#AtoZChallenge : Inspirations of Oz!

I find that it is the second Wednesday of April, which can mean only one thing.

Today's blog posting is brought you by the letter I.

I'm often asked what inspires me to write about the Land of Oz and where I get my inspirations for the characters and storylines that I write about.

As such, I'll address some of those questions and reveal some of my inspirations of Oz.

In late 2007, I was watching a Sci-Fi channel show called Tin Man, which was a re-imagining of Oz for the 21st century.

Now, as Oz shows go, it was fairly good, though it engaged in what I term the "Adultification of Oz." This included, among other things, hookers and phone sex in Emerald City.

I didn't recall any of that from my childhood memories of reading L. Frank Baum's original Oz books, and so, as if by Royal Proclamation from Princess Ozma Herself, I began my own journey down the road of yellow brick and started writing Magician of Oz in order to return to the Royal Historian of Oz's (L. Frank Baum) original vision of Oz, which was a child's tale of fantasy and adventure..

Along the way, I drew from many sources, my inspirations for the story. These included my love for my dear wife, Amanda and my 5 kids,

as well as Amanda's legendary Potato Soup, the International Brotherhood of Magicians,

Duke Stern, a great magician and founding member of Ring 210 out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, of which my father and I are also founding members,

Al Goshman, another great magician who I greatly admired

Hank & Buddy Moorehouse (fellow magicians and dear friends from long ago),

 and of course, my father.

These fine gentlemen were my Mentors of Magic and served as inspiration for Magician of Oz, but sadly, all of them are gone now, having crossed the Shifting Sands and joined L. Frank Baum in Oz. They await my arrival, though I hope not for some time.

I still gots more writings to do!!!

Of course, Magician of Oz only scratched at the surface of the message I was compelled to tell, which was one of Love, Family, Friendship, Truth and Honor. Turns out it took two more books to get that complete message out to the world.

When next I speak of inspirations for my stories of Oz, I'll address Shadow Demon of Oz and Family of Oz, as well as The Ozian Adventure of Pickleless & Blu.

James C. Wallace II
Royal L:iaison of Oz