I have long loved the worlds of Oz and Wonderland. The playground they both present in interesting ways would cause me to consistently return to them. It slowly occurred to me that they compliment each other very well, in style and substance.

Another thing that came to me constantly was how limited interpretations of these world had become. Stories that came out taking place in either world, be it a book or film, seemed to always follow two essential narrative paths. 1) It’s a prequel, which I bristle at since going into a prequel means you already know a lot of how it ends up. 2) It’s a sequel where Alice or Dorothy is back home and are roped into returning, often with some memory loss gimmick. Either way they seem to result in the same story: go to a castle to defeat a witch.

I wanted to do something different. I wanted to see how things would be several years on. Alice is older, and carries the trauma of her past adventures on her. How she copes with her PTSD (or doesn’t cope) drives mush of her character’s arc. Dorothy (who now goes by Dot) is older, a hardened cop in the Emerald City. She’s lost much of her compassion as she’s been saving Oz over and over again. Developing their inner lives and their contrasting problem-solving and fighting styles has been maybe the most fun of the writing process.

I began with a lot of enticing questions: What’s Oz like without the witches? What if a major character from the books was the murder that set off the story? Which character should that be? (The first chapter is available to read now!). How would these two worlds treat each other, what do they even know about each other, and what tensions naturally arise from that? Who would the villain(s) be, and why? What is the actual human core of this story? What could make this more than just indulgent fan fiction?

Writing this was the most fun I’ve ever had writing. It was incredibly difficult at times for many, often unrelated, reasons. But the manuscript is done. I’m very proud of it, but I know the journey isn’t complete.

Here’s what I need from you!
I need eyes on this to see where it is weak. I want to shape this such that it’s not so easy to put down. If you find yourself stopping before you complete reading, I want to know where that was, and look at that moment in the story.

And if you think this is awesome, follow along so when it’s time for pre-orders you can join in.

I’m excited/frightened/everythinged about presenting this to the masses. So, thanks for stopping by!