Behind the Curtain
'Dorothy-the darker side of Oz' is an original novel that runs parallel to Baum's 'The wonderful wizard of oz', and in writing it I wanted to make it new and exciting whilst keeping to the essence of Baum's classic. Though this tale is deeper, and with more insight into characters and focus on the amazing journey that Dorothy takes to get home.
With the characters I wanted to give them all a sense of depth and individuality, making them more than just cogs behind Dorothy. For example the 'cowardly lion' is very much the courageless creature Baum intended, though opposed to a little girl finding him along her path and taking the large lion as her companion without hesitation, I wanted to give Dorothy a realistic reaction to the creature (confusion, fear etc.), and give the lion his own story that affects the whole novel, a reason why he has no courage and make him a 'rounder' character. Even the wicked witch of the east plays a very large role in the novel, and we see how she's destroyed the land of the munchkins and made them her slaves.
Dorothy's journey through Oz is epic, spanning from the far east to the far west and I didn't want to make the yellow road easy for her. She journeys through dark woods, along mountain tops, cities, villages, desolate lands and beautiful fields, so I really wanted to make her quest through Oz memorable, and give each landmark (the dark forest for example) details and dangers, and something new. I've written it so that each of Dorothy's friends is as big a piece of the novel as herself, and so the reader can see the affect of journey on them as a group of strangers who become friends, and the dangers they face along the way.
Authors Bio
Scott Stanford was born in a small Welsh village in 1984, and after studying Milton's 'paradise lost', alongside reading Bret Easton Ellis's 'American psycho' started writing himself. His works spanned from epic poems to film, and amidst a number of feature scripts and other projects came a debut novel. Since then he's been working as a novelist, and even turned down working with Samuel L. Jackson in the process.
Now releasing his fourth novel 'Dorothy: the darker side of Oz' Scott currently lives in Manchester with a curious Harlequin rabbit called Dexter, and Jimmy Joyce (A loveable Labrador).