The Adventures of Alex the Vegetarian Coyote

[Mike McCarty]

Greetings,

Long live the portrait artist forum!

I’ve gathered you all here to report my new project. This will be a bit of a stretch to connect to portraits, but I shall try: first of all, I once painted a portrait, so there’s that. Secondly, my first line was a total suck up to the forum - never a bad idea. And fifthly, here’s a nice portrait by Diego Velasquez. There, that’s five or six good reasons to read on.

I’ve written a new children’s book called: “The Adventures of Alex the Vegetarian Coyote,” https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Al...6491033&sr=1-2. It is my hope that it will be available by Christmas.

I’ve just finished an 18 month tour working for the Dept. of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation in California. I worked exclusively in the San Joaquin valley from north to south. This story springs from my experiences there in the valley.

Mi amigo, and frequent forum contributor, Carlos Ygoa of Madrid, Spain, AKA Carlito, has generously agreed to illustrate the story. Carlos is presently busy working on these oil painting illustrations between painting monster murals for installation around the world. If you visit his blog site you can gasp at the photos of his 3 story high paintings: http://thelimitedpalette.blogspot.com/, or his homemade bread and cheese – he’s promised a recipe for paella.

I think that’s a plug for everyone. So, please don’t complete your Christmas shopping early, hold off until the last minute and look for the story of Alex, the vegetarian coyote, and Bernice, the lop eared rabbit.

My story is dedicated to my brand new three month old baby granddaughter.

Actually, Cynthia allowed me to post this if I guaranteed her new baby granddaughter a part in the forthcoming Pixar movie.

The following are the opening, and closing lines of the story.

PROLOGUE
from Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare

Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late. Prodigious birth it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy!

EPILOGUE
If you ever find yourself traveling through the wine country of California - observe closely. You may just see Eva, a dark haired girl with curls that lay on her shoulders, riding a chocolate brown colt with white stockings. And alongside, Bernice, the lop eared rabbit, riding atop a vegetarian coyote named Alex.

[Cynthia Daniel]

LOL, Mike you are always so entertaining! We should have met up when you lived in Sarasota!

Is this your first and only grandchild? It is mine and I am totally ga ga - waited a long time for her! I look forward to having a copy of the book for Cicley - autographed, of course!

[Mike McCarty]

This is my only grandchild. Hard to believe my daughter is 26 years old. How can she be getting older while I remain the same?

I may get back to Sarasota someday. Just south of Sarasota is a little town called Venice. The joke was that the oldest people in the world live in Sarasota, and their parents live in Venice. It didn't seem all that old to me.

You can count on the signed and fingerprinted copy of the book. Maybe we can ship it over to Spain and have Carlito sign as well. How lucky am I to have him as the illustrator?

There has also been an audio of the story produced by the voice actor, James Herron, http://voice123.com/jamesherron

While in California I took a lot of photographs of the animals that I encountered in the field. These became characters in the book. This is a burrowing owl that I met just south of Tulare outside the Pixley Wildlife Refuge.




*************

And so they fell in behind a pair of geese and patiently waited their turn.

“Good even, even, even,” said the gander in front of them, with some repetitive difficulty.

“Don’t mind him,” explained the other Canada goose, “he hasn’t been quite right since we flew through a hail storm on the way down from Alaska - peppered the ole’ noggin a few too many times.”

“Evening!” blurted out the gander to finish his greeting, as he walked in tight circles.

“And a very good evening to you,” responded Bernice.

“Ever since then,” continued the goose, “he’s had a difficult time getting off the ground. We’re going to get to the top of this machine and jump. Hopefully this will start him on his way. We really do have business down south and it’s time we got going.”


**************

“Hold on to this bar and enjoy the ride,” said the man. “And please, don’t throw up.”

The suggestion (and recent sights) of not throwing up didn’t help Bernice’s present state of mind.

With Alex and Bernice securely in place, and all compartments full, the giant wheel began to rotate up as their small, hinged bench continued to sway back and forth. Higher and higher it went stopping now and again to exchange passengers. When they were almost at the top they could see the two geese ahead of them. They were now standing on the side of the compartment preparing to jump!

“Good luck!” called Alex.

And off they went. The gander headed straight for the ground like an egg from a tall bird. His wings were tucked and his neck stretched out like an arrow. The other goose was close behind coaxing him …

“Not yet, not yet, OK, now!”

With these instructions the gander began to spread his wings and catch the air. Slowly, it seemed, though it all happened in the blink of an eye, the gander began to check his descent. Through the walk-way between the attractions he chose his direction, with the other goose following close behind. Finally they began to level off, though not before knocking a lady’s hat off her head. Up they swooped, gaining altitude. The gander seemed to be with the program, but only flew in tight circles above the Ferris wheel. The other goose stuck with him, shouting instructions as they flew.

“I got, got, got it,” complained the gander to his spouse.

And sure enough, after a few circles they finally headed south and were soon out of sight.

[Cynthia Daniel]

I lived in Tucson for about 3 months and got to see coyotes come up in the yard.

My son is 35! I remember the day he was born, I said to myself "I wonder what each of us will be doing and where we will be in 30 years." It was interesting 5 years ago to think back to that thought. If anyone had told me then what we each would be doing 30 years later, I'd never have believed it! My son is an award winning chef and I own Stroke of Genius! Who'd have thought because back then I was working on mainframe computers (boring!).

[Carlos Ygoa]

So good to see The Forum back, alive and kicking!

Sorry for my delayed reply, Mike, Miguelín, Mikele....Such gracious words, thanks for the plug! Your check is in the mail.
I am the one who is lucky to have the honor to illustrate this book. I recommend it to anyone, child and adult alike. My only wish is that my work comes up to expectations. If it doesn´t I can always try and make up for it with bread, the eating kind, anytime you´re in this side of the ´charco´.

So, here´s to Mr. McCarty, and Alex and Bernice! ...And of course to Eva!

[Mike McCarty]

Greetings,

Carlos and I have finally brought this project to completion. We now have our book published in both English and Spanish, in Kindle and paperback.

You can view them here: https://www.amazon.com/author/mikemccarty
And on the web site here: www.alexandbernice.com

Cynthia, just as soon as I get my hands on one of these books I will scribble something in it to Cicley, then send it across the ocean to Carlos so he can do the same. We will then need the full $8.95, plus 20% for each inscription before we can actually send it your way. Shoot me an email with your current address. If you would like a bobble head doll of either Carlos or myself write your request on a $100 bill and send it to the Miguelito / Carlito solvency fund, LLC.

Here are a few of my fav illustrations, one preliminary sketch, and the front and back cover. You can see these illustrations in greater resolution at the web site above.

Amazon says that I can't give myself positive comments on the book ...

[Linda Brandon]

Wow, Mike and Carlos, this is so exciting! I just ordered your book and shared to Facebook. I am so happy this came through for you two. Please do a victory dance for me

I can't wait to read it! Congratulations!

[Mike McCarty]

Bless you Linda Brandon, and bless your easel.

"Please do a victory dance for me"

Carlos and I have discussed doing a joint numa numa victory dance with a flamenco twist. We've reached out to Gwenyth Paltrow to be the dummy that I would tackle. Carlos, however, insists that he should be the one to tackle her. It may be a moot point since she hasn't even thought to reply. If she continues to ignore us we'll look to you.

If I can coax him to the states (he says he's never been) we'll get this done. Or, better yet, I would go to Madrid, or even better still, we all go to Spain and eat paella, drink Spanish wine and paint the sunset.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6j475XI1Xg

[Cynthia Daniel]

I have to get a copy as well. My granddaughter loves books and her mother is vegetarian.

[Mike McCarty]

Cynthia,

OK, two books then. I'm going to my little Eva's first birthday party on Saturday at the Tulsa zoo. She's drooling and laughing now in several languages. I'll send only the English version.

Carlito,

This woman you offer to replace Gwenyth - is this negotiable? Are there other Spanish women to choose from? It's not completely necessary that she be able to cook. We'll discuss when you meet my boat in Barcelona.

Here are some rabbit character sketches from the movie Bambi. The rabbit in our story, however, is a lop eared rabbit, unlike these cottontails and jackrabbits. Also a coyote skull by David Gluck.

Then there is Carlito's Bernice, the lop eared rabbit, as she and Alex, the vegetarian coyote, escape a not so bright wolf.