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.

Winkie Writers Workshop

The fiftieth annual Winkie Con, the longest-running Wizard of Oz convention, will be held at the Town and Country Hotel, in San Diego’s Mission Valley, on August 8-10, 2014. Winkie Con celebrates the Oz books by L. Frank Baum and all other aspects of Oz.

The Winkie Writers Workshop for Children’s Fantasy is planned as part of Winkie Con 50. Two separate three-hour sessions are scheduled. The first session runs 9 am to noon on Friday, August 8, 2014. The second session runs 10 am to 1 pm, Saturday, August 9. The location is at Winkie Con 50 at the Town and Country Hotel, 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, California 92108.

Three writing industry professionals will give personal critiques of up to five manuscript pages of a Middle-Grade or Young Adult work of fantasy or science fiction plus a one-page synopsis of the work. The work need not be an Oz or Oz-related work, but it should be within the genres of fantasy or science fiction. Each session’s submissions will be read beforehand by all session participants and critiqued in-person by the faculty during the workshop.

The registration fee for the Winkie Writers Workshop is $50. A three-day or single-day pass to Winkie Con 50 is also required for participation in the Winkie Writers Workshop.

Each session of the Winkie Writers Workshop consists of three faculty members and five students. Confirmed faculty includes:

Friday, August 8: 

Edward Einhorn, author of Paradox in Oz (Hungry Tiger Press), The Living House of Oz (Hungry Tiger Press), A Very Improbable Story (Charlesbridge Press), Fractions in Disguise (Charlesbridge), etc. 

Nancy Holder, New York Times best-selling author (with Debbie Viguie) of Wicked: Witch and Curse (Simon & Schuster Children's), Crusade (Simon Pulse), and author of television tie-ins including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wishbone, and Teen Wolf, etc. 

James Matlack Raney, author of Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves (Dreamfarer Press) and Jim Morgan and the Pirates of the Black Skull (Dreamfarer Press).  

Saturday, August 9: 

Sherwood Smith, author of The Emerald Wand of Oz (HarperCollins), Trouble Under Oz (HarperCollins), Wren to the Rescue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), The Spy Princess (Viking Juvenile), etc. 

Laura Preble, author of The Queen Geek Social Club and sequels (Berkley Trade), Out (CreateSpace), Lica’s Angel (iUniverse), etc. 

Thao Le, agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, Del Mar, California; recent sales include Katherine Harbour’s Thorn Jack to Harper Voyager and Lisa Freeman’s Honey Girl to Sky Pony Press.

Faculty subject to change without notice.

Registrations for the Winkie Writers Workshop are being accepted on a first-come first-serve basis. After the ten openings are filled, materials will be returned. To reserve your space, send your $50 check payable to WINKIE CONVENTION to:

Winkie Writers Workshop

Attention: David Maxine

5995 Dandridge Lane, Suite 121

San Diego, CA 92115

Include your e-mail address and/or phone number so that we can confirm your reservation. You may indicate your preference for the Friday session or the Saturday session, and we will try to accommodate you. Otherwise we will make every effort to match your manuscript to the most appropriate faculty.

Once your reservation is accepted, submit seven copies of your five pages and synopsis in standard manuscript format. These materials are due by JUNE 15, 2014.

A pass to Winkie Con 50 is required for participation in the workshop.  You may make a reservation for the Winkie Writers Workshop prior to purchasing your Winkie Con 50 pass.

Winkie Con 50 will have a focus on writing and children’s fantasy. Authors of modern Oz books and other fantasy writing will speak at the convention, primarily on Friday and Saturday. Authors expected to participate include YA novelist and former YALSA president Michael Cart, picture book author J. L. Bell, novelist Walter G. Meyer, non-fiction author Aljean Harmetz, fantasy author Caroline Spector, and comic book writer Eric Shanower. Other guests at Winkie Con 50 will include Priscilla Montgomery, Munchkin actor in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz; Caren Marsh-Doll, stand-in for Judy Garland in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz; John and Bjo Trimble, the couple that saved Star Trek; Kurt Raymond, Wicked Witch of the West impersonator; and Robert Welch, grandson of MGM Wizard of Oz special effects master Buddy Gillespie.

For further details about Winkie Con 50 and to register for the convention online, see the official website here.

It's Alive! It's Alive!

One of the favorite books I've published is Edward Einhorn's The Living House of Oz. It's a very traditional Oz book in its way: it prominently features traditional Oz characters like Ozma and Glinda, we visit a small kingdom existing around a single theme, and both the adventure and whimsy quotients are high. But it is unusual in certain ways, too.

The main character is Buddy, a thirteen year old boy. Unlike most Oz book protagonists, Buddy is not from America and is not an orphan. He lives with his mother in a typical Oz house - typical in every way except that the house - and everything in it - is alive. But Buddy behaves like a real kid, with some growing pains and a family that's not perfect. One of the main themes of the story is a debate over whether Ozma's rule forbidding anyone except herself, the Wizard, and Glinda from practicing magic is fair. If you lived in Oz and could work magic, would you like to be forbidden from practicing your craft?

In the course of the book we revisit several Baumian places and peoples. This is one of the things I like best about the book. It adds a verisimilitude to the Ozian universe. In many Oz books - especially Thompson's- once we've visited an odd little town or village, we know we'll never hear of it again. It might as well have vanished once the adventurers have continued on their way. In Living House we encounter the former Flatheads, Reera the Red, the three Adepts, the Phanfasms, Tollydiggle the Jailor, and much more. We meet them again not just as Baum last showed them to us, but with a full recognition that life has continued on with these people in the last eighty or so years. Einhorn presents them as real people in a real Oz.

There are some serious issues discussed in the book, moral and social responsibility, good versus evil, ugly versus beautiful. But none of this is slathered on with a trowel. It's all perfectly balanced by the pervasive humor and exciting action. The Living House of Oz is still a book for kids - and kids at heart.

Eric Shanower provides beautiful illustrations. One of my favorite is the full-color endpaper design (below) showing all the inhabitants of the Living House whooping it up!

So come on, if you've never read it, give the book a try! To help things along in these tough times The Living House of Oz is being offered at 25% off the cover price for the next week.Also, illustrator Eric Shanower will be happy to autograph any copy sold this week. You can request such in the "Special Instructions" field during check out.

Take me to The Living House of Oz!

Illustrations © copyright 2005 by Eric Shanower.