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Lost and Not Found
Lost and Not Found
He gave up on writing years ago, around the same time he thought love gave up on him. For years he tried to live a normal life, to work a normal job, and to forget about his dreams. He tried to believe they were only dreams.
Then out of the blue he is struck with the sudden compulsion to write a novel, and discovers a group of people who share that same goal, but who attempt to complete a first draft in under a month - and the month is about to begin!
At first he talks his friends into joining him, but it isn't long before most of them give up, and he's left to struggle with his word count in seclusion. Then he loses his job, and finds himself totally rejected and alone, with nothing but time to write. He doesn't know where to begin his novel, and finds himself writing the story of a superhero just as rejected and alone as he feels...
Rejection is not the end of the story though, and after being defeated by storytelling and social pressure, will he be able to find the story he was always meant to tell? The story he has always been a part of, one of magic and of love fulfilled? Or are the stories he's heard of a clock ticking down to Doomsday real? And is life worth living if you haven't a story worth telling?
Then out of the blue he is struck with the sudden compulsion to write a novel, and discovers a group of people who share that same goal, but who attempt to complete a first draft in under a month - and the month is about to begin!
At first he talks his friends into joining him, but it isn't long before most of them give up, and he's left to struggle with his word count in seclusion. Then he loses his job, and finds himself totally rejected and alone, with nothing but time to write. He doesn't know where to begin his novel, and finds himself writing the story of a superhero just as rejected and alone as he feels...
Rejection is not the end of the story though, and after being defeated by storytelling and social pressure, will he be able to find the story he was always meant to tell? The story he has always been a part of, one of magic and of love fulfilled? Or are the stories he's heard of a clock ticking down to Doomsday real? And is life worth living if you haven't a story worth telling?
252 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Teel McClanahan
33 books36 followersTeel is happily married to an English teacher and they live together in Phoenix, AZ with a grumpy old cat, a skittish young cat, and thousands of books, both read and to-be-read. Virtual Danger is Teel’s nineteenth book, and there are plenty more trying to work their way into this world through the aperture of Teel's imagination, hoping to be found and loved by readers like you. Interestingly, none of the others are books in The Death Noodle Glitterfairy Robot Saga—yet.
Teel is an independent author, artist, creative visionary, blogger, publisher, podcaster, and sometimes filmmaker. You can find out more about him and his other stories, novels, poetry and more by visiting Modern Evil Press.
Teel is an independent author, artist, creative visionary, blogger, publisher, podcaster, and sometimes filmmaker. You can find out more about him and his other stories, novels, poetry and more by visiting Modern Evil Press.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 26, 2009
In the seven years (so far) since I first wrote this novel, I've read it quite a few times. Until I finished writing Forget What You Can't Remember, it was my favorite of the books I'd written. Around the same time my opinion about it began to shift, I was re-reading it aloud as an audiobook. This week I'm going through the entire text again line-by-line to create a cleaner eBook for kindle users and for Smashwords, and I find I'm increasingly frustrated and disappointed with the quality of the writing, especially toward the beginning of the book. The end is great. I love the end, still, and it usually helps me forget about the problems I had with the beginning, but the problems are still there.
Like any creator, I'm having a hard time letting the work be "done" and letting go. I want to keep re-writing it, keep editing it, keep updating it, make it better somehow. But I've got to move on, write new things, new stories, and just try my hardest to make every new book better than the last one. I'll always love Lost and Not Found, but in recognizing its flaws, I'm downgrading my rating from 5 stars to 4. This used to be my best novel, but now I can accept that it isn't as great as I'd thought it to be. And that's okay. It's still worth reading.
Like any creator, I'm having a hard time letting the work be "done" and letting go. I want to keep re-writing it, keep editing it, keep updating it, make it better somehow. But I've got to move on, write new things, new stories, and just try my hardest to make every new book better than the last one. I'll always love Lost and Not Found, but in recognizing its flaws, I'm downgrading my rating from 5 stars to 4. This used to be my best novel, but now I can accept that it isn't as great as I'd thought it to be. And that's okay. It's still worth reading.
February 24, 2009
I liked the book a lot as I was listening to it, but the logic fell apart at the end.
It would seem to me that it's very important that the book establish a 'world which conspired to keep him from writing', and it really doesn't. His reasons for giving up on the first concept were entirely internal. He got to a problem point in the novel and decided that the way out was to research. That would not have been my first choice when dealing with that particular problem... it would have made sense more sense if he'd gotten hung up on a 'reality issue', such as needing to know more about a particular culture, or how some sort of technology worked, rather than what kind of plots 'worked' or not in his genre.
The second book is a better example. It's not a good example of the world 'conspiring' against him, most people hesitate about writing something so intensely personal because of the possibility of such a response, but at least there was an external event which blocked him.
Although his reality had bent in odd ways throughout his life, without him knowing it, I can't say that it had bent in such a way as to stifle creativity, especially after hearing his recounting of his own story.
It would seem to me that it's very important that the book establish a 'world which conspired to keep him from writing', and it really doesn't. His reasons for giving up on the first concept were entirely internal. He got to a problem point in the novel and decided that the way out was to research. That would not have been my first choice when dealing with that particular problem... it would have made sense more sense if he'd gotten hung up on a 'reality issue', such as needing to know more about a particular culture, or how some sort of technology worked, rather than what kind of plots 'worked' or not in his genre.
The second book is a better example. It's not a good example of the world 'conspiring' against him, most people hesitate about writing something so intensely personal because of the possibility of such a response, but at least there was an external event which blocked him.
Although his reality had bent in odd ways throughout his life, without him knowing it, I can't say that it had bent in such a way as to stifle creativity, especially after hearing his recounting of his own story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2012
This was like a weird existentialist version of the movie "Hook". The whole end of the book made NO continuous sense.
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February 10, 2015By far, the best thing I've had the pleasure of reading (or in my case, hearing) in a very long time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews