I’m delighted to share this interview with you from this year’s virtual Oz-Stravaganza!, conducted by John Fricke. Hope you enjoy!
Can it be ten years?
The end of this month, February 25th, to be exact, marks the 10-year anniversary of my first novel “Silver Shoes. It went “live” through iUniverse on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and Target websites simultaneously in 2009, in both hardcover and trade paperback. As a self-published author it did pretty well, and steady sales continue to this day. The first edition is out of print now. I opted to publish directly through Amazon at a significantly reduced expense, allowing me to tinker and fix a bit of the prose (nothing major, I assure you) without paying a king’s ransom to do so. The trade paperback, Kindle, and Nook versions (the latter two weren’t available initially) are still in print today and keep me busy at events, festivals, and conventions around the country. Less than a year after it was published, my “Silver Shoes” brought me back to Kansas, where the novel was honored just weeks after I arrived with a Kansas Notable Book Award by the Center for the Book and the State Library of Kansas. It’s been a wonderful ride ever since. I thank the Oz fan community who embraced the story and have supported my continued efforts in the genre. Who knows where this adventure will take me next? I do know that after writing this book, anything is possible.
Announcing “The Magic Belt!”
Catching up …
Author Paul Miles Schneider sits at his traditional perch in the Oz Museum for OZtoberFest 2016, in Wamego, KS. Selling and signing books.
It’s been a good chunk of time now since I’ve posted on this blog, and I apologize for my glaring absence and lack of news. I’ve been grinding away on “installment #3” of the Silver Shoes saga, and I’m pleased to say it’s going well. Donald Gardner and his buddies are in for another wild ride, this time centered around the primary catalyst of magic in Baum’s third Oz book, Ozma of Oz. My own books parallel his in many respects, and that is intentional on my part. It’s why Silver Shoes was joined in chronological succession by The Powder of Life … and now looming on the horizon is The Magic Belt. My hope is to entertain, enthrall, and enchant, not necessarily in that order! But more on new works in the months ahead.
I’ve attended a couple of wonderful events this past year as a guest of both Oz-Stravaganza! in Chittenango, New York, and OZtoberFest in Wamego, Kansas. My two homes-away-from-home where “Oz” is always made a very real place for me. It’s due primarily to the people who toil ceaselessly, year-round to create indelible memories for all who come for the fun. Those men and women behind the curtain. I’ve met and continue to meet so many incredible, inspirational “characters” on my strange and wonderful journey as an “Oz-themed” author.
I thought I would share a few highlights and good memories from these events, and please—if you’re ever in New York in early June or Kansas in early October—join us for a memorable and magical experience, and be sure to say hi if you do!
Oz-Stravaganza! 2016
A $5,000 donation to the All Things Oz Foundation! Featuring (left to right): Marc Baum, Mark Sample, Dennis Kulis, Colleen Zimmer, and Lynne Bunce.
The dream team of Oz-Stravaganza! (left to right:) Marc Baum, Dennis Kulis, Lynne Bunce, Colleen Zimmer, and Mark Sample.
Fun with good friends and new friends as we oogle Glinda’s dress from the Broadway production of “Wicked,” on loan to the All Things Oz Museum for the next two months! (Left to right:) Paul Miles Schneider, Ryan Jay, Vincent Myrand, and Emma Ridley.
Part of my collection as a “pen pal” of Margaret Hamilton’s (the Wicked Witch of the West), on display at the All Things Oz Museum during Oz-Stravaanza! 2016.
The brilliant collection of Judy Garland’s screen-worn costumes on display at the All Things Oz Museum, during Oz-Stravaganza! 2016, courtesy of Jonathan Shirshekan.
Emma Ridley, who played Princess Ozma in Disney’s “Return to Oz,” proudly displays one of my T-shirts for “Silver Shoes,” during Oz-Stravaganza! 2016.
MGM Munchkin-by-marriage Myrna Swensen and her delightful daughter Nancy, honoring Clarence Swensen at Oz-Stravaganza! 2016.
Good vs. Evil at the parade for Oz-Stravaganza 2016, as Paul Miles Schneider and Grant Menzies battle with a wand and broom. All in good fun. Authors of “Silver Shoes” and “Mrs. Ziegfeld,” respectively.
A group of flying monkeys, courtesy of Trader Joe’s, ready themselves for the big parade, during Oz-Stravaganza! 2016.
A wonderful group of friends gather below the plaque honoring L. Frank Baum, during Oz-Stravaganza 2016. (left to right:) Ryan Jay, Michael Carter, Emma Ridley, and Paul Miles Schneider. Chittenango, NY.
OZtoberFest 2016
Then it was on to OZtoberFest in the fall of 2016!
It began with a whirlwind of activity, visiting nine schools in two days. Paul Miles Schneider gives a talk about how he came to write his novel “Silver Shoes” and its subsequent sequels “The Powder of Life” and the current novel-in-progress “The Magic Belt,” during OZtoberFest 2016.
It began with a whirlwind of activity, visiting nine schools in two days. Paul Miles Schneider gives a talk about how he came to write his novel “Silver Shoes” and its subsequent sequels “The Powder of Life” and the current novel-in-progress “The Magic Belt,” during OZtoberFest 2016.
It began with a whirlwind of activity, visiting nine schools in two days. Paul Miles Schneider gives a talk about how he came to write his novel “Silver Shoes” and its subsequent sequels “The Powder of Life” and the current novel-in-progress “The Magic Belt,” during OZtoberFest 2016.
Enjoying a lunch break during OZtoberFest 2016, with Clint Stueve, John Fricke, and Paul Miles Schneider.
The stage was set in the lobby of the Columbian Theatre in Wamego, KS, during the murder-mystery fundraiser for OZtoberFest 2016! Paul Miles Schneider knows “whodunit.”
Film critic Ryan Jay snaps photos of the wonderful table displays prior to the murder-mystery fundraiser for OZtoberFest 2016.
Author Paul Miles Schneider enjoys the festivities with twin fans, during OZtoberFest 2016 in Wamego, KS.
The Saturday festivities begin for OZtoberFest 2016, with host Corey Reaves and guests John Fricke, Roger S. Baum, Charlene Baum, Jane Albright, Johnpaul Cafiero, Ryan Jay, Paul Miles Schneider, and Jane Lahr.
The fabulous new facade for the Oz Museum in Wamego, KS. OZtoberFest 2016.
Jane Lahr, daughter of MGM’s Cowardly Lion Bert Lahr—a special guest at OZtoberfest 2016. Jane couldn’t have been more delightful as she represented her father’s legacy.
“Silver Shoes” author Paul Miles Schneider enjoys a meet-and-greet with young fans during OZtoberFest 2016.
Forever enshrined. “Silver Shoes” author Paul Miles Schneider is seated next to his handprints and signature in the Oz Museum. Wamego, KS, 2016.
A panel discussion during OZtoberFest 2016, hosted by author and Oz expert John Fricke. (left to right:) Jane Albright, Johnpaul Cafiero, Ryan Jay, Charlene Baum, Roger S. Baum, Paul Miles Schneider, and Jane Lahr. The Colombian Theatre, Wamego, KS.
Two “Oz treasures” pose in the Oz Museum next to the Cowardly Lion’s display in Wamego, KS, 2016. Charlene Baum, and L. Frank Baum’s great-grandson Roger S. Baum.
Record-breaking crowds turn out for OZtoberFest 2016 in Wamego, KS.
The highlight of OZtoberFest 2016 was meeting Jane Lahr, daughter of MGM’s Cowardly Lion Bert Lahr. She was delightful, funny, kind, and beautiful in all respects.
Lessons My Father Taught Me: Use the World Around You in New, Creative Ways
Leonard Schneider, filming “Captain Dinosaur and the War Game” for Phoenix Productions, 1973.
When I was a kid growing up, my father Leonard Schneider was an educational filmmaker. He worked for a local company called Centron Educational Films in Lawrence, Kansas. It was an enchanted life from my youthful perspective, because I got to appear in many of his films. After he left Centron a couple of years later, he launched his own company, Phoenix Productions, which still utilized Centron for its film distribution. His first project as an independent writer/director was “A Rain Day Story,” all about the creative-writing process and how people can take the things around them that they see on a daily basis and imagine new stories, new ideas, and create new adventures from the events, people, and places in their lives.
This is the same approach I used when writing “Silver Shoes,” and it’s the same approach used by L. Frank Baum as well when he wrote “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” according to his great-grandson Robert.
Recently I found an “ancient” VHS copy of this short film, which runs a mere 13 minutes. “A Rainy Day Story,” stars a nine-year-old me as “Paul” (it was a stretch playing myself). We made it back in 1972. The quality isn’t good. Not only is it digitized from a low-grade VHS “master,” it was achieved back in the late ’70s by projecting a 16mm print in a screening room and then filming that with a (state-of-the-art for the late 1970s) video camera while it ran. Ugh. A copy of a copy of a copy.
Still I want to share it with you. It was a huge part of my journey as a writer of adventure stories. It’s how Donald Gardner, an average kid from the Midwest, was born. How he discovered a silver shoe on the side of a road in Kansas one day. How his adventure into the “real” world of Oz began.
It started with the two magic words, “What if …” and went from there.
Enjoy!