Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Pitch Perfect, "Riff-Off."

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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  • 88 comments

douglascohen

February 26 2013, 18:20:40 UTC 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!

seanan_mcguire

February 26 2013, 18:42:39 UTC 4 years ago

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

February 26 2013, 19:48:03 UTC 4 years ago

Mileage definitely varies; I wasn't thrilled with Barnstormer, but I respected its choices. OTOH, I am way allergic to Maguire's Wicked (and so have not perused the sequels) -- although based on what I've read, I really want to see the musical version at some point.

In any event, I've now ordered the Oz anthology (print form; for whatever reason, there wasn't a Nook version offered), and am very much looking forward to its arrival. For the Mad Science antho, I will likely hold out till next week in connection with the Powell's event, but it's definitely on my radar.

geekhyena

February 27 2013, 01:24:19 UTC 4 years ago

The musical is a lot better than the book, imho. I read Wicked, and about half of Son of A Witch. The musical > the books. The OCR is excellent - Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth were perfect in it.

elialshadowpine

February 28 2013, 10:59:50 UTC 4 years ago

Oh dear. I had a similar experience, only my mother assumed that movies about King Arthur were meant for children. One of these days I am actually going to sit her down and spell out the story and ask why in the world she would ever think that King Arthur = kids. But this resulted in us being given the R-rated Excalibur (complete with many sex scenes) when I was 12 or 13 and my sister 7 or 8.