Interview
Want to read The Wizard In Wonderland? Today you can purchase your free copy on Amazon, here, hurry up!
Want to read The Wizard In Wonderland? Today you can purchase your free copy on Amazon, here, hurry up!
1.Can you tell me a little about yourself and how you got into writing?
I started as a fan of comic books when I was young. The fantastic was just so appealing. Normal people with exceptional powers and abilities, the ideal of good triumphing over evil - even when the odds seemed impossible - this gave me a sense that the impossible was possible. I had a hard life growing up, and this kind of inspiration gave me something to hope for.
I wanted to be a part of this world, to create and inspire for those who did not have hope or inspiration. As I played with creating fiction, I learned that I could do more than inspire though - I could also share ideas of my own, explore new thoughts and ways to exist together. Through writing, I learned that I could teach, guide, mold and influence not only the introduction of ideas, but also give others the spark they might need to become creationsists in their own right.
I started wanting to write science fiction, but my continued love of comic books gradually shifted my interest towards fantasy. And there I found an even greater world of possibility where I could not only craft characters, but I could create entire worlds to set my stories in. Take a man or woman out of what is familiar, provide them a solid foundation for what could be real, and their mind becomes open to entirely new possibilities.
The impossible becomes possible, and what might otherwise be ordinary becomes extraordinary. What better way could anyone hope to shape the world of the future than being able to shape the ideas of today?
2.Why should we read The Wizard In Wonderland?
The Wizard In Wonderland started as a fun project - afterall, the entire concept came from a friend's daughter who mixed up the titles of Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. But like so many other areas of my writing, I found in exploring the idea a wonderful tapestry to reach out with, to share new possibilities through worlds that were even more impossible than the ones I had created before. And best of all - they would already be familiar to the reader.
In creating this book, and the series that will follow, my focus was to preserve the original concepts and characters as their original creators envisioned them. This then is a book designed for all those who grew up with loving Wonderland and Oz, but even moreso it is for those who believed that fantastic worlds like these are not unique, and that they share a common ground. Alice and Dorothy learn that both of their worlds exist, and the reader will come to learn that even Oz and Wonderland cannot have existed all this time without influencing each other in significant ways.
So who should read this book? Anyone who was ever a child who dreamed of falling into or flying away to a world that is so magical that only dreams could possibly exist there. If you are looking for the impossible, this book is for you. Somewhere between Oz and Wonderland is the real world that we all share - and this may be the best roadmap you will ever have to understanding what that really means.
3.What character or part of the story did you become attached to the most while writing and why?
I think the most fun I had in this book was were the Hatter and the Hare. They only play a small part (so far), but I think the Hatter represents the penacle of the insanity that is Wonderland, and the Hatter needs the Hare in order to give him the territory he needs to be zany without consequence. I could not just have them still sitting around a tea table after all these years - they had to be somewhere else, and the Hatter is just too forceful a character not to have taken advantage of an incredible change that came over the Wonderland while none of us were watching. If the insanity that is represented by Wonderland is itself turned upside down, how could the Hatter not be in the middle of it? And where the Hatter goes, the Hare must follow.
4. Is there an author who particulary inspired you while writing The Wizard In Wonderland?
I think it goes without saying that Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum are the only true inspirations for a book written off of their collective creations. For without their originally fantastic ideas, this book could never have been conceived.
5. If you could work with any author who would it be?
I think I would have loved to have worked with Robert Heinlein. Though he is primarily a science fiction writer, his stories bordered on both fantasy and reality to the point that nothing he wrote was ever completely fiction or science. He was a remarkable creator who I would have been honored to have known and worked beside.
If I were to choose someone amongst the living, I would have to say Terry Brooks though. Not only is he a true master of fantasy, but he has created in Shannara a concept that spans more than just the time in which his characters live, but also a rich, mysterious past and a future of untapped potential. This is world building at its best - understanding that not everything needs explanation, because not everything is - or even should - be known, even to the author himself. If it were, how could we ever hope for our creations to evolve?
6.Do you listen to any music when you write?
I love music so much that if I try to write while listening, I spend too much time singing along than in actually writing. Nah - music is reserved for just about everything else, but just not for times when I need to be creative
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7.Do you have any advice for other writers?
I get approached all the time by people who say they have a story they want to tell, and I answer them all the same. Write it. Just sit down and put your words on paper. Don't worry how it looks or whether you think it's good enough or anything like that. It's the idea that's important, and it will never be told if you don't write it. If you find after you have written it down that it needs help, find a critique group and let them help you flesh it out. But none of that would be possible if you never take the first step in just writing it down.
8.What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?
When someone gives you advice, consider the source. If your friends or family tell you not to try, or that you will only fail, ask yourself - what have they ever tried? And more importantly - have they ever tried what you want to do? If they have, then they are experts and you should give fair consideration to what they say. But if they have not, then don't ever let their own fear of failure keep you from achieving greatness.
The Book
The Wizard In Wonderland
Dorothy Gale has been to some strange lands, but none as unexpected as 19th century Oxford, England. Yet this is exactly where Dorothy meets Alice Liddell, a young woman with her own fanciful stories of a place called Wonderland. Alice finds herself pulled into Oz to face a new Wicked Witch, while Dorothy must follow the Wizard into a Wonderland civil war. Unknown to either girl though, plots have arisen against both faery lands, and they must uncover the hidden history shared between these lands if they are ever to set things right again.
Written with a faithful eye to the original Baum and Carrol classics, The Wizard In Wonderland reveals the secrets of Oz and Wonderland in a story that brings together both classic heroines in a new epic adventure.
Written with a faithful eye to the original Baum and Carrol classics, The Wizard In Wonderland reveals the secrets of Oz and Wonderland in a story that brings together both classic heroines in a new epic adventure.
The Author
Ron Glick (born January 20, 1969) is a community activist, and is presently active in several charitable enterprises. He was born in Plainville, KS. After living in various states, he currently lives in Kalispell, MT. He is unmarried, with ambitions to someday change that. He is the author of The Godslayer Cycle and Chaos Rising series, as well as having written several volumes of Ron El's Comic Book Trivia. He is presently working on the second novel of the Godslayer Cycle, Two. He loves contact and welcomes input on his work through his Facebook page at http://facebook.com/godslayercycle.
Want to read The Wizard In Wonderland? Today you can purchase your free copy on Amazon, here, hurry up!
Aw, dang, I missed it! :( Great interview!
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