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O.Z. Diggs Himself Out

2018
Author(s): Baxley Jr., Ron
Illustrator(s): Tennille, Gwendolyne
Publisher(s): YBR Publishing
Genre(s): Fantasy

Comments:
O.Z. Diggs Himself Out, is an adult fantasy novel that couples Southern literature with Oz fantasy in a satirical travelogue. A cursed seventh generation descendant of the wonderful Wizard of Oz, O.Z. Diggs VII, can longer mention that he is from that magic family as part of a curse from the Wicked Witch of the West before she died. O.Z. Diggs VII, an eccentric storyteller with rainbow-dyed hair and who was once reluctant to use magic, has been in Boone, N.C. as a displaced Ozian-turned-Southerner and goes on a quest throughout the Southeastern, Eastern, and Midwestern United States to regain his magical roots. He does this through finding pieces of his ancestor's wizarding costume he left behind, and even using the Cowardly Lion staff which was left to him. O.Z. Diggs VII contacts and meets the Society of the Walking Cane, a group of senior citizen good wizards and witches from Oz who are incognito as a walking group with their walking canes being their disguised staffs. But he also discovers a group of evil witches and wizards called the Society of the Stitches, so-named for stitched red symbols on their clothing. The Society of the Stitches will stop at nothing to keep O.Z. Diggs VII from breaking his curse and returning to Oz. Not only this, but the annoying Nomes of Oz (gnome-like creatures who love jewels they claim they made) are on their way to the United States to reclaim their jewels and cause mischief. Even with the help of some new fantastic friends, can O.Z. Diggs figure out how to stop the Society of the Stitches and the evil Nomes as well as break his curse? O.Z. Diggs VII becomes so much more than his Southern identity and background. He shows that anyone can transcend both! This often funny, sometimes dark, whimsical trip down American highways will beckon readers young, and young-at-heart, to once again...follow the Yellow Brick Road!