Second Chances

by Lance Lee

Second Chances is an adult romance between Anne and Ted, who have both suffered great losses. They have ended up on Cape Cod, whose nooks and crannies of wildness are their refuge. They are drawn together as Anne searches for someone to care for an injured fox…Maggie, Ted's daughter, gives the story a mythic dimension with her hunger for a mother and her love for the fox. The obvious 'match' between Ted and Anne, both needing what the other has, is not so obvious in as they draw together, the anxieties and dreads sparked by their past experiences increasingly get in their way. They are individuals who feel deeply, and their losses have made them acutely aware of the fragility of ordinary family happiness. Despite an ever-increasing involvement, their romance becomes explosive and would fail were it not for Maggie. At the critical turning point in the story the fox leaves Maggie despite all her hunger and desire but, miraculously, returns against all expectation, making everything else seem possible to them, too. They risk the return of other things, then-like love, and being a family.

244 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2001

About the author

My poems, stories and articles have appeared widely in both American and English journals. Books of poetry include "Wrestling With The Angel "(1990), "Becoming Human "(2001), "Human/Nature"(2006), "Seasons of Defiance" (2010), which placed as a finalist in the 8th. National USA Book Awards, "Transformations" combining art and poetry (2013), and "Homecomings" (2015). "Elemental Natures, selected lyrics, sequences, and prose,"appeared in 2020. I am a recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and various other scholarships

Among plays, "Rasputin" and "Gambits" were produced at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. "Time’s Up" and "Fox, Hound, and Huntress" were premiered in Los Angeles; publications include "Time’s Up;" "Fox, Hound & Huntress;" and "Time’s Up and Other Plays."

I founded graduate playwrighting and the graduate screenwriting programs at USC and California State University, Northridge, respectively. I have published a screenwriting textbook, "The Understructure of Writing for Film & Television," and "A Poetics for Screenwriters," as well as "The Death and Life of Drama, reflections on writing and human nature."

My works also include a novel, "Second Chances" (2001). A children's novel, "Orpheus Rising," appeared in 2021, and a shorter children's book, "The Tale of Brian and the House Painter Mervyn" is due in early 2022.

My family is split between Los Angeles, where I helped establish the California State Park System in the Santa Monica Mountains, and London, where a married daughter lives in Crouch End, the family seat for generations on my wife’s side.