Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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Can you even dye my eyes to match my gown? Jolly old town!

It's Oz day! It's Oz day! Oz Reimagined is available now from a bookstore or online retailer near you. I am over the moon, because Oz is the fairyland of my childhood, Oz is where I always wanted to wake up (when I didn't want to go to Gallifrey; my real ideal would have been a pair of silver slippers and a trip to the University of Gallifrey to become the first rainbow-riding Time Lady), and now I am a part of Oz. And that's genuinely amazing.

There are fifteen stories in this book; all are available to buy as Kindle singles, which is an interesting experiment that I've never been involved with before. According to Amazon's webpage for my story, "Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust," some of them may also be available for Amazon Prime members to borrow for free. I haven't read the full anthology yet, but I trust a lot of these authors, and I have faith that it will pass my "must contain three stories worth keeping on my shelves" benchmark.

Now I just want to address something that I've seen crop up in several reviews, because I seriously and genuinely do not want anyone buying this book under false pretenses: this is not an Oz sequel. This is not an homage filled with loving continuations of the canonical Oz. These are stories reimagining Oz, much like Syfy's Tin Man, or the fantastical ongoing comic, Namesake. They are not for children. The book even says so on the cover. Picking this up because you want a children's book will do you a disservice, and may cause you to have Vegemite issues with some otherwise fine pieces of writing.

My story is an urban fantasy. Dorothy has grown up and is living with Polychrome, in a committed lesbian relationship. Is this because I wanted to stain someone else's childhood? No. It's because when I was a little girl, I genuinely believed that Dorothy and Ozma were going to be married someday, and could support that claim with examples from the text. Maybe I was projecting, but that was the memory I went back to when it came time to write my story: my earnest belief that Dorothy was, well, a "friend of Dorothy," and would never marry a man, whether she grew up or no. People get hurt in my story. People die. And I am not the only one who approached the kind of themes in my Oz story that I approach in my day-to-day writing.

Please, pick up this book if it sounds interesting. I'm incredibly excited about it, and I hope you'll love it, just like I hope that the general "you" will love everything I write. But don't pick it up for your ten-year-old and then look astonished when they ask you to explain something you'd been hoping to put off until later.

Oz!
Tags: publishing news, shameless plea, short fiction
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The Kindle singles are $1.99 each. The entire book is $5.99. I think the singles are mostly useful as a courtesy to readers who are interested in the author(s) they follow but not in Oz.

I prepurchased the anthology from Amazon, started reading en route to work today. So far it's all good stuff, but whether I like any given story is hit or miss simply because whether my concept of Oz can stretch to match some but not all of the worlds depicted in the book. I suspect everyone will find three stories worth keeping but the selection of *which* three will be different (even more so than usual for a good anthology.)

Your story made me wonder if Dorothy's perception of Ozma is accurate. It's even sadder if Ozma, like Dorothy, is a basically good person doing the best she can in a rotten situation. We don't know the limitations of Ozma's power beyond that she's unable to simply send people back to the real world.
Oh, totally. But every time I'm in an anthology, I hear the complaints of "I don't want everyone, I just want ____." Okay, fine: spend two dollars, get just the one you want.

I think Ozma is basically good and basically stuck in a really bad position.

wendyzski

4 years ago

For whatever arcane reason, Amazon didn't ship this one for "arrives on release date" based on preorder, so I won't have it until Tomorrow. That's ok though because I'm behind and still haven't read last weeks new thing, and I'm breifly (very briefly) head down in Scalzi's Human Division.
I was looking at advance reviews on Amazon and was deeply disturbed. The Amazon Vine (I gotta figure out how to get into that!) reviewers mostly seemed to be reviewing the book without reading the description, complaining that it was something that it never claimed to be.
Yeah, me too. That's why I said anything at all. I honestly DO NOT want to mislead anyone into buying this book.

ebartley

4 years ago

I am so excited for this. It arrived on my Kindle this morning and that made my day so much better.

I'm saving your story as a treat for getting all my Consonance packing finished, but I can't wait to dive into the anthology as a whole. Modern Oz goodness! *sigh* I miss Oz Squad, but I'm terrified of what a reboot might look like.
Yay!
I enjoyed the collection there was one dud story for me and one that brought a tear to my eye. I was amused reading the PW review of it that the story they didn't care for was one I really liked. Different tastes all around but I really want to see more of your take of Oz.
That's part of why I love reviews that come with biases, rather than being bundled with every other possible review: it lets me go "okay, but your taste is not mine."
Eeeee! How did I miss you were doing this?! I read Oz books over and over and over as a kid, I wanted to live there too. (although admittedly now the canon Oz where people never grow up, really? Doesn't sound nearly as appealing as an adult *grin*)

Just ordered. Should have it in time for it to be Consonance room time reading.
I don't know! I posted about it!

herefox

4 years ago

Deleted comment

Glee!
Ordered (how did I miss this?) and the Mad Scientist's Guide as well.

I don't mind buying anthologies, although they do take up a lot of extra bookshelf space. I figure you never know, I might discover a new author that way.
That's how I find a lot of new authors.

ladymurmur

4 years ago

I'll probably check this out. May see if it hits a library first, THEN buy it.
Also? KInda hesitant about buying Orson Scott Card. Still, we'll see.

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

offcntr

4 years ago

vixyish

4 years ago

shanejayell

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

There are a few stories mixed in that are perfectly suitable for children by any definition, but overall what you're saying is very accurate, and it's the exact reason John and I asked that the parental advisory warning be included--otherwise a lot of people would simply assume an Oz antho was something they could buy for their little ones.

Not going to comment on some of the early reviews--it's not my place--but thank you for offering your thoughts on the matter (and of course for boosting the signal). You rock!
I won't comment on any specific review, because it's not my place either, but if folks are somehow feeling misled, I want to make it very clear that that was in no way the intention.

I've been on the receiving end of "all Oz is appropriate for children." My mother bought me A Barnstormer In Oz when I was nine. I'm still scarred.

djonn

4 years ago

geekhyena

4 years ago

elialshadowpine

4 years ago

There are fifteen stories in this book; all are available to buy as Kindle singles, which is an interesting experiment that I've never been involved with before.

Having this option is awesome.
Yes, I was thrilled! I don't really know much about oz at all, but I know I want to read Seanan's new story so this was the perfect option for me. It's sitting on my Kindle now!

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Dorothy and OZMA! OTP! OMG! But Polychrome too--she's lovely.

Bought, downloading on my Kindle, YAY!

*bounces happily*

Thank you!
Very welcome.
On my kindle, just waiting for me to get off work... I've been looking forward to this since you announced the project earlier. OZ!! POLYCHROME!!! WHEEEEE!!!

The Oz series, all 14 of LFB's original books, was the first Christmas present I ever actively lobbied for, back in early grade school. Only 5 (not even the first 5 at that) of them came in at the little bookstore in town in time for Christmas - and the rest trickled in, one at a time, every few weeks through mid-summer. Best. Christmas. Present. EVAR! I still have them on my shelf (except for Emerald City of Oz - that one my sister lost). They're among the few books that have gone with me everywhere. To college, through every move - they're first to go in the "if I can only have one box of books" box, and were among the first titles I downloaded to my kindle.

And I have no fear that this might damage my lifelong delight with the 'verse - it is rather like Avenue Q, but for Oz. It will only increase my joy! :-)
Yay!
So I work across the street from a bookstore, and I read this, and immediately planned to go there over my lunch break and buy this. But I can't. I am on book-shoping amnesty because my birthday is on Thursday (and there's always the risk of buying something someone in my family already got me). So I have to wait in excited anticipation to see whether my birthday brings a new book or a trip to the bookstore (either is fine by me. I love Oz.)
Awww.

Happy birthday!
It appeared on my Kindle today :) I was very happy.

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but is Emeralds to Emeralds set in the same universe as Silver Slipper Blues? I thought someone had asked already, but when I went to check it was Chance and Slippers...
Yes, it is.
Dorothy has grown up and is living with Polychrome, in a committed lesbian relationship

::immediately orders book::

:-)
Hee yay.
Confession time: I've never actually read Oz, other than the novelization of the movie Return to Oz. So I bought the Kindle edition* of the anthology (because I like feeding Seanan's cats) and downloaded all Baum's books from Project Gutenberg, and am going to fix that. THEN I can read the anthology!

*Dear Barnes & Noble, I'd really like to populate my B&N brand Nook with virtual-tree books from your fine website, but I can't do that if you won't offer them. So my growing collection of sideloaded Kindle books? A lady likes to be courted, and you're just not making the effort to woo me lately. tl;dr: It's not me. It's you.
Actually, that novelization -- by Joan D. Vinge, as I recall -- is quite good for what it is, and manages (IMO) to do justice both to the movie and to Baum's Ozma of Oz (from which most of the film's plot is derived).

And in addition to Baum's books and the rest of the "Famous Forty" (the publisher-authorized sequels by Ruth Plumly Thompson and others), there have been some good recent additions to the Oz meta-canon. I'd particularly recommend the two by Sherwood Smith (The Silver Wand of Oz and Trouble Under Oz), which were published with the Baum estate's approval. [Two more in that sequence were intended, but the series was caught in rights limbo when the packager behind it died unexpectedly.]

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

droewyn

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

I must admit I always thought of Ozma as bisexual, since she was quite literally a boy growing up before being reinstated into her girl form. I got the vibe that she and Dorothy were in a relationship before I knew such things were a real thing. I'm looking forward to this story!
Hooray!
How accessible is your story for someone who never read the books? I've only ever seen the films, as none of the libraries around when I was a kid had the books. I did quite like the films, though, and I do like reimaginings of Oz, like Wicked and Tin Man, and I am a sucker for reimaginings of classics.

FWIW, I haven't read the books, and it's been years since I've seen the movie, and I enjoyed the story a lot. :)

(And then I went and downloaded the first book, because now I'm curious about the world.)

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

SQUEE! Am embarrassed to say I'd completely forgotten about the book (I know, I KNOW, but I pre-ordered it waaaaaay back in October, and other stuff has happened since then)... until it showed up on my Kindle app bright and early this morning. Soooooo looking forward to this (and yeah, it was my childhood fairyland, too)!
Hey, surprise present from the past. Those are awesome!
I'm excited to peruse this.

(Also, I adore Namesake)
Yay!

(Me, too.)
Ooooh, one of our fans linked me to this, and I'll have to check it out!
OMG I LOVE YOUR WORK.

Um.

I mean, hi!

dqbunny

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

2 years ago

I always thought of Osma as a trans character, what with there being so few in children's literature. My dad had the full set he read to us, but my sister got them when my mother died.
I can totally see that.
I have yet to go wrong in ordering anything Seanan has published, in whatever medium. I snagged the Oz "Emeralds to Emeralds" story shortly after reading her post tonight. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, she's one of the few writers in the category of "try anything they put out." (Off the top of my head, that list includes Neil Gaiman, Rick Riordan, Kieron Gillen, and Brian Michael Bendis (though I am not over yet what he just did to Scott Summers and Emma Frost). Even if the subject matter isn't usually my thing, I know it will be worth the experience.

...Okay, that was *totally* a fanboy comment. But where's the harm in a long-distance crush on a writer's work? (Carefully distinguished from the writer herself.)

The story was fun and left me wanting an entire novella-length work, minimum length, starring Dorothy solving mysteries with Polychrome's help (romance subplots optional but encouraged). The chances of that happening are small to none, given the number of paying projects in progress that she regularly posts, but I can dream. Seanan? Want to write 10,000 words or so purely on spec?

:)

Mack
Aw, thanks.

And no, there will be no novellas. But there may eventually be a trilogy.

ithiliana

4 years ago

Dorothy and Ozma are totally a couple in the Baum books. You can't miss it.

(I don't know if Baum quite intended that reading, but it certainly comes out that way.)
I fully agree.
Ooh, here's hoping for a message from the local bookstore tomorrow telling me my copy has arrived! (of course, I'm living in a fantasy dream-world - the real Oz - if I truly think the book will have arrived down here by tomorrow...)

I like anthologies as there's always the possibility of finding a new-to-me author with a big back-catalogue to feed the reading-habit.
That's how I feel about them, too.
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