The Wonderful Worlds of OZ

 I saw the new Oz movie a few weeks ago after anticipating for months. I knew they hadn't used much source material and that it was a "prequel" to the Wizard of Oz, so I didn't go into with thinking it would be like the books. (There are 15 to 18 Oz books by Frank Baum, depending if you count the ones that are not officially Oz books but about Oz characters.) I also understand film is a different media than books, and as such, sometime changes are necessary.


Nevertheless, I was disappointed. The acting was all fine, the scenery was ohmygod fabulous. But the story...I just didn't like it. The Oz books were never a romantic love story. And even with that, I might have been OK if the women in the film would have been strong; from the simpering China doll character to three, count 'em THREE witches fighting over the wizard who really wasn't a wizard?? These are WITCHES, after all, women who have power, vast holdings, and confidence. They wouldn't have fought over ANY man, let alone a humbug wizard. In my humble opinion.

FYI, if you want to see a movie that IS based on source material albeit mooshed up from several books, try the 1980's movie "Return to Oz."

So after the movie I was inspired to read all the Oz books which I purchased for one dollar on Kindle. I had read more than a few, but never the entire collection. The writing is old fashioned. They are sprinkled with unfortunate words of the time, especially concerning race. They also probably wouldn't meet today's youth appetite for realism and excitement.

Even so, Baum was remarkably ahead of his time. His women are strong and independent...Oz is ruled by Ozma, with Glenda the Good and Dorothy at her side. Baum also encourages people to be who they are, embodied in characters like the Shaggy Man who refuses to be Less Shaggy, and the Patchwork Girl who loves her multicolored deliciousness despite Ozian norms to the contrary. Baum gently teases people not to be intellectual snobs with his Woggle Bug, G.M.T.E. (Greatly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated), and the Sawhorse reminds readers that servitude, even if pleasant, is still servitude.

I am loving these books. If nothing else, the movie inspired me to read them all. Maybe the next Oz movie writers will do the same.

New Story Sold!

While editing my latest novel, one of my short stories, 'Skin and Bones' was accepted for the July 2013 issue of The Lorelei Signal as well as for the August 2013 issue of Mystic Signals, their sister publication.


It's always wonderful to have something published, and I have a soft spot for Lorelei because that magazine was my very first sale. Yea!!

Duality

One of my favorite singers of all time is Maddy Prior. What I love most is her range; she can sing a sweet tune, but she often chooses grim and terrifying tales of death and destruction.

As a writer I often contemplate my own duality. In 'real life' I like to think of myself as a cheerful person. People describe me as happy. However, almost of my work has dark elements. Perhaps composing scary prose helps me live a joyful life. Or keeps me from whacking people over the head. :-) In truth, we are all creatures of light and of dark. The writer's lifestyle too is yin and yang; publish and rejection, creation and blockage, loneliness and exhilaration.

Listen to Maddy Prior singing a lovely old carol, and then the song that first drew me to her, The Fabled Hare. The New Year is upon us, cold and dark. But spring is just around the corner.

A Science Fiction Holiday

I’ve haven’t been blogging as much lately because I’m almost done with another book, which has proven to be harder than anything I’ve ever done. Not a bad thing, but it has kept me busy. This one is science fiction, and although I’ve written some sci-fi shorts, it’s my first novel in this genre.


Which has garnered some interesting responses. Those who don’t read fantasy tend to lump it into the children’s book slot, or perhaps link it to some childhood fairytale memory, which makes their comments slightly more positive. With science fiction, non readers can more negative. Sic- fi is weird. It’s for boys. It’s (sigh) not serious literature. I usually just smile and say if you read one my books it would mean so much to me.  :-)

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how no one says Merry Christmas anymore. I don’t make an issue of how I’m greeted holiday-wise…I Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Happy Holiday them back, because for me it’s the intent behind the wishes.

In the spirit of the season, I wish you and yours the magic of this special time however you express it, and contented reading whatever you pull up on your Kindle or off your bookshelf.

It’s all good.

Halloween House

This year we made a spaceship made from Rice Krispie treats (yum). The aliens look like spiders because spiders ARE aliens, I'm convinced. No pooping animals this year. They don't make aliens that poop. A marketing opportunity for sure.

Happy Halloween!!!

Goth Susi

I’m not much of a doll person; I don’t hate them or anything, but they’ve always seemed a little creepy, aka Twilight Zone’s I’m Talking Tina and I’m Going To Kill You. Shudder. As a female kid I did have a few and have kept a couple. My favorite was a life sized doll (I know, REALLY creepy) named Susi. Susi has sat in my childhood rocker for as long as I can remembers, clad in a pink fluffy dress.

This next bit many seem unrelated but if you’ve read my blog you know it will tie together in the end. As I’ve said so many times, a writer's lifestyle is difficult for many reasons, one of which is the understanding that income levels rise very slowly. I’m doing better than I was when I started, but I’m not making anywhere near what I did in corporate-ville.

I know that and have accepted it, but sometimes I long for those flush times. So the other day I was drooling over some unneeded item of clothing when I thought of poor Susi, wearing the same stupid dress for the last 40 years. So I did something about it.

I used an old skirt of mine that didn’t stretch enough for dancing as a dress. I gave her a pair of my lace socks, added a red headband, clipped on some earrings, and last but not least, gave her a punky armband…Goth Susi arises!

Dressing her in new garb was so much fun, and it didn’t cost me a dime. The old Kelly would have found a site with doll clothes and ordered her something. The new Kelly realizes that the fun comes from doing it myself. And that’s something the writer’s lifestyle has taught me; I don’t need a lot of money or stuff to make me happy. Would I add back in fancy vacations and lavish gifts to my family if I ever make it big? Yeah. Do I need those things to live a joyous life? Nope.

Hummm…maybe Goth Susi would like to be a fairy next…

We’re Only Human

I’ve heard that expression many times: in conversation, in insurance commercials, in literature. In some ways it has lost all meaning, becoming not just a remark on human imperfection, but an excuse that can cover just about everything. I cheated, well, I’m only human., I crashed into your car, well, I’m only human, as if that resolves responsibility. But perhaps how we come to grips with our darker nature does, in some ways, define us.

Most books, if you think about it, are all exploring what it means to be human; in literature that means conflict, and usually brushing up against the dark side. This is no more evident than in science fiction, where humans often encounter beings from another world. I’ve been thinking about what makes humans human a lot lately, since my current project is science fiction.

Some of the robots I’ve read about lately and seen on TV are so life like they make me shiver. And although they may nod, blink, and smile, no matter how much they may resemble or behave like humans we know they are not. At least right now. I’m still hoping for Azimov’s positronic brain. :-)

Conversely, sometimes “real” humans can act in inhuman ways. Recently I saw the creepiest scene ever in the newest Bourne movie. SPOILER ALERT. Scene build up: scientist works on a government project which is going to be shut down. The government kills all of the scientists except one woman; she doesn’t know she was meant to be killed. So these same government agents, masquerading as psychologists, come to visit the woman to see how she is getting along. While searching her house they discover her gun. One supposed psychologist sits next to the woman, the man holding the gun on the other side, the faux psychologist calmly says “on three.”…they were going to kill the woman and say she killed herself. (She escapes.)

What chilled me to the bone was how matter- of- fact the agent said “on three.” I wondered how many times did it take for her to become so deadened to killing…. at what point did she lose her humanity?

With aliens, of course, they never had humanity to lose. But they must have a semblance of it, in other words, if you can’t recognize yourself in an alien it becomes a monster. Which is fine if that is what you are going for, but I want my aliens to be a definite shade of gray, no pun intended.

A fabulous example of this concept is from Star Trek Next Generation. The ship comes upon a new planet and some of the ship's children are spirited away. The aliens, when confronted, can’t understand why the crew is so upset. You can have more, the alien woman says, we can’t. Even though the kidnapping of children wasn’t tolerated by the captain and wouldn’t be in any real life situation, the viewer can still feel sympathy for the aliens.

Exploring humanity is so interesting…if an alien or robot acts humanely, are they more human than a “real” person who behaves with no sense of right or wrong? That’s what I’m pondering about right now…