A Wicked Sequel This Way Comes - Oz Gazette #04
Out with the familiar, in with a LOT of NEW
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
It has been four years now and our creator has finally listened to all the little boys and girls who’ve nicely asked for an update on Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion by way of a second book. What will The Marvelous Land of Oz teach us, I wonder.
- Glenda, Good Witch of the South
Please read the entire email as somewhere down below is a POLL where I need your opinion on *new* art for this newsletter.
READING UPDATE
I could not be happier that we are now finished with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Don’t get me wrong, I loved getting to analyze what the book did differently from the movie but I’m glad to move on from Disney.
But before we do, I want to make the recap of chapters and the number of people in our little community who’s reading along with us a regular update. So here is the breakdown of all 24 chapters. If you have read all of the chapters of the book but did not smash that LIKE (aka HEART) button on each then you are likely not counted (yet). But never you fear, I am including a page for the “WALL OF READERS” on the website (more on that below) that will include a self-updating chart for each book in case newcomers want to start at the beginning
.
If you have read the last nine chapters in April, feel free to scroll past the catch-up to get to the real meat and potatoes of this month’s issue!
APRIL CHAPTERS CATCH-UP
CHAPTER XVI.—The Magic Art of the Great Humbug.
CHAPTER XVII.—How the Balloon was Launched.
CHAPTER XVIII.—Away to the South.
CHAPTER XIX.—Attacked by the Fighting Trees.
CHAPTER XX.—The Dainty China Country.
CHAPTER XXI.—The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts.
CHAPTER XXII.—The Country of the Quadlings.
CHAPTER XXIII.—The Good Witch Grants Dorothy's Wish.
I NEED YOUR HELP! [POLL AHEAD]
Before we get going to what we’re all here for, I’ve been working on dividers for these Oz Gazette issues and future plans. I subscribe to other Substack newsletters and one thing I notice most of them have is a unique divider. And this past month I’ve been wracking my brain to come up with a divider for Beyond the Wizard. I have quite a few color options with their black variant. If you could tell me which color + variant option you like best, we’ll go with the one that has the most votes. In the event of a TIE, I will break it. This poll will close on the morning of May 8th.
OPTION 1
OPTION 2
OPTION 3
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE LAND OF OZ
Let’s start with the name of the second book. It’s “government name” (slang for shouting out someone’s full name in public; first middle and last) is, The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. I think we can all agree that’s kinda long! So from now on whenever I reference the second book I’m just going to say The Land of Oz, as it’s commonly shortened to. I have made this distinction in the MENU here on this Substack as well as updating the first book to “The Wizard of Oz.” I’m sure removing the words Wonderful and Marvelous won’t make them any less wonderful or marvelous, right?
Next, let’s take a look at the characters we’ll be meeting (old and new). Now, this is just a list. I’m not going to fill in any details here as I’m working on a page on the website that will be an Index of Ozians, listing all of the characters, where we meet them, and their illustration as they appear in the books.
Tip
Mombi
Jack Pumpkinhead
The Sawhorse
Guardian of the Gates
Soldier with the Green Whiskers
Jinjur
Scarecrow
Jellia Jamb
Tin Woodman
H.M. Wogglebug, T.E.
Queen of the Field Mice
The Gump
Glinda
Ozma
ALL THE RESOURCES
Never fear, a resources page that will include anything I have ever listed here and more will, of course, be included on the website’s resources page. But, just wanted to share that I have relied heavily on both Wikipedia and Oz Fandom Wiki pages for the information I’ve gathered for this issue.
Something else I wanted to share is Tor.com. I am familiar with them because they publish short fiction, have a publishing arm where they help indie authors become hybrid authors, give away free ebooks, and also encourage binge-watching or -reading classic content. One such contributor is Mari Ness who, back in 2009, read one Oz book a week and reviewed them. I want no spoilers so I have not read any of these, but if you are looking for more Oz content, I recommend checking out Travels in Fairyland: Oz reread.
BEYOND THE WIZARD WEBSITE UPDATE
From now on you can expect an update on the website. What I’ve added. What I’m thinking about adding. Your thoughts and opinions.
Grand unveiling: Winter 2023 (this date is tentative as my hope is by December to at least feel confident in making it public)
Pages/Sections:
The Indexes - Ozians (characters in all of the books complete with illustrations), Places (names of locations), Creatures & Objects (various creatures that are living and things that are important to the stories)
The Books - This will be an index of all the books whether in the public domain or not. These books are considered canon by L. Frank Baum’s Family Trust and do not include books published by the International Wizard of Oz Club.
Other Books - This list will include those books from the International Wizard of Oz Club as well as the infamous Wicked books by Gregory Maguire and many others with links to read more about them or purchase them. These books are not canon nor do they follow what L. Frank Baum laid out. The books I am writing would fall under this section.
Resources - A hub containing all the links to where I get my Oz information that will be expanded to include any cool places on the internet you know about that even I’m not aware of.
The Store - Unlike most stores that sell you something they created, I’m working on a store to help you find things that are already out there with convenient links right to them. At the moment it’s mostly linking to Amazon and Oz-centric stores. But if you’re looking for the books or random Oz style gifts for special occasions, the store page will have it.
About the Author - Page dedicated to L. Frank Baum, Ruth Plumly Thompson, and Jack Snow, all of the authors for the books that are currently in the public domain.
About the Illustrators - Page dedicated to WW Denslow, John R. Neill, and Frank Kramer, the illustrators of the books.
Memberships - This is FREE to join for subscribers of the newsletter. It will allow you to create a profile to share interests with each other outside of Oz. Share links to your social media and more.
At the moment all of these pages are started but have not been fully populated with information. If you are knowledgeable with Wordpress behind the scenes and would like to lend a hand in putting this all together with me, let me know by hitting reply on this email.
I do want to add why I’m even bothering to do all of this if, as my resource library will already show, there are an abundance of places where all these things are already stored. All we need to do is simply go to those places or “Google it.” The answer is simple: I want to build a site with us at the helm as a community to decide what we want and don’t really need. Yes, the Oz wiki pages is great and just because I have my site doesn’t mean I’d stop using it, however, some of these sites have way more bells and whistles than I’ll ever need. And many of them, because they have to, are heavily inundated with ads (pop ups or otherwise). I want a site that has zero need for ads. I do this out of my own pocket and ask for nothing in return but any help and contribution you might have to making it better.
Also, I selfishly hope that the twist on Oz I’m writing will earn me some readers in the future. More on that when there’s more to say.
BEYOND THE WIZARD DISCORD SERVER
I sometimes think that everyone knows what “X” is because I use it. That’s not always the case. Many of you might know what Discord is but most of you might not. The best way I can describe it is, it’s a place to chat in real time with people of similar interests in a forum like setting. I’m sure there is a more technical or layman’s way of defining it but if you don’t have a Discord account, just CLICK THIS LINK to create one.
I mention this because while the website might be quite a ways away, the server will be ready for you to join in the JUNE Oz Gazette! Why am I opening the server up first? I think communication, especially in real time, will allow me to get feedback on the website and assistance from anyone who might want to help, much faster.
Apologies! It seems I forgot to include a screenshot of the latest Chapters Read chart! Oops! Thank goodness I use placeholders to tell me when I'm missing something!
Thank you to everyone who read the first book with me! I'm so excited to start the next one on Saturday! Remember, the Author Note and Table-of-Contents post is coming! I'm going to push up the date of this post to Wednesday because Wednesdays and Saturdays are our usual email days.
I feel really sad for option two! I was very, very, closely torn between it and #1 😢