My first post on my first blog!  I never thought I'd see the day.

This blog is all about my upcoming Oz book, The Law Of Oz, and other stories, due to be published in time for the next convention of The International Wizard Of Oz Club.  In future posts I'll have a few things to say about how I came to write the thing, and I'll also introduce my wonderful illustrators.  But fasten your seatbelts, folks, because I'm going to start with a brief history of the Oz series for the uninitiated.

If you only know Oz from the MGM movie, as well as Wicked and The Wiz, you may be surprised to know that L. Frank Baum -- the author of The Wizard Of Oz -- wrote no less than thirteen sequels!  This was not something he planned.  Wizard was a great success when it was published in 1900, so much so that a Broadway musical version quickly ensued and made stars out of the actors who played the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman.  All this success led to a second Oz book, which led to a third Oz book, which finally led to an ongoing and lucrative series.  Oz acquired a new ruler, the lovely Princess Ozma, and both Dorothy and the Wizard ended up making their homes in the Emerald City.  A great many new characters were added as well.  By the time Baum died in 1919, the tradition of an annual Oz book under the Christmas tree was firmly established.

Not wishing to abandon the series, publisher Reilly and Lee quickly hired a new author -- Ruth Plumley Thompson -- to continue it.  Thompson ultimately contributed nineteen Oz books, a record for Oz authors, and the characters she invented are still loved by her fans.  She was busy writing Oz stories when the MGM movie came out in 1939.  And the story does not end with her.  The tradition of the yearly Oz book was allowed to slip, but sporadic titles by a number of different authors -- including Oz's primary illustrator, John R. Neill -- continued to emerge.  The last of the Reilly and Lee titles, a 1963 outing called Merry Go Round In Oz, rounded out what Oz fans call The Famous Forty.

Oz, however, had acquired a life of its own -- on film, onstage, and in print.  With or without Reilly and Lee, Oz writers went right on extending the series.  Some of their stories were never published, some were published privately, and a few were published by other houses.  There are Oz collections out there that would boggle your mind.  They certainly boggle mine.  Alternate Oz universes have also proliferated in books, in comics, and on screen.  Though Wicked is the greatest and most famous of these, it's hardly alone.

Many of us, however, remain solidly in the Baum (or Baum/Thompson) Oz-verse.  I'm a bit of a Baum purist myself (though Oz fans who read my stories may find occasional nods to his successors).  That's not to say that I keep things exactly as he left them -- far from it.  But all my ideas grow straight out of his books.  And I, too, am hardly alone.  We Oz authors are everywhere!

That's my thumbnail history.  More Oz later!