Frank Beddor's Blog, page 2
October 11, 2024
Hope Renewed: Princess Alyss Embraces Her Destiny - Part 4
Back in 2007, we collaborated with noted Alyssian historian Agnes MacKenzie to publish Princess Alyss of Wonderland, a stunning collection of letters, journal writings, and art from Her Royal Imaginer, Princess Alyss Heart. These breathtaking documents chronicled the incredible childhood of Wonderland’s exiled heir apparent and future hero of The Looking Glass Wars.
Part One spanned Alyss’ flight from Wonderland and how she survived her first days on the rough streets of London. In Part Two, Alys...
October 10, 2024
All Things Alice: Interview with Dr. April James, Creator of The ALICE Way
As an amateur scholar and die-hard enthusiast of everything to do with Alice in Wonderland, I have launched a podcast that takes on Alice’s everlasting influence on pop culture. As an author who draws on Lewis Carroll’s iconic masterpiece for my Looking Glass Wars universe, I’m well acquainted with the process of dipping into Wonderland for inspiration.
The journey has brought me into contact with a fantastic community of artists and creators from all walks of life—and this podcast will be the pl...
October 6, 2024
Five Maddest Mad Hatter Moments
Of all the articles I have written for Frank, I have always had the most fun writing about the Mad Hatter and his many different versions. From the original Hatter to the Disney cartoon to Frank’s badass Hatter Madigan, the adaptations of Hatter always seem to be a crowd favorite. So much in fact that October 6 is actually National Mad Hatter Day. Mad Hatter Day is a bit of a free-for-all for those who like to be silly. It’s quite easy to celebrate, you can wear a silly hat, watch a silly movie,...
September 27, 2024
The Cast of "Wicked" the Movie Talks Inspiration and Approach - Part 2
Wicked debuted at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, with John Cooper calling it an “exhilarating hybrid that continuously surprises and amuses” in the festival’s program. The thriller is a twisted tale of murder and incest with noir sensibilities and biting dark wit. The driving force behind the film is its stellar cast, who deliver complex, compelling, and sometimes shocking performances.
Directed by Michael Steinberg and produced by Frank Beddor, Wicked served as the breakthroug...
September 18, 2024
All Things Alice: Interview with Joanna Groarke of The New York Botanical Garden
As an amateur scholar and die-hard enthusiast of everything to do with Alice in Wonderland, I have launched a podcast that takes on Alice’s everlasting influence on pop culture. As an author who draws on Lewis Carroll’s iconic masterpiece for my Looking Glass Wars universe, I’m well acquainted with the process of dipping into Wonderland for inspiration.
The journey has brought me into contact with a fantastic community of artists and creators from all walks of life—and this podcast will be the pl...
September 13, 2024
Battle of the IPs: Alice in Wonderland vs. The Chronicles of Narnia
It’s been a while since I’ve written this style of blog. Only so many IPs can even get close to the weight class of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This time, I think I’ve found a good contender to face off against the rabid Jabberwock that is Lewis Carroll’s creation. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce our contender. In the red corner, with a combined total of seven books, we have, The Chronicles of Narnia.
Oh, wait a second, what’s this? It turns out that The Chronicles of Narnia...
September 6, 2024
How "Wicked" the Movie Went From Script to Screen with Writer Eric Weiss
What was going through Stephen King’s head when he came up with It? What was Lars von Trier thinking on the set of…any of his movies? The minds that create bold, polarizing, potentially disturbing stories are just as fascinating to audiences as the tales themselves. The way a storyteller takes inspiration from their life and spins it in a new way, sometimes taking the kernel of a story to an extreme end, is a mysterious, beautiful process.
Wicked screenwriter delved deep into the idea...
December 18, 2023
Imagination, Caterpillars, and Light: How the Magic of the Wonderverse Works
How does magic work? That might seem like a silly question. Magic is defined by its ability to bypass the laws of our terrestrial world. It transcends rules. That’s the point, right? Well, not quite. Storytellers fixate on the rules and forms of magic in their worlds, consistently aware that one misstep might cause them to lose their audience.
What if Harry Potter suddenly just started Force Choking Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows? Okay, that might be kind of cool. But it’d be weird (and a massive copyright infringement). The act of making a clenching motion to invisibly choke someone is not part of the Wizarding World, where magic is channeled through wands, incantations, and concoctions derived from plant and animal matter. It would damage the story, by breaking the rules of the magic system.
Frank Beddor’s Wonderverse has an interconnected web of elements and rules which fuels Queen Alyss and Hatter Madigan’s exciting adventures in Wonderland and beyond. It’s the reason Alyss was able to escape to London when Queen Redd took her crown and why Hatter was able to finally bring her back to Wonderland to reclaim her birthright.
Wonderland’s magic powers everything in the realm and beyond, including Hatter’s ever-reliable top hat. So, how does it work? Let’s explore what makes The Looking Glass Wars’ intricate and exciting magic system rank among the A-listers of our favorite fiction works.
First, the primal source of all magic in Wonderland is Light. From the Everlasting Forest to the Chessboard Desert, Light makes Wonderland wonderful and fuels the two chief pillars of its magic: Imagination and Caterpillar Thread.
IMAGINATION:
Imagination, as it exists in the Wonderverse, is an immensely powerful form of magic, created by the Great Light of the First Wonder and the White Butterfly. In many ways, it is similar to the Force in Star Wars. Imagination is an energy current within every being that those who are trained in its use can manipulate to create almost anything. The key is not to use it selfishly. This is where we get to Light Imagination and Dark Imagination.
Light Imagination is reflective and generous, sharing and spreading the energy it uses. Dark Imagination, however, does not give, it takes. It hoards and absorbs Light, utilizing it for selfish purposes and never sharing the energy with the rest of Wonderland.
Light Imagination the basis of almost every magical item in Wonderland: looking glasses, pools, shards, and crystals. The latter two are the main receptacles for Light Imagination and their uses and creation are heavily studied and monitored by the Millinery. The most important source of Light Imagination is the Heart Crystal, which radiates the energy across the Queendom and into different realms of existence (like Earth).
A consideration to always make when crafting a system of magic, is to bake in dichotomy. This interplay between oppositional magic is the everlasting source of conflict and tension in good fiction. For instance, Imagination is not inherently good or bad, its morality is determined by the user. This allows for not only Light Imagination to play against Dark Imagination, but also the mixed shades of grey that will complicate matters at every opportunity.
Be it two school magic systems like those of The Looking Glass Wars, Harry Potter, and even Warhammer 40,000, or multi-faction systems such as the elemental powers of Avatar The Last Airbender—the strength of the conflict generated by magic is contingent on the interplay between oppositional powers. Remember, these points of fiction can even exist within a single group, spurred by differing philosophy on the usage of their magic.
CATERPILLAR THREAD:
Much like the tension and conflict created by the diametrically opposed Light and Dark Imagination—Caterpillar Thread introduces a more tangible mode for magic to be utilized in Wonderland. Similar to the potions of Harry Potter or the Alchemy of The Elder Scrolls, Caterpillar Thread is an expression of magic that can be manipulated physically—and in almost infinite combination.
Simple systems with well thought out interconnected relationships of strengths and weaknesses create a web of possibilities. Not only can users specialize based on their personality and style—but this world building can be the foundation of endless dramatic tension. Leave no element of your magic system without an opponent that can genuinely threaten it.
Legend states that Wonderland was woven using Caterpillar Thread from the First Caterpillars. Now spun by the caterpillar-oracles deep in the Valley of Mushrooms, Caterpillar Thread is the tangible, tactile counterpart to Imagination. A condensed, physical form of Light, Caterpillar Thread has a plethora of uses ranging from the construction of magical gadgets to even imbuing life into an inanimate object. But first, to understand how Caterpillar Thread is used, we need to understand the different types and their unique properties.
BLUE - CONNECTION
The Wonderverse’s answer to cell phones and glasses, Blue Thread is used to communicate across long distances and enhance one’s senses through goggles or earphones, for example. It is highly useful for the spies and bodyguards trained by the Millinery while the Blue Caterpillar is so attuned to the Thread’s abilities that he can even see into the future and make prophecies.
YELLOW - ENERGY
Yellow Thread is an essential item in any Milliner’s wardrobe, yet it can be very dangerous if not used correctly. When used with good intentions, Yellow Thread can power objects and be used as an electrical self-defense device (like a taser). Yet, in less scrupulous hands, the Thread can be used to drain energy from other lifeforms.
GREEN - GROWTH
The favorite salve of the Milliner Medics (the Green Berets), Green Thread closes wounds, heals burns, and can also be used to mend a Milliner’s gear. A multi-faceted fabric that can heal the living and inanimate alike.
ORANGE - STRENGTH
Orange Thread is the perfect item for a Milliner who wants to upgrade and reinforce their equipment. For example, if a Milliner weaves Orange Thread into their hat, they can turn it into a buzzsaw through their mastery of Imagination. Pretty handy if a ball turns into a brawl.
RED - IMAGINATION
Red Thread enhances the Light Imagination of which a Milliner is already a master. It takes our earthly concept of visualization and turns it into reality. If a Milliner wants to jump over a broken bridge or outrun a herd of stampeding horses, they only have to imagine it using Red Thread.
INDIGO - CONSCIOUSNESS
The most advanced and mysterious Thread that only the most learned Milliners can use, Indigo Thread is the spark of identity. It’s essential to the construction of a Milliner’s hat, imbuing the headwear with “life” so it can help and advise its wearer. Indigo Thread can be dangerous, however, as it can be used to manipulate the consciousness of living beings.
USING CATERPILLAR THREAD:
Using Caterpillar Thread:
How a Milliner can incorporate Caterpillar Thread into the execution of their daily duties is just as varied as the types of Threads themselves. There is a wide range of Thread Spells such as knots, hems, lacing, darts, and buttons, all tapping into the power of the Thread (or a combination of Thread Types) according to the Milliner’s needs.
The most iconic example of the use of Caterpillar Thread in the Wonderverse is certainly the Milliner’s hat. Just as important as a Jedi’s lightsaber or a wizard’s wand, and much more versatile, the Milliner’s hat is woven from a combination of different Caterpillar Threads and features a vast array of capabilities.
As mentioned above, the use of Red Thread gives the hat sentience, with its red eye that can survey the surrounding area, alert a Milliner to danger, and execute the transformations ordered by the Milliner. Such transformations include acting as a shield, smothering assailants, projecting illusions to confuse the enemy, and protecting their Owner from heat or cold. Above all, the hats know to whom they belong, and, no matter how far-flung, they will always return to their Milliner.
Caterpillar Thread and Imagination combine to form the twin pillars upon which the magic of Wonderland is built. Light, channeled through either the ethereal or the tangible, can be harnessed by the attuned and used to defend and enhance the Queendom. Yet, when used for selfish purposes, Light becomes Dark and saps Wonderland of its energy.
It is this eternal conflict between Light Imagination and Dark Imagination that caused the civil war that ravaged Wonderland before the events of The Looking Glass Wars and it was Queen Redd’s obsession with Dark Imagination that drove her bid to steal Alyss’ crown.
This final point illustrates the golden tenant of Magic System Creation: always think of narrative integration first! Cool magic will win big style points, but if the small details and the sturdy rules of the system don’t serve the emotional journey of your characters—you may need to rethink how you are building your story.
Enjoy the ride of creating your own universe, and never fear sharing your work with the world. Sometimes the boldest ideas are the most terrifying and uncertain… and ultimately the best. Your imagination is the finest tool you will ever wield, and it is worth the work to manifest your own magic system.
What if Harry Potter suddenly just started Force Choking Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows? Okay, that might be kind of cool. But it’d be weird (and a massive copyright infringement). The act of making a clenching motion to invisibly choke someone is not part of the Wizarding World, where magic is channeled through wands, incantations, and concoctions derived from plant and animal matter. It would damage the story, by breaking the rules of the magic system.
Frank Beddor’s Wonderverse has an interconnected web of elements and rules which fuels Queen Alyss and Hatter Madigan’s exciting adventures in Wonderland and beyond. It’s the reason Alyss was able to escape to London when Queen Redd took her crown and why Hatter was able to finally bring her back to Wonderland to reclaim her birthright.
Wonderland’s magic powers everything in the realm and beyond, including Hatter’s ever-reliable top hat. So, how does it work? Let’s explore what makes The Looking Glass Wars’ intricate and exciting magic system rank among the A-listers of our favorite fiction works.
First, the primal source of all magic in Wonderland is Light. From the Everlasting Forest to the Chessboard Desert, Light makes Wonderland wonderful and fuels the two chief pillars of its magic: Imagination and Caterpillar Thread.
IMAGINATION:
Imagination, as it exists in the Wonderverse, is an immensely powerful form of magic, created by the Great Light of the First Wonder and the White Butterfly. In many ways, it is similar to the Force in Star Wars. Imagination is an energy current within every being that those who are trained in its use can manipulate to create almost anything. The key is not to use it selfishly. This is where we get to Light Imagination and Dark Imagination.
Light Imagination is reflective and generous, sharing and spreading the energy it uses. Dark Imagination, however, does not give, it takes. It hoards and absorbs Light, utilizing it for selfish purposes and never sharing the energy with the rest of Wonderland.
Light Imagination the basis of almost every magical item in Wonderland: looking glasses, pools, shards, and crystals. The latter two are the main receptacles for Light Imagination and their uses and creation are heavily studied and monitored by the Millinery. The most important source of Light Imagination is the Heart Crystal, which radiates the energy across the Queendom and into different realms of existence (like Earth).
A consideration to always make when crafting a system of magic, is to bake in dichotomy. This interplay between oppositional magic is the everlasting source of conflict and tension in good fiction. For instance, Imagination is not inherently good or bad, its morality is determined by the user. This allows for not only Light Imagination to play against Dark Imagination, but also the mixed shades of grey that will complicate matters at every opportunity.
Be it two school magic systems like those of The Looking Glass Wars, Harry Potter, and even Warhammer 40,000, or multi-faction systems such as the elemental powers of Avatar The Last Airbender—the strength of the conflict generated by magic is contingent on the interplay between oppositional powers. Remember, these points of fiction can even exist within a single group, spurred by differing philosophy on the usage of their magic.
CATERPILLAR THREAD:
Much like the tension and conflict created by the diametrically opposed Light and Dark Imagination—Caterpillar Thread introduces a more tangible mode for magic to be utilized in Wonderland. Similar to the potions of Harry Potter or the Alchemy of The Elder Scrolls, Caterpillar Thread is an expression of magic that can be manipulated physically—and in almost infinite combination.
Simple systems with well thought out interconnected relationships of strengths and weaknesses create a web of possibilities. Not only can users specialize based on their personality and style—but this world building can be the foundation of endless dramatic tension. Leave no element of your magic system without an opponent that can genuinely threaten it.
Legend states that Wonderland was woven using Caterpillar Thread from the First Caterpillars. Now spun by the caterpillar-oracles deep in the Valley of Mushrooms, Caterpillar Thread is the tangible, tactile counterpart to Imagination. A condensed, physical form of Light, Caterpillar Thread has a plethora of uses ranging from the construction of magical gadgets to even imbuing life into an inanimate object. But first, to understand how Caterpillar Thread is used, we need to understand the different types and their unique properties.
BLUE - CONNECTION
The Wonderverse’s answer to cell phones and glasses, Blue Thread is used to communicate across long distances and enhance one’s senses through goggles or earphones, for example. It is highly useful for the spies and bodyguards trained by the Millinery while the Blue Caterpillar is so attuned to the Thread’s abilities that he can even see into the future and make prophecies.
YELLOW - ENERGY
Yellow Thread is an essential item in any Milliner’s wardrobe, yet it can be very dangerous if not used correctly. When used with good intentions, Yellow Thread can power objects and be used as an electrical self-defense device (like a taser). Yet, in less scrupulous hands, the Thread can be used to drain energy from other lifeforms.
GREEN - GROWTH
The favorite salve of the Milliner Medics (the Green Berets), Green Thread closes wounds, heals burns, and can also be used to mend a Milliner’s gear. A multi-faceted fabric that can heal the living and inanimate alike.
ORANGE - STRENGTH
Orange Thread is the perfect item for a Milliner who wants to upgrade and reinforce their equipment. For example, if a Milliner weaves Orange Thread into their hat, they can turn it into a buzzsaw through their mastery of Imagination. Pretty handy if a ball turns into a brawl.
RED - IMAGINATION
Red Thread enhances the Light Imagination of which a Milliner is already a master. It takes our earthly concept of visualization and turns it into reality. If a Milliner wants to jump over a broken bridge or outrun a herd of stampeding horses, they only have to imagine it using Red Thread.
INDIGO - CONSCIOUSNESS
The most advanced and mysterious Thread that only the most learned Milliners can use, Indigo Thread is the spark of identity. It’s essential to the construction of a Milliner’s hat, imbuing the headwear with “life” so it can help and advise its wearer. Indigo Thread can be dangerous, however, as it can be used to manipulate the consciousness of living beings.
USING CATERPILLAR THREAD:
Using Caterpillar Thread:
How a Milliner can incorporate Caterpillar Thread into the execution of their daily duties is just as varied as the types of Threads themselves. There is a wide range of Thread Spells such as knots, hems, lacing, darts, and buttons, all tapping into the power of the Thread (or a combination of Thread Types) according to the Milliner’s needs.
The most iconic example of the use of Caterpillar Thread in the Wonderverse is certainly the Milliner’s hat. Just as important as a Jedi’s lightsaber or a wizard’s wand, and much more versatile, the Milliner’s hat is woven from a combination of different Caterpillar Threads and features a vast array of capabilities.
As mentioned above, the use of Red Thread gives the hat sentience, with its red eye that can survey the surrounding area, alert a Milliner to danger, and execute the transformations ordered by the Milliner. Such transformations include acting as a shield, smothering assailants, projecting illusions to confuse the enemy, and protecting their Owner from heat or cold. Above all, the hats know to whom they belong, and, no matter how far-flung, they will always return to their Milliner.
Caterpillar Thread and Imagination combine to form the twin pillars upon which the magic of Wonderland is built. Light, channeled through either the ethereal or the tangible, can be harnessed by the attuned and used to defend and enhance the Queendom. Yet, when used for selfish purposes, Light becomes Dark and saps Wonderland of its energy.
It is this eternal conflict between Light Imagination and Dark Imagination that caused the civil war that ravaged Wonderland before the events of The Looking Glass Wars and it was Queen Redd’s obsession with Dark Imagination that drove her bid to steal Alyss’ crown.
This final point illustrates the golden tenant of Magic System Creation: always think of narrative integration first! Cool magic will win big style points, but if the small details and the sturdy rules of the system don’t serve the emotional journey of your characters—you may need to rethink how you are building your story.
Enjoy the ride of creating your own universe, and never fear sharing your work with the world. Sometimes the boldest ideas are the most terrifying and uncertain… and ultimately the best. Your imagination is the finest tool you will ever wield, and it is worth the work to manifest your own magic system.
December 1, 2023
Secrets of Wonderland Revealed: The Epic Battle that Made Queen Redd a Monster!
Before the revelations of The Looking Glass Wars, there was a much more personal war fought in Wonderland between two sisters. The elder, Rose Heart was born to be the next Queen of Wonderland, endowed with brilliance, confidence and power, she was a natural for the throne. But Rose was the wild one, the rebellious sister, whispered to be the Heart Dynasty’s ‘Dark Seed’.
By age 19 her wanton youthful exploits had alarmed and outraged a good deal of the population and made her vulnerable to the plottings of those who wished to wrest the throne away from the Hearts. A plot was put into motion to remove the mercurial Rose from succession and instead, make her younger sister, 17-year-old Genevieve, Wonderland’s next Queen.
Did those involved with the plot realize the far-reaching effects that their Machiavellian maneuvers would create for future worlds? Doubtful. They were concerned only with their immediate interests for they were the Lady of Clubs, Lady of Spades, and the Lady of Diamonds, each born to be a Queen, but subservient to the rule of the Hearts.
Their hope was to divide the sisters, create chaos, remove the Hearts from power, and crown Lady Diamond – Wonderland’s next Queen. Ultimately their plan would fail, for both Rose and Genevieve would prove to be far stronger than they had anticipated, but what they did accomplish was to create a royal blood feud that would tear Wonderland apart for generations to come.
Princesses Rose and Genevieve were the William and Harry of Wonderland as they grew up the heir and second to the throne. With Rose leading the way, she and Genevieve lived the posh, aristocratic lives of royal youth. Endowed with queen-sized imaginations, startling beauty, and unbridled vivacity, they were the darlings of Wonderland’s powerbrokers as well as big hits with the adoring masses. Known for practical jokes and adorable rebellions the two were an unstoppable team until Rose began to show her darker side.
As the princesses matured the subject of their eventual marriages was never far from anyone’s thoughts. Prospective matches would be made from the eligible young royals known collectively as The Jacks. Strutting and buff, this pool of peacock males constantly competed for the attention of both Rose and Genevieve, though the more ambitious quite obviously aimed to wed the future Queen. But since childhood, both Rose and Genevieve favored one Jack above the rest, preferring his company to all the others.
The handsome, laughing, athletic Jack Nolan was widely envied for his intimate friendship with the princesses. A tight threesome, the young royals shared adventures, loyalty, and a delicately balanced romantic longing. Even though Genevieve, like everyone else, assumed that Nolan and Rose would marry, she could not help nor hide her own feelings for Nolan. Rose would often tease her about the obvious crush, but it never hurt the relationship among the ‘Royal Triangle,’ for each knew that Rose was secure. Nolan was hers if and when she wanted to marry him, for Queens choose first.
While Genevieve’s natural exuberance was as clear as a crystal bell, Rose exhibits a disturbing selfishness. As Rose’s dark streak widened, her popularity with both the royal court and the citizens began to nosedive. Both Genevieve and Nolan plead with Rose to stop alienating others, to obey her parents Queen Theodora and King Tyman, to be careful. But Rose blew them off to run with a wild crowd of hedonists using artificial crystals and imagination stimulants.
Rose spent most of her time partying in the Valley of Mushrooms with her bad-boy lover, Prince Arch (the future King of Boarderland), and their tribe of anarchists.
Queen Theodora stood outside Heart Palace listening to the drums while Genevieve attempted to cover for her older sister and defuse the Queen’s growing temper. Assisting Genevieve was Royal Tutor Bibwit Harte, a 6-foot-tall albino wearing immaculate white gloves and a brilliantly patterned floor-length coat. Pale green veins pulsed beneath his alabaster skin. Both argued Rose’s case, defending her music and youthful experimentation as pure Imagination. Queen Theodora was not convinced.
Drum circles and dancing, sex, and music, it was this nonstop bacchanalia that eventually brought Queen Theodora to the valley to deliver an ultimatum. Orchestrated by the Three Ladies of Wonderland, the showdown pitted Rose’s rebellion against Queen Theodora’s authority. As emotions escalated, Queen Theodora threatened Rose with the loss of the throne if she did not immediately submit to the rules of the court. When Rose laughed at the threat, her mother was forced to follow through.
Redd Was Unfit To Rule
In a flash of queenly power, Theodora removed her eldest daughter from succession and placed the younger sister, Genevieve, as next in line. It was a shocking, brutal act, but entirely legal according to Wonderland bylaws. Rose was out and Genevieve was in. The Three Ladies of Wonderland smiled smugly. Their plan was going well.
Rose’s reaction to her banishment was to dye her hair blood red and drop the name ‘Rose,’ from that moment on she was to be addressed only as Redd—a symbol of all the blood she would spill. She was enraged, alienated, and deeply, everlastingly wounded.
Redd revealed the depth of her pain at being rejected by her mother when she shouted/sang “Where Do Monsters Come From”? In the song, Redd asked, “You made me, so why can’t you love me?” It would be the last time that Redd revealed her pain and vulnerability. If they called her a monster then she would be a monster.
It seemed everything had been taken from Redd and given to Genevieve. But not yet. The worst was still to come. Unknown to Queen Theodora, Redd was pregnant by one of her lovers at the time she was removed from the line of succession. She was growing dramatically weaker with each day of the pregnancy. Pale, alone, and frightened, Redd visited the Caterpillars, Wonderland’s high holy seers, to ask for help.
The Caterpillars inhabited the Valley of Mushrooms. Redd found the giant creatures seated beneath a rusted statue of an Iron Butterfly. Each Caterpillar was a different color. Orange, Yellow, Purple, Red, Green, and Blue sitting in a semi-circle smoking from an ancient hookah. Multicolored smoke rings drifted into the air.
The Caterpillars told Redd that with the loss of the right of succession to the throne, she had lost the power to reproduce the next Queen. The energy and imagination necessary to create a future Queen is monumental and demanded a direct link with the Heart Crystal. In a sense, she would be giving birth to a new Star, not a mortal infant.
The Blue Caterpillar urged Redd to return to the palace and beg her mother to take her back or her baby would die. Redd’s last remnant of humanity, the last bit of light within her, was called upon to go to Queen Theodora and ask forgiveness in order to save her baby. But Redd, stubbornly, chose not to divulge her pregnancy.
She wanted Queen Theodora to forgive her and love her on her terms, not just because she was pregnant with Queen Theodora’s grandchild. Redd’s fatal flaw was selfishness, it had always been all about Redd. When Queen Theodora refused her daughter’s plea for forgiveness, Redd gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. At this point the darkness filled Redd, forever extinguishing the light. With the death of Redd’s baby, a true monster was born.
Only the baby was not dead. Theodora had told Redd that her baby was stillborn and instead took her baby to a trusted family friend to raise Redd’s daughter in secrecy. Rumors swirled for years that Prince Arch or Redd’s dashing bodyguard Dalton Madigan, (Hatter’s older brother) had fathered the lost child.
Redd’s imagination would no longer inspire music, it was now to be used only for revenge. She would soon become known throughout Wonderland as the Dark Muse. Genevieve and Nolan grieved for the loss of Rose/Redd, but found consolation in each other as they began to fall truly in love.
Genevieve idolized her older sister and suffered more than anyone over Redd’s banishment. She knew that Redd would make an amazing, brilliant queen, but Genevieve was caught in a horrible position, defending and loving the sister who now considered her a traitor. Genevieve, though an equal in imagination, did not possess Redd’s confidence and inner power. Genevieve begged her mother not to remove Redd from succession thereby forcing her onto the throne.
Queen Theodora Told Genevieve that She feared Redd Was a Carrier of Dark Imagination
Throughout the history of Wonderland, certain Queens were born and ruled who practiced Dark, not Light Imagination. The effects of these dark reigns were apocalyptic, both for Wonderland and the worlds that surround them. Every Queen was cautioned about the possibility of giving birth to a Dark Seed.
Theodora ignored the warnings of others for years, refusing to believe that her beautiful Rose/Redd could be one of them. But finally, she had to admit she had been wrong. Redd could never be Queen. Genevieve argued that Theodora was mistaken, that she had been influenced by the Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades, all of whom had selfish interests in seeing Redd removed from succession. Redd was not dark, she was unique and unorthodox and yes, even wild, but it was Light Imagination that she loved.
Queen Theodora told Genevieve that she was too good to see the dark in others. “Once you are Queen, you must see both in order to rule. This is the most difficult decision of my life.”
Genevieve’s support for Redd was kept hidden from her sister by the Three Ladies who wished only to fan the flames of hatred between the sisters. There could be no accord, only division, if their agenda was to be met. For once Redd had been removed, their way was clear to force Parliament into a vote of “no confidence.”
Everyone would have to agree that the House of Hearts was far from steady. Once Genevieve was officially next in line for the throne, they would throw down the ultimate Wonderland challenge to the Hearts rule, the Duel of Imagination. Genevieve would have to face Lady Diamond in what was essentially an Imagination Slam. Should she be defeated, control of the Heart Crystal and rule of Wonderland would pass to the House of Diamonds.
Throughout the history of Wonderland, the Hearts have always won these rare challenges to their rule, but the Three Ladies were betting that this time it would be different.
This Time, the Hearts Would Fall
Redd’s hatred and sense of injustice exploded when Genevieve and Jack Nolan’s wedding was announced. It seemed everything had been taken from Redd and given to Genevieve. Redd’s pain mutated into rage, the darkness grew and she vowed to seek revenge for her mother’s betrayal.
It was Genevieve’s Wedding Day and the Heart Palace was thrown open for the traditional Masquerade Wedding Ball. Invitations for the ball were sent out across Wonderland to not only the Royal Suits and other high-ranking persons, but to all manner of inventors and muses. A centuries-old tradition, the masquerade ball was a rare event celebrated only upon the wedding of a future Queen. The guests competed to have the most outrageous, imaginative costume which— this being Wonderland— was quite a competition.
During the ball, Genevieve discovered Redd in the palace. Rather than sounding an alarm, Genevieve embraced her sister, “I knew you would come for our wedding.”
Redd pushed Genevieve away. She told her she had been “in mourning for all that has been stolen from me”. Genevieve, still loving and wanting to believe in her sister, did not alert the guards that Redd was inside the palace. How do you stop loving your sister? Genevieve’s loyalty would cost the Heart’s dearly.
Later that night, to avenge her losses, Redd killed her mother. “Even you cannot take away what is mine by birthright,” Redd placed a deadly pink mushroom (street name ‘pinkiepink’) on her mother’s tongue. Fed by the Queen’s saliva, the roots of the fungus worked their way down the sleeping sovereign’s throat and strangled her heart until the pink mushroom cap poked out of her mouth to signify that the heart had stopped beating.
Shocked by his daughter’s violent act and the gruesome death of his wife, King Tyman went mad and died not long after. Without a Queen, chaos threatens to engulf Wonderland. Redd had raised an army of mercenaries and was hiding out in the Crystal Caves above Wonderland imagining a future with herself as Queen. Genevieve had to be coronated immediately to avert civil war.
With Redd’s mercenaries circling Wondertropolis the Three Ladies plan had gone wildly better than they had hoped, believing it would be years before they could go to the Parliament and ask for the vote of ‘no confidence’. But with Theodora’s murder, things had moved much faster. With Parliament backing them, Genevieve was challenged to the Duel of Imagination.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Genevieve easily defeated Lady Diamond. The effect of her victory was an immediate surge of support from across Wonderland, backing the House of Hearts and their new Queen in her effort to stop a civil war. The Three Ladies had failed in their plan, but the consequences of the act were about to explode.
Genevieve, Only 17, was Now Both Wife and Queen
The world had been thrust upon her shoulders and she had no idea how to handle anything. As she wandered in the palace garden she saw a series of blue smoke rings and found the Blue Caterpillar waiting for her. It was rare indeed for any of the Caterpillars to leave the Valley of Mushrooms but Blue had traveled to give Queen Genevieve an important message, the location of her Looking Glass Maze.
Genevieve was stunned. Like most, she had thought the Queen’s Looking Glass Maze to be only an urban legend. And now she was being given the location of hers. The Blue Caterpillar told her that if she was able to successfully navigate the maze she would be empowered far beyond her sister. Redd may think of Genevieve as a weak young girl, but in truth, she would be an empowered Warrior Queen able to fight on the battlefield.
Once inside the maze, Genevieve was confronted by Hatter Madigan, top assassin and blade warrior. By accessing her imagination, Genevieve was able to mirror Hatter Madigan’s martial moves and so absorb his skills during her successful trip through the maze. When she emerged, Genevieve was no longer the girl who first entered but a seasoned warrior and wise Queen.
As a gift from Wonderland for her successful navigation of the maze, Genevieve was awarded the lifetime services of Hatter Madigan as Royal Bodyguard. Hatter Madigan’s martial skills and heroic devotion would prove instrumental in every battle waged between Redd and Genevieve.
Queen Genevieve became known as the Warrior Queen and accompanied her army across the map of Wonderland as they battled Redd and her army. Wonderland suffered through five years of bloody civil war as the sisters battled again and again until Genevieve ultimately cornered Redd and defeated her.
Queen Genevieve was urged by her royal advisors to have Redd executed, but she could not kill her sister. Instead, Queen Genevieve banished Redd to Mount Isolation to live out her days alone. It was there that Redd found a stray kitten and kept it with her at all times. Was it a replacement for the child she lost?
Or was it the beginnings of creating her own “Hatter Madigan”? A creature that she would imagine into both Cat and Man? A monster like herself.
Once the war had ended and peace was restored, Queen Genevieve gave birth to her daughter, Princess Alyss. The final scene closing this chapter of Wonderland’s endless story was the celebration of Alyss’s birth in Wonderland while far away, atop Mt. Isolation, the lone figure of Redd had already begun imagining the apocalypse to come.
The End
Epilogue – Who is Redd’s long-lost daughter? What happened to her? Where is she now?
By age 19 her wanton youthful exploits had alarmed and outraged a good deal of the population and made her vulnerable to the plottings of those who wished to wrest the throne away from the Hearts. A plot was put into motion to remove the mercurial Rose from succession and instead, make her younger sister, 17-year-old Genevieve, Wonderland’s next Queen.
Did those involved with the plot realize the far-reaching effects that their Machiavellian maneuvers would create for future worlds? Doubtful. They were concerned only with their immediate interests for they were the Lady of Clubs, Lady of Spades, and the Lady of Diamonds, each born to be a Queen, but subservient to the rule of the Hearts.
Their hope was to divide the sisters, create chaos, remove the Hearts from power, and crown Lady Diamond – Wonderland’s next Queen. Ultimately their plan would fail, for both Rose and Genevieve would prove to be far stronger than they had anticipated, but what they did accomplish was to create a royal blood feud that would tear Wonderland apart for generations to come.
Princesses Rose and Genevieve were the William and Harry of Wonderland as they grew up the heir and second to the throne. With Rose leading the way, she and Genevieve lived the posh, aristocratic lives of royal youth. Endowed with queen-sized imaginations, startling beauty, and unbridled vivacity, they were the darlings of Wonderland’s powerbrokers as well as big hits with the adoring masses. Known for practical jokes and adorable rebellions the two were an unstoppable team until Rose began to show her darker side.
As the princesses matured the subject of their eventual marriages was never far from anyone’s thoughts. Prospective matches would be made from the eligible young royals known collectively as The Jacks. Strutting and buff, this pool of peacock males constantly competed for the attention of both Rose and Genevieve, though the more ambitious quite obviously aimed to wed the future Queen. But since childhood, both Rose and Genevieve favored one Jack above the rest, preferring his company to all the others.
The handsome, laughing, athletic Jack Nolan was widely envied for his intimate friendship with the princesses. A tight threesome, the young royals shared adventures, loyalty, and a delicately balanced romantic longing. Even though Genevieve, like everyone else, assumed that Nolan and Rose would marry, she could not help nor hide her own feelings for Nolan. Rose would often tease her about the obvious crush, but it never hurt the relationship among the ‘Royal Triangle,’ for each knew that Rose was secure. Nolan was hers if and when she wanted to marry him, for Queens choose first.
While Genevieve’s natural exuberance was as clear as a crystal bell, Rose exhibits a disturbing selfishness. As Rose’s dark streak widened, her popularity with both the royal court and the citizens began to nosedive. Both Genevieve and Nolan plead with Rose to stop alienating others, to obey her parents Queen Theodora and King Tyman, to be careful. But Rose blew them off to run with a wild crowd of hedonists using artificial crystals and imagination stimulants.
Rose spent most of her time partying in the Valley of Mushrooms with her bad-boy lover, Prince Arch (the future King of Boarderland), and their tribe of anarchists.
Queen Theodora stood outside Heart Palace listening to the drums while Genevieve attempted to cover for her older sister and defuse the Queen’s growing temper. Assisting Genevieve was Royal Tutor Bibwit Harte, a 6-foot-tall albino wearing immaculate white gloves and a brilliantly patterned floor-length coat. Pale green veins pulsed beneath his alabaster skin. Both argued Rose’s case, defending her music and youthful experimentation as pure Imagination. Queen Theodora was not convinced.
Drum circles and dancing, sex, and music, it was this nonstop bacchanalia that eventually brought Queen Theodora to the valley to deliver an ultimatum. Orchestrated by the Three Ladies of Wonderland, the showdown pitted Rose’s rebellion against Queen Theodora’s authority. As emotions escalated, Queen Theodora threatened Rose with the loss of the throne if she did not immediately submit to the rules of the court. When Rose laughed at the threat, her mother was forced to follow through.
Redd Was Unfit To Rule
In a flash of queenly power, Theodora removed her eldest daughter from succession and placed the younger sister, Genevieve, as next in line. It was a shocking, brutal act, but entirely legal according to Wonderland bylaws. Rose was out and Genevieve was in. The Three Ladies of Wonderland smiled smugly. Their plan was going well.
Rose’s reaction to her banishment was to dye her hair blood red and drop the name ‘Rose,’ from that moment on she was to be addressed only as Redd—a symbol of all the blood she would spill. She was enraged, alienated, and deeply, everlastingly wounded.
Redd revealed the depth of her pain at being rejected by her mother when she shouted/sang “Where Do Monsters Come From”? In the song, Redd asked, “You made me, so why can’t you love me?” It would be the last time that Redd revealed her pain and vulnerability. If they called her a monster then she would be a monster.
It seemed everything had been taken from Redd and given to Genevieve. But not yet. The worst was still to come. Unknown to Queen Theodora, Redd was pregnant by one of her lovers at the time she was removed from the line of succession. She was growing dramatically weaker with each day of the pregnancy. Pale, alone, and frightened, Redd visited the Caterpillars, Wonderland’s high holy seers, to ask for help.
The Caterpillars inhabited the Valley of Mushrooms. Redd found the giant creatures seated beneath a rusted statue of an Iron Butterfly. Each Caterpillar was a different color. Orange, Yellow, Purple, Red, Green, and Blue sitting in a semi-circle smoking from an ancient hookah. Multicolored smoke rings drifted into the air.
The Caterpillars told Redd that with the loss of the right of succession to the throne, she had lost the power to reproduce the next Queen. The energy and imagination necessary to create a future Queen is monumental and demanded a direct link with the Heart Crystal. In a sense, she would be giving birth to a new Star, not a mortal infant.
The Blue Caterpillar urged Redd to return to the palace and beg her mother to take her back or her baby would die. Redd’s last remnant of humanity, the last bit of light within her, was called upon to go to Queen Theodora and ask forgiveness in order to save her baby. But Redd, stubbornly, chose not to divulge her pregnancy.
She wanted Queen Theodora to forgive her and love her on her terms, not just because she was pregnant with Queen Theodora’s grandchild. Redd’s fatal flaw was selfishness, it had always been all about Redd. When Queen Theodora refused her daughter’s plea for forgiveness, Redd gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. At this point the darkness filled Redd, forever extinguishing the light. With the death of Redd’s baby, a true monster was born.
Only the baby was not dead. Theodora had told Redd that her baby was stillborn and instead took her baby to a trusted family friend to raise Redd’s daughter in secrecy. Rumors swirled for years that Prince Arch or Redd’s dashing bodyguard Dalton Madigan, (Hatter’s older brother) had fathered the lost child.
Redd’s imagination would no longer inspire music, it was now to be used only for revenge. She would soon become known throughout Wonderland as the Dark Muse. Genevieve and Nolan grieved for the loss of Rose/Redd, but found consolation in each other as they began to fall truly in love.
Genevieve idolized her older sister and suffered more than anyone over Redd’s banishment. She knew that Redd would make an amazing, brilliant queen, but Genevieve was caught in a horrible position, defending and loving the sister who now considered her a traitor. Genevieve, though an equal in imagination, did not possess Redd’s confidence and inner power. Genevieve begged her mother not to remove Redd from succession thereby forcing her onto the throne.
Queen Theodora Told Genevieve that She feared Redd Was a Carrier of Dark Imagination
Throughout the history of Wonderland, certain Queens were born and ruled who practiced Dark, not Light Imagination. The effects of these dark reigns were apocalyptic, both for Wonderland and the worlds that surround them. Every Queen was cautioned about the possibility of giving birth to a Dark Seed.
Theodora ignored the warnings of others for years, refusing to believe that her beautiful Rose/Redd could be one of them. But finally, she had to admit she had been wrong. Redd could never be Queen. Genevieve argued that Theodora was mistaken, that she had been influenced by the Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades, all of whom had selfish interests in seeing Redd removed from succession. Redd was not dark, she was unique and unorthodox and yes, even wild, but it was Light Imagination that she loved.
Queen Theodora told Genevieve that she was too good to see the dark in others. “Once you are Queen, you must see both in order to rule. This is the most difficult decision of my life.”
Genevieve’s support for Redd was kept hidden from her sister by the Three Ladies who wished only to fan the flames of hatred between the sisters. There could be no accord, only division, if their agenda was to be met. For once Redd had been removed, their way was clear to force Parliament into a vote of “no confidence.”
Everyone would have to agree that the House of Hearts was far from steady. Once Genevieve was officially next in line for the throne, they would throw down the ultimate Wonderland challenge to the Hearts rule, the Duel of Imagination. Genevieve would have to face Lady Diamond in what was essentially an Imagination Slam. Should she be defeated, control of the Heart Crystal and rule of Wonderland would pass to the House of Diamonds.
Throughout the history of Wonderland, the Hearts have always won these rare challenges to their rule, but the Three Ladies were betting that this time it would be different.
This Time, the Hearts Would Fall
Redd’s hatred and sense of injustice exploded when Genevieve and Jack Nolan’s wedding was announced. It seemed everything had been taken from Redd and given to Genevieve. Redd’s pain mutated into rage, the darkness grew and she vowed to seek revenge for her mother’s betrayal.
It was Genevieve’s Wedding Day and the Heart Palace was thrown open for the traditional Masquerade Wedding Ball. Invitations for the ball were sent out across Wonderland to not only the Royal Suits and other high-ranking persons, but to all manner of inventors and muses. A centuries-old tradition, the masquerade ball was a rare event celebrated only upon the wedding of a future Queen. The guests competed to have the most outrageous, imaginative costume which— this being Wonderland— was quite a competition.
During the ball, Genevieve discovered Redd in the palace. Rather than sounding an alarm, Genevieve embraced her sister, “I knew you would come for our wedding.”
Redd pushed Genevieve away. She told her she had been “in mourning for all that has been stolen from me”. Genevieve, still loving and wanting to believe in her sister, did not alert the guards that Redd was inside the palace. How do you stop loving your sister? Genevieve’s loyalty would cost the Heart’s dearly.
Later that night, to avenge her losses, Redd killed her mother. “Even you cannot take away what is mine by birthright,” Redd placed a deadly pink mushroom (street name ‘pinkiepink’) on her mother’s tongue. Fed by the Queen’s saliva, the roots of the fungus worked their way down the sleeping sovereign’s throat and strangled her heart until the pink mushroom cap poked out of her mouth to signify that the heart had stopped beating.
Shocked by his daughter’s violent act and the gruesome death of his wife, King Tyman went mad and died not long after. Without a Queen, chaos threatens to engulf Wonderland. Redd had raised an army of mercenaries and was hiding out in the Crystal Caves above Wonderland imagining a future with herself as Queen. Genevieve had to be coronated immediately to avert civil war.
With Redd’s mercenaries circling Wondertropolis the Three Ladies plan had gone wildly better than they had hoped, believing it would be years before they could go to the Parliament and ask for the vote of ‘no confidence’. But with Theodora’s murder, things had moved much faster. With Parliament backing them, Genevieve was challenged to the Duel of Imagination.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Genevieve easily defeated Lady Diamond. The effect of her victory was an immediate surge of support from across Wonderland, backing the House of Hearts and their new Queen in her effort to stop a civil war. The Three Ladies had failed in their plan, but the consequences of the act were about to explode.
Genevieve, Only 17, was Now Both Wife and Queen
The world had been thrust upon her shoulders and she had no idea how to handle anything. As she wandered in the palace garden she saw a series of blue smoke rings and found the Blue Caterpillar waiting for her. It was rare indeed for any of the Caterpillars to leave the Valley of Mushrooms but Blue had traveled to give Queen Genevieve an important message, the location of her Looking Glass Maze.
Genevieve was stunned. Like most, she had thought the Queen’s Looking Glass Maze to be only an urban legend. And now she was being given the location of hers. The Blue Caterpillar told her that if she was able to successfully navigate the maze she would be empowered far beyond her sister. Redd may think of Genevieve as a weak young girl, but in truth, she would be an empowered Warrior Queen able to fight on the battlefield.
Once inside the maze, Genevieve was confronted by Hatter Madigan, top assassin and blade warrior. By accessing her imagination, Genevieve was able to mirror Hatter Madigan’s martial moves and so absorb his skills during her successful trip through the maze. When she emerged, Genevieve was no longer the girl who first entered but a seasoned warrior and wise Queen.
As a gift from Wonderland for her successful navigation of the maze, Genevieve was awarded the lifetime services of Hatter Madigan as Royal Bodyguard. Hatter Madigan’s martial skills and heroic devotion would prove instrumental in every battle waged between Redd and Genevieve.
Queen Genevieve became known as the Warrior Queen and accompanied her army across the map of Wonderland as they battled Redd and her army. Wonderland suffered through five years of bloody civil war as the sisters battled again and again until Genevieve ultimately cornered Redd and defeated her.
Queen Genevieve was urged by her royal advisors to have Redd executed, but she could not kill her sister. Instead, Queen Genevieve banished Redd to Mount Isolation to live out her days alone. It was there that Redd found a stray kitten and kept it with her at all times. Was it a replacement for the child she lost?
Or was it the beginnings of creating her own “Hatter Madigan”? A creature that she would imagine into both Cat and Man? A monster like herself.
Once the war had ended and peace was restored, Queen Genevieve gave birth to her daughter, Princess Alyss. The final scene closing this chapter of Wonderland’s endless story was the celebration of Alyss’s birth in Wonderland while far away, atop Mt. Isolation, the lone figure of Redd had already begun imagining the apocalypse to come.
The End
Epilogue – Who is Redd’s long-lost daughter? What happened to her? Where is she now?
November 17, 2023
The Unearthed Interviews of Lewis Carroll & Queen Redd
Not long after delivering Seeing Redd, book two in my Looking Glass Wars series to my publisher, I received an express package from London. Inside I found a sheaf of fragile, handwritten pages written in pale, lavender ink. The package had been sent by historian Agnes Mackenzie, who was assembling the Princess Alyss of Wonderland scrapbook of art, journal entries and letters. Her brief note informed me that through some of her arcane literary contacts that this lost interview had come to her, and she knew I would want to see them immediately.
In essence, these pages were Lewis Carroll’s attempt to interview Queen Redd during her time in London to write the definitive book of her life and times. I need to share this literary windfall of Lewis Carroll’s grueling, handwritten efforts to please his harshest critic of all.
Lewis Carroll was an acclaimed author when he received a summons from the Queen to visit the grounds of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition in London on a gray February afternoon in 1873. With Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass published Carroll perhaps believed he had written all he had to say about Wonderland. But this was not to be the case, as Carroll was about to have his first meeting with Wonderland’s Imperial Viciousness, Queen Redd, Queen Victoria’s doppelganger.
Exiled and nursing a deeply wounded ego she had read both of Lewis Carroll’s books glorifying her despised niece (“whether you spell it Alyss or Alice she is still a BRAT”) and now demanded that he write a book about her. What this recently uncovered trove of written material reveals is that Lewis Carroll was detained and somehow imprisoned within a looking glass along with a hard chair, a writing desk, a stack of blank pages, a selection of steel dipping pens and several bottles of his favorite lavender ink.
Redd did not trust Lewis Carroll to get her story right (look what lies he wrote about her niece!) and insisted that he write what she dictated with an occasional riddle or rhyme added since she rather enjoyed those and prided herself on knowing the answer to Carroll’s “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” (Because I say so!)
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — On April 2, 1873
It’s a damp, drafty day in this vast conservatory built of glass. Why must this horrible woman live in such frigid accommodations? Surely a deposed queen can at least afford adequate housing in a proper hotel. Look at her seated on her glass throne nibbling at toffee creams like some monstrous Jabberwock queen. Is this a dream or have I somehow physically encountered the brutal inhabitants of a parallel world? Whichever the case, I am having a good deal of trouble accepting the fact that I am imprisoned INSIDE a looking glass without conceding madness. And yet I am in here and she is out there. Oh dear, she is staring at me with such a malevolent intensity. Is this the end?
Queen Redd:
“Lewis Carroll!!! I am ready to begin! Start scribbling for your life!”
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — I wait, pen poised, as the woman begins to intone in a languid, cruel voice.
Queen Redd:
I, REDD the true Queen of Wonderland…am not a monster. I have known love. I have felt sadness. I know what it is to feel joy and pain. But at a young age I realized those who embraced and championed the accepted world would label me a monster because I saw life in a more…IMAGINATIVE…way and wished to live on my own terms. I was not born to follow. I was born to be Queen, and this is my story of how I set Wonderland free!
LEWIS CARROLL:
Could you perhaps describe Wonderland to me since you are probably aware that your niece felt I got it all wrong…
Queen Redd:
Now listen and listen close you stuttering little wretch. Wonderland is absolutely NOTHING as you described it. Wonderland is not a child’s vision of silly creatures and hideous heart clad dowagers. Wonderland is obviously beyond your ability to imagine so I must explain it to you in vivid detail. Images are not flat but multi-dimensional. In fact, everything is multi-dimensional including fragrances, tastes, moonlight, and cresting waves. It is a land of unlimited possibility and vision filled with an intoxicating energy that never let’s one rest and say “Ahhh. Good enough.” HAH! Nothing is ever good enough because you constantly envision what could be! And only I possessed the most powerful imagination of all for I could see what no others DARED to see. I went beyond what eons of Queens had imagined and let loose all that had been hidden and suppressed. I freed Wonderland’s dark side, and it was magnificent!
Lewis Carroll:
I believe you mentioned having been in l-l-love. Did I hear correctly?
Queen Redd:
I was in love exactly ONCE. Alyss’ father, King Nolan, had sworn his love to me. But as soon as the throne was given to my sister Genevieve, so was Nolan. He tagged after her like a little spiritdane. After that betrayal, I knew that no one would ever love me for me. It was the throne they loved. And so, I shall rule as I have lived. Alone.
Lewis Carroll:
What was it like to rule Wonderland for 13 years?
Queen Redd:
My rule began with absolute vivid, chaos! I chose to have my coronation ceremony and masquerade ball held in the Valley of Mushrooms. Oh, how it must have rankled those ancient larvae to have their mystical realm invaded by my riotous, destructive celebration! We hacked and burned an infinite number of mushrooms to keep the bonfires going night after night after night! While this was certainly a highpoint, my destruction of the Millinery and the slaughter of the milliners was by far my most relished deed. Getting rid of the milliners was certainly a stroke of genius. Of course, my error was in letting one specific Hatter Madigan escape. My error was in believing the lies of The Cat! But that deserves a chapter of its own, The Cat’s lies, after all, are what have sent me here to this sad, dull world.
Lewis Carroll:
Why did you trust this cat?
Queen Redd:
The Cat was my answer to Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan. I imagined a beast that would act as not only my personal bodyguard, but as an assassin. The Cat was the key that opened Heart Palace, carried in by the Princess herself. It arrived as a tiny, mewling kitten held tight to the bodice of her lavish birthday gown only to swell and mutate into a monster of claw and fang! Genius! But my love for my own creation allowed me to believe it’s treacherous, self-serving lies that Alyss had been killed. I loved it so much I gave it 9 lives. And now only one remains. Who shall take my only offspring’s last life?
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — The monstrous feline she describes lies just inches from my looking glass prison miming sleep while no doubt ready to pounce, shred and snap should I attempt to flee. As terrifying a creature as it is I must acknowledge both my curiosity and shame in the same breath. The Cat is exactly as the poor child described, down to every vicious, coiled claw. How it must have terrified her! As I observe the creature it appears to be as real as myself or anything else conceived in this world. This realization sends my mind spinning by the possibility that all the child’s fantastic tales were indeed true.
Lewis Carroll:
How did you come by your battle cry of “Off with their heads!” Is it true you collect these heads once they are…off?
Queen Redd:
I have been misquoted out of context so many times now that I am feeling rather raw and annoyed. It’s not that I in any way, shape or form COLLECT heads. NO! NO! NO! I have simply found beheading to be a quick method of extermination and identification. While I did revolutionize the technique and the chant is undoubtedly a brilliant Reddism (“Off with their heads!” Simple and succinct.) I, in fact, enjoy many, many ways of dealing with my enemies and have often issued orders such as “Drown them all!” and “Trample them to death!”
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — She is utterly mad! I fear for my life and suspect that when I write my last line, she will issue yet another of her Reddisms on the order of “Hurl him from the top of Big Ben and smash the scribbler to bits!” But while part of me desires nothing more than to escape, a much larger part must discover how this end. I never could stop in the middle of a good story, especially when I am writing it!
Lewis Carroll:
Why did you break with the Wonderland custom of sending Imagination to other worlds?
Queen Redd:
When I realized how much of Wonderland’s imagination was being given away to this world I was incensed! I had known that the tedious Inventor’s Parades would send trinkets and bad poetry off to somewhere ‘out there’ but had no idea of the magnitude of imagination being lost. When I took control of Wonderland, I issued a decree that I wanted it back! I wanted all the imagination that Wonderland had been blithely spewing through the Heart Crystal since who knows when. Easier decreed than done! Since I have been marooned here in this dull world, I now realize that I can simply think of it as another avenue of resources. All the black imagination that festers here awaits my guidance. The spheres have opened for me, and this world will soon know my rule.
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — I hold a HORRIFIED GASP deep inside me! What does she mean? I must find out.
Lewis Carroll:
You intend to rule this world as well? But what of our Queen Victoria?
Queen Redd:
Who?
Lewis Carroll:
Our beloved Queen Victoria. She is England’s Queen.
Queen Redd:
She is…for now. One of my great skills of imagination is body snatching. Once I re-establish my rule in Wonderland I intend to, as you say here, return to COLONIZE this little gray world and rule over both realms simultaneously for infinitum. But for now, I think I’ll assume your queen’s body as my own. This book that you are writing will serve as my introduction to the earth’s masses. It’s only honorable to warn them as to whom they will be dealing with. No?
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self – April 7, 1873
I am home once again in my living quarters at Christ Church College. The furnishings, the light, the windows and even the view all appear to be as usual, but I know that nothing will ever again be the same after my “adventure” inside the looking glass. I continued writing and recording and suggesting proper wording as Redd intoned her monstrous memoirs and ambitions. I decided that if I was not already completely mad the sound of her grating voice screeching endless descriptions of mayhem and murder would soon lay waste to what was left of my sanity. But then, quite suddenly, it all ended. I glanced out of my looking glass prison one morning as the light began to fill the exhibition hall and saw that Redd, The Cat and her strange gathering of criminal outcasts had all departed. Nothing remained of their presence but the stack of pages I held in my hand. I gathered all the pages closer to me and held them tight, for these words were all I now possessed of Wonderland.
Lewis Carroll’s disbelief would in the end serve him much better as an author than having to admit that Wonderland was real. The whimsy and the freedom of a world he had imagined now reformed into the terror and reality of a place far beyond a sane man’s limits. Despite Carroll’s determination to turn Redd’s memoirs into a third book in his Wonderland series, he could never overcome the fact that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
At this point, Lewis Carroll alone knew that the girl named Alyss must somehow stop her Aunt Redd from conquering not only Wonderland, but our world as well. The desire to help Alyss and make amends for his literary betrayal haunted him like an unanswerable riddle.
In essence, these pages were Lewis Carroll’s attempt to interview Queen Redd during her time in London to write the definitive book of her life and times. I need to share this literary windfall of Lewis Carroll’s grueling, handwritten efforts to please his harshest critic of all.
Lewis Carroll was an acclaimed author when he received a summons from the Queen to visit the grounds of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition in London on a gray February afternoon in 1873. With Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass published Carroll perhaps believed he had written all he had to say about Wonderland. But this was not to be the case, as Carroll was about to have his first meeting with Wonderland’s Imperial Viciousness, Queen Redd, Queen Victoria’s doppelganger.
Exiled and nursing a deeply wounded ego she had read both of Lewis Carroll’s books glorifying her despised niece (“whether you spell it Alyss or Alice she is still a BRAT”) and now demanded that he write a book about her. What this recently uncovered trove of written material reveals is that Lewis Carroll was detained and somehow imprisoned within a looking glass along with a hard chair, a writing desk, a stack of blank pages, a selection of steel dipping pens and several bottles of his favorite lavender ink.
Redd did not trust Lewis Carroll to get her story right (look what lies he wrote about her niece!) and insisted that he write what she dictated with an occasional riddle or rhyme added since she rather enjoyed those and prided herself on knowing the answer to Carroll’s “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” (Because I say so!)
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — On April 2, 1873
It’s a damp, drafty day in this vast conservatory built of glass. Why must this horrible woman live in such frigid accommodations? Surely a deposed queen can at least afford adequate housing in a proper hotel. Look at her seated on her glass throne nibbling at toffee creams like some monstrous Jabberwock queen. Is this a dream or have I somehow physically encountered the brutal inhabitants of a parallel world? Whichever the case, I am having a good deal of trouble accepting the fact that I am imprisoned INSIDE a looking glass without conceding madness. And yet I am in here and she is out there. Oh dear, she is staring at me with such a malevolent intensity. Is this the end?
Queen Redd:
“Lewis Carroll!!! I am ready to begin! Start scribbling for your life!”
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — I wait, pen poised, as the woman begins to intone in a languid, cruel voice.
Queen Redd:
I, REDD the true Queen of Wonderland…am not a monster. I have known love. I have felt sadness. I know what it is to feel joy and pain. But at a young age I realized those who embraced and championed the accepted world would label me a monster because I saw life in a more…IMAGINATIVE…way and wished to live on my own terms. I was not born to follow. I was born to be Queen, and this is my story of how I set Wonderland free!
LEWIS CARROLL:
Could you perhaps describe Wonderland to me since you are probably aware that your niece felt I got it all wrong…
Queen Redd:
Now listen and listen close you stuttering little wretch. Wonderland is absolutely NOTHING as you described it. Wonderland is not a child’s vision of silly creatures and hideous heart clad dowagers. Wonderland is obviously beyond your ability to imagine so I must explain it to you in vivid detail. Images are not flat but multi-dimensional. In fact, everything is multi-dimensional including fragrances, tastes, moonlight, and cresting waves. It is a land of unlimited possibility and vision filled with an intoxicating energy that never let’s one rest and say “Ahhh. Good enough.” HAH! Nothing is ever good enough because you constantly envision what could be! And only I possessed the most powerful imagination of all for I could see what no others DARED to see. I went beyond what eons of Queens had imagined and let loose all that had been hidden and suppressed. I freed Wonderland’s dark side, and it was magnificent!
Lewis Carroll:
I believe you mentioned having been in l-l-love. Did I hear correctly?
Queen Redd:
I was in love exactly ONCE. Alyss’ father, King Nolan, had sworn his love to me. But as soon as the throne was given to my sister Genevieve, so was Nolan. He tagged after her like a little spiritdane. After that betrayal, I knew that no one would ever love me for me. It was the throne they loved. And so, I shall rule as I have lived. Alone.
Lewis Carroll:
What was it like to rule Wonderland for 13 years?
Queen Redd:
My rule began with absolute vivid, chaos! I chose to have my coronation ceremony and masquerade ball held in the Valley of Mushrooms. Oh, how it must have rankled those ancient larvae to have their mystical realm invaded by my riotous, destructive celebration! We hacked and burned an infinite number of mushrooms to keep the bonfires going night after night after night! While this was certainly a highpoint, my destruction of the Millinery and the slaughter of the milliners was by far my most relished deed. Getting rid of the milliners was certainly a stroke of genius. Of course, my error was in letting one specific Hatter Madigan escape. My error was in believing the lies of The Cat! But that deserves a chapter of its own, The Cat’s lies, after all, are what have sent me here to this sad, dull world.
Lewis Carroll:
Why did you trust this cat?
Queen Redd:
The Cat was my answer to Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan. I imagined a beast that would act as not only my personal bodyguard, but as an assassin. The Cat was the key that opened Heart Palace, carried in by the Princess herself. It arrived as a tiny, mewling kitten held tight to the bodice of her lavish birthday gown only to swell and mutate into a monster of claw and fang! Genius! But my love for my own creation allowed me to believe it’s treacherous, self-serving lies that Alyss had been killed. I loved it so much I gave it 9 lives. And now only one remains. Who shall take my only offspring’s last life?
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — The monstrous feline she describes lies just inches from my looking glass prison miming sleep while no doubt ready to pounce, shred and snap should I attempt to flee. As terrifying a creature as it is I must acknowledge both my curiosity and shame in the same breath. The Cat is exactly as the poor child described, down to every vicious, coiled claw. How it must have terrified her! As I observe the creature it appears to be as real as myself or anything else conceived in this world. This realization sends my mind spinning by the possibility that all the child’s fantastic tales were indeed true.
Lewis Carroll:
How did you come by your battle cry of “Off with their heads!” Is it true you collect these heads once they are…off?
Queen Redd:
I have been misquoted out of context so many times now that I am feeling rather raw and annoyed. It’s not that I in any way, shape or form COLLECT heads. NO! NO! NO! I have simply found beheading to be a quick method of extermination and identification. While I did revolutionize the technique and the chant is undoubtedly a brilliant Reddism (“Off with their heads!” Simple and succinct.) I, in fact, enjoy many, many ways of dealing with my enemies and have often issued orders such as “Drown them all!” and “Trample them to death!”
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — She is utterly mad! I fear for my life and suspect that when I write my last line, she will issue yet another of her Reddisms on the order of “Hurl him from the top of Big Ben and smash the scribbler to bits!” But while part of me desires nothing more than to escape, a much larger part must discover how this end. I never could stop in the middle of a good story, especially when I am writing it!
Lewis Carroll:
Why did you break with the Wonderland custom of sending Imagination to other worlds?
Queen Redd:
When I realized how much of Wonderland’s imagination was being given away to this world I was incensed! I had known that the tedious Inventor’s Parades would send trinkets and bad poetry off to somewhere ‘out there’ but had no idea of the magnitude of imagination being lost. When I took control of Wonderland, I issued a decree that I wanted it back! I wanted all the imagination that Wonderland had been blithely spewing through the Heart Crystal since who knows when. Easier decreed than done! Since I have been marooned here in this dull world, I now realize that I can simply think of it as another avenue of resources. All the black imagination that festers here awaits my guidance. The spheres have opened for me, and this world will soon know my rule.
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self — I hold a HORRIFIED GASP deep inside me! What does she mean? I must find out.
Lewis Carroll:
You intend to rule this world as well? But what of our Queen Victoria?
Queen Redd:
Who?
Lewis Carroll:
Our beloved Queen Victoria. She is England’s Queen.
Queen Redd:
She is…for now. One of my great skills of imagination is body snatching. Once I re-establish my rule in Wonderland I intend to, as you say here, return to COLONIZE this little gray world and rule over both realms simultaneously for infinitum. But for now, I think I’ll assume your queen’s body as my own. This book that you are writing will serve as my introduction to the earth’s masses. It’s only honorable to warn them as to whom they will be dealing with. No?
Lewis Carroll:
Note to self – April 7, 1873
I am home once again in my living quarters at Christ Church College. The furnishings, the light, the windows and even the view all appear to be as usual, but I know that nothing will ever again be the same after my “adventure” inside the looking glass. I continued writing and recording and suggesting proper wording as Redd intoned her monstrous memoirs and ambitions. I decided that if I was not already completely mad the sound of her grating voice screeching endless descriptions of mayhem and murder would soon lay waste to what was left of my sanity. But then, quite suddenly, it all ended. I glanced out of my looking glass prison one morning as the light began to fill the exhibition hall and saw that Redd, The Cat and her strange gathering of criminal outcasts had all departed. Nothing remained of their presence but the stack of pages I held in my hand. I gathered all the pages closer to me and held them tight, for these words were all I now possessed of Wonderland.
Lewis Carroll’s disbelief would in the end serve him much better as an author than having to admit that Wonderland was real. The whimsy and the freedom of a world he had imagined now reformed into the terror and reality of a place far beyond a sane man’s limits. Despite Carroll’s determination to turn Redd’s memoirs into a third book in his Wonderland series, he could never overcome the fact that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
At this point, Lewis Carroll alone knew that the girl named Alyss must somehow stop her Aunt Redd from conquering not only Wonderland, but our world as well. The desire to help Alyss and make amends for his literary betrayal haunted him like an unanswerable riddle.
