Biblio File:
Russ Woody invents a world full of adventures
                 DAN BARNETT - The Buzz

       Not satisfied with putting words into the mouths of Murphy Brown and Jeff Foxworthy, Hollywood writer/producer Russ Woody has birthed a world and populated it with a slew of two-foot-tall grumps. Woody, a recent guest at Chico State University, his alma mater, envisions a world at the center of our own that is in some way responsible for keeping Earth rotating. The upside-down tale -- complete with exploding heads, quivering mucus and other gross-out elements designed to appeal especially to pre-teens -- has a logic all its own. Call it "circular logic." The story is told in "The Wheel of Nuldoid" which includes marvelously quirky drawings and maps by Norman Felchle. Readers can taste the book ahead of time at www.nuldoid.com and if they start to get cramps the story is having its intended effect.
     It begins in the 2060s. Old Grampa Worst tells his grandchildren the bizarre story of his son, Warren, back in the late 1980s, after the Earth's rotation had begun to slow. People became more sluggish as gravity pressed in, so, writes Woody, ratings for such shows as "Murphy Brown" shot through the roof. And a couple of sinister beer-loving Nuldoids, Kyle and Morton, who never ceased to argue and swear ("murk fuddle!" "Ya stinkin' drobbs horkels!"), journey to the surface in search of the Crystal somehow connected to the fate of Hoidenall (Earth).
     Mind-blowing adventures soon begin for Warren and Leo, "a student in Warren's social studies class, a scruffy-looking kid of eleven," and Warren's friend Lily. The humans, "Crustoids" or just "Toids," must travel to Nuldoid via the region of the Oidenoids, the "wandering conformists" who think their interpretation of the sacred "Book of Lloyd" is the only correct one. Nuldoid is a place "where north was south and great was mediocre, where conflict and dissent and bickering were good and welcome things and where spit was greasy." It's "Hib nobb del noid" (literally 'Within dat circular circle, circles all dat is to be moved in dat circle"), referring to the "belief that everything exists in a circle. Therefore happiness is next to unhappiness, evil is next to good, fat to thin." Argument produces essential movement.
     In Woody's fast-paced upside down story there are, indeed, wheels within wheels.

Chico State alumnus and TV writer
 shares his first novel
             KYRA GOTTESMAN - The Buzz

      If laughter is the greatest healer, then Russ Woody is the medicine man. The quick witted Woody, an Emmy and Golden Globe winning television writer/producer who's shared his humor with audiences through such shows as St. Elsewhere, Hill St. Blues, Murphy Brown, Becker, The Drew Carey Show and the Jeff Foxworthy Show among others, returned to his alma mater, Chico State University, last week to talk with students about his career and his first novel "The Wheel of Nuldoid," a fantasy science fiction book reminiscent of "The Hobbit." He also took a few moments to chat with The Buzz.
      It's been a blast to come back. I love Chico. I still call it my hometown," said Woody, a 1979 mass communications major from Chico State and current resident of Studio City. "I've always had a fascination with comedy, public speaking and writing and really got a hold of that love here when I was going to college.
      Woody got his start in show biz writing and producing a comedy show for KCHO when it was a 10-watt station in the basement of Chico State's Meriam Library. Following graduation, Woody took an original screen play and headed to Hollywood with high hopes. "And, I got absolutely no where. It's true what you hear about Hollywood. You know, what a warm and welcoming community it is," said Woody tongue-in cheek. But Woody persisted making a name for himself as one of the best television writers and producers.
     For writers TV is the best entertainment venue because you actually get at least some control over what you're doing, your work. In motion pictures it's really all the director. Writers get fired right and left," he said. "But 'Nuldoid' had been rumbling around with me for about 25 years."
     The fantasy book, a humorous sardonic look at the very center of our world, where a society of short, quarrelsome creatures live and operate the machinery that rotates the earth, started as a screen play in the 1980s. Woody set the story aside and didn't pick it up again until shortly after the onset of the Iraq War. "I had always wanted to revamp it as a novel. So to tell you the truth, I won't say it was a blatantly left-wing catalyst that had me pull it out again but that was a big part of it. I was frustrated at the beginning of the Iraq war that no one was hearing those whose voices were in descent. The fact that the media was so behind the war and that anyone who spoke out against it was either ignored or publically crucified was disturbing to me," he said. "To me the book is really about the importance of descent in society." It was important enough to Woody that he took a hiatus from television to write the novel and spend time with his sons, Henry, 13, and Joe, 11.
     "I enjoy the process of writing. And I really enjoy the process of writing alone, which doesn't happen in television. I loved having a giant project that I could spend day after day alone with," said Woody. "That was the fun part. Now, I'm doing the tough part -- pitching it. Fortunately, I spent one summer selling Fuller Brushes so that experience is coming in handy." "The Wheel of Nuldoid" is available locally through Chico State's Associated Students Bookstore. For more information visit www.nuldoid.com.