Dracula's Guest and Other Deadly Tales

Come sink your fangs into our latest release, Dracula's Guest and Other Deadly Tales, a new collection of five terrifying tales by Bram Stoker, author of Dracula— illustrated with over forty creepy and intricate pen-and-ink illustrations by Eric Shanower.

A mother’s fury erupts in grisly revenge in “The Squaw.” Weird rites cling to a scene of notorious murder in Stoker’s recently rediscovered tale “Gibbet Hill.” What’s that scratching inside the walls of “The Judge’s House”? Silent jealousy lurks behind the scenes while death takes center stage in “A Star Trap.” And in the title story, “Dracula’s Guest,” unsuspecting Jonathan Harker suffers a foretaste of vampiric terror. Soaked in blood and feeding on fright, these tales beg to be read alone and late at night.

Every copy ordered directly from us will be signed by the illustrator.

Click Here to Order

Dracula's Guest and Other Deadly Tales

by Bram Stoker - Illustrated by Eric Shanower

6" x 9" Trade Paperback, 122 pages

Illustration by Eric Shanower from Dracula's Guest and Other Deadly Tales

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The Royal Book of Oz!

The Royal Book of Oz is making a triumphant return to the bookshelves of the world!

Ruth Plumly Thompson circa early 1960s.

There's a super new publishing project beginning by the newly founded Clover Press. They are repackaging the Ruth Plumly Thompson Oz books, with new illustrations. The Royal Book of Oz is the first entry, of course  - and you can be a part of it through their Kickstarter campaign!

Click here to check out the project!

New cover design by illustrator Sara Richard.

Eric Shanower has written a new foreword and there are lots of cool premiums, too: signed boxed editions, lunch boxes, postcards, lapel pins, and more. Come on, help bring the second Royal Historian of Oz to a whole new generation of kids! 

Oz about it?

Click here to support the project!

Christmas Cards - Have a Cool Yule!

I've previously blogged about several examples of holiday cards drawn by the creators of the Oz series. Eloise Jarvis McGraw was known to engrave wood-blocks to print her own Holiday cards (click here). And Eric Shanower drew his own Christmas cards for many years. Here's one of my favorites featuring Percy the Personality Kid. Bill Campbell of the Oz Collector blog recently shared a great collection of John R. Neill's personal Christmas greetings.

Here is a Christmas card drawn by Oz illustrator Dick Martin. It is a commercially produced card designed by Martin in the mid-1950s. Dick created dozens of different greeting cards back then. Many delighted in '50s kitsch, such as this trumpet playing cat lounging in a bowl chair. The front of the card gives little indication this is, in fact, a Christmas card. But as you'll see from the inner spread, it is!

As this cat says, "Have a cool Yule . . . and a real crazy new Year!"

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Reshared December 11, 2025

on what would have been Rachel's 103rd Birthday!

Edward Einhorn, Eric Shanower, Rachel Cosgrove Payes, & David Maxine.

Today would have been Rachel Cosgrove Payes's 93rd Birthday. She is, of course, the author of Hidden Valley of Oz (1951). I began corresponding with her in the late 1970s, and we finally met for a visit in 1985. But in the early 1990's Rachel became a much bigger part of Eric Shanower's and my lives. Eric had begun work illustrating Rachel's second Oz book The Wicked Witch of Oz (1993), and she began attending the Munchkin Conventions on the east coast. Soon after Wicked Witch came out Eric and I moved to New Jersey and I began Hungry Tiger Press. I asked Rachel for a new Oz story for the premiere issue of Oz-Story Magazine and she wrote one for me!

Eric and I had Oz-story publication parties and Rachel and her husband Norman would attend, always bringing a bottle of wine, maybe some cookies, and usually Rachel would make us an elaborate greeting card.  She also gave us a "Statue of David" refrigerator magnet that still adorns our fridge. The photo at the top of this blog post is from the Oz-Story No. 3 Party in 1997.

Rachel R. Cosgrove - 1942

In thinking about what I might share with you on Rachel's special day, I realized I had never seen a youthful picture of Rachel, so I hit up my genealogical resources and located a few. Here she is at nineteen, in the 1942 West Virginia Wesleyan College yearbook (she graduated in 1943).

I recognized Rachel immediately without having to go to the name index on the photo spread. She has the same wonderfully friendly but very determined look I so well remember her for.

There were a few other images in the yearbook, too. I especially like the image below showing Rachel relaxing on the campus lawn. The photo, presented in the fore-matter of the year book, is captioned: "And Rachel finally gets some E's . . ." Alas, I have no idea at all what that means!

Rachel R. Cosgrove at West Virginia Wesleyan College, 1942.

She can also be seen in the Sigma Alpha Sigma photo. Rachel is in the upper left.

Rachel died October 10, 1998. She was only seventy-five.

You can read quite a few other blog posts about Rachel and her books by clicking here.

Happy birthday, Kiddo!

Hungry Tiger Press has acquired all of the remaining copies of The Wicked Witch of Oz and this wickedly funny Oz book is beautifully illustrated by Eric Shanower - who will be signing each copy purchased thru our website. 

Come take a look!

And check out our other NEW RELEASES, too!

Copyright© 2016, 2025 David Maxine. All rights reserved.

Up, Up, and Away! Meet the Flying Girl!

In 1910, at the end of The Emerald City of Oz, L. Frank Baum attempted to end the Oz series. Princess Ozma was concerned about the great outside world encroaching on the magical Land of Oz. She was concerned about a new kind of magic. The magic of flight. The magic of airships. The world was going airplane crazy! So Ozma (with Glinda's help) cut Oz off from the rest of the world with a Barrier of Invisibility. No more Oz. At least that’s what folks were saying back in 1910.

During Baum’s two-year hiatus as Royal Historian, 1911 and 1912, he wrote his two best non-fantasy novels, The Flying Girl and The Flying Girl and Her Chum. So let’s sit back, fasten our seatbelts, and see exactly WHAT’S UP with . . . the Flying Girl!

The original idea for the Flying Girl books may have come from Baum’s publisher, the Reilly and Britton Company of Chicago. In 1909 Reilly and Britton published a profusely illustrated five-hundred-page volume called Vehicles of the Air by Victor Lougheed. It was subtitled “A popular Exposition of Modern Aeronautics with Working Drawings.”  The book seems to have sold well. New editions were published in 1910 and 1911. It’s not unreasonable to assume Reilly and Britton might have sent Baum a copy of the book for research purposes.

But Reilly and Britton were publishing lots of other airplane books, too, including several aviation series for children. In 1909 they began The Airship Boys series by H. L. Sayler. And in 1910 they added The Aeroplane Boys series by Ashton Lamar.

In 1911 and 1912 Reilly and Britton issued two beautiful and oversized aviation fairytale novels: The Magic Aeroplane and The Flight Brothers, both by Mrs. L. R. S. Henderson. These are especially interesting, as they look a lot like giant Oz books, even down to the color plates and title page design. Interestingly, the illustrator is Emille A. Nelson, who also illustrated several of Baum’s Boy Fortune Hunters books.

But back to Reilly and Britton's aviation books. With all the interest the general public had in aviation, and the supposed end of the Oz series, you can see why they may have been putting some pressure on Baum to get “on board” for a juvenile aviation book.

On the other hand, the idea for The Flying Girl series may have come from Baum instead. He may have been inspired by meeting Glenn Curtiss or other early aviators during his winters living at the Hotel Del Coronado in southern California.

Whatever the inspiration was, Baum responded with the Flying Girl series. The Flying Girl was published in 1911, and its sequel, The Flying Girl and Her Chum, was published in 1912. Baum wrote both books under his popular pseudonym Edith Van Dyne, author of the highly successful Aunt Jane’s Nieces series. Here we see a copy of an inscription by “Mrs. Van Dyne” to his son, Robert Stanton Baum.

In the contemporary advertisement (below) we can see: “. . . a picture of L. Frank Baum’s home and gardens at Hollywood, California. In the center of the pergola is the little sheltered garden house where Edith Van Dyne, a guest of Mrs. Baum, wrote The Flying Girl.”

Reilly and Britton produced two handsome volumes bound in red cloth, stamped in black and white. You can see the lovely (and very rare) dust jackets still further down the page. The paintings for the jackets are by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens, who also provided four halftone plates for each of the books.

This first book, The Flying Girl, tells the story of how seventeen-year-old Orissa Kane becomes a celebrated aviator. The story opens in Los Angeles, where Orissa works as secretary for real estate agent George Burthon. She is the sole support for her blind mother and older brother, Stephen, who is hard at work designing and building his innovative new airplane. After her brother is injured Orissa flies in his place at an air-meet and proves herself an excellent aviator. After numerous travails the Kane Aircraft is proven a success, Orissa is the darling of popular attention, and everyone seems destined for a brilliant future.

In 1912 the second Flying Girl book was published. Suggested titles for  book were: The Flying Girl of Castaway Island, The Flying Girl’s Adventures, The Flying Girl’s Runaway Aeroplane, The Flying Girl’s Best Record, and The Flying Girl’s Exploits. In the end Baum and his publishers agreed on The Flying Girl and Her Chum.

In The Flying Girl and Her Chum, Orissa and her “chum” Sybil Cumberford are testing Stephen Kane’s new experimental Hydro-Aeroplane, which can land in the water. They take of from a bluff in San Diego, but when the aircraft is damaged, they’re forced to crash land near an isolated island in the Pacific. Their struggles to stay alive on the deserted island add quite a bit of realism to the book, although the cheerful demeanors they exhibit throughout might not have such a counterpart in real life. Meanwhile, a rich heiress, Madeline Dentry, sets out on her yacht with Orissa and Sybil’s friends in a dangerous attempt to find the lost girls. The book alternates between the girls on the island and the rescue party that’s trying to find them - a double-plot line device that Baum was very fond of. When the rescue party finally reaches the island, the entire group is threatened by a Mexican bandit and his band of cut-throats. Of course, the bravery of the Flying Girl and her chum saves the day and the story ends with the entire party sailing to Hawaii on the Dentry yacht. In this book Baum deals less with the world of aviation. Steve’s new Hydro-Aeroplane serves merely as entrance and exit to what is essentially a straight adventure story.

Baum's publisher, Reilly & Britton, seems to have really promoted the new series, arranging for both books to be serialized in newspapers around the country.

Newspaper serialization of THE FLYING GIRL AND HER CHUM.

Original dust jacket for the book.

The Flying Girl and Her Chum presents themes and devices found in other books by Baum, too. Baum-scholar Michael Patrick Hearn has pointed out how Glinda of Oz repeats the basic plot of The Flying Girl and Her Chum. Both books feature two girls becoming stranded on isolated islands and a second plot-thread is introduced when the girls’ friends form an expedition to rescue them.

The Flying Girl and Her Chum also has similarities to Baum’s Sky Island. Both stories begin in the San Diego area. In Chum an airplane carries Orissa and Sybil over the Pacific and beyond the island they intended, while in Sky Island a magic umbrella carries Trot, Cap’n Bill, and Button-Bright far beyond their Pacific island destination to an island in the sky.

Baum’s The Boy Fortune Hunters in the South Seas (1911), published under the pseudonym Floyd Akers, features a ship tossed onto the shore of a Pacific island, a near duplication of the beaching of the Dentry yacht in Chum. Furthermore, hostile forces threaten both vessels and an airplane takes off from the deck of each boat.

The famous California resort, the Hotel Del Coronado, where Baum himself stayed during winters from 1904 until 1908, appears both in Chum and in Baum’s Aunt Jane’s Nieces and Uncle John (1911).

The Hotel Del Coronado first opened in 1888 and is still today a functioning hotel and a National Historic Landmark, just across the bay from downtown San Diego.

Original dust jacket for the book.

From the tone of the Flying Girl books and the real people and incidents mentioned in them, we know Baum did do some first-hand research on aviation as he was writing them. In the guise of Miss Van Dyne, Baum thanked two of the most famous American aviators of his time in his short foreword to The Flying Girl:

The author wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss and Mr. Wilbur Wright for courtesies extended during the preparation of this manuscript.

Baum is well aware of aviation’s potential. He goes on to say:

These skillful and clever aviators, pioneers to whom the Art of Flying owes a colossal debt, do not laugh at any suggestion concerning the future of the aeroplane, for they recognize the fact that the discoveries and inventions of the next year may surpass all that have gone before.

If fact, Baum seems so aware of the leaps and bounds of early aviation that he places a caveat into his forward. It’s almost as if he fears that Orissa’s accomplishments may be eclipsed by the time his book sees publication when he states:

So the story of Orissa Kane’s feats has little exaggeration except in actual accomplishment, and it is possible her ventures may be emulated even before this book is out of press.

At that time the history of modern aviation was only eight years old. The Wright brothers’ first heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, occurred on Dec. 17, 1903. But it was not until around 1909 that the public at large became enthused by airplanes. Newspaper headlines trumpeted each new aerial record achieved. Crowds flocked to aviation meets to watch the amazing new machines mount to the skies.

Despite Baum’s declaration of indebtedness to Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Wilbur Wright in the foreword to The Flying Girl, and whatever he might have gleaned from his research, his knowledge of the technicalities of heavier-than-air flight seems lacking.

In his attempt to make Stephen Kane’s invention distinct from other aircraft, Baum describes the Kane Aircraft as a biplane whose upper plane is placed at a right angle to the lower. In the Hungry Tiger press reprint of The Flying Girl, illustrator Eric Shanower draws what Baum describes, with the upper plane running perpendicular to the lower plane.

Eric Shanower's depiction of Stephen Kane's aircraft from THE FLYING GIRL.

Yet the Wright brothers’ innovation of placing one parallel plane directly above the other was both a key factor in their 1903 success and a safety feature of biplanes. Even Joseph Pierre Nuyttens, the original illustrator of both Flying Girl books, seems to have been confused by Baum’s crossed-plane arrangement; his illustrations show a triplane with the two upper planes crossed.

Joseph Pierre Nuyttens depiction of Stephen Kane's aircraft.

Baum is far more successful in integrating reality into his story by describing actual air meets at Dominguez Field. The Los Angeles International Air Meet was held January 10 to January 20, 1910.

It was among the earliest airshows in the world and the first major airshow in the United States. It was held in Los Angeles County, California, at Dominguez Field in present day Carson, California. Spectator turnout numbered approximately 254,000 over eleven days of ticket sales. The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the greatest public events in the history of the West." Baum was living in Southern California at the time of the Dominguez Field air meets. It remains unknown whether Baum actually attended the 1910 Air Meet, but he surely was aware of the extremely popular event.

Baum populated the background of the story of The Flying Girl with real-life aviators. Wilbur and Orville Wright, Glenn H. Curtiss, Hubert Latham, Archibald Hoxsey, Charles F. Willard, Philip O. Parmalee, Eugene Ely, Walter Brookins, and James Radley, all international figures in the history of flight, appear—albeit briefly—in the pages of The Flying Girl.

Baum continued his research into aviation for the second Flying Girl book. Baum’s letter on Jan. 23, 1912, to his publishers states, “I’ve been working on The Flying Girl and Her Chum, and my attendance at the present aviation meet was in furtherance of that plot. I’ve got aeroplanes down to date, and it will all help me in this volume.”

No female aviator—except Orissa Kane—appears in the first book, and the concept of an American female aviator is presented by Baum as unique. While this serves to heighten Orissa’s importance in the story, it deviates from reality.

Although in 1910 a French woman, Raymonde de Laroche, was the first woman to qualify as a pilot, Harriet Quimby was the first licensed and most celebrated American female aviator of her day.

Harriet Quimby with the Moisant monoplane.

Quimby's rise to prominence at the same time Baum began the Flying Girl series sparks the question: to what extent may Orissa Kane have been based on this real-life counterpart? The Delineator magazine of November 1911 reports that Harriet Quimby “is young, good-looking, energetic, ambitious and has lots of just plain, everyday nerve. . . . As she stands at the helm of her bird-craft . . . , it is a question whether the blue of her eye and the rose of her cheek call forth less cheering from the crowd of interested spectators than the fact that the little sky pilot represents the first type of buoyant young American womanhood.” This description could easily fit Baum’s own heroine. On April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby was the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

Only weeks later, on July 1, 1912, she died while flying in the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts. William Willard, the organizer of the event, was a passenger in her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane. At an altitude of 1,500 feet the aircraft unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons still unknown. Both Willard and Quimby were ejected from their seats and fell to their deaths, while the plane glided down and lodged itself in the mud.

In the Flying Girl and Her Chum, Baum finally acknowledges the existence of other American female aviators: Blanche Scott, the first American woman to fly an airplane, and Matilde Moisant, who trained at her brother’s New York aviation school with Harriet Quimby.

Blanche Scott in her biplane.

The site of the Kane Hydro-Aeroplane’s launch may have a contemporary counterpart.

Baum’s text states that Stephen Kane’s aircraft hangar is near Glenn Curtiss’s aviation camp on a low bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In reality Glenn Curtiss’s aviation camp was on North Island in San Diego bay. But there are no bluffs on North Island. However, a location near San Diego closely resembles Baum’s description of the Hydro-Aeroplane’s launch area.

The bluffs at the Torrey Pines Gliderport as they look today.

The Torrey Pines Gliderport perches on the bluffs north of San Diego, adjacent to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Here on clear days, modern enthusiasts launch gliders, paragliders, and sailplanes to soar high above the Pacific coast. It’s tempting to see in this activity a continuity with Orissa’s fictional flight. At the base of the sandy bluff is San Diego's "clothing optional" Black's Beach.

Unfortunately the Flying Girl series ended after only two titles, though the fault was clearly not in Baum’s writing. The two books are arguably the best non-fantasy novels Baum ever wrote. They are almost completely free of the ethnic stereotyping and slurs that mar his other young adult novels. And Orissa is a strong female character - like Dorothy. Perhaps the books were too ahead of their time. Maybe boys wouldn’t read about a girl hero; and girls weren’t terribly interested in aviation? Reilly and Britton seemed to be carefully trying to find a balance.

In fact, the first-draft manuscript of The Flying Girl and Her Chum proved far too thrilling for the publisher. Sumner Britton in a letter to Baum on May 9, 1912, wrote,"We don’t need to have the second book any more daring than the first—which was very exciting. I read that myself and felt that it carried all the thrills we could possibly stand in a book of this kind. We are shooting at boys and girls from eleven to fourteen and we have to pass muster with their parents, teachers, and librarians.” Baum altered the manuscript.

A third volume in the series, to be titled The Flying Girl’s Brave Venture, was planned, but never appeared. Chum’s year of publication, 1912, brought both Harriet Quimby’s fatal air accident and Matilde Moisant’s retirement from flying after her own fiery crash. Fred Erisman, in The Baum Bugle, speculates that publicity surrounding these events may have caused parents to look on aviation as unsuitable for girls, resulting in poor sales for the Flying Girl books.

In January 1912, Baum wrote to his publisher, Sumner Britton, that a letter from Britton had remained unanswered, "Because I’ve been attending an aviation meet. But I’m through with that now. Saw a man killed yesterday and that settles the thing for me."

Whatever the reason, Baum abandoned the Flying Girl series and in 1913 he restarted his popular Oz series.

Although the Flying Girl series ended after just two volumes, it wasn’t the end of at least one of the characters. In Mary Louise Solves a Mystery (1917), the third of Baum’s Mary Louise books (which were also credited to Edith Van Dyne), Stephen Kane turns up as the owner of a successful flying-machine factory. Orissa’s career as an aviator seems to have subsided, but her oft-stated goal of showing the world the merits of the Kane Aircraft has been achieved; Baum states that “Stephen Kane’s aeroplane was now admitted to be one of the safest and most reliable ever invented.”

And it was all due to the bravery and skill of Orissa Kane - THE FLYING GIRL!

Both The Flying Girl and The Flying Girl and her Chum are available in beautiful reprint editions from Hungry Tiger Press! The Flying Girl is illustrated by award-winning illustrator Eric Shanower, who has also provided a new Foreword for The Flying Girl and Her Chum, which proved invaluable in the preparation of this essay.

 

The Flying Girl
by L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by Eric Shanower
Click here to order! 

Original halftone plates by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens
5 1/2"x 8 1/2"  - 188 Pages - Hardcover

From the author of The Wizard of Oz comes a high-flying adventure featuring intrepid girl aviator Orissa Kane. Like Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, Orissa is intelligent, self-reliant, and always persevering.

Circumstances force young Orissa Kane into the air in her brother’s innovative new airplane. But a deadly foe is intent on sending her crashing back to earth. Soar to new heights with the Flying Girl as she braves countless dangers to achieve worldwide acclaim.


 

The Flying Girl and Her Chum
 By L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens
Click here to order!

5 1/2"x 8 1/2"  - 250 Pages - Hardcover
 
In this high-flying sequel to The Flying Girl, a damaged aeroplane strands brave Orissa Kane and her best friend Sybil on a barren rock somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The two teenage girls must use all their wits just to survive. Meanwhile, in the best Oz-book double-plot tradition, Orissa's friends form a search party to find the missing girls. Throw in a ragged band of ocean-going outlaws bent on mayhem, and you have one of L. Frank Baum's most exciting non-Oz adventure stories, The Flying Girl and Her Chum. 

Eric Shanower provides a new Foreword detailing Baum's writing process and the history of women in early aviation including the young female aviator Harriet Quimby, who was likely a model for the Flying Girl!

"Baum had a way of writing juvenile series without writing down to his audience. At his best, his novels are tinged with a certain amount of cynicism--you weren't always sure at first who the good guys were....It can be very refreshing."

-Yellowback Library

Giant Garden and the Grand Tour!

A brand new edition of Eric Shanower's first Oz novel, The Giant Garden of Oz, has just been published by Dover Books! This story has always been rather special to me, and, in fact the book is dedicated to me. The story of the writing of this book and why I got the dedication has never been told - until now!

So get out your passports and be prepared for a Grand Tour of Europe and we'll tell the tale of the creation of The Giant Garden of Oz!

In the Summer of 1989 Eric Shanower and I decided to make our first trip to Europe. We had been a couple for about a year and a half, though we were still living on opposite coasts at that point - Eric in San Diego, me in college at NYU in Manhattan.

We planned a Grand Tour, cramming in everything we possibly could. This over-stuffed trip played an important part in the creation of The Giant Garden of Oz. Here is the story:

Eric flew to New York a few days before my junior year of college let out. At which point we both flew to London where we spent several museum and theatre-packed days. We took side trips to Stonehenge and the Salisbury plain, hit up Oxford, York, went on up into Scotland where we visited Edinburgh and Sterling.

Me in front of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.

Then it was back to London and off to Dover to make the crossing to France. We arrived in Calais, visited the cathedral in Amiens, and journeyed on to Paris where we spent several days.

Me and a friend at the top of Notre Dame cathedral.

We also spent an afternoon with French cartoonist Jean "Moebius" Giraud at his apartment in Paris. Eric was working with Moebius at the time on The Elsewhere Prince.

Eric Shanower and Jean "Moebius" Giraud in Paris, 1989.

We took a day to go to Chartres, and then a very fun side trip up to Mont Saint Michel where we followed my Art History teacher's advice and spent the night on the island (an even more magical place once most of the tourists have fled as the tide came in). We went to Versailles for a day and then journeyed south to Marseille, traveled to Nice, made a lovely afternoon side trip to Èze (at the suggestion of Oz friend Peter Hanff).

The beautiful town of Èze

Me in Èze, France. I bought those shorts in Salisbury, England.

Then after a short visit to Monaco we hopped back on the train for Italy. As I recall we stopped in San Remo and had pizza at the quaintly named "Snow White" pizzeria. This was not "white" pizza but "Snow White" as in seven dwarfs! Then on to Milan, followed by a wonderful day or so in Brescia where my college roommate's family lived. They entertained us wonderfully! Then back on the train to go to Venice (which I loved!).

Me in Saint Mark's square in Venice.

From Venice we went to Ravenna and then Florence (which was very disappointing).  I had hoped for a life enriching experience a la Room with a View, but found it instead came across as the worst tourist trap on earth - harassed by peddlers selling "Statue of David" key chains and charging astronomical fees for the crappiest food ever. But on to Rome to do as the Romans do.

Eric Shanower at the Colosseum in Rome, 1989

We had to cancel our planned trip to Naples and Pompeii due to a train strike - so headed for the heel of the Italian boot where we boarded a large boat for an overnight cruise to Patras, Greece, which seemed a boring modern city. Luckily we proceeded directly on to Athens where we spent several days. The Parthenon and some of the museums were great, but on the whole I rather hated Athens. (I went back to Greece a couple years ago for a several week visit and found it wonderful!)

Are you getting tired yet? Well, we've still got more trip to go! We hopped on the train from Athens to Vienna. It sounds romantic, visions of the Orient Express come to mind, but it was a hot, noisy and unpleasant journey. The most interesting aspect (in hindsight) was that the train took us thru Yugoslavia - we stopped very briefly in both Belgrade and Zagreb. I remember thinking the country looked so incredibly pastoral, near idyllic with jolly peasant women herding sheep, artsy young students driving their Yugos, etc. . . well, the next year the country shattered into a multi-participant civil war. We truly are getting to the Giant Garden of Oz part of this story, I promise!

We arrived in Vienna. It was lovely! We took lodging in a Viennese woman's home - a sort of bed-and-breakfast, though I'd not heard that term yet. We went out walking and ate sausages and drank beer. We tried to get tickets to the Vienna Opera to see Tristan und Isolde, but neither of us felt up to it and I wasn't a Wagnerian yet! So we ate another sausage and I had a beer.  At some point we bought (and ate!) a Sacher Torte. We were about ready to leave Vienna and, feeling a bit tired of sausages and beer, we decided to have dinner at some nice Viennese restaurant. I ordered this thing which turned out to be a very large dumpling about the size of a soft ball. It was OK and kind of "interesting," but I couldn't finish it and felt very tired. We took the tram car back to our lodgings and went to bed. In the middle of the night I had the worst nightmare of my life. I won't share the specifics, but it was literally a nightmare in a nightmare in a nightmare. In the dream I jolted awake from a bad nightmare only to find a few minutes later that I was still in the bad dream. I kept trying to wake up and when I finally did actually awaken I was very scared and had trouble accepting that I was really, finally awake - fearful that the dream was still continuing. All I can say is that I was sorry I'd ever seen Rosemary's Baby or eaten that cursed Viennese dumpling.

Eric comforted me; and I eventually got back to sleep. The next morning I awoke with a very bad case of the flu (or possibly severe exhaustion). We were supposed to check out that AM, but I was in no condition to stand up, much less travel on  to Salzburg. Our B&B hostess had already rented our room to another traveler, but she took pity on my sad physical state and she and Eric made a sort of bed for us on the floor of her husband's home-office.

I was very sick. Eric brought me juice and fluids to drink, and to entertain me Eric told me a story that he made up on the spot. It was what became The Giant Garden of Oz. I don't recall how far he got in the story before I got better after a couple days rest.

I felt a good deal better by this point and we took the easy train trip from Vienna to Salzburg.

Me having a Julie Andrews moment in Salzburg.

I loved Salzburg! It was lovely and magical! Eric and I took a long toboggan ride down what looked like a small Alp. We went to see the Marionette Theatre of Salzburg (they did a puppet version of Marriage of Figaro which was slow and dreary). We went to the deep and cavernous salt mines outside the city (I'd never realized that "Salzburg" means "Salt Town"). And . . . we took the Sound of Music tour! And Eric told me more about Dorothy, and the giant vegetables, and Imogene the cow . . .

It was again time to move on and we were both getting very tired. We decided to forego a visit to Berlin and simply return to England for an extra few days in London. I regret this now, as I would have liked to have paid a visit to Berlin before the wall came down. We boarded the train from Salzburg to Oostend, Belgium, so we could take the hovercraft back to England. We went to another few museums, we saw the then-newly restored Lawrence of Arabia, and Eric told me more about Dorothy and Imogene, and the giant vegetables.

Our first Grand Tour of Europe was over! We did all of the above in forty days! We flew back to the United States and a few days later went to the 1989 Winkie Convention. Eric did not finish telling me the story that summer. It kind of came to a halt after the balloon basket slid down the rainbow.

But in 1993 Eric finally finished "my" story. And right there on the dedication page it told me that story was mine! Go buy a copy!

Talkin' About Tik-Tok

Polychrome, the Shaggy Man, and Betsy assist Tik-Tok.

This year's Winkie Con features a unique program on Saturday evening, August 9, 2014. Clockwork Productions will revive The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, the musical play originally produced in Los Angeles, California, in 1913. The book and lyrics were written by Oz author L. Frank Baum, as a sequel to his 1903 Broadway smash The Wizard of Oz. The music for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz was composed by Louis F. Gottschalk, composer of many early film scores, including Orphans of the Storm by D. W. Griffith, A Woman of Paris by Charlie Chaplin, and Little Lord Fauntleroy starring Mary Pickford.

Oliver Morosco produced The Tik-Tok Man of Oz at the Majestic Theater in Los Angeles, California, where it premiered March 31, 1913. The show then toured the USA and Canada, arriving in San Diego, California, in 1914. Now, one hundred years later, San Diego will once again host a presentation of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. It's appropriate that The Tik-Tok Man of Oz will be performed in San Diego, since L. Frank Baum wrote the earliest drafts of the show in 1907 at the Hotel del Coronado, the famous luxury resort near San Diego.

The Tik-Tok Man of Oz has not had a fully staged production in a century. If you ever wanted to see a fully staged performance of one of L. Frank Baum's stage works, this is your chance. This revival will be presented one night only, on Saturday, August 9, 2014, as the evening program of the 50th annual Winkie Con, the world's longest running Oz event. The Regency Ballroom of the Town and Country Resort, 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, California, will be turned into a theater to present the show.

Sheet music from 1913

All the surviving musical numbers from the original production--more than twenty in all--will be performed. These include the fourteen songs written by L. Frank Baum and Louis F. Gottschalk, as well as four additional songs by Oliver Morosco and Victor Schertzinger, an overture, an entr'acte, reprises, and dances. The original script by L. Frank Baum has been abridged by award-winning Oz author and illustrator Eric Shanower in order to keep the running time of this production under two and a half hours.

A full-convention ticket to Winkie Con 50 includes guaranteed seating for the Saturday evening performance of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. To register for Winkie Con 50, click here for the Winkie Con website.

Sheet music from 1913

The Tik-Tok Man of Oz features plenty of action, comedy, romance, and suspense. The star of the show is Tik-Tok, the copper clockwork man who must be wound up with a key to move, think, and speak. Tik-Tok is rescued by young Betsy Bobbin and her pet mule Hank who are helping the Shaggy Man search for his long lost brother. They are joined by Queen Ann and her brave Army of Oogaboo, as well as Polychrome the Daughter of the Rainbow and Ozma the Rose Princess. They all must face the magical power of Ruggedo the villainous Metal Monarch and his Metal Imps deep in the underground Metal Forest. The story is similar to the seventh Oz book, Tik-Tok of Oz, because L. Frank Baum based that book on this play.

The Tik-Tok Man of Oz Kickstarter Campaign
A Kickstarter campaign for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz has launched. Won't you consider becoming part of this fascinating project by making a pledge? To contribute, click here to go directly to Kickstarter. We're offering some cool rewards for contributors, including a DVD of the performance, a book reprinting all the surviving sheet music from the original production, artwork by Eric Shanower, VIP seating at the performance, posters, and more--you could even have a walk-on role in the show! Some of these rewards are exclusive and won't be available anywhere else. Watch our Kickstarter video to hear music from The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.

Auditions and Open Dance Call
The cast will have about twenty members to bring The Tik-Tok Man of Oz to life. Auditions are April 4 in the San Diego area. Open Dance Call is April 6. For details, see the Audition Notice here.

Behind the Curtain
The creative team for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz is already in place, and here they are:

Chrissy Burns, Director: Chrissy has directed such productions as 42nd Street, Sweet Charity, Nunsense, and Chicago. She has acted on many San Diego stages, including Lambs Players, Diversionary Theatre, Starlight Theatre, and more. She was recently seen in miXtape, the hit 1980's musical at the Horton Grand Theater. She teaches Musical Theater and Voice at Infinity Dance Arts in El Cajon, California.

Joseph Grienenberger, Musical Director: Joseph has been Musical Director for productions that include Man of La Mancha, Pacific Overtures, Blood Wedding, and The Wizard of Oz. His credits include stage direction, singing, acting, and orchestrating for the Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory, and more. Joseph is a voice and acting coach and is a core chorister at San Diego Opera .

Jennifer Solomon-Rubio, Choreographer: Teaming with director Chrissy Burns, Jenn has choreographed such stage musicals as 42nd Street, Ruthless! the Musical, and Chicago. Her stage experience includes fashion shows, trade shows, and choreographic work throughout the San Diego region. She is studio director and an instructor at Infinity Dance Arts in El Cajon, California.

Christopher Boltz, Lighting Design: Chris worked on the television shows Third Rock from the Sun and That 70's Show. He coordinated lighting and sound for the pre-Broadway workshop of The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. He has designed lighting for productions including Mirror Mirror, Epic of Gil, and The Rocky Horror Show. He teaches in the Theatre Arts department of Fresno City College.

David Maxine and Eric Shanower, Set and Costume Design: David has designed productions including Sweeney Todd, Oklahoma!, and The Baltimore Waltz for theaters such as Skylight Opera, Yale Rep, Trenton State College, and Bard College. He was Associate Designer for ABC News, Production Designer for the film Ready? OK!, and Scenic Artist at San Diego Opera and La Jolla Playhouse. Eric is a cartoonist whose comics projects include the ongoing series Age of Bronze, the story of the Trojan War, and scripts for New York Times best-selling comics adaptations of L. Frank Baum's Oz books with art by Skottie Young. He has illustrated numerous other comics and books.

If you want to be in the audience for this historic performance of L. Frank Baum's The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, be sure to register for Winkie Con 50 as soon as you can.

To see many aspects of Tik-Tok and his friends, see the gallery of images on The Tik-Tok Man of Oz website here.