Red Letter Day

Okay, not so much red letters as two packages that came yesterday. One was the latest issue of The Baum Bugle, the journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club. This looks like a good one, with an appreciation of Queen Zixi of Ix, an overview of recent foreign Oz books, and an article on Pastoria, among other items. Oh, and I have a byline in it, with the report on the Winkie Convention (for which I used this blog to jog my memory). The other package was two books I ordered from Tales of the Cowardly Lion and Friends, The Tired Tailor of Oz by Lin Carter (which has been out for a while, but I missed ordering somehow), and A Million Miles from Here Is Oz. They both went into the to-read pile, which is starting to get impressively tall again.

Laterst Oz readings? I just finished Giftbringer by Frederick Weigand, an historical novel about St. Nicholas. No, not Santa Claus, but the real St. Nicholas. So how is that Oz? It's not, except that I've known Rick Weigand for several decades now, as he is from Seattle and is one of the original Oogaboos, our little Northwest Oz society. Giftbringer is a pretty good little book. The message can get a little heavy-handed in places, but overall I found it enjoyable, and a credible extrapolation of what little is known about Nicholas. As this is the first of a projected series, we all have something to look forward to. And right now, since I usually read Oz books in pairs, I'm also working on Brewster Bunny in Oz by Chris Dulabone. Brewster Bunny is Oz's foremost rabbit detective, but this book is less of a mystery than it is an excuse to travel around Oz.