Free to download in July for 10th anniversary: a book with an eco message showing the nice side of wolves to counter the historic demonising, with a Wizard of Oz fantasy theme mixed with the factual forced migration of British children around the Commonwealth for a century, which had recently been told in the book/film Oranges and Sunshine.
Book summary blurb on Smashwords:
Rebel without a cause, werewolf without claws, Grey travels across all regions of Oz (Australia) in a comedy-fantasy parody of the Wizard of Oz. It is not witches that hunt the protagonist for a ruby slipper, but monotheists desperate to get their hands on an emerald cork hat. There’s no scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion searching for brain, heart and courage; instead, we have Elle McPherson, Angry Anderson and Bon Scott inspired characters needing a body, mind and spirit confidence boost. Will Grey and the intrepid travellers elude their pursuers and reach their destination? This book provides amazing action and surreal comedy in poetry and prose before reaching a cohesive and thrilling ending.
Smashwords explained: The ebooks on Smashwords can be read online using online readers, or they can be downloaded to other reading devices such as the iPhone, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, or to other ereading devices.
Nothing exists for a reason weather without season mind matter measling.
Atoms on a spinning ball, chargingtogether, out of control. Lucky we’re not heading for a big fall, into a black hole event horizon jowl!
Sunrise on my mind, sunset underneath, sundown s-witches places, before I sleep
Posting this inspired the following: Far better to live alone with the weather, than suffer abuse just to look ‘together’. I’m not trying to break any relationships up, and think most of my readers are quite individual anyway; so these are words of community, rather than anarchy; the community of free spirits.
These feelings are eternally mine; a constant theme in my poetry and philosophy; and not a recent feeling. Near the end of XaW Files: Beyond Humanity there is a wordplay on the Wizard of Oz‘s ‘There’s no place like home’. In middle-age I can see the wood for the trees, and the bubble of life I passed through; the incline I climbed. Life is an endurance event: some have extra handicaps imposed on them; while those who don’t usually look for them and pick them up. Most are human/media creations, and can be avoided by those who stick to the real world: with real life (including a normal honest relationship) and nature.
I was disappointed Princess Kate seemed to have become a Calamity Kate recently, buying a shotgun as Britain goes weapons crazy!
Kate Returns to Form
So I was delighted to see Princess Kate return to great greenYgrey form on a visit to Blackpool recently (maybe tangerine would have been more fitting though?), sporting big green and grey, and a little yellow in the arrow symbol of her handbag and the umbrella handle.
So I wrote this Folding Mirror poem to celebrate, adapting it from a spontaneous poem that seeped down effortlessly from the unconscious, and that is included below the FM one.
Swapping Shotgun for Umbrella, Remembering gYg Princess Era
Princess Kate taking up shooting
was like a poisoned ↑
through my greenYgrey wolf ♥.
Seeing symbol on handbag
like Y in disguise
deflated, like crushed umbrella.
is T a good umbrella symbol, between windy Y and deflated ↑
Thankfully, brolly she’s holding
in stormy Blackpool photo
sheltered her from rain.
One day when sunny again
Kate will consider birdsong celebrations
more important than dinner conversations.
Princess Kate taking up shooting
was like a poisoned arrow
through my greenYgrey heart
but seeing the symbol on her handbag
I see it’s just like a Y in disguise
deflated like a storm-broken umbrella.
Thankfully, the brolly she’s holding
in the stormy Blackpool photo
sheltered her from the rain
and one day when the sun shines
Kate will consider birdsong celebrations
more important than dinner conversations.
If you liked the above, and love birdy animals, you should be very interested to know it’s the last day or two, depending where you are, of my latest poetry book and second of the greenYgrey trilogy – fantasy fiction parody comedy Australia travel -being free on Smashwords:
YouTube has many videos offering theories for the real meaning behind the Wizard of Oz, with most considering the book to have been an allegory for the economic situation in the U.S.A. at the start of the twentieth century. This video is an example, and also has some great greenYgrey scenery… at the start, before green takes over!
Luckily for today’s Werewolf of Oz readers, our Grey explained the background to that book. It turned the witches of the Wizard of Oz around to criticise fundamentalist monotheist religion through the monotonous monotheists, while supporting the right to follow monotheistic religions in a personal worth rather than personal gain way through the mildly monotheistic Moby.
It also featured the WWW of the greenYgrey world, with strong independent women; a (were)wolf leading an animal welfare and environmentalism theme, and working class characters rising above discrimination.
It also tried to throw in a lot of comedy, while providing geographic, cultural and historical information about Australia. It is still on sale, and as relevant today as when it was written all those moons ago.
I hope you have now recovered from Australia Day and the final thrilling episode of the serialisation of undoubtedly the best ever werewolf virtually travels Australia to a Wizard of Oz theme satirical comedy travel quest.
Werewolf of Oz Chapter Themes
Wizard of Oz (Photo credit: cjzurcher)
If you followed the book closely on the blog, or have read the book in its complete form, you might have noticed that it consists of some single chapter stories and some told over several chapters.
Here’s a breakdown of the chapters. You have been reading the original idea thrilling story first virtual Oz expedition told in amazing detail as it happened in real fantasy time in the Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.
All great things must come to an end, and the satirical comedy of Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Mapsis no different. Yes, this is the penultimate chapter/episode of what should by now be your favourite werewolf rambles around Australia to aWizard of Oz theme travel quest.
The Final Twist
The Terminator T-800. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With the main story denouement seemingly over, you might have forgotten about the commotion out at sea that only Grey could see, as it didn’t feature in the bombastic Battle of Bri’s bane.
Yes, like many a great book and film, usually when the baddie is not quite finished, there’s one final twist just as everything seems to be concluded and peaceful.
Chapter 141. Solo Traveller Once Again, Like When it all Began
So my epic journey had really ended, and all was well. The Great Dame of Oz left to go on a world tour, so Angry, Elle and Cathy were going to stay in the mansion indefinitely. I’m sure they had bright Emerald futures ahead of them; now they had regained their body, mind and spirit confidence.
Once More unto the Sea
Bramble Bay Sunset-_2= (Photo credit: Sheba_Also)
I knew I could return to the Greenygrey world now, but felt there was something else I needed to do. I thought I should visit the Tasman Sea one last time.
So I said cheerio to everybody and everything in Emerald. There were especially long farewells with my three long-term travel companions and my favourite Oz hat couple. Then it was time to go solo once more; returning to my status upon arrival in Oz.
I shapeshifted into a bird of paradise,
and set off once more for the seaside.
I flew with the wind to the east,
for an hour and a half at least,
arriving at the sea over Deception Bay,
I thought there must be another way,
so I headed south and landed next to a jay,
in a place I liked the sound of: Bramble Bay.
I asked the jay, whose name was Jay,
whether it had seen anything untoward astray.
Jay said nothing unusual had happened all day.
Seeing a Sea Commotion
The Jays are back in my garden! (Photo credit: Ian A Kirk.)
Everything did seem absolutely normal, and I began to wonder if I’d wasted my time making this diversion. But then:
I saw a commotion out at sea
and wondered what it might be.
The commotion was not only there; it was approaching the beach at a phenomenal speed. I asked Jay if it could see it. It said yes, it could.
I wondered what it could be: Was it more acid-rain? Could it be the MoMo East returning from the deep? Or was it Smiggin Holes escaped from its deep hole? Was there one more test I had to put my exhausted bird-brain through?
Aurora Australis Over Tasman Sea (Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center)
The commotion reached the shallows. I could now make out a head and arms. I thought I recognised who it was… but surely it couldn’t be… could it?
It continued swimming to the shallows, and then emerged onto the beach.
In the second Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Mapsepisode of the week the satirical comedy travel questers finally reach the end of the dust sandy path, barely three episodes before the end.
As the Wizard of Ozzers followed the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, the Werewolf of Ozzers reach the real Australian town of Emerald, Queensland at the end of the Dust Sandy Path.
And as the Wizard turned out to be a bit of a disappointing fake in the Wizard of Oz, there’s disappointment for the Werewolf of Ozzers when they meet the Great Dame of Oz.
However, as in the Wizard of Oz where the Wizard of Ozzers are told they don’t need the help of a wizard; as they already have the qualities they feel lacking; in the Werewolf of Oz the body, mind and spirit soon recover. Enjoy chapter 139 of 142…
The Wizard of Oz as pictured in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
After it settled down in Emerald I asked Emily if she remembered what MiMo Moby said back in Meekatharra many moons ago; about a Great Dame of Oz at the end of the dust sandy path who could reunite me with Green once again.
Emily said she did remember, and knew exactly what MiMo had meant; she would take us to meet the Dame straight away.
It wasn’t far away; just a couple of blocks to a big mansion in the centre of Emerald. Emily knocked on the door with one of her corks. It wasn’t long before a large grumpy man answered it.
He bellowed, ‘What do you want?’ at us in a rude manner.
‘Ah, hello,’ said Emily, ‘MiMo Moby told this werewolf friend of mine that the Great Dame of Oz should be able to help it. Is she here?’
The man did not seem impressed, but said he’d see if she was around.
The Great Dame of Oz
A woman arrived a few minutes later; she looked like she could be the sister of the man… or even the same person!
‘Hello possums,’ she said, ‘what can I do for you?’
I told her about my conversation with MiMo Moby, and said we were all still quite lost, despite learning a lot on our epic Ozyssey.
She said she’d love to help, and used to do such things, but she was too busy now that she’d become an international giga-star.
Body, Mind and Spirit Work Together Again
I looked at my travel companions; they seemed to share my disappointment. I wondered if my epic ramble had reached an anti-climactic dead-end, and I would never see Green and the Greenygrey world again.
I was about to suggest leaving, when Cathy spoke up in a spirited way, telling the Dame that that was no way to talk to us. Angry seemed to have been thinking about it as well, because he soon added, ‘You’re not even really the Dame, you were a rude man when you answered the door just now.’ Then Elle used her body to great effect by slamming the door shut.
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Notes
Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage are Barry Humphries’s comedy characters.
As 2014 gets well under way you would be forgiven for forgetting all about the serialisation of what we think was 2013’s greatest satirical comedy werewolf travel quest across Australia serial: our very own Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps(please look up ‘satire’ if you were offended by that!).
Ashes Over, Endeavour Everest Back for More
First of all we’d like to congratulate the Aussie cricket team for winning the Ashes series 5-0. The England and Wales team had won it three times in a row, so it was becoming a bit boring. Hopefully E&W will bounce back next series.
As the E&W Ashes win in Australia during 2010/11 is remembered in the Greenygrey world as the WoO series, as it took place when Grey was on its epic Ozyssey, this series will be remembered as the Boomerang Ashes, after the Aussies returned to form with their oldest secret weapon.
In the accompanying photo, Aussie series hero, Mitchell Johnson, is celebrating the Ashes win with the first recorded cricketing upside-down boomerang. The first photo showed Johnson in the more conventional boomerang pose.
The above was inspired by the 1932/33 Ashes being remembered as the Bodyline Ashes, because of the number of bouncers bowled by the Aussies.
Secondly, good news if you missed the third Endeavour: Everest episode featured on this blog last week, with a balloon ride over Everest from base camp at Gokyo, because it is back on the BBC iplayer until January 14th (only available in U.K. as far as we know).
Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland
Presbyterian Church at Springsure, Queensland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This episode of the Werewolf of Oz, the fifth from last, combines the two biggest influences on the book, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, with the real Australian towns of Oakey, Dalby, Roma, Orion and Springsure between Brisbane and Emerald.
On the way, there is an emotional return to Chinchilla. Enjoy!
138. Following the Dust Sandy Path to Emerald
English: Dalby Regional Council customer service centre at Chinchilla, Queensland, formerly the Chinchilla Shire Council offices (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There was a succulent start to the journey, orienteering through an okay oak forest outside Oakey before devouring a delicious dal dinner in Dalby.
Chinchilla is a Killer… Emotionally
It was Chinchilla next, and I prepared myself for an emotional return. I was not disappointed, with chinchillas lining the streets of Chinchilla as we passed. I saw an old chinchilla rush out of the crowd and hug a COG member. When the COG soldier turned around I was delighted to see the name Cilla Chinchilla on her jacket.
Cilla had survived
and achieved her task.
Now I hoped
she’d have time to bask.
Roma, Orion and Spring
Australiana: a cork hat on a sixpack of VB (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We roamed through Roma, before it turned dark over Orion; which was good timing, as there was a belting night sky there. Then it seemed like it was spring for sure in Springsure, as everything was green. It became evermore evergreen as we neared Emerald.
I asked Emily how everything was so green, and she said these were the Alician Fields. They are a natural wonderland for those who have turned the world upside down to improve it before returning it the right way up; where sparkling spring water irrigates the earth from underground, and the sun always shines above.
Elysian Fields by Carlos Schwabe, 1903 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I thought nothing could equal the Alician Fields, but Emerald sparkled like the finest precious stone; the town and fields complemented each other like a jewel on silk.
Hats filled the air when Brian and Emily reached Emerald, and our leaders soon joined in with the hatrobatics.
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Notes
The Elysian Fields of Greek mythology were a heavenly paradise for heroic warriors.
Oakey, Dalby, Roma, Orion and Springsure are real places.
The Ashes 2013/14 series has reached its final destination, and it will soon be time for the England and Wales cricket team to say their farewells and head home. The Werewolf of Ozzers are also reaching that point in our serialisation of their epic virtual travel quest to all regions of what is known as Australia in the human world.
Sydney Memories Emerald Future
Australia are in control of the fifth Ashes test in Sydney, while poetry seemed to take control of the Werewolf of Ozzers in Sydney, with Bronte and Greycliffe House inspiring some literary nonsense sublime rhymes.
Emerald Railway Station (Wikipedia)
This episode has final farewells to the friends made along the Oz way, before Emily the Emerald Cork Hat returns those that remain to the book’s Wizard of Oz-inspired final destination: as the Wizard of Ozzers reached their final destination in the Emerald City, the Werewolf of Ozzers end up in the real Australian town of Emerald.
Chapter 137. Saying Goodbye, and Finding a New Path
After everybody and everything had their bellies full of buns, Emily and Brian addressed us all; it was nice of them to give us a house.
The Ashes Urn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
They also said the locality would now be known as Brisbane, and the region would be called Queensland; in memory of those who had taken part in the battle. They ended by thanking us for freeing Brian from his bane.
The Army Disperses
It was then time to say goodbye to my old friends and comrades, as they departed for home. Captain Dec and Dai were taking Dig, Aus, Vombat and the Collies back to Western Australia, and the cetaceans were swimming that way too. There were of course lots of hugs, and that’s all I’m prepared to write here.
Land of Oz (Photo credit: _rockinfree)
After they left, Emily asked us what we were doing next. I had seen the dust sandy path leading inland, but told Emily I didn’t know if we were still meant to follow it, now that she and Brian were reunited.
Emily said it looked like the dust sandy path was heading their way… to Emerald.
She invited us along,
and it felt right to go,
for in her I could see a glow;
she hadn’t been wrong yet!
English: Graham Swann at Lord’s Cricket Ground 20th July 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, satirical comedy sports correspondent at the Greenygrey.
Unfortunately Graeme Swann has announced his immediate retirement from all forms of cricket.
Swann is getting on in cricketing age, and has been out of form on the England and Wales Ashes tour, which the Aussies lead 3-0 (just realised that now won makes a nice palindrome… before then realising it was a mistake… but didn’t want to waste it!).
Swann becomes the second travelling casualty of the Ashes tour, after Jonathon Trott returned home due to mental health issues.
Werewolf of Oz Swan Lake Tragedy
Swan Lake (Photo credit: Cindy Andrie)
Swann’s retirement is poignant for the Greenygrey, after the Werewolf of Oz featured a Swan Lake tragedy, with the loss of Kalbarri Barry and family in Swan Lake, N.S.W.
The 5th Ashes test will be in N.S.W., but before that, there’s the 4th test in Melbourne, Victoria.
mistYmuse 