How Braving a Literary Seminar Shaped The Lost Story (With Meg Shaffer)

Meg Shaffer takes us behind the scenes to the literary seminar with legendary writer Richard Russo, who helped her craft her cozy fantasy book, The Lost Story.

Imposter syndrome is real and even our favorite authors experience it as they contemplate their next writing project. In this week’s episode, we welcome back bestselling author Meg Shaffer to join us to discuss her latest cozy fantasy novel, The Lost Story, and the literary seminar with Richard Russo that guided this story and gave Meg the writing encouragement she always needed.

Today, we discuss Meg’s unique research methods, including how she used Fiverr to fact-check archery scenes and gain insights into the pressures of writing a second novel after the commercial success of The Wishing Game.

Patrons can join us for a bonus spoiler-filled conversation with Meg Shaffer, where we discuss The Lost Story ending, her favorite moments in the book, and her top book recommendations from her spicy romance writing career for Harlequin!

Don’t miss this week’s bonus book list with 23 cozy fantasy books to read this autumn. This new book list includes upcoming titles, new releases, and, of course, those backlist book gems you have come to expect!

The Lost Story Book Summary

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.

Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.

Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.

Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.

Meet Meg Shaffer

Meg Shaffer is the USA Today bestselling author of The Wishing Game, which was a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist, a Book of the Month finalist for Book of the Year, a #1 Barnes & Noble bestseller, and a Reader’s Digest Best Book of the Year. Her second novel, The Lost Story, is an instant national bestseller and is available now from Ballantine.

With an MFA in TV and Screenwriting from Stephens College, Shaffer lives in Kentucky with her husband and two cats—though the cats, unfortunately, aren’t writers.

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