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Royal Oz News 2013
This year was a special one as it brought me back to Oz and in a big way. Not only did I finally update the Royal Timeline of Oz after six years of it laying fallow, but I launched The Royal Publisher of Oz, and released the first book under that imprint, Paul Dana's The Law of Oz and Other Stories! But Oz is like that. You can go away for a time, but you're always welcome back. This is true for Ozma and everyone in Oz, as well as for the community of Ozites right here in the Outside World! More good things to come in 2014!
1/20/13 Toto and the Cats of Oz Robin Hess' Toto and the Cats of Oz is finally available from Amazon and B&N.com.
11/8/13 Tweaking Away Though I don't post daily news, I have been making daily changes to the timelines, adding new (or old) items, and shifting things from one timeline to the other. If anyone would prefer that I notate what changes I make after I make them, let me know, and I'll endeavor to record them on this page.
10/24/13 What's In a Name? The names of the Wicked Witches and their relationships to one another is a tricky puzzle, which none of the Sovereign Sixty authors ever explored in depth. This is brought to a light in an upcoming Oziana story in which the Wicked Witch of the West reveals having had several names in her day. To tackle that sticky issue and settle it, at least to our own satisfaction, authors Jeff Rester, Paul Dana and myself puzzled over names, etymology and relationships based on the books found on the mainline timeline, and a few that are yet to be revealed! Check it out in the Appendices page here.
At least three stories deal with the Glass Cat getting her pink brains back, David Hulan's "A Bungled Kidnapping in Oz," from Oziana 2004, David Tai's existential "Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought, Alone," from Oziana 2011, and Atticus Gannaway's "Toto and the Truth," from OzStory 6. While none of these stories are contradictory, they do present different character's points of view, the first is a third-person perspective, the second a firsthand account from inside Bungle's brain, and the final one is Toto's story. Now, if you take a look at 1910 on the mainline timeline, you can see exactly how these tales fit together chronologically. It may be neater to read the individual tales on their own, particularly for first-time reading, but after that, the chronological approach is an interesting way to see how the events occurred.
9/26/13 Thompson and the New Chronology Unlike Baum, who kept dates and times loose and unspecific, Ruth Plumly Thompson wasn't shy about incorporating notations to the passage of time in her books, using them to tie her books together through character ages or recollections of prior events from earlier books. While she doesn't delve into Baum's domain, she does establish a documentable series of dates for her own stories. Sadly, this has mostly gone unheeded by chronologers (myself included), who've perhaps a little too stubbornly insisted on setting a book's date in the year prior to publication, one book a year. This formula might be the easiest one to do, but it's also erroneous, and with it, Thompson's dates make no sense (for which many have blamed Thompson). For a long time, I've wanted to rearrange the Royal Timeline to more accurately reflect her vision, what I'm calling The New Chronology (even though it's one of the earliest ones for the Oz books). While there's still work to be done, I've mostly accomplished the rearranging of dates according to this reckoning. While you can see the results on the mainline timeline, I have a discussion of the various placements here in the appendices.
9/23/13 Amazon and More Timeline Changes At long last, The Law of Oz and Other Stories is now available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com! Would appreciate whatever reviews you can muster! The timeline has also undergone more changes to accommodate more stories. I've again done some compressing so that the early history makes more sense (and so "Buffalo Dreams" can be made to fit into its proper historical setting). I've finally placed Shanower's "Enchanted Apples of Oz" in its proper setting, and, after rereading it, moved The Blue Emperor of Oz to the mainline timeline. I've also put Jack Snow's "A Murder in Oz" back on the mainline timeline and provided a possible retcon in the footnotes. Bunch of other additions/changes too. More to come!
9/12/13 The Sovereign Sixty and the Supreme Seventy-Five Though I can't yet discuss why, I've updated the archaic Famous Forty canon designation once again by the addition of five more books, Sherwood Smith's trilogy and Ed Einhorn's two books published by Hungry Tiger Press. This leads to the new designation The Sovereign Sixty, which added to the fifteen Borderlands of Oz books, combines to form the Supreme Seventy-Five. Other minor updates have been made as well in several articles across the site.
8/12/13 The Royal Explorers Ship Out Again! The third book in the Royal Explorers series, Terra Obscura, has arrived from the publisher. Marcus Mebes, Jeffrey Rester and Jared Davis bring us the latest adventures from Oz, and it's sure to be exciting and fun! Check it out here.
8/7/13: Lots of Updates! As promised five years ago when I had to let this site go dormant to work on other time-consuming projects, I said I would return to update this site, and I have. There's lots of minor and major changes, and still plenty more to come, but practically every page has seen updates, including the Appendices and footnotes pages, with articles on my conception of the Foremost Fifty-Five (as opposed to the woefully outdated Famous Forty) and the Sovereign Seventy. Check it out!
Two Epilogues! One "Lost" Oz Short Story and One New Queer Visitors Tale Available Here!
Melody Grandy's "lost" "The
Great Jinjin Epilogue" is available again online,
right here!
The First Two Chapters of The Law of Oz and Other Stories is Now Up! Check it out here!
The Law of Oz and Other Stories is available for purchase! And at a discounted price here!
New Interview with The Law of Oz Author Paul Dana Check it out here. Also, check out the list of upcoming books to be published by The Royal Publisher of Oz here.
The Royal Publisher of Oz Wants You(r Stories)!
Can you write? Do you know your Oz history? Have you written an Oz story? Have you always wanted to? The Royal Publisher of Oz is interested in seeing your manuscripts! Check out the newest page for submission guidelines!
5/23/13 Updates I've finally been getting around to the long-overdue task of putting stories on the timeline, so on the mainline timeline, you can find Adolf Hitler in Oz in 1945, A Refugee in Oz in 1919, An Astonishing Tale of the Gump of Oz in 1997 and, of course, The Law of Oz in 1964. In the Deadly Desert, you'll find Silver Shoes and The Powder of Life in 2009. Much more to come!
5/20/13 I've updated an old page on Oz publishers (which is a bit of an improvement). So much more to do!
5/1/13 Coming in June!! Updated cover and info!
From the back-cover:
"Who was the legendary Queen Lurline? Where did she come from and where was she going? And how and why did she enchant the Land of Oz, long ago in the dim reaches of history? These questions launch Ojo and Button-Bright on a perilous journey into the past – and beyond! Along the way they meet Lurline herself, as well as such infamous Oz villains as Ugu the Shoemaker and Mrs. Yoop. Even Tititi-Hoochoo arrives to shake the foundations of the Emerald City! Momentous changes and astonishing revelations alter the lives our boyish heroes and pit them against the law of Oz itself."
2/10/13 A few minor updates, this time Oziana 2009's been finally added to the mainline timeline and parodies sections. I also moved Paul Dana's Button-Bright quadrilogy up in time to 1975. Those of you've read the first two tales understand that Button Bright and Ojo go through major changes in these tales. Moving them forward in time allows for more pre-change Button Bright tales to take place. The two later stories (soon to be published in The Law of Oz) also deal with events that are best served later in Oz history.
1/28/13 Just a few updates, the recent Oziana 2012 is up at the parallel histories page, and I managed to incorporate Maguire's "Scarecrow" in with Jeff Rester's excellent "Cryptic Conversations in a Cornfield" (from Oziana 2011). It's not a perfect fit, and I hope I didn't mess too much with the integrity of either story by intertwining them a bit, but overall, I think they actually work side by side. More importantly, thematically both tales have a melancholic, lyrical quality to them. See for yourself. They're great!
As usual, I've only scratched the surface during my brief resurgence, and have to swim back down to the deep in order to return to the final draft of my book. I have some potential good news about that which I can't yet share, but I hope to soon. Regardless, I'll be away for some time. Not as long as my prior departure. While I may occasional appearances and updates since 2008 when I started my book, for the most part there haven't been real updates on this site for years. That will all change once my book is done, as I'm fired up to return to Oz (as I noted in my last post).
1/22/13 More updates, this time some newer items on the mainline timeline. Thanks to Jeff Rester and Marcus Mebes for the dates! I'll be going into hibernation again as I resume work on my book -- this time for the final stretch before publication -- so I'm glad I was able to provide a few much needed updates during this brief hiatus. I'm very anxious to return to working on this site in a big way. I've recently written an essay for an upcoming annotated version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with new stories, which has reawakened my love of Baum and the Oziverse. More information on the former as it emerges.
1/17/13 A few more updates. I added Silver Shoes and The Powder of Life to 2009 on the mainline timeline. I also interspersed Gregory Maguire's non-Wicked universe short story Scarecrow (from Half-Human, edited by Bruce Coville) into the third chapter of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Finally, I added some short stories from online sources, a few of which were interspersed with Ozma of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.
1/10/13 A new year and more updates. I fixed the Deadly Desert page, which was plagued with formatting errors, and added some parodies to the Patchwork page. I also added The Wicked Years to the Dark Side page, which took long enough to get there. There's a lot more stories to add to the mainline timeline, but I've been focused on getting formerly neglected stories, particularly films and TV shows, on to the timeline.
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