The Writing Madness of Oz! Day 3...

Today was a most interesting day, from an Oz point of view.

I sat down at noon today under beautiful skies on my side porch and managed to outline the first 4 chapters of The Ozian Adventure of Pickleless & Blu. As always, I tend to write up about 6-8 sentences (about a paragraph or so) which generally tell the story of that chapter in sequence. When the time comes, I'll sit down and start with the first sentence and expand on it to explain what the sentence is trying to say. Then, I'll move onto the next sentence and repeat the process. When I've finished that chapter, which I almost always do in a single session, I'll have taken roughly 50-75 words and turned it into about 2000 words. This is how things will go over the next few days until I find the need to outline the next sequence of chapters. I also find that I tend to outline as many chapters as is needed to complete a specific sequence within the storyline. I have found upon occasion that what I've outlined doesn't necessarily fit where the story has been leading up to. This is generally the case later on in the story and not so in the beginning.

So far, I've managed to outline the intro chapter which introduces one of the two the main characters, Aadon Blu and explains how he came to Oz. This particular character is a spin-off from my third book, Family of Oz, in which Aadon Blu is the Caretaker of the Pinwheel Fields. I felt the need to expand his role and explain some things which I felt were necessary. This is a tragic beginning and not the normal way I start a book, but this story is somewhat different than my past work.

Chapter two will introduce Nicholas Pickleless, a pickle farmer who hates pickles. He too is a spin-off from Family of Oz and his whole concept just screamed for inclusion in this story. He will also come in from the Great Outside into Oz. I just loved the whole idea of a pickle farmer who hates pickles and his name was a flash of inspiration I received several years ago when I was still working on Shadow Demon of Oz.

Chapter three will introduce the entrance into Oz, which I have chosen as Chittenango Falls near Chittenango, New York. Near Glinda's red brick palace in the southern Quadling Country is the Great Waterfall, which the Royal Historian, L. Frank Baum wrote of in Scarecrow of Oz (1915). I visited this wonderful marvel of nature last June and my wife made a discovery which inspired me to include both the waterfall and her discovery in the story. What she discovered, I will not say. If you wanna know, you gotta buy the book.

Chapter 4 will unite Aadon Blu and Nicholas Pickleless and set them off on their adventure. At this point, I'm not quite sure what that adventure is, but it does involve Princess Ozma and the Patchwork Girl. I'll know more as I move along. For now, I hope to set down tomorrow and start the actual writing.

On another note, I watched Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz on Cartoon Network tonight and found it to be wonderfully entertaining. It was a bit cheesy, but hey, it's Tom and Jerry. Whad'ya expect?

Over the next few years, there are going to be quite a few Oz movies coming out, the most notable of which is Dorothy of Oz, which was written by Roger Baum, great grandson of L. Frank Baum. All signs point to it being a wonderful adaptation of a fine book.

On a more bummer note, I did receive some disappointing news regarding an Oz project of mine which I had hoped would move forward. It still will, but without the participation of someone very special, whose work I greatly respect. Blame it lawyers, most of whom have no soul!

Such is Life!!!