Ryan Boudinot is about to unleash a new collection of linked short stories onto the world via a very interesting distribution system: Geocaching. The stories will be hidden in various places, and you can find them with GPS.

“Found and Lost” is a series of interlinked short stories. Each story focuses on a main character who, in the course of the story, finds something and loses something else. The stories are set in various settings and time periods. The stories are connected to one another like links in a chain. For instance, Betty finds a cell phone and loses a framed butterfly. In another story, Juan finds the framed butterfly and loses his wallet. In another story, a man finds Juan’s wallet and loses his glass eye. The stories are linked in a circle, so that the “last” story involves someone who loses something that the “first” person finds.

Each story in this series will be produced as a chapbook. I’ll print multiple copies of each story, but some print runs will be smaller than others, making particular stories more rare. Each copy will feature a sturdy, laminated cover with a hole punched in it. A travel bug will be attached to this hole, identifying each individual copy of each story with a unique code. The stories will be short enough to read while sitting on a stump out in the woods. The stories will be family-friendly. Each will feature an “about the series” section and mention this blog.

A lot of authors and booksellers around Seattle are getting very smart about embracing technology and not just whining about it. 2010 is going to be a really interesting year for Seattle literature.