Oziana 2013 is out!

Well, the 2013 issue of Oziana is finally available from Lulu.com! And this is one lovely issue!

The theme of the issue is "Traditional Oz," meaning that these stories are meant to fit with the Oz you know from the tales of Baum, Thompson and the rest. Not that the imagination of the writers and artists felt trapped!

First up is "Foiled by the Iffin" by Phyllis Ann Karr, illustrated by Dennis Anfuso. The Computer Wizard is back with another scheme to cause trouble in Oz! How far will he go in his plan and when will our friends in Oz catch onto it?

Next is "The Harvest Ball" by Gina Wickwar, illustrated by Luciano Vecchio and Marcus Mebes. When the Scarecrow has a Harvest Ball, he has an idea to amuse everyone! It'll just require a little help from Glinda. But she's away... Will an overly helpful maid at Glinda's palace help the Scarecrow or make things go horribly wrong?

Then, to fit the time this issue finally came out, "Jinnicky Saves Christmas" by Nathan DeHoff, illustrated by Shawn Maldonado. One chilly Christmas Eve, Jinnicky helps to foil yet another plot to kidnap Santa Claus!

And in "The Love Bug of Oz" by newcomer Ed McCray, Mombi and Ruggedo raid the Wicked Witch of the West's old palace to see what they can find. What they do find is a lot of trouble for our friends in the Emerald City!

Next up is "The Way of a Lion" by Jared Davis (yours truly), illustrated by Sam Milazzo. Well, this story won the International Wizard of Oz Club's first place for fiction this year at the Winkie Convention Research Table. It is my own backstory for the Cowardly Lion, explaining why he believes he is a coward. Look carefully and you'll see a few things from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz explained, and maybe a couple cameos.

I wrote the story with the intent that the reader could read it and then begin re-reading Baum's Wizard and my story would complement the Lion's story in the original classic. Aside from mentions of Lurline, I decided to focus mainly on what we knew about Oz from the first book.

And Sam's pictures for the story are gorgeous. I'd asked him to illustrate almost as soon as I began writing the story, since I knew he enjoyed drawing lions. He showed me sketches at the 2012 Winkie Convention and then near finished pictures at this year's convention. He didn't always draw exactly what I'd written, but I didn't mind. It looked very cool. I suggested I alter the text to match the pictures, he told me not to. In the end, I'm very pleased with the finished version you can see in Oziana.

(Yes, I did just give three paragraphs to my story when I only gave everyone else a blurb. I wasn't in their creative process.)

Finally is "Witches of the West" by newcomer Darrell Spradlyn and Marcus Mebes. Set to tell more about Gloma, Thompson's Good Witch of the West, the story tells of days before the Wicked Witch of the West was destroyed, and not only reveals more about Gloma, but the Wicked Witch and Mombi, including a little bit of witch lore yours truly suggested to the writers. (It will be used again in an upcoming story.)

Art by Luciano Vecchio graces the front cover, while an excellent portrait of Gloma by Alejandro Garcia.

And Oziana is only $10 at Lulu. Everyone turned out some amazing work for this issue! If you ask me, that's well worth the price!

Oziana 2012 is out!

After a long wait, Oziana 2012 is finally here!

Normally, Oziana consists of short pieces of work by members of the International Wizard of Oz Club. This year, editor Marcus Mebes decided to do something a little different: do an issue-length Oz story, Round Robin style. Appropriately enough, the person starting the story would be none other than L. Frank Baum himself!

You remember the unfinished Oz story fragment (which might not be by Baum) that features Ozma ice-skating? That was the launching point. And to further help, Robert Baum supplied an introduction and afterword, in which he supplies all the information he knows about the fragment.

Several Oz fans wrote fourteen new chapters including Marcus Mebes, S.P. Maldonado, Jared Davis (yours truly), Kim McFarland, Sam Milazzo, Chris Dulabone, Jeff Rester, Dennis Anfuso, Mycroft Mason, Nathan DeHoff, Paul Ritz, Mike Conway, Paul Dana, and Atticus Gannaway. In addition, S.P. Maldonado, Dennis Anfuso and Kim McFarland all provided artwork to illustrate the story.

Ozma's outing to go ice-skating is interrupted by the appearance of two visitors from Hiland and the Nome Kingdom, who tell her how their respective kings have been acting strangely. Glinda soon discovers that a cruel and powerful witch is at work, making people all over Oz do and believe peculiar things. Can our friends in Oz (including the Wizard, Scraps, Percy, Kabumpo, Jinnicky, the Scarecrow, and of course Dorothy) discover the witch's plot and stop her, or has she sunk her claws into Oz too deeply?

I was one of the early writers who helped the story get rolling by setting up the villain, allowing the remaining writers to work with and deal with her. (My chapter is also the shortest.) While the story didn't reach its fullest possible potential, the story does not disappoint in the least! And also, almost everyone in the blog team contributed to it as well.

One might think the nature of the story's writing might lead to an uneven pace and jarring writing styles, but while some writers can't help but put on their little flourishes, the editors made sure the narrative flowed very well.

This one's an exciting story with some great twists and turns and quite a formidable new foe! Add it to your collection!

Your traditional-style Oziana will resume in 2013.