoyed the Washington Post's recent interview with Lost's co-creator Damon Lindelof.

- Lost blogger Pearson Moore takes an in-depth look at the series in his book Lost Humanity, available in paperback or on Kindle.



As I said above, I still have a lot of things I want to write about here on Long Live Locke. It's just a matter of getting a break! Hopefully in the meantime you will keep me company over on redbox's redblog, where I write ten movie-related posts a week.

And guess what? My personal blog, "According to e," is back! I've been writing about totally random topics several times a week for the past few months -- I hope you check it out.

Finally, I would love to hear your thoughts about the show now that a year has come and gone since the finale. If you didn't like "The End," have your feelings tempered at all with the passage of time? If you loved everything about the series, what do you miss most now? Have you found anything that's even close to a replacement/substitute? I haven't.

- e