I consider it no great loss that I happened to miss a piece of children's literature which, as I researched this thing, turned also into some obscure (to me) television show. I see no logic in weeping for me over that fact. I've been exposed to many great classics of children's literature in my youth. I am satisfied with that. Since I was an adult by the 1990s, children's literature wouldn't be interesting to me in the least, but for the stuff I had already read as a child (or had read to me). But yes, this is getting a bit off-topic, so...

The Jack Russell Terrier; yeah. Though I think we may be getting a little off-track, so I'm going to hold off commenting further until I've read more of this story.

Are you talking about the dog from the 1990's?

One of the best intros to classic literature any kid could have. I'm crying inside that you never heard of it; no offense.

"Wishbone"?

I never watched the Jetsons one all the way through, but the Flinstones one was actually pretty clever. I won't get into detail, but they actually managed to get the characters' own lives and the story of A Christmas Carol (there presented as a play with Fred as the star) to play out more or less side-by side and harmonize in a way that would have made Wishbone proud.

Exactly. And well-said. Though my latest couple of comments were in response specifically to Hyde's comments, I do appreciate what you said, and I agree totally.

I don't know that I ever had the patience to watch any of the Flintstones or Jetsons specials. After their original runs in the 50s and early 60s, the magic was pretty much gone.

I was kind of coming to that aspect of it, actually. I like that you managed to tie this into the events of the movie rather than trying to invent a special situation just for it like most Christmas Carol interpretations. Although a few do it well (ever seen Flinstones' Chrismtas Carol?), most just come across as forced and hackneyed.

As to the differences in the narrative between Dickens' story and mine, yeah, I tried to shoehorn myself, initially, into a Christmas-themed story. But with dogs, it just didn't seem necessary. Plus, I tried for two years to make a Christmas deadline, and my real life kept getting in the way of that. Finally, I just threw the towel in on the Christmas thing. Additionally, what with the fact that the real serum run took place at the end of January, through the beginning of February, it just seemed better to use Dickens' underlying message about the struggle between classes and just human nature, and play on that.

However, I am pleased it resounded!

Well now, that is very, very high praise! I'm grateful! I am trying to get back into writing in a more serious and committed way than I used to, and I am glad my material is making an impact!

If you liked this one, please feel free to have a read of my "Passing of Togo" story! I think you'll like that one too! And keep an eye out, in the coming weeks, I will be releasing a Secret of NIMH fan fiction over on The Secret of NIMH Source!

Thanks again, Hyde!

Wow. Just Wow. This is by far one of the best Balto fanfics (or fanfics in general) that I've read in quite a while. The overall tone just fits perfectly with A Christmas Carol, and it truly brings the spirit of it's source material to light in this story. It's well detailed, and each chapter is more interesting than the last, as we see Steele transform much like old Scrooge.

It seems to capture a somewhat different tone than the Dicken's classic, as that had a bit of 'holiday' cheeriness to it. Here, that's been replaced with a far more serious and darker tone, as we explore the past, present, and future of a possibly hopeless dog, that eventually is shown the error of his ways, and changes for the better. I had chills reading the 4th chapter, and it was all replaced during the last with some much needed happiness. The story really makes you feel like you're going on a journey, one that you hope to see the end of. And I do think most readers will, as I have.

Phenomenal job my friend. It's by far one of the best, and it's a crossover idea that is done brilliantly well. I loved every mintue of it. 10/10

- Dante Frost

Thanks again, dude. And I appreciate you letting Shadow know.

Well, I wasn't thinking so much of the innocence - although there is that too - as I was of the fact that it came across as being for young readers. If you've ever looked back at children's books you might have read as a kid (something along the lines of Berenstain Bears, let's say) for nostalgia, you might have an idea what I mean. There's a certain charm in a story when it doesn't need sophistication or complicated plot twists because it just is what it is.

Also, I've been in touch with Shadow-D-Husky. I'll tell him you were thinking of him and that you think he'll like this story (I suspect you're right).

Most kind of you to say. I hope to make the prose a bit more sophisticated, but I will certainly work to keep the "innocence" of the story intact. The source material deserves that.

Having only seen one of the movies involved, I guess I can't comment any further on that part.

I sympathize on your thoughts of the old story; I feel the same way about a lot of my own older works (in fact, all of them). I've been rewriting White Legend, actually, and I'm keen to see what a rewrite of Nome Meets Snob Hill would be like. That said, the old version had a certain sweet simplicity to it which, like the movies it derives from, works very well as a kind of time capsule.

A nine? I guess I'm doing pretty good so far! XD

Well, I do appreciate the constructive criticism. Remember that this is an interpretation of both. Everyone is going to have their own interpretation of the characters. Whenever we see and hear Steele in the Balto movie, he's bragging about himself or cutting insults. And this story, after all, is an attempt to combine two very disparate stories into one concept...of the reformation of one bad guy (in this case, Steele standing in for Scrooge). This story is very much like A Christmas Carol and, as I noted in the preface, there were going to be similarities in the dialogue to the Dickens story. But I didn't make him sound too much like Scrooge...because Scrooge was a sophisticated, if certainly cormudgeonly, gentleman of early 19th century London. He spoke in the vernacular of the time and place...which would be inappropriate for Steele (and all the other Balto characters). But I had to have the scenes play out as a melding of the Balto story and the Dickens story. Do you follow?

I am glad you think so highly of that old fan fic I did. Frankly, I've been thinking of updating that with a substantial rewrite. It was my first fan fiction ever, and my writing was somewhat less than it is now. The other great difficulty HERE is that I constantly was switching between the original literary version of A Christmas Carol, then the 1951 movie (for interesting ideas), and the Balto movie. That was substantially difficult, because I wanted to create something original while also trying to remain true to both stories. That's quite the difficult balancing act and, frankly, I'm glad it's over.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the chapters!

I read chapter one (I won't commit to reading more than a chapter at a time since my web access is unreliable of late), and I must say it's an interesting take on the original. Not quite as smooth and seamless a combination of the two stories as, say, Nome Meets Snob Hill, but then that's to be expected since we're talking two much more different works. As I mentioned in the shoutbox, the characters don't always seem to talk quite like they did in the movie (Steele's lines toward the end of chapter one definitely sound more like Scrooge than Steele), but then we never quite saw him face anything like this in the movie, so some creative liberties are inevitable.

On a scale of one to ten, so far I give it a nine.

Great!

Sure. I would be interested in helping you with creating a character sheet.

If you look at the cover sketch that Greykitty did (which I added a couple of hours ago), you may get an idea. Otherwise, I haven't described his markings in detail. I guess I need to work with someone on a character bio sheet. Interested?

I noticed that overlapping of the text as well. I thought it was something you did.

I may attempt to draw at least one scene (Steele encountering Charger in the umbrella stand) for the heck of it. (maybe you could start a project so people could submit drawings of various scenes)

But I must ask, what does Charger look like? Unless I missed something, I don't believe you described what he looked like (colors, markings, etc) while he was alive.

Now I just need to find someone willing to illustrate this. Or at least the cover page. I do have two images...one made by CatWhoHas14Tails (a few years ago), and a sketch made by Greykitty a little more recent than that.

Thanks!

Well hopefully another one (an NIMH fan fic) should be completed by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, I noticed a glitch I've seen before in other fan fics. When I go from one page to the next, sometimes the last few words or so on the bottom of one page are repeated on the top of the next page! What's up with that?

The effort certainly shows!

I do look forward to reading your future stories.

Thanks, Mighty! I did work hard on it and, even through the two years' worth of writer's block, I really did want to get it done. Thankfully, that has now happened, and I can move on to other pending projects.

I just got done reading this fanfic, and I really quite enjoyed it! You did a wonderful job with composing the story, and bringing life to the characters!