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My GuySly & Friends. 

Scadof friends. Scads! Oodles, even.   

Top: Taken with the sea from an early age. His Unk Dec's ex-ship's cat cronies had a big hand in that, spinning their drunken yarns.

 

Bottom: No rough and tumble lad, he had weak ankles, he was forced by his Mama to wear ankle supports. He hated them, until she had a brilliant idea.

 

Follow Sly's

childhood adventures

in Catly Curiosity and Yo Ho! 

Sadly, the cutie 

had a less than

idyllic childhood. 

I could say, 

 

Sly's been through many a squall, that he's tsken a pounding, both personally and professionally. 

 

I could say, he's traversed storm-tossed seas aplenty. 

 

Trouble finds him, follows him,  like a bizarre local weather event dogged the sadsack Joe Btfsplk in the comic strip Li'l Abner.

 

All this,

absolutely true.

 

Nevertheless, my real intent here is to show you this charming rain cloud, so sweet. (Wix has some great clip art.) I had to get it in, on any pretext. 

 

Mission

Accomplished.

Puss in Boots Picture Book, published by

........., 1878

 

 

 

Hey, hey, hey,

he's on the road again.

 

(Yeah, I've been listening

to Tom Rush.)

 

________________

 

Sections of this strip

would make great

promo bookmarks.

 

I'm thinking

bumper stickers too.

 

If you saw

one of these mugs

on a bumper

in front of you,

wouldn't you 

jot down

MyGuySly.com

and check it out?

 

Don't tell me no.

I won't believe you.

 

 

 

THE GREAT JOY

OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH IS,

you find stuff way better than

what you could have made up.

 

Like with the pencil. The invention of the pencil in the area of England that Sly hails from (the site of the only large hard-graphite mine ever discovered) twenty years before his birth (icing on the cake) meshes with my narrative in wonderful ways.

 

Graphite sawed into sticks, encased in wood, had been devised by English sheepmen to mark their animals. Sly had adopted the tool for its mobility. He likes to jot verse on the go.

 

In A Dire Deceit, 

his ship taken by pirates, Sly hunkers  under a captain's desk, scrawling a phony code with his precious lead. A good smudge cakes the pages with grime,

spit warps them, producing an aged look. A plausible item

(at first glance, at least) is produced in a few tense hours.

 

Others latch onto the tool for their own amusing ends. And I'm not through exploiting the amazing technology myself.

 

Not by a long shot.

Dee's image will be tweaked, this cat's head 

replacing the globe.

 

On the far right, that's a meercat. More historically accurate would be a monkey, but I need the right monkey, small, cat size, with 

a very ugly nose.

 

Sly has written a lovely sonnet

 in praise of the bizarre feature

to comfort one who, longing

to be esteemed a court

beauty, despises it.

 

 

 

 

 

You'll find his touching

 Ode to a Nose 

on page _

A Mischievous Look

at the Life and Times of an Icon of Children's Literature,

a beloved brat, the sharp/scholar/wonder of a wonderous age, Sylvester "Sly" Boots.

Whoa!

 

Get a load of the puss on that puss. Someone's not too happy, looks like.

What's up with this guy?

 

Could be he's annoyed. He's annoyed a lot lately. He's at the beck and call of a man who can't get along without him. His time is not his own, and he's sick of it.

 

It could be an impatient look. A cat can’t teach himself to read? Can’t learn to write? He’ll show the world what a cat can do. 

 

Hell, he’s probably going for dignified. We have here the haughty stare of a gentleman, which he considers himself to be despite low birth and a hardscrabble childhood. He’s made his way up, way up in the world, and he’s damn proud of it.

 

Wait. It might be a come hither look - he’s a notable rake. Or a world-weary pose. He’s seen it all.

                                                                                                                       continued on page

_______________________________________

 

Boots spent his life defying limits, social, intellectual, every which-way. 

Between giggles, think about this:

The never-say-die critter is a role model for us all.

A Taste of Things To Come.

Meet (a few of) my (glorious) Goofballs.

Frogs and Hogs and Damselflies. A Monkey. Queen. A Scientist-Doctor/Astrologer.

A disgruntled devil of a (since, like, forever) Royal Favorite. (Yikes!)

 

Oh! What a time it was! A rigid class structure was crumbling. Anyone with an ounce of brain was on the jump, after their piece of the pie, their bite of the apple. Hey! Speaking of apples: Sly, curious abou the physical world (in addition to being a splendid poet and a canny diplomat), will be hatching his own theory of gravity fifty years before Newton. Okay, John Dee, a scholar, a scientist, widely esteemed a brilliant man and a level head (he's far from it, lucky for me) is gonna help. Another super nutcase! My cup runneth over.

The menu will eventually read:    Home

Page 2. The Rambling Boy.  (A map of Sly's travels across Europe)       

Page 3. My So-Called Plot.  (Folks, I ain't kidding)           Page 4. Excerpt of the week. 

Page 5. Himself, in All His Glory. (A paper doll.)

(Haven't figured out menus yet.)

A wise-guy from the get-go.    

____________________________________________

 

 

He's been written about and written about, but my joker

is the ultimate in crackpot cats, and the unequivical sharp of sharps

 

Sly blunders, blusters, and bamboozles his way across late sixteenth century Europe, abetted by a variety of critters, including a frog and a hedgehog (Catly/Yo Ho!), a runaway eight-year-old duke (A Dire Deceit), a pugnacious pig and, more importantly, a love-struck monkey, Sha-Sha, and a trusted civil servant, the redoubtable John Dee. (A Delicate Delimma) He comes to the assistance of many, including the Queen of England, though she never learns of it. Finding himself persona non grata with her after certain missteps, he departs for greener (so he hopes) pastures. (On The Road Again)

 

Sly and I share a smart mouth, a skeptical view of the world, and the inability to admit defeat. We're the same fool, which is how I write him with sincere regard and deep understanding. 

 

Demanding to have his way in all things, to-the-bone a brat, he nonetheless is capable of empathy (once in a rare while), experiences (fleeting) self-doubt, and is full of impossible dreams (more than his fair share).

 

In other words, he's as human as he can be. Check him out.

The Rogue Decamps

A Novella/Intro to a 3-Part series. Coming soon, here, in installments.

A Dashing Fellow, indeed. 

Robert Dudley had nothing on this dandy, but for one remarkable episode.

 

IN SEARCH OF

SILLY HISTORY

 

You might think that one who situates a well-worn fairy tale in a well-reported age has it easy. Fantasy means anything goes, right? And, a world is in place, no inventing of cultures, politics, none of that from-scratch necessary. 

 

I reconfigure history around the antics of a talking cat, which certainly suggests that I lean on the ol' bippity-boppity-boo. Well, I do, a bit.

 

 But, mostly, not. I focus on personalities. I play with history. I fudge history. Then, I fiddle my fudges in footnotes. Have your cake, etc. I've got that all worked out.

 

My central episode was written, then I discovered Dee. My original goof is out the window. What I’ve learned of him is too too wonderful to pass up.      

          

continued on page ...

Wise-Ass Animals  IN

Pants! *

 

(Which I consider

to be my genre) 

 

and you'll have

a damn lot of fun,

maybe as much fun

as I've had with  . . .

my GuySly.

_______

 

*   Crap!

 

The word is Pants!

Damn, they got lame a's 

in this font. 

 

---------     A formidable fellow, by all accounts. Yeah, the accounts are mostly mine. So What!  ---------

He tried the flute,

made progress, but

savagely mocked,

he abandoned it. 

 

Years later,

he took up

 the fiddle.

 

 

What next? How About a Menu?

 

Wise-Ass Animals  IN

Pants

 

And boots.

 

And baby bonnets.

(That would be

Herk Hedgehog, in

A Fool in Love.)

 

What can I say?

My genre, for sure.

 

I got nothing without

a wise-cracking critter in it.

 

-----------

 

You can have a lot of fun

on here with fonts,

even with

the slim pickings.

(Wordpress is way

worse on that score.)

 

You can tweak kerning

and line spacing, though

the slider bars are  horrifyingly crude.

 

I see more pluses

than minuses here but,

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                        Oh  ,     

 

 

 

for some

 

              Dingbats!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ode to a Nose

by S. Boots

 

Where does your foremost fascination lie?

I tell you, Mistress, not where you suppose.

You are magnificent of brow and eye,

but I rejoice, above all, in your nose.

 

Abundance of the snout is no vile thing,

an aperture odd, no horrific flaw.

Cavernous nostrils suck the scents of spring

more readily than dimple dents. What law

requires that a nose be slim, or pert,

to be admired, to be reckoned fine?

High handsome is less sturdily alert,     

admiring, above all, a divine profile.

 

The buttonholes, so meek, so sleek, so pink,

just darling, do not snort with the same greed

to savor life in all its sweet and stink,

as does your sneezer charmingly indeed.

 

A chiseled symmetry, it does not do

for a merry force of nature such as you.

Your thug has more exuberance than those

lady-like honkers. Celebrate your nose!

_______________________________________________________________

 

Despite the theme, none of my stuff is truly for children.

Not even the pieces I insist on calling kid's books.

 

Catly Curiosity and Yo Ho! chronicle Sly's childhood misadventures. They are sophisticated storytelling, but silly, silly, silly, which I hope will grab the kidlets, if read to them. They started out sweet-simple, I had every intention of creating a true children's story, but my usual intricate smart-mouthery took over. Not too much here of light and sweet, but a nonsense plot, a playful rhyme, and sly footnotes create, well, enormous fun, is my opinion. 

 

Catly and Yo are short verse. Rogue is a 3-part novel. I've lopped off a chunk for an abridged novella. I haven't made up my mind on a bunch of things. The final version, which will be part of book one, will have plenty of surprises for everyone. 
 
_______________________________________________________________

 

Right: Sha-Sha is lithe, catlike. I've toyed with the idea of using a meercat. I really ought to have a monkey (historically accurate), but I need the right monkey, small, with a very ugly nose. Sly has written a sonnet praising the feature she despises.

Adventure

was his lifeblood.

 

The critter liked to think of

himself as a force for good in

an unjust world. In actuality, he never

made a move without considering his own best interest. He did not shy from contradicting previous stances, nothing was set in stone with him. In a nutshell: he was one slippery customer.

 

In his defence, he did his best for any who needed help.  And, far too often, he bought his own bull. If he was a scoundral, he was a sweet one.

Hedgehog TK

8.     

 

 

I went looking for a nice skull and found this guy, more of a Day of the Dead thing, but eye-catching, which is, after all, job one here, to get your attention.

 

There is a proper skull available, but it's boring as hell. I'm going with, I'll call him Edvard. Doesn't he look like the booger in The Scream? I think so. 

 

So, what do I want with Ed? 

Well! Sly stumbles . . .

into a screwball pirate adventure. 

 

He creates a phony code book (similar to that below) in an effort to free a kidnapped eight-year-old duke. 

7. 

Frog TK

 

1.

 

 

     > 3/23/16

HERE NOW:

of        fish.

 

a Fine

Kettle

Chapter one: Sly blah blah balh etc. See Page . . .

Okay, Who We Got Here?

1.  John Dee, Royal Astrologer.    2. Queen Elizabeth (You've heard of her, maybe?)    3. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.  

4.  Sha-Sha, a dainty monkey but for a massive nose, that she hates.    5. Sly, as a kitten.  

6.  Damsella, Scourge of the Ocean-Sea, the beautiful pirate damselfly.  

7. Ferd, a frog.    8. Herk (Herk the Jerk), a hedgehog.  Note: images 5-6 are preliminary drawings.

 

Dr. Dee was one hell of an interesting critter, almost as much fun as Sly. The two join forces as undercover operatives disrupting a dangerous plot against the queen. All plots are dangerous, right? Why is this one particularly so? It is masterminded by the queen's lifelong best friend. No one is going to believe what they have uncovered, not without airtight evidence. After they have been expelled from the English Court, they agree to undertake an assignment in Northern Germany. A town experiencing an inundation of rodents is advertising for an exterminator, and offering a huge reward for a successful outcome. Will these two be able to handle it?

 

That's up in the air. I have several ideas, leading in different directions.

 

From a crown prince obsessed with improvments to his small kingdom's main production, ewe's milk cheese, to a bishop who longs to be a playwright in Paris - he  jots notes on racy behaviors in, yes, I'm afraid so, in the confessional - to a former high-class whore, recruited to participate in a religious scam, who finds that the emissary from the Inquisition who arrives to vet the lame-brain miracle is a client from her glory days in Paris, to The Duke of Danger and the Marquis of Mischief, a cunning act in a traveling street show, to the animal sidekicks/ cohorts that Sly acquires in the course of his adventures, (including a frog who believes he's an enchanted prince), you'll be charmed by my ragtag roster of rascals.

 

I have all the nincompoops anyone could want.  

 

I've got a three-ring circus going. I'm the ringmaster, cracking the whip. But my idiots have minds of their own, following their own logic in spite of my wishes.  Still, I ringmaster, announcing, explaining, complaining, in old-fashioned Intrusive Author style, a grand tradition. I think it's grand. That's where I'm coming from.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Let's Get This Silly Show On The Road. 

Next: The Rambling Boy.

 

I'll wrap this up. Sly, the critter, is an adorable antihero, full of piss and vinegar.

Sly! the tale is a smirk-filled romp through an alternative reality sixteenth century.

 

 

 

If you have a taste for zany, take a look at:

> Sly!  A Rogue Reconsidered   Sly!  Catly Curiosity   > Sly!  Yo Ho!

 

 

 

 

BEAR

WITH ME.

 

 

 

 

 

BEAR

WITH ME.

 

Yah, I know the bear is a lame-brain cliche, but he's so cute I couldn't resist.

 

This site builder is full of quirks. I don't have a grip on it, nowhere near. Frankly, I haven't read the tutorials. I try this, I try that, my usual MO.

 

Maybe some of the problems are unavoidable. Maybe that's why most people go for the templates. I've got to do my homework. And I'm going to screw around in Word Press, maybe get a clue from there. 

 

I'll have this figured out

sooner or later. Till then, uh,

​

bear with me.

Ha! Here we go. Here's a nice X, again, out of the abundant clip art. Color coordinates well with the head. Sort of a crossbones. Hey, 

close enough for me. 

 

In terms of history, you'll see that a whole lot of stuff is close enough for me. If I say something a little iffy, I bolster it, or walk it back, in the footnotes.*

 

* Love them footnotes.

 

 

Puss in Boots

Picture Book, published by

.........,

1878

4. 

Monkey TK

2.

 

 

3.

 

 

1.

 

 

Below: The Queen of Hearts herself. Right: Her main man. Left: The well known engraving of

John Dee, with his beloved cat. (Dee's image will be tweaked, cat head replacing the globe.)

​

5.     

 

 

6.     

 

 

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