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Tarl Telford

@tarlcreates

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Husband of @jackieinspires
Author extraordinaire. Epic fantasy.
Art and more. Creator of The Hidden History of Oz saga.
(www.tarlcreates.com)

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My Hidden History of Oz series of books I've written. Link in bio or below . Grab your copies and enjoy the journey.
amazon.com/author/tarltelford
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#hiddenhistoryofoz #oz #bookseries #fantasy #fairytale #WritingCommunity #authors #epicfantasy #yafantasy by @tarlcreates

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3 years ago

"In a world full of crumbs, be a Buttercream Crusader!"
Buttercreaminator is the first in a one-of-a-kind (for now) series of whimsical creations as part of the Agents of WHIMSY line.

I've been inspired by #bootlegfigures created by @distraction_figures, @ocularrhombustoys, @fortheloveofoldtoys, @wokkolandia_vintagetoys_craft, and so many more. If whimsy is a superpower, all of you are superheroes.

This figure was scratchbuilt from thrift store finds and cobbled together with the eclectic vision of an artist who believes in equal parts whimsy and shadow, Buttercreaminator points all of the Agents of Whimsy to a sweet future of creativity.

About the lineup:
Agents of WHIMSY (Wacky Heroes, Impossible Missions, Spies, and You). WHIMSY: A covert alliance of extraordinary individuals, each a master of the unusual
and the impossible. United under the banner of wonder and secrecy, committed to
discovering, safeguarding, and harnessing the world's most enigmatic powers and
phenomena. In a world where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, In the face of
adversity, particularly against the underhanded tactics of SLEAZE (Syndicate for
Larceny, Exploitation, Avarice, Zealotry, and Excess), WHIMSY stands as the unwavering
shield of wonder, safe- guarding the world from their grasp of greed and deceit.

Be sure to check out the custom card made just for this figure. Inspired by #gijoe cards from years past.
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#customtoys #customfigure #customfigures #bootlegfigure #bootlegfigures #bootlegtoy #bootlegtoys #toyhoarders #toys4life #toyhunter #toyhaul #toycommunity #toycollector #toycollecting #toystagram #agentsofwhimsy #tarlcreates by @tarlcreates

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3 years ago

How can you tell someone that you love them without saying it? (That's kind of a funny question - everyone needs to hear that they are loved.) I'm just thinking as a writer - show, don't tell. How is the best way for me to show my love for my beloved wife, Jackie Telford? In my eyes, she is everything that is good and noble about womanhood. She is tender and kind, and she can also be bold and courageous. Her dreams are powerful, yet they are always centered on other people. Her superpower is to lift other people up to accomplish their dreams. I would be terribly ungrateful if I didn't acknowledge publicly that I would not be the man that I am today if I did not have her by my side. I am who I am because she loves me.
There are so many gifts that I want to give to Jackie this Christmas season, but the one I will give today is to sound a trumpet to all that Jackie is amazing. Her dreams are precious and pure. Her hopes for this coming year are incredible. Her story is one that has great value to every person, but more especially to anyone that has been hurt or has suffered in life.
Jackie is a shining example of perseverance and hope in the darkness of tribulation. My heart loves her more every day. I just want you all to know that.
Here's one of her stories in her latest blog post. As a bonus, you'll get to read the song that she wrote for me. How could a man want anything more? She's amazing. Go and see.

https://www.jackieinspires.com/post/new-year-new-harmony-unveiling-my-dream-to-create-inspired-by-music-family-and-passion

Or go to www.jackieinspires.com- Click our blog journey tab

Thanks for your support. Let your passions come alive and share your stories in a way you want and desire.

Tarl

#blogger #authors #music #eternalcouples #love #talents #hope #faith #strength #wisdom #courageous #dreams #couples #supporteachother #blessings #art #singer #songwriter #writerscommunity #jackieinspires by @tarlcreates

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3 years ago

Candor Bandersnatch and the Secret Gate of Oogaboo. Middle-grade fantasy portal adventure set in the Hidden History of Oz universe.
Candor Bandersnatch faces bullies every day. Sometimes he escapes without bruises. Today he escaped through a magic gate to the land of Oogaboo. His new friends teach him courage, loyalty, and trust. After facing a dragon, what more can the bullies threaten him with? Find out in this exciting fantasy novel, available now on Amazon.
He's not brave enough to be a hero... yet. by @tarlcreates

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22 days ago

The Hidden History of Oz holds many stories and many heroes. Some of the heroes change the world through their actions. Others find cookies. Tabby Abacus is a precocious seven-year-old girl in the northern village of Corticum who wants more than anything to be part of Tattypoo's Tattlers.
For those of you familiar with Baum's setting, the Good Witch of the North was sometimes called Tattypoo. Other times she was called Locasta. In the Hidden History of Oz, we use both names - for different reasons.
Tattypoo's Tattlers are a group of trusted children that keep an eye out for strange goings-on around the village. Even though Tabby is not yet an official member, she knows very well how to stick her nose where it doesn't belong.
In her exploration of the meadow just across the river, she finds cookies growing out of the ground where there certainly should not be any cookies. One thing leads to another, and then those bullies, Meanie Joanie Pillory and Roncil the Tonsil find the magic cookies and disappear into the woods...
And what happens next? You'll have to unlock your inner child to find out just how Tabby deals with the magically sweet dangers lurking in the shadows of Sparkwood Forest.
Tabby Abacus and the Dangerbread House is an illustrated story written for kids just getting into chapter books. Available on Amazon in digital and paperback versions.
https://www.amazon.com/Tabby-Abacus.../dp/B00XZHDCIC...
(Here are some of the illustrations I drew back in 2015. I had a lot of fun writing and illustrating this book. This is intended to be the first book of many in this particular series of Hidden History of Oz stories.)
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#hiddenhistoryofoz #ozbeforedorothy #ozsketches #tarlcreates #Ozstories #tabbyabacus by @tarlcreates

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2 months ago

What a glorious day. Six years ago, on August 15th, 2020, I married my sweetheart, Jackie Telford. It was a terribly humid day in Kettering, Ohio. We wore masks, as it was smack-dab in the middle of the time of Covid lockdowns, and masks were all the rage. A tiny park, with a few of Jackie's friends, far away from family; we began our own family journey as husband and wife.
Let's back up a few weeks. I met Jackie online. We texted, and then she gave me her number so that we could talk on the phone.
I knew within 15 minutes of talking with her that I was going to marry her. Then I traveled from Texas to Ohio to court her. She was my fair princess trapped in a basement (dungeon) apartment. I was not going to leave her trapped there in a dungeon while I traveled back to Texas, so I swept her off her feet, married her, and then drove her down to the big blue Texas skies, where we began our life together.
Six years. Thousands of miles. Several homes, health challenges, job changes, educational successes, and now we are here. And here is a good place to be. Peace. Clarity. Honesty. Fulfillment. And love - so much love.
If six years can produce this much amazing experience and wonder and incredible emotion, I cannot even imagine what the next six, the next twenty, or the next eternity are going to bring.
My dearest Jackie, I love you today, always, and forever. Happy anniversary to us. by @tarlcreates

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2 months ago

This week marks the wide release of The Orphan Sorceress of Oz, now available wherever you buy your eBooks (paperback version is also available with an exciting new cover).
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She wore the green dress.
It was a small defiance — the kind only a daughter can make against her mother. Glinda didn't know it would cost her everything. She didn't know that one stubborn moment would shatter her family, hand Oz to the wicked witches, and leave her alone in a world suddenly coming apart at the seams.
She wasn't trying to start a war. She was just refusing to be told what to wear.
Now her mother is gone. Her father has sent her away for her own safety. A king she appealed to for help laughed her out of his court. Magical armies are carving the land apart, and somewhere in the back of Glinda's mind is the knowledge she can't quite outrun — that all of it, every bit of it, began with her.
She has three spells. A few clever allies. And a young dreamer who fell out of the sky with stories of freedom and dreams powerful enough to reshape the world around him.
It isn't much. But Glinda has never needed permission to act — and she isn't about to start asking for it now.
The world will know her name, no matter what the cost.
The Orphan Sorceress of Oz is the first book in the Hidden History of Oz — an epic fantasy series set decades before Dorothy, for readers of all ages who have ever wondered how Oz became the world Baum described.
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I wanted to give paperback readers something special to put on their shelves. Hence, this amazing cover design by Emerald Engine Studios. Both eBook and paperback (print-on-demand) are available now in wide release for your reading pleasure. Experience the excitement and adventure of Oz for the first time, or all over again. The magic is waiting for you.
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#hiddenhistoryofoz #newreleasebook #ozbeforedorothy #bookcoverreveal #bookslikewicked #wizardofozprequel #newbook #coverdesign #epicfantasy #glinda #wickedwitch by @tarlcreates

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5 months ago

How Much is Too Much? Some thoughts on externally-imposed creative collaboration.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tarlcreates/p/ai-as-a-creative-collaborator?r=40cxc3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
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#creativity #imagination #creativeprocess #aicollaboration by @tarlcreates

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6 months ago

Climate Maps for the Land of Oz (More Exploration into Worldbuilding from the Ground Up).
In the last post, I shared the creation of the tectonic plates in the World of Nontariis, upon which the Land of Oz is a subcontinent nestled in the center of the massive Nonestic Continent. (The Hidden History of Oz stories take place in the Land of Oz, that rectangular land near the middle of the map. We’ll be talking about how everything affects that spot in particular.)
A big advantage of knowing how the tectonic plates function is in building mountain ranges and climates. Even with this information, I needed to understand better how all of this affected climate. I needed to research (this is one of my favorite parts of worldbuilding - learning from others who have trod the path before and shared their knowledge to give me a leg up in my own efforts).
Credit to Artifexian on YouTube (particularly this video: Atmospheric Circulation: Wind, Weather, and Mordor) for the invaluable information on climate. My understanding of trade winds, circulation cells, and the climate requirements for tornadoes to exist. The images in this article were created by me (the author) in Photoshop, based on the information in the video linked above, and overlaid on my world map.
For the rest of this article, see my substack: https://tarlcreates.substack.com/.../climate-maps-for-the...
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#hiddenhistoryofoz #fictionalmaps #tarlcreates #wizardofoz #ozbeforedorothy #worldbuilding by @tarlcreates

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6 months ago

When I wrote the Hidden History of Oz series, I knew that I needed a good map to guide my worldbuilding. I had Baum's map from Tik-Tok of Oz ("Oz and Surrounding Countries") that I could take as my initial reference. Note that this map still has Munchkins on the Left (East) and Winkies on the Right (West). I took this as part of my guiding star in my stories, and I made my maps likewise honor that initial published vision. In "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", as Dorothy and her friends are heading toward the land of the Wicked Witch of the West, the land becomes rocky and mountainous, with not many trees. Those mountains were not on Baum's map. So I had to figure out a good reason why they were there. I researched tectonic plate activity. In order to have this activity, you need tectonic plates, which means that you need a whole world full of continents. One evening, I just pulled out a fat pen and some paper and I started with the Land of Oz as roughly rectangular, and then I drew a big supercontinent around it (the Nonestic Continent) and then I drew the other continents in this world of Nontariis. Once I had the continents, then I could draw the tectonic plates and use arrows to denote movement. You can see that in one of the images. I will tell you that it is quite a satisfying feeling to know how the fictional world works from its very basic "ground-level" functionality (pun very much intended).
#fantasymaps #maps #hiddenhistoryofoz by @tarlcreates

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7 months ago

L. Frank Baum didn't explore much history about the witches in Oz. That is where the Hidden History of Oz steps in. The Wicked Witch of the East, Kalinya Thistleswitch; sometime Keeper of Knowledge among the Munchkins who rose to power to become their Witch Queen to defend them against adversaries from across Oz. The Munchkins exchanged the promise of safety for their endless servitude. Explore Kalinya's story in the Hidden History of Oz series beginning with The Orphan Sorceress of Oz (QR Code in the image below takes you to the Amazon page). Once you uncover the history that Oz has hidden, you will see everything differently.
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#hiddenhistoryofoz #wickedwitchoftheeast #ozbeforedorothy #wonderfulwizardofoz by @tarlcreates

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8 months ago

Oz stories have been written more or less for over 115 years. Yet most of these stories attempt to continue the original stories that L. Frank Baum started. They build the whimsy and avoid preachiness or criticism. Their world is love, luck, and lollipops, because the shadows don't exist.
There are a few Oz stories that explore the shadows. These are the stories that I term Oz-punk. When visitors from a modern society visit Oz, what happens...? That is up to the writer. What you, as a reader, interpret it to mean, is up to you.
So Oz-punk is criticism of society, based in the world of Oz. What do you think?
A picture speaks a thousand words. Magazine covers invite further exploration. Here we have Ondri-baba, who will become The Wicked Witch of the West, inviting you to explore Oz through the first book, "The Orphan Sorceress of Oz." The QR Code on the picture takes you directly to the book page on Amazon.
Like and share. There's nothing else like this on earth. Welcome to The Hidden History of Oz.
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#oz-punk #ozpunk #hiddenhistoryofoz #wickedwitch #wickedwitchofthewest #tarlcreates by @tarlcreates

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9 months ago