While Wizard of Oz-themed costumes are popular every Halloween, author Gregory Maguire will be “hanging up his broomstick” with Out of Oz, the fourth and final title in the Wicked series. The book will be released tomorrow.

We caught up with Maguire (pictured, via Andy Newman) to talk about the lengthy writing process that went into this work and his thoughts on creating fantasy fiction. The highlights follow below…

Q: Describe your writing and research process for the concluding title in the Wicked series, Out of Oz.
A: It’s very interesting for Out of Oz, the fourth in a series of four books. It’s 500 pages long and the three books, lined up together, that precede it are 1000 pages. So in order to research for that, I had first to read all three books over again. While I did that, I took notes of what happened. So, I have about a 32-page synopsis of those three books in which every single scene; what happens and what’s important to the scenes is written in the first person. Even within a scene, if there’s a line break showing a different time or a different place in the world I make note of that with everyone so I know where every character is at every point.

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In December, former publisher and editor Judith Regan will be appearing on the reality television show, The Millionaire Matchmaker.

Here’s more from Gatecrasher: “Patti Stanger, host of ‘The Millionaire Matchmaker,’ tells us viewers will see ‘a softer side’ of the hard-driving former ‘Queen of All Media’ when Regan appears on the Bravo show Dec. 14. According to another source, the divorcee is on the hunt for ‘a funny guy.’”

Regan had previously worked at two houses, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. She discovered Wicked bestseller Gregory Maguire and courted controversy for preparing to publish O.J. Simpson manuscript, If I Did It. (Via NY Observer)