Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Oz-Cast Interview Posted

FINALLY... here's the interview Joshua did for the 20th episode of Oz-Cast! Click here: http://lostinoz.joshuapdudley.com/radio/ to visit the index of audio interviews!

Oz-Stravaganza Photos


We finally posted pics from Oz-Stravaganza 2010! Check them out on the photos page of www.LostinOzBook.com

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Emeralds: Hearts in Oz: Review of Rise of the Dark Wizard



Emeralds: Hearts in Oz, an Oz Blog, has put up a review of the second Lost in Oz novel, Rise of the Dark Wizard! Check it out at:

http://emeraldsoz.blogspot.com/2010/05/book-review-lost-in-oz-rise-of-dark.html

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Wicked Witch Test Art


Here's one more special look at the Lost in Oz Comic Series Art, drawn by Benjamin Kissell. This photo is a the four different versions we tested of Bastinda, The Wicked Witch of the West, including the final version!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

OUR 200TH POST! COMIC SURPRISE!





We decided to celebrate with everyone, our 200th post on this news blog, by finally revealing some of the beautiful Lost in Oz comic artwork by Benjamin Kissell. Fans of Lost in Oz on Facebook had the chance to view these photos first! So, here's a sneak peek at a few characters from the upcoming Lost in Oz Comic Series!

© 2010 Benjamin Kissell for Lost in Oz
www.LostinOzBook.com

Reminder: Oz-Stravaganza

Just a quick reminder that Joshua will be appearing at Oz-Stravaganza in Chittenango, NY! June 4-6, 2010: L. Frank Baum's home town honors their favorite son with this annual festival (formerly known as Oz Fest). This year the festival will honor the centennial of The Emerald City of Oz, and its dedicatee, Baum's niece, Cynthia Baum Tassini, who was from the area and died in 2004. Special guest appearance by Jerry Maren, the middle member of the Lollipop Guild and Joshua Patrick Dudley, author of the Lost in Oz Trilogy. Joshua can be found in the Author's Alley, a new attraction at the festival, located near the Munchkins! For more information, see the festival's website at oz-stravaganza.com, or the town's website at www.chittenango.org

It's getting close, if you haven't made travel arrangements yet, you better hurry!

Friday, April 09, 2010

Accelerated Reader

Make reading practice more effective for every pre-K–12 student with Accelerated Reader, the most cost-effective and successful reading software
of all time. Lost in Oz and Rise of the Dark Wizard have just been submitted, by your request, to the AR program! However, if you really want Lost in Oz on AR, you should suggest it, too! Visit the link below and fill out all of the information.

http://www.renlearn.com/ar/customercare/titlesuggestions.asp

Here's the information you may need:
Quiz Type: Reading Practice
-English
Book Title: Lost in Oz
Series Name: Lost in Oz
-Entire Series
Author’s First Name: Joshua
Author’s Last Name: Dudley
Publisher: Lulu
Estimated Interest Level: Middle Grades (4-8)
Year Published: 2007
ISBN Number: 978-1430312789

Though not required, including the ISBN allows us to provide far more
valuable feedback for your request.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Buzzillions - 4.9 Stars!

Buzzillions.com has given Lost in Oz 4.9 out of 5 stars!

Buzzillions.com is a product reviews site that helps shoppers avoid costly mistakes. Buzzillions offers product reviews and tools for you to research purchases before you buy. They've collected over 10 million reviews across a wide range of categories and their reviews come from real people - not paid reviewers. They work with their network of retailers to identify people who have purchased a product and ask them to write a review. Buzzillions collects and analyzes these reviews to help you with the decision making process.

http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/lost-in-oz-reviews#bz-model-reviewTitle

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Nashua Telegraph Interview Part 2

Here's the the story that was written about Joshua in this weekend's Nashua Telegraph. There are some beautiful photos on the site, http://www.encorebuzz.com/entertainment/687606-249/new-hampshire-writer-has-created-popular-new.html

New Hampshire writer has created popular new trilogy related to beloved classic

By PAMME BOUTSELIS Correspondent

From the time he was just 2, Joshua Patrick Dudley has been enthralled by the world of Oz.

His mother and grandmother read the Oz books to him at that young age and throughout his childhood in Hooksett. The first time he watched the MGM classic film version of the stories with his twin sister and mother, Dudley became “obsessed with this magical land and its inhabitants.”

“It was wonderful for me to see all the characters brought to life that I had read about in novels,” said Dudley, 24. “The MGM movie itself is a masterpiece, especially considering the time period it was made in. The colors, sets and special effects are the reasons I was so fascinated by it.”

Throughout his teen years, Dudley explored a new love: performing onstage, which led to his appearance in more than 80 shows throughout his teens and early 20s. Much to his delight, four of the shows were Oz-related, and he portrayed the beloved Scarecrow in three of those performances.

He has also portrayed Riff in “West Side Story,” Doody in “Grease” and Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

His love of the stage brought him to New York City, where he studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

“I would dance, sing and act for 50-plus hours a week,” Dudley said. “I performed at local venues in the city, such as nightclubs and bars, performing original hip-hop music.”

Shortly after completing school, Dudley’s family incurred a significant loss with the death of his grandmother. He decided to write a book in her honor, and began to work on the first installment of what would become a trilogy of books about the world of Oz.

“One night, I woke up from a dream where I had visited Oz with my twin sister,” Dudley said. “I thought it was such a neat idea that I didn’t return back to bed. Instead, I spent the entire night on my computer, writing a rough idea for the first story.

“The dream I had was very realistic; most of it was fun and fancy free, but there dark parts, nightmare sections that I knew would make a great book.”

Unlike many novels, Dudley’s four main characters are actually real people – he and his twin sister, Tamara, along with two of his best friends in real life, Tommy and Laura.

“All of my novels feature a lot of local personalities from in and around New Hampshire,” Dudley said. “Almost every character that isn’t from Oz, in the novels, is someone from the real world.”

In the third and final novel of the series, he’ll introduce his dearest friend from the real world, Maria DeProfio, and one lucky reader, as well.

His books, “Lost in Oz” and “Lost in Oz: Rise of the Dark Wizard,” have garnered a sizeable fan base nationwide, much of it reinforced through correspondence with readers, classroom visits and appearances at “Wizard of Oz” festivals throughout the country.

“Almost each and every student that I have talked to has begged to be a character in my book, so I thought I’d give them a chance,” Dudley said.

The result is a contest that will enable one winner to land a cameo role in his third Oz novel. The winner will be selected by Dudley and will be notified by e-mail on Jan. 1, 2011, and announced on the books’ official Web site.

The response thus far has been overwhelmingly good. Dudley has received more than 200 entries to date, with more coming in daily. He can’t wait to read each entry and see where his readers’ imaginations have taken them.

Dudley said members of the Oz community were originally put off by his first book, “Lost in Oz.” He said that some feared parts of Oz were just too dark.

“Once they compared my work with the original L. Frank Baum stories, it was clear that Baum’s vision of Oz was even scarier than mine,” Dudley said.

He receives hundreds of e-mails each month from kids all over the country who tell him they like his version of Oz and the twist it put on the classic tale.

Although the book was initially geared toward teen readers, Dudley realized it was a mistake to target just that audience.

“Oz is, was and always will be about the children,” he said. “My books seem to be the most popular between grades five and nine.”

Dudley has visited about 20 schools throughout the country, discussing the story of “The Wizard of Oz,” his own personal take on it and the book publishing process. His first appearance was at Hooksett Memorial School, where his mother is a fifth-grade teacher, and it has built from there.

“We discuss the basic building blocks of writing a story,” Dudley said. “Then after the lesson comes the best part, an interactive writing session where the kids write the story with my guidance, adhering to the lesson I have just taught them. It is a truly rewarding experience and the best part of my job.”

Now living in Manchester, Dudley is a full-time writer these days, although he spends a significant amount of time doing all that’s entailed in promoting his work, acting as his own booking and press agent, and his Web site creator. He also writes and records his own music, another of his passions.

While there are illustrations in all three of his books that were drawn by W.W. Denslow, the original illustrator of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Dudley began creating computer images, using various 3-D rendering software and Photoshop, for his second and third books. He plans to release the entire collected trilogy at the end of 2011, and the release will feature all-new images that he has created for each chapter of all three books.

From the beginning, the work had been planned as a trilogy.

“I always knew what I wanted the stories to be,” Dudley said. “I have an odd fascination with the number three. I think it brings good luck, so I knew that it would take me three books to tell my complete story.”

Dudley’s books may be purchased through amazon.com, bn.com and lulu.com. Bookstores such as Barnes & Noble may not have the books on the shelf, Dudley said, but they’ll be happy to order a copy for you.

To learn more about Dudley or his books, visit www.joshuapdudley.com or www.LostinOzBook.com.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Book 3 Finished

Look what Joshua announced on Lost in Oz's FaceBook page:

Tonight, at 10:23pm, exactly, I finished writing my third novel, Lost in Oz: Temple of the Deadly Desert. 236 pages and 45,475 words.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Lost in Oz on "That Guy with the Glasses"


A blog, entitled, That Guy with the Glasses, posted an article about Dorothy from Oz and Alice from Wonderland, encountering one another. Lost in Oz got mentioned in the article! Check it out!

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/community/blog/19070

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Wizard's Wireless

Joshua just completed an interview with "The Wizard's Wireless!" This well known, on-line feature of the Daily Ozmapolitan, run by Blair Frodelius (who also runs the Books of Oz Project), interviews people inspired by Oz! Joshua's interview will be up soon, and we will post a direct link when it becomes available!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Nashua Telegraph Interview




Joshua just completed an interview with the Nashua Telegraph, in Nashua, New Hampshire. The story will be run in the Sunday edition and will also be online at www.nashuatelegraph.com! We will post a direct link when it becomes available!

UPDATE: Here's the link! http://www.encorebuzz.com/entertainment/687606-249/new-hampshire-writer-has-created-popular-new.html

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Oz-Cast Interview



Joshua just completed an audio interview for the special 20th episode of OzCast! More information, and a link to listen to the interview, are coming soon!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Joshua Nominated for Best Local Author


Joshua has been nominated for Best Local Author by the HippoPress Best of 2010. To vote for him, please visit www.hippopress.com and click on the link to vote. Joshua is # 116. Best NH author. Be sure to vote soon and as many times as you want!! Voting closes February 28!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

2010 ALA Youth Media Awards

Joshua was nominated for the 2010 ALA Youth Media Awards for his Lost in Oz trilogy.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Look Inside!


Now you can look inside all of Joshua's books on Amazon.com! A great way to preview the novels before you make your purchase!!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Ozcast Episode Posted


The Ozcast radio interview featuring author Joshua Patrick Dudley has been posted! You can listen to it here: http://www.videosforfamily.com/ozcast.htm! Joshua is in Part 2!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Lost in Oz Trilogy will be complete in 2011


2011 will mark the third and final release from Joshua Patrick Dudley in the Lost in Oz trilogy. The stories follow modern teenagers Tamara, Joshua, Tommy and Laura as they make their own history in Oz after destroying the original story of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, simply by existing in Oz.
The stories have gained quite a following from middle-schoolers across the country, some of whom have even had Joshua teach in their classrooms! Joshua promotes his novels by visiting middle schools and teaching creative workshops with children from grades 3-10. The classes then create their own stories with Joshua’s guidance.
The third installment of the series will answer all the questions. Temple of the Deadly Desert starts right where Book Two: Rise of the Dark Wizard ended. A serious tornado attack has put Joshua in a coma and, SPOILER ALERT! killed one of the other four main characters. Shocking! That’s all the information that has been currently released about the third installment, from the book’s official website www.LostinOzBook.com