There’s a movie out at the moment which, unless you live on the moon, cannot have escaped your notice. The WICKED buzz is undeniably loud, and I am all ears. Why? Because I’ve loved all things Oz since I was a little girl, and – ahem – my next novel, BEFORE DOROTHY, is the imagined life story of Dorothy’s Aunt Em from The Wizard of Oz. Timing is everything, and, in this case, a wonderful coincidence after a fifteen-year wait.
Writers are often (always?) asked where they get their ideas. I love this question because the origin of a story fascinates me. WICKED is the big screen adaptation of the stage musical of the same name (adapted from Gregory Maguire’s novel, which was inspired by the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, which was adapted from L. Frank Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). When an idea works, it WORKS. I fully subscribe to Elizabeth Gilbert’s belief that ideas find the writer, rather than the other way around. Claire Keegan, in her recent interview with Oprah, shared similar thoughts about listening for ideas, and being patient. Ideas for my books have returned to me from my childhood, found me in museum archives, and tapped me on the shoulder after creative meetings (aka a bottle of rosé) with writer friends. But what happens when an idea eludes you? In 2022, after two ideas had been turned down by my publisher, I found myself idea-less. For the first time in ten years of writing, I didn’t know what I was going to write next. Or so I thought. The idea for BEFORE DOROTHY was patiently waiting for me to notice it.
I’d first had the idea to write a Wizard of Oz spin-off back in 2009, before I was a published writer. I have 30,000 words of a contemporary Oz story lurking in a file, but the idea left me as I turned my back on it and found my way to writing historical novels. Fast-forward to 2022, and with the vague notion of writing a re-telling of a classic, I turned to my bookshelf for inspiration. Austen, Dickens, the Brontes, and Winnie-the-Pooh gave me nothing. Then I picked up my copy of Gregory Maguire’s ‘Wicked – The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West’ and started to think about an Oz-adjacent story again. But I was literally holding the definitive Oz re-telling. It had already been done. And brilliantly.
As all despondent writers must do at such times, I went for a Sad Walk. And that’s when inspiration struck. Although I’d abandoned the Oz idea, my subconscious brain had kept thinking about it, and sent it back to me in the form of Aunt Em. Dorothy’s Auntie Em. Who was she, it asked, and why was Dorothy living with her in Kansas? My walk became an almost-run as I hurried home to research Aunt Em’s presence in the original Baum book. That same day, I nervously pitched the idea to my agent – a novel about Emily Gale, set in the Kansas dust bowl of the 1930s. Finally, my Oz idea had found its feet and put on a pair of ruby slippers.
Two years later, and BEFORE DOROTHY is in the final stage of edits ahead of publication next summer. What I didn’t know when the idea struck me that day of my Sad Walk, was that the Wicked movie was already in production. Nor did I know that it would be released in two parts and that my publication date would fall perfectly between the two releases, or that the cover would be ready to reveal just as Part One was released. Meant-to-be, or manifestation? A little of both, perhaps.
We take such a huge leap of faith with our ideas and our words, and time is so often not our friend, which is why chasing a trend is rarely a good idea. I’ve never followed a trend, nor a trendsetter have I been, but, dammit, having just published my twelfth book, I wouldn’t mind a seat on the trend express. I mean, someone has to be the first, the OG, the Alpha-Case (Elphab-alpha-Case?). Could the Oz bubble generated by Wicked’s publicity machine be the start of something wonderful? I certainly hope so.
For now, I’m enjoying the outpouring of affection for these characters that I have loved since I was a little girl, when Christmas Day meant The Wizard of Oz was on TV. That little girl on the sofa with her selection box, mesmerized as the opening credits rolled, would never have believed that one (short) day, from her home in the Emerald Isle, she would write her way into Dorothy’s world. Trends come and go with alarming pace and on unpredictable whims, but ideas are our faithful friends. If a good idea takes fifteen years to become the right idea at the right time, then I, for one, am very happy to wait.
(c) Hazel Gaynor
About Before Dorothy:
The greatest journey is the one you least expect…
Kansas 1932
When news reaches Kansas that her beloved sister has tragically died, Emily Gale must become a mother overnight. Her sister’s orphaned child, Dorothy, desperately needs a home.
But Emily doubts her ability to fill her sister’s shoes; her life on the barren Kansas prairies is no place for a child.
On the unforgiving plains, Emily’s courage is endlessly tested. The prolonged drought and relentless dust storms threaten to destroy everything – including her home and her marriage.
Can Emily overcome her grief and let Dorothy heal her heart?
From the promise of Chicago in the 1920s to the harsh beauty of the Kansas prairie during the dust bowl of the 1930s, this is a story of family, duty and one woman’s journey of self-discovery.
Before Dorothy will be published by HarperCollins in trade paperback and hardback in June 2025, and is available to pre-order now via Eason, Dubray, O’Mahony’s, Waterstones and other retailers.
