Publishing News
SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY is coming July 14. Normally, a C&B e-short story comes out about a month before the novel. That won’t be the case this time. Instead, the e-short – a Chet and Bernie Christmas tale – will come out November 24. As you can see from this link, it has no title at the moment.
Suggestions welcome!
Tags: Chet and Bernie Christmas, e-story 4
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2015 at 7:52 am and is filed under Chet The Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
8:14 am on April 11th, 2015
Good morning. Spence, can you give us a hint what the new short story is about?
It is a beautiful Spring day here. We are loving it, but the ‘rents say they are going for a long bike ride later, so we will be indoors. Boo
8:37 am on April 11th, 2015
Good morning Howlers and all. Lovely day here too. Have fun on the bike ride, ‘rents.
8:56 am on April 11th, 2015
Good morning O’H, B&M&L and everyone! Sunny here for a change and a cool night. Feels really lilke a spring day 🙂 Darah Thea is in the dog house because she kept jumping against the front window and HONKING in the middle of the night.
(darah here…see how quiet i am) Some dumb 2 legger put a great big Easter Lily on the porch table right where I look out! In the moonlight, it looked like a ghost or something. I was just doing my job trying to protect them. Sheesh!
Have a sunny, springy Saturday all!
9:08 am on April 11th, 2015
Oley Howlers asks a good question: what’s the story about? How else to come up with a title, right? But I don’t know what it’s about yet! Other than Christmas, in some way. Maybe Bernie’s mom comes to visit and … – Spence
9:16 am on April 11th, 2015
We figured it had to involve Christmas. Bernie’s mom coming to visit would be a hoot.
9:27 am on April 11th, 2015
What do we know about Bernie’s mom? I don’t remember much about her but I think something was mentioned somewhere.
I get an image of Charlie Sheen’s mom, Evelyn, from Two and a Half Men. Not.
9:31 am on April 11th, 2015
Title…. Let’s see….
Good morning all.
9:41 am on April 11th, 2015
Rio: I’m way behind on Allegiance and will probably wait for the dvd.
9:47 am on April 11th, 2015
Barb, we just helped Mom plant onions. Last week we all planted lettuce seeds. Here is our question for you, and the other plundering gardeners: we have a bzillion onions left and a bzillion million lettuce seeds. We intend to plant more of the lettuce late season, or maybe even in another week if these don’t come up. But we will still have a lot left. Can either the seeds or the onion sets be stored for next season and, if so, how do we store them?
Spence, Thanks for the info….Christmas. O.K. We Members of the Nation love Christmas, but we have never spent Christmas in the desert. We do remember Bernie’s mom. She is a real piece of work. Heh! O.K. We will ponder this while they pedal their butts off (hopefully).
9:56 am on April 11th, 2015
Howlers, The lettuce seeds will keep till next year. Most seeds will keep and still germinate well for 3-5 years. Onion sets (the things that look like little dried onions) will not keep till next year. You could probably keep them 2-3 months in a dark, dry place for later summer planting.
Here’s what we do – we plant the onions all the way around the perimeter of the raised beds. Some we plant a little deeper, about 2″ and place them right next to each other. Then we pull those for green onions. By planting deeper, you will get a longer white neck, which is nice for salads. We planted 300 around our two raised beds.
9:59 am on April 11th, 2015
Thanks, Barb.
9:59 am on April 11th, 2015
Also, the seeds we don’t use get kept in the pantry, in a sealed zip lock bag.
Today we are going to plant cilantro and dill in containers. Barb went nuts and now has 7 big containers that look like half barrels lining the west side of the backyard.
10:03 am on April 11th, 2015
O’H, tell the ‘rents that seeds, in their packets, can be put into an airtight glass jar (like a canning jar) and kept in the fridge 1-2 seasons. Some might be good beyond that but it’s questionable.
10:04 am on April 11th, 2015
Sorry, we were typing while y’all were talking.
10:06 am on April 11th, 2015
We planted about 50-60 about 5-6″ apart. These are around the outside of the bed where we planted lettuce. Can we plant them around edge of beds where tomatoes are going? Peppers?
We planted red, yellow, and white onions.
10:18 am on April 11th, 2015
Plant those little guys left, right and center. They don’t take much space and some insects and critters aren’t fond of them and might stay away!
10:26 am on April 11th, 2015
Howlers, you don’t need to put them nearly that far apart. The ones we pick green are almost touching. Yes, as HOH said, they can go in all those beds. Only problem we found is that the tomatoes got so big that the onions didn’t have any sun light. So this year we will be pulling all those before the tomato plants get big. We found ours on sale for $.99 for 100. We bought one each of red, yellow and white.
10:29 am on April 11th, 2015
A title you say? Oh dear, our punny side is going to rear its ugly head.
10:34 am on April 11th, 2015
Peas have a shorter keeping time, so they say. They don’t recommend more than 2 years. Jessica had some from 2011 that we put in just to see if they would grow.
You can also add a little rice to the bottom of the bag or jar. It will absorb the moisture and the seeds may last a little longer.
10:37 am on April 11th, 2015
I pre-ordered the e story.
10:44 am on April 11th, 2015
How about “Christmas Cactus”? (Which, by the way, is a beautiful plant.)
10:49 am on April 11th, 2015
Me too, pre-ordered…as they say sight unseen, or in this case, title unknown.
10:50 am on April 11th, 2015
Hey, B, If Bernie’s mother is coming to visit, that’s not a bad title.
11:07 am on April 11th, 2015
Titles!…I love coming up with titles!…snort!…Here is the new title: Happy Howl-A-Days!…snorkel!
11:18 am on April 11th, 2015
Christmas With Chet & Bernie…simple but elequent…Heh.
11:19 am on April 11th, 2015
Eloquent…Gah.
11:19 am on April 11th, 2015
Not that my opinion matters, but what about “A Christmas Tail?”
RIO! Your team is in first place! My team is not.
11:26 am on April 11th, 2015
Here’s an example about Bernie’s mom from Paw and Order:
“Sighs are interesting. Bernie’s mom, for example, a real piece of work who sometimes comes for a visit–please not again anytime soon, the fact being I do not shed, whatever she happens to believe, and if I do, it’s no biggie–is a champion sigher…” (231).
11:32 am on April 11th, 2015
An example from Fistful of Collars:
“Bernie’s mom had surprised him on her last visit by baking a peach pie. ‘What the hell do you mean I never baked when you were a kid?’ she’d said, and then downed the rest of her G and T and gotten right to work, but there’d been an oven glitch leading to the end result being tossed in the trash–although with the lid left off, meaning I knew the taste of peaches, at least in the blackened state” (221).
11:36 am on April 11th, 2015
A final example from To Fetch a Thief:
“…in fact she reminded me of Bernie’s mom in other ways, including how the longer you looked at her the older she got…” (?).
12:11 pm on April 11th, 2015
Thanks for these excerpts, B. It’s so helpful – if she’s in the story you’ve made it so much easier for me now. As for cactuses, they play a big role in Scents and Sensibility.
12:12 pm on April 11th, 2015
B, that is where I got the image of Charlie Sheen’s mom. Ha ha.
12:13 pm on April 11th, 2015
You guys are in rare form. Lots of good titles and quotes from Bee. We never come up with good titles.
Rio, just picked up The Sweetheart Season at the library. The story takes place shortly after Barb was born, so that aspect will make it more interesting. Have to finish Miss Julia #3 first.
12:28 pm on April 11th, 2015
You are welcome Spence. (Can’t wait for Scents and Sensibility!)
12:30 pm on April 11th, 2015
MPM: I’ve never watched Two and a Half Men. Is the mother awful?
12:30 pm on April 11th, 2015
The Sigh Before Christmas.
12:49 pm on April 11th, 2015
All good titles you guys have come up with.
Cactus in S&S? Spence has really got me curious now. I like cactus, but I don’t like dogs anywhere near cactus.
Stover, Thanks for the excerpts.
Bear, Thanks for the free HBO weekend info.
1:03 pm on April 11th, 2015
MPM: I suppose I should ask, is the mother on Two and a Half Men as awful as Bernie’s mom? It would be funny to see.
1:15 pm on April 11th, 2015
Maybe…Away in a Doghouse? Nah.
1:19 pm on April 11th, 2015
Titles?
Bernie’s Mom is Coming to Town
Shooter, It’s Cold Outside
The Dog Daze of Christmas
The Dog Daze of Christmas
Jingle Bones
What Dog is This?
Pause and Claws
Paws and Clause
1:38 pm on April 11th, 2015
WAit, wait, All I Want for Christmas is another Dog!
2:44 pm on April 11th, 2015
Hello All–Conan’s home, doing well, and I’m heading out for a concert, then to catch up on grading I should have been doing this past week. I just found out that this year’s Summer School (yay–employment) is only four weeks long (Awk! Wha…?)
More later…
2:45 pm on April 11th, 2015
Conan is Home!! Yay!!!
2:50 pm on April 11th, 2015
Rose, Your opinion ALWAYS matters ^..^
2:51 pm on April 11th, 2015
and I like your book title too.
3:02 pm on April 11th, 2015
Moo! I have it on good authority that when my mama was sixteen, she was dating a young man. It was all very innocent, just like I would have wanted it to be—I wasn’t even a wag in anyone’s tail then. One day he kissed her for the very first time. She pulled away, gave him a firm handshake and said, “I think the ideal cow is a jersey cow.” And, away she ran. I can’t speak for her judgement on cows, but I can speak for her taste in cattle ranchers. The Giant grew up on a cattle ranch. He thinks the ideal cow is medium rare.
3:05 pm on April 11th, 2015
Yeah for Conan, who’s a good dog?
3:07 pm on April 11th, 2015
Diane: I am glad to hear Conan is home and doing well. We shared some good times over a plate of Cheetos under the Quilt. He likes to keep you on your toes.
3:34 pm on April 11th, 2015
Christmas Claws…and the mother cometh
4:11 pm on April 11th, 2015
Diane, I am happy to hear that Conan is on the road to tip-top!
4:13 pm on April 11th, 2015
Title: “A Winter’s Tail”? “Santa Paws is Coming to Town”? “Bark the Herald Angels Sing”? “Chet and the Night Visitor”? Looking forward to it!
4:35 pm on April 11th, 2015
Hello Caroline Daisy! Welcome to the mayhem.
How about “The Mutt-Cracker”? Sweet.
4:46 pm on April 11th, 2015
WE have been taught to HATE some plurals: Alumnus (1), Alumni (+), Cactus (1), Cacti (+). So therefore it stands to reason: Horse (1) Horsi (+) or Rhinoceros (1) Rhinoceri (+) Hippopotamus (1) Hippopatomi (+). Right? Ain’t language grand?
4:50 pm on April 11th, 2015
The Best Little Christmas Story Ever. (heh, heh, heh)
5:09 pm on April 11th, 2015
Don’t remember hearing from Carolina Daisy before, but she has some darn good titles. I especially like Bark The Herald. Like I said, our minds don’t seem to function in that manner, but we love the ideas.
5:51 pm on April 11th, 2015
Barb, your mind functions just fine. You know so much stuff it is amazin’.
6:10 pm on April 11th, 2015
Hi Carolina Daisy! Cool Name.
6:36 pm on April 11th, 2015
Titles: “A Winter’s Tail”? “Santa Paws is Coming to Town?” “Bark the Herald Angels Sing”? ” “Chet and the night Visitor”? Looking forward to it!
6:51 pm on April 11th, 2015
Carolina Daisy, Sometimes Our Favorite Author puts rules for suggesting ttles but this time he hasn’t…so far. Today there have been some funny, creative titles and yours have been some of the bestest! If only we had a wee bit more info about the story to titalate the title.
7:02 pm on April 11th, 2015
Tupper!…The Mutt-Cracker!…snort!…I like it. Or about “The Mother Lode”…heh!…Not really Christmassy, but I was thinking about Bernie’s Mother…snuff!
7:06 pm on April 11th, 2015
Title!….”Merry Little Christmas”…snort!….Bernie Little, get it?…grunt!
7:12 pm on April 11th, 2015
Love those two! And thank you for the compliment, HOH.
7:12 pm on April 11th, 2015
We like the Thieves’s title: The sigh before Christmas.
7:13 pm on April 11th, 2015
So many titles, so few words 🙁
7:14 pm on April 11th, 2015
Breaking Rock Around the Christmas Tree
7:22 pm on April 11th, 2015
Barb, we all come to this here blog with different strengths and knowledge and different areas of interest. Inspite of that, or maybe because of it, we become comrades and friends and family. I truly believe that is why we can be together and feel closer than biological families can and help and support and bouy each other up. And now, as our Golinka says, I will climb off this soapbox. (huff, wheeze)
7:22 pm on April 11th, 2015
Bacon!…I think Bacon should be in the title…slurp!…That is what someone is going to be cooking up for some BLTs tonight, very soon. Like NOW!…slobber!
7:23 pm on April 11th, 2015
Admin, you should give the URL as smile.amazon.com so a charity can be designated to receive a donation from the sale.
7:24 pm on April 11th, 2015
O’H as in (maybe) I’ll Have An Orange Jumpsuit Christmas…
7:26 pm on April 11th, 2015
Dog Rest Ye Furry Gentlemen?
7:29 pm on April 11th, 2015
We had one of the best bike rides ever. We biked from Spring Mill to center city Philly, including the brand new Schuylkill Banks boardwalk out over the river. The ride took us thru Manayunk, which you may have heard of from the big bike race, when those bigtime bikers go over “The Manayunk Wall”, and Beautiful Fairmont Park, past Boathouse Row, which Barb and Teddy’s dad are sure to know from Lisa Scottoline’s books. We had a delish lunch at a cafe along Boathouse Row. We sat outdoors and enjoyed the river view, with all of the rowers in their long boats, and listened to excellent musicians playing on the cafe’s patio. There were loads of people out, biking, walking, running, even riding surry bikes. Our bike ride should have been 25 miles, but we took a wrong turn onto Wissahicken Valley Trail and added 3 miles to the total. So, a whopping 28.23 mile ride this early in the season!!! I have afeeling I will be asleep soon. Heh!
I will post a photo of Ray enjoying lunch. Those are ice teas, not beers!
7:30 pm on April 11th, 2015
7:36 pm on April 11th, 2015
Here is a photo of Boathouse Row from across the river.
7:39 pm on April 11th, 2015
Howlers – that boathouse row is just lovely – great pic!
7:43 pm on April 11th, 2015
O’H’s Mom, Love the fotos! What fun!
7:43 pm on April 11th, 2015
Howlers, what a wonderful day your folks had. Great pictures!
7:49 pm on April 11th, 2015
Oh, and for the some of us taking up the “Miss Julia” challenge, Mom is starting “Miss Julia Plans a Wedding” tonight after finishing a Lawrence Sanders’ McNally book. I (LLtL) will supervise reading positions so mom isn’t crowded by the Blondie or the Darah. Pookey will guard the door per usual.
Mmmm, it seems Staff and Dawson are notably missing today. Hope all is AOK.
8:00 pm on April 11th, 2015
Great news about Conan.
How is Larry?
8:02 pm on April 11th, 2015
Yes, BSD or Masquers, the last we heard heard was out of OCU but is he still improving?
8:14 pm on April 11th, 2015
We are on Chapter 12 of Miss Julia.
We agree, happy for Conan and Diana.
8:37 pm on April 11th, 2015
Barb, how dare you be ahead of om in the Miss Julia book. We will shut up now so she can read. (whispering, is it good?)
9:07 pm on April 11th, 2015
Howlers: Tea you say…of the Long Island variety?..just kidding.
Fantabulous fotos.
Larry is in rehab, but hopefully not for long. His brother reports he wants to be out, out, out!
We have been thinking of Staff and Dawson today too.
9:10 pm on April 11th, 2015
Photo!…Wow! Very Kool boat house photo!…snort!
9:12 pm on April 11th, 2015
Walk!…wheeze!…Back from a long walk…hack!spit!…I came up with a few new Titles…”Oh Holey Bite” and “The Bite Before Christmas”…snort!…I had biting someone’s ankles on my mind while out walking…gasp!
9:24 pm on April 11th, 2015
Oh, we do love “The Bite Before Christmas”. If OFA is designing the story around the title, we wonder who would get bit.
9:31 pm on April 11th, 2015
HOH, Yes, Miss Julia is good. Her typical irritating, opinionated self, but in the end she is still a good person.
Where are Dawson and Staff?
Off to bed soon.
9:33 pm on April 11th, 2015
We love The Bite Before Christmas, too. Why don’t we ever come up with these?
9:45 pm on April 11th, 2015
Whoa–I am stunned–stunned I say, by everyone’s creativity, and very grateful for your kind words (and Cheetos) for
Conan. It makes me wish I could have contributed to the very detailed gardening discussion–so many of you are so good at so many different things.
I like The Bite Before Christmas and Breaking Rock Around the Christmas Tree (but who cares what I think–Someone didn’t care for my last offering–The Spy who Licked Me).
9:48 pm on April 11th, 2015
We hope that our Staff and Dawson and Turtleman and A Katty are all okay.
Wose , so good to know you and others, ie..Wolfie and ALR and Wose and BooBear and ML and Teddy and others are around and safe and we hope to hear from them soon. Ya gotta love the peole on this here blog…?
9:55 pm on April 11th, 2015
The Twelve Treats of Christmas
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Deck the Tree, Catch the Perp!
A Puppy’s First Christmas
9:58 pm on April 11th, 2015
Another!….”The Pug Who Came For Christmas”…snorkel!…The sequel could be, “The Pug Who Stayed For New Years”….snort!…Next would be “The Easter Pug Who Is Still Here”….heh!heh!
10:05 pm on April 11th, 2015
Yah, we are all OK. I am hurting because Dawson just wiped the floor with me at cards. I refused to count the last hand. It was too darn humiliating.
We are pack pack packing. We are clean clean cleaning. We are trying to give away many things. Life is so exciting now.
Dad seems to be adjusting to life in his wonderful foster home. Dawson calls him every day. I don’t. But we talk about him every day. Dawson found a picture of him in his youth and I cleaned up the fold marks in the middle. He was a handsome lad.
We have about a week of work left and then, the old house will no longer be ours to visit. The realtors will have all the keys.
10:07 pm on April 11th, 2015
Staff!….sniff!
10:41 pm on April 11th, 2015
The title that popped into my mind for the next e-story was, “Hair, Hair, The Gang’s All Here”.
Yippee! Relieved that Conan is safe at home where he belongs.
O’Howlers: What an ambitious bicycle ride into beautul territory. I have been hard pressed to make it 3 miles around one lake and my legs burn afterwards. My winter body has no muscles.
Wose: Your opinion matters just as much as the rest of us. Your therapy for the next month is to wag your tail for 2 minutes every day and to smile when you are doing it.
I had my taxes done today which needlessly stresses me out to no end. I went for my 3 mile bike ride afterwards. A fantastically beautiful day. Yesterday I rode around the lake in a snowstorm.
Don’t worry if I don’t post every day for a while. There is so much to be done and at night I crawl into bed emotionally and physically exhausted.
Life is good.
10:44 pm on April 11th, 2015
Staff & Dawson: Your Dad is Very Handsome.
Saying Goodbye to the Old Homestead…we know of what you speak…it is Not Easy.
Many Memories. sniff.
10:47 pm on April 11th, 2015
One!…More!…”Fleas Navidad”…snort!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTtc2pM1boE
10:48 pm on April 11th, 2015
Rockies!…Are getting squashed like bugs under the heavy bats of the Cubbies…groan!
11:00 pm on April 11th, 2015
Bark! the Herald Angels Sing!
11:16 pm on April 11th, 2015
Rio – “Fleas” made us laugh out loud.
Staff and Dawson – we are sending hugs. They don’t take up much room and are easy to pack.
Saying goodnight from here, and are going to bed to dream of the temperatures in the high 60’s that they have promised us for tomorrow.
G’night, family.
11:22 pm on April 11th, 2015
One last thing – “Barking Around The Christmas Tree”. Or in Rio’s house ” Marking Around The Christmas Tree”
tee hee
11:49 pm on April 11th, 2015
I think I had a real date today. We went to the park and walked around the lake sans dogs, and sat and watched the ducks. Later we had dinner at an Italian restraunt then came back here and watched a movie. Dog,I’m too old for this nonsense…
11:59 pm on April 11th, 2015
ML!…Of course you are. Call it quits real soon before you have too much fun!…grunt!
12:16 am on April 12th, 2015
ML: Did you recognize us? Pancho was disguised as a mallard, and Lefty was disguised as Pancho.
Nighty noodles.
12:20 am on April 12th, 2015
ML – never to old for duck watching and Italian food.
Thieves – good dogs!
Rio – snort
10:21 am on May 1st, 2015
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