Lost in Oz Mini-Series Re-Starts Production

The Lost in Oz animated Mini-Series is back in production!

Keep your eye on www.LostinOzMovie.com and www.LostinOzBook.com for more info!

Check out this little teaser to hold you over!!

TRILOGY COMPLETE

Four years after the release of his first novel, author Joshua Patrick Dudley celebrates the release of the final installment in his Lost in Oz trilogy, Temple of the Deadly Desert.

The Lost in Oz trilogy follows modern-day teenagers who make their own history in Oz after destroying the original story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, simply by existing in it. The teens have made it safely home to New Hampshire, that is, except Joshua, who is lying in a coma, and another member of the team who has perished in the same tornado outbreak that once brought them to Oz. The group must again travel together to the Land of Oz and once and for all find a way to derail or fulfill their prophecy. They must unlock the secrets of the Temple of the Deadly Desert and find a way to cross the lethal sands surrounding it. Will the teens fulfill their prophecy? Does the Temple of the Deadly Desert exist? Can they bring a fallen friend back to life? All these questions and more will be answered in the third and final installment of the Lost in Oz trilogy: Temple of the Deadly Desert. Famous and beloved Oz characters are also in abundance and include Dorothy Gale, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, Lion, Glinda, Princess Ozma, The Wizard of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead, Scraps – The Patchwork Girl of Oz, and, of course, the Wicked Witch of the West.

After directing two amateur films, Dudley says that he was excited to return to writing. “I really put a lot of focus into developing the characters and trying to make them into relatable people that my audience can enjoy reading about. My first two novels were more about the story of these kids and not about the kids themselves. The third book presents a lot of new ideas in exciting ways and is very self-analytical. The characters deconstruct themselves and the story they created as they continue on their journey, discovering why it is important to preserve the stories of Oz the way they were meant to be.”

Temple of the Deadly Desert will hit bookstores and online retailers next month and can currently be purchased on the books’ official website www.LostinOzBook.com and on www.lulu.com.

Dudley lives and writes in Manchester, New Hampshire, which is where he grew up. He has loved Oz since he was a child and has spent the last four years traveling the country promoting his work and his passion for Oz. He also appears in middle school classrooms to discuss his novels, the writing and publishing process, and teaches creative writing workshops with children in grades 3-7.

Lost in Oz
by Joshua Patrick Dudley, 2007, Lulu Publishing, 155p, ISBN: 978-1-4303-1278-9
Lost in Oz: Rise of the Dark Wizard
by Joshua Patrick Dudley, 2008, Lulu Publishing, 203p, ISBN: 978-0-615-18871-3
Lost in Oz: Temple of the Deadly Desert
by Joshua Patrick Dudley, 2011, Lulu Publishing, 284p

BOOK 3 RELEASED!

BOOK 3: TEMPLE OF THE DEADLY DESERT HAS BEEN RELEASED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joshua, Tamara, Laura and Tommy have spent the past two years battling their destiny in the Land of Oz. Their presence has permanently altered the magical land beyond repair and their prophecy is still unfulfilled. The teens have made it safely home to New Hampshire, that is, except Joshua, who is lying in a coma, and another member of the team who has perished in the same tornado outbreak that once brought them to Oz. The group must again, travel together to the Land of Oz, and once and for all find a way to derail or fulfill their prophecy. They must unlock the secrets of the Temple of the Deadly Desert, and find a way to cross the lethal sands surrounding it. Will the teens fulfill their prophecy? Does the Temple of the Deadly Desert exist? Can they bring a fallen friend back to life? All these questions and more will be answered in the third and final installment of the Lost in Oz trilogy: Temple of the Deadly Desert

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/lost-in-oz-temple-of-the-deadly-desert/15932814

School Tours

Today kicked off my annual school tour, and my first stop was Hooksett Memorial School!!

I love HMS!! The kids are always so much fun and always so enthusiastic! This is my fourth year in a row appearing at HMS and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity! HMS was the first school I had ever appeared at, and now I have appeared at middle schools across NH, NY, IN and MA! I'll make it to all 50 states eventually!!

Thank you to all the staff and students for giving me such a wonderful day!!

If you'd like to book an appearance at your school, email LostinOzPress@yahoo.com for more info!!

BOOK 3 DELAY

The release of Book 3 has been delayed due to a minor error. It will be out soon!! Keep checking back for more updates!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Here's to family, friends, a new year and new beginnings!

Happy Birthday Dorothy Gale!

Happy (one day early) Birthday to Miss Dorothy Gale, our favorite princess of Oz! Here's one of my favorite pictures of her, with Toto, being brought to Oz!

In the Oz books, Dorothy is an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle in the bleak landscape of a Kansas farm. It is never clarified in the books whether Aunt Em or Uncle Henry is Dorothy's blood relative. (It is also possible that "Aunt" and "Uncle" are affectionate terms of a foster family and that Dorothy is not related to either of them.) She has a little black dog named Toto. Dorothy and Toto are swept away by a cyclone to the Land of Oz and, much like Alice of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, they enter a lively alternative world filled with talking creatures. In many of the Oz books, Dorothy is the main hero of the stories. She is often seen with her best friend and the ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma. Dorothy's surname, Gale, is first mentioned in Ozma of Oz. It appeared previously in the 1902 play, where it was merely the setup for a joke, the punchline being "that accounts for your breezy manner." Her blue and white gingham dress is well-appreciated by the Munchkins because blue is their favorite color and white is worn only by good witches and sorceresses, which indicates to them that Dorothy is a good witch.

Dorothy is a forthright and take-charge character, exhibiting no fear when she slaps the Cowardly Lion, and organizing the Winkies' rescue mission of her friends who have been dismembered by the Winged Monkeys, and more than willing to brazenly talk back to Princess Langwidere's threat to take her head for her collection--"Well, I b'lieve you won't." (Baum began to indicate that Dorothy speaks in a strong prairie accent with Ozma of Oz, and continued to do so throughout the series). This aspect of her character was somewhat lessened with the companionship of Ozma, in whom Baum placed the greater level of wisdom and dignity. Yet even this is complicated by her associations with her cousin, Zeb of Hugson's Ranch, a rugged, manly boy who does not take well to Oz and cannot think of anything much more interesting than defeating the Munchkins wrestling champion, which he proves unable to do.

In The Emerald City of Oz, Uncle Henry describes Dorothy as, "a dreamer, as her dead mother had been." In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's desire to return home is primarily motivated by compassion and economics. As she tells Glinda, "My greatest wish now is to get back to Kansas, for Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning; and unless the crops are better this year than they were last, I am sure Uncle Henry cannot afford it."[4] In Ozma of Oz, Dorothy's desire to return home is not as desperate as in the first book, and again it is her uncle's need for her rather than hers for him that makes her return.[5] Oz is no longer quite the dangerous land that it was in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[6] Princess Ozma and Dorothy quickly become best friends, and before Dorothy leaves, Ozma crowns her a princess.

Dorothy has several other pets, including her yellow hen, Billina, and her white/pink/purple kitten, Eureka. Popular in crossword puzzles is Dorothy's cow, Imogene, from the 1902 stage version, and implicitly, though unnamed, in the 1910 film. Eric Shanower's novel, The Giant Garden of Oz features a cow named Imogene, but she is of Ozite origin, but otherwise Imogene appears strictly in adaptations.

In the sixth Oz book by Baum, The Emerald City of Oz (1910), when Uncle Henry and Aunt Em are unable to pay the mortgage on the new farmhouse built at the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy brings them to live in Oz; the bulk of their appearance in the book dealing with her and her aunt and uncle is their tour of Oz, showing them the marvelous, Utopian land in which they have escaped the troubles of Kansas.

Dorothy is a standard character, having at least a cameo role in thirteen of the fourteen Oz books written by L. Frank Baum and is at least a frequent figure in the nineteen that followed by author Ruth Plumly Thompson, getting at least a cameo in all her books except Captain Salt in Oz.

The magic of Oz keeps Dorothy young. In The Lost King of Oz (1925), a Wish Way carries Dorothy to a film set in Hollywood, California. She begins to age very rapidly to her late 20s, making up for at least some of the years that have already passed. The Wish Way carries her back to Oz and restores her to her younger self, but she learns then that it would be unwise for her ever to return to the outside world. Baum never states Dorothy's age, but he does state in The Lost Princess of Oz that she is a year younger than Betsy Bobbin and a year older than Trot, whose age was specified as 10 in Ruth Plumly Thompson's The Giant Horse of Oz, a book full of controversial changes. This would make Dorothy eleven years old when she stopped aging. Her actual age would, of course, be much older.

Through the Lost in Oz novels Princess Dorothy of Oz lives on today.