It has been an uneventful summer, but by mid-morning, the serene country village of Harmony would be plunged into chaos and controversy. The Watson family, preparing breakfast, were startled by angry protests from an old sportscar at the back of their house, starting, stalling, and starting again. The phone rang –

“Henry, were you out with the bassets in your car this morning?”

“They got away from me and went solo.”

“The whole town’s talking!”

In his book Phoebe and Fred, author Nathaniel S. Johnson ushers readers into the extraordinary realm of Basset Hounds and displays how these uncommonly intelligent and affectionate animals might coax unsuspecting humans into their domain.

Nathaniel S. Johnson, a veteran American radio broadcaster and record producer, was born in Concord, Massachusetts. In his youth, he demonstrated an aptitude for writing and music. At WGBH Radio and TV, Mr. Johnson supervised sound recordings for radio and TV drama, plus recordings of live broadcasts by the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras.

During his tenure at WGBH, Nat Johnson collaborated with Alistair Cooke on various Public TV programs and recorded Cooke’s “Letter from America” for broadcast on the BBC. As an audio designer for WGBH Radio Drama, Mr. Johnson produced “Herakles” by Archibald MacLeish, an experimental radio drama in quadraphonic sound. Nathaniel Johnson was appointed Head of Reissues at RCA Records in New York, where he supervised remastering the 64-CD Grammy Award-winning Heifetz Collection. Later, Mr. Johnson was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best His-torical Album as Producer for a 94-CD set, The Rubenstein Collection for RCA Red Seal.

The author of several novels and a collection of short stories, Mr. Johnson’s works have appeared in AlienSkin, Boston Literary Magazine, Writers’ Stories, SNM Horror Maga-zine, Bewildering Stories’ First Quarterly Review 2010, The Foundling Review, Every Day Fiction, and Absent Willow Review.