Posts Tagged ‘reader questions’
Reader Questions (More)
4 Comments »
September 21st, 2023 Posted 7:50 am
Back to reader questions. Lizz Osterman writes (about Up On The Woof Top, the new Chet and Bernie Christmas/holiday novel, coming Oct. 17 and now pre-orderable. The series can be read in any order, by the way):
“Does Chet get to help Santa pull his sleigh?”
What a great, mind-reader type question! Here’s a sneak peek from Chapter 17:
That gave Georgette an idea. I could see it on her face. Her eyes found Bernie in the crowd. Not a big crowd, to be accurate. We stick to the facts in this business.
“Bernie?” she said. “Do you think Chet would go for getting harnessed up to the sleigh? We could make it look like he’s pulling Ariadne.”
“Nice idea,” Bernie said. “But not his kind of thing.”
Bernie’s always right of course, so I pretended I hadn’t heard him.

Tags: reader questions, Up On The Woof Top
Posted in Chet The Dog
Kringle Ranch
3 Comments »
September 18th, 2023 Posted 8:57 am
Many thanks for all your questions – some of which others of you answered already! I’ll run through some this week. NoNot An Elizabeth writes in: “The cover shows a rustic home surrounded by snow. Chet & Bernie live in the AZ desert where it never snows. What gives? Are they in Flagstaff?”
This gives me a chance to show my copies of the actual book, which arrived today! Always a fun moment! While NoNot is perfectly right about the Chet and Bernie series in general, C&B leave AZ in a few of the books – The Sound and the Furry, for example, and Up On The Woof Top is one of those. It takes place in Colorado – much of the action happening at Kringle Ranch.

Tags: Kringle Ranch, reader questions, Up On The Woof Top
Posted in Chet The Dog
Eight Miles High
9 Comments »
May 17th, 2023 Posted 9:37 am
On May 9 we posted a Romanian scene from Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge (coming July 25, preorderable) where the teenagers Dinu and Tassa are riding in the countryside on Dinu’s new motorcycle (acquired in an interesting way). The scene ends like this:
At first, Tassa’s hands felt awkward to him, but she changed the position a bit, maybe simply relaxing, and after that things felt right, like the three of them – Dinu, Tassa, 660Z – were one. She hummed to herself. “What’s that song?” Dinu said, raising his voice. “It’s American,” Tassa said, practically in his ear. “Eight Miles High.”
Reader Kathryn Blain Esgar asked: “I’m wondering why you chose that song, & whether it has any significance in that particular scene.”
Great question! The short answer is it popped into my mind and felt right. But looking back I can see that the song itself is all about that freedom that sometimes comes when you find yourself detached from regular life. So that’s a bit of magic. Then there’s the American part – America still having magic vibes in many places on earth. And throw in the natural high, eight miles worth. So that’s pretty much it. I’m always happy to take a swing, no matter how inartful, at any reader questions. (I left out the fact that America is coming to them – especially Dinu – in the form of Mrs. Plansky herself.)

Tags: Eight Miles High, Mrs. Plansky's Revenge, reader questions
Posted in Chet The Dog
Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge
12 Comments »
November 7th, 2022 Posted 8:13 am
Many thanks for all the questions re Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, my next novel, coming July 25 and already pre-orderable, thanks to the miracle of modern commerce.
- Will this be a series? I think so.
- Any dogs (or cats) involved? No.
- Will there be more Chet and Bernie? For sure! I’m working on one right now.
- Is Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge a mystery? It’s certainly in the more general realm of crime fiction, but I’d say closer to suspense or thriller, with elements of caper.
- What type of revenge is Mrs.P seeking? Well, no spoilers, but she surprises herself in the end.
- Tone: Lighthearted and fun or more serious and suspenseful? Yes.
- Any quirky characters? I would say so, but never to the point of being unbelievable. You may enjoy Mrs. Plansky’s 98 year old dad.
- Any supernatural? No.
- What’s on my nightstand? Open, by Andre Agassi. It’s great.
- Is Mrs. Plansky based on a specific real person? No.
- Does she like baseball? Mrs. P was a bit of a tomboy, as she puts it, and played Little League with the boys.
- Does she drink beer? Beer doesn’t come up, but a Romanian drink called tuica plays a role.
- How old is Mrs. P? 71.
- When does the story take place? Now.
Tags: Mrs. Plansky's Revenge, reader questions, tuica
Posted in Chet The Dog