My latest effort, Sly - The Novella (working title) is posted. I have broken off a chunk from the original version, done some rewriting in response to earlier crits, and added new material. I intend to publish it as an intro/novella/teaser, for it gets speculative near the end. (This may happen, that may happen.) I’ve removed two long chapters in the middle to streamline this taste of things to come. They will be reinserted into the full Book One. I’ve tried to fix up any confusion from the absence of chapters dealing with my king’s loopy attempts to get a cat baptized. Anything you may find mystifying might be due to that temporary deletion. If you start scratching your head, please tell me.

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Sly is a tongue-in-cheek comic/historic adventure/fantasy. My MC is Sylvester Boots, a smart-mouth cat. It’s a picaresque (episodic) tale, less concerned with destinations/goals than with the fun of the journey. Over the course of the three-book series, I drag my little jerk around sixteenth century Europe, inserting him in all kinds of messes, including an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth.

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I would appreciate any comments, especially on clarity. My editor tells me my characters sound alike. They are alike, that’s part of my joke. I have created a bunch of scheming malcontents. Not one of them is satisfied with the hand that life has dealt him/her.  Every time a new face butts into my story - that's what they do, I don't invite them in, they butt in - I say to myself, uh-oh, I've got another screwball scoundrel on my hands. That's what they all eventually turn into, despite my best efforts to keep them straight-arrow.

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--edited by Mimi Speike on 5/5/2015, 2:07 PM--

I have a new version posted, with miscellaneous minor changes, and a new final chapter, named Sheesh! In which I answer a question that was put to me, that I didn't think I needed to explain, but I am now glad it was posed. It gives me a new slant on a matter in book two. New slants are always good, whether you go with them or not. This one I think will end up being even funnier than what I had planned.

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I have added a new chapter note also, in which I thank Antonin Scalia for the only useful thing I've ever heard him say. It fits into Sly's mouth just perfect. I was working on that passage the day the marriage ruling came out. I said, Damn! This is so much better than what I've got. Serendipity, absolutely.

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Keep 'em coming, clown. You and Joni Ernst have both handed me some delightful material.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/7/2015, 7:44 PM--