Overview

After sliding off the highway in a surprise blizzard, Theodore and Grandma Betsy find themselves in the land of Um, a world with strange inhabitants and different rules for technology and magic. Following floating beacons, they travel with a talking mannequin, a polite robot, and a good-natured bigfoot as they seek an audience with the Grand Luminary. In Um, humans are treated like mythological creatures, and not everyone is excited by the Earthlings' arrival; for decades, Boffin, Trog, and Zard citizens have been migrating to the Tree of Life's shade in Centrum City, and while an uneasy peace has existed between the powers that be, change is on the horizon. During 2024 and 2025, I had the privilege of working with 3rd graders at a number of Eau Claire schools writing fractured fairy tales. We also read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. As inspiration, I wrote my own novel for young readers taking the narrative framework of The Wizard of Oz while incorporating my own characters, setting, and sets of events. I did all the illustrations and gave copies of the resulting book to the students I worked with. A work of juvenile portal fantasy, this book draws inspiration from the brilliance of L Frank Baum's works and its straightforward plot: unusual events whisk characters away from normal lives, forcing them to venture out and make friends as they journey home from alternate worlds. Children deserve works that are as cozy as they are exciting (classics like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have inspired generations), and unforgiving times can be a source of mirth and silliness and novelty. Onward! Upward!

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Author Information

Erik Meyer received an MFA in Creative Writing from MSUM in 2008 and has worked in the Fargo, North Dakota, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin public school systems. As a smaller project, he self-published Cryptoamnesiac, a speculative fiction novel, in 2022. He also drew, coded, wrote, and released Church of the Midnight Sailor on Steam in 2021; he wrote, formatted, and released two pen-and-paper RPGs on DriveThruRpg (Verdant Toxic Ruins and Fargone). He lives, writes, and draws in Wisconsin, a place both magical and filled with humans.

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