More stupid stuff

[miko2]

Okay then. I put up my track lighting. It came with two screws and anchors for sheetrock, and two bolts for... something else, I guess... Then it talked about using all four screws... which it didn't have. Nor the holes to screw them into, should I have found two more. Whatever, I think two screws will be sufficient to hold everything up, it's not like I'm going to try and hang from my track lighting or anything.

I made plans with Michael to go to a computer store and spend money tomorrow. He wants me to be at his place by 10 am. Bwahahahaha! Well... okay, I'll try....

Oz stuff, for all of you that desperately want to track down anything that is of interest to me (anyone? Well, I'm posting them anyway!)

First off... I'm not going to post a link to Amazon.com, but I've bought some Oz books through their web site. You pretty much have to know what you're searching for to find some of the obscure ones.

One of the books that I bought through Amazon is actually coming from Powell's Books in Portland. This is surely the most wonderful book store in the entire civilized world, as anyone who has been there well knows.

Another good site for many of the Oz books is Books of Wonder. Since so many of them are in public domain, there are a lot of companies who offer up their own copies... but Books of Wonder has also published many of the other Oz books out there, including ones by several of Baum's descendants and a lot of others that aren't considered "cannonical" but are probably as fun to read as the originals. I ordered one called "Masquerade in Oz" that sounded like fun. Again, it helps to know what book you're looking for when you go there.

Dover Publications is one of the coolest publishing houses on the planet, as many of you are aware. They publish anything cool in public domain, and this includes all of Baum's Oz books, his other children's books, and the first of Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz books. (Why not any of the others? I'm not sure... maybe they're not in public domain yet?). Anyway, once again the one non-Baum Oz book they have here is one of the few I've ordere through Amazon.com (I swear, I only ordered five all told, all used, from there!) But I'm thinking of ordering "El Marvilloso Mago de Oz", the Spanish version of the original book. ^_^ I bet I could get a Spanish version of Alice too, wouldn't that be fun? My Spanish is beyond rusty, but reading an old classic children's book like that would be a wonderful way to improve it.

Hungry Tiger Press is the publishing house founded by Eric Shanower and his partner. They publish Oz Story (6 volumes total) and several modern Oz books, as well as a few other things. I need to pick up Oz Story 4 and 5 from them, and The Dark Fantasies of Jack Snow, which contains a short story ("A Murder In Oz") that I'd like to have. And I should pick up some of the other Oz books they publish too.

The International Wizard of Oz Club sells a lot of the more obscure Oz books, many of which they've published themselves. I might wind up ordering most of the Ruth Plumly Thompson books from them, and the Jack Snow books, and a few of the other odd Oz books. But most importantly, I first need "Who's Who in Oz" by Jack Snow, which is a complete reference book for everything published up to when it was published (in the early 1950's I think).

If all of that isn't enough for you, Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends (formerly Buckethead Enterprises of Oz) is a non-profit group that accepts manuscripts and publishes new Oz novels as fast as they can afford to. They're a bit like our own Tai-Pan group, I would guess, only with a focus completely on Oz and in producing nice-looking trade paperback books, which they sell over the web, throug the mail, and at conventions. They are looking for writers and artists. ^_^ They might even pay you (they say they are "open to professionals who charge reasonable rates") but for the most part they're looking for people to work for free (and the glory of seeing your work in print, of course). Note: their website is hosted by AOL! They have a LOT of obscure Oz books for sale.

So now you, too, know how to track down and order more Oz books than you could ever possibly want.

I wonder, if I wrote an Oz book that the Tails of the Cowardly Lion people accepted, could I talk Sky into illustrating it? ^_^