The Latest Oz Reading

My current round of Oz reading continues with Fifty Years of the Winkie Convention, a big souvenir album of (exactly what it says on the cover) the first fifty Winkie Conventions. This was originally solicited last year in conjunction with the fiftieth Winkie Convention, but problems delayed things a bit, and it finally came out earlier this year. The nice thing about the delay, however, is that it meant it could include last year's convention. Since I've been going to this convention every year since 1980, you can imagine that I turned up quite a bit after the first few conventions. Sure enough, There I am an many stages of my life. I was especially happy to see a picture of my very first costume, Fess from Merry Go Round in Oz, at the 1983 convention, since I never did get a picture of myself that year, and I never even knew what I looked like for the longest time. I was a mere seventeen at the time! Of course, there are lots of other pictures of people I have known over the years, some for decades now, and even notoriously camera-shy Laura pops up quite a bit in some of the more recent years. Although mainly a photo album, it is interspersed with remembrances of those who were there, including myself. I gave David Maxine, who put the thing together, permission to troll this very blog for whatever utterances I've made that he wanted to use. Quite a few of my contributions came from, I believe, my thirty day countdown to my thirtieth convention, from way back in 2010.

And this gives me a segue into talking about something I don't think I've actually mentioned yet on this blog: Next year, I am co-chairing the convention! My long-time Oz friend and Queen Ann in On collaborator Karyl Carlson and I figured it was about time to bring the Winkie Convention to the Pacific Northwest. We scouted out a few places in both the Seattle and Portland areas before settling on the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel out by PDX. It should be fun, but I can already tell that it's going to be a lot of work! But if you want to came, it will be July 15-17, and you can find out more and register at www.ozconinternational.com/our-next-convention.html. I would encourage you to register now, as rates will go up early next year.