Nonestica

Cool new toy online

Jericho Matt Bloom — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:11:46 +0000

Hey guys and gals,

Just got off the phone with my crack team of professional developers and technicians. God they’re talented.

In any case, I’m writing this quick entry to let you know that a basic functional version of the Ozmatron Classic Oz search engine is online and running. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only searchable index of the complete Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum on the internet. And it’s here, so tell your friends, Oz lovers.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to index the rest, above and beyond the scope of the first 14 books. Little Wizard, Queer Visitors, and the Sea Fairies will all be added. I’ve also proposed some interesting new features never seen in a niche search engine like this before. So we’ll be seeing some of those pop up as well.

You can find the Ozmatron, in all it’s functional glory at http://ozmatron.nonestica.com

Guess that’s it for now.

I love you all,

Bloom

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The Capture of Father Time, by L. Frank Baum

Jericho Matt Bloom — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:34:07 +0000

Jim was the son of a cowboy, and lived on the broad plains of Arizona. His father had trained him to lasso a bronco or a young bull with perfect accuracy, and had Jim possessed the strength to back up his skill he would have been as good a cowboy as any in all Arizona.

When he was twelve years old he made his first visit to the east, where Uncle Charles, his father’s brother, lived. Of course Jim took his lasso with him, for he was proud of his skill in casting it, and wanted to show his cousins what a cowboy could do.

At first the city boys and girls were much interested in watching Jim lasso posts and fence pickets, but they soon tired of it, and even Jim decided it was not the right sort of sport for cities.

But one day the butcher asked Jim to ride one of his horses into the country, to a pasture that had been engaged, and Jim eagerly consented. He had been longing for a horseback ride, and to make it seem like old times he took his lasso with him.
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Good news, I’ve figured out how to end it!

Jericho Matt Bloom — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:40:35 +0000

So, here’s what happened. I started working on this book project. I wanted to do a sweeping epic that’s sort of a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. I wanted to do it in such a way that it was dark, funny, and said a lot without really changing anything. That, I think we’re doing well.

And, when people like Al started asking me what it was about, I developed a full plot outline. Problem is that with a full plot outline, you run into certain limitations. Generally, well, in my case anyway, the acceptable length of a book. No one wants to read six hundred pages, or 1500 pages in a sitting… which I think is kind of a shame, but such is the reality of the situation.

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The Witchcraft of Mary-Marie, by L. Frank Baum

Jericho Matt Bloom — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:18:54 +0000

Mary-Marie wanted something to do. Her mother had died years before, and the cruel king had commanded her father to join the royal army and march into far-off countries to do battle. She could not even guess when he would return; indeed, few of the soldiers of the king’s army ever did return from the fierce wars. So the girl lived through many tedious days in her lonely little hut, and gathered nuts and berries from the forest to satisfy her hunger. But her one gown was getting faded and shabby, and Mary-Marie could not think how she might manage to get another.

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The Many Deceptions of Oscar Diggs

Jericho Matt Bloom — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:22:57 +0000

It amazes me how often people refer to Oscar Diggs, The Wizard of Oz as a “hack.” I mean, sure, on a superficial level, he was not an actual magical wizard until much later in the original series by L. Frank Baum. Sure, he lived his life in solitude as a result of it. These things we know. Further, he seemed proud of this, declaring himself proudly to be a humbug wizard.

But a hack?

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Welcome to Bloom’s Ozzy Blog

Jericho Matt Bloom — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:20:45 +0000

Hello all,
By now, you’re likely to have found out that the myspace blog is history. With all of the trouble I’ve had at third party web sites, I decided it was time to take full control of all blogging assets. So, well… uhm, here it is. I know it’s been a long vacation, and mano’ man there is a lot to catch up on. In the near future I’m going to be posting some new Art work for the book by my friend and collegue Alan Cook, along with some new status reports with some nice happy shiny new numbers to wrap your infintile mind around. Heh heh. Just kidding. But it will be interesting.

Another thing I’ve decided to start doing is posting the short stories of L. Frank Baum. Some of them are brilliant, and most hard to find. So here is as good a place as any to share them, I suppose.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope to post some more blogs later today.

I hope this message finds you well.

I love you all,
Bloom

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