No place like my home...Chateaux in Medoc region of France

[DFW]

13. I don't have his books here in Germany

Those were back at my parents' house in Virginia, and I haven't seen them in decades. I don't recall, either, which of his collections contained this story, but I sure as hell remember it! He had so many others. The Old Switcheroo, and the one where some guy tells his wife he's leaving her, and so she brains him with a frozen leg of lamb. She then calls the cops and says she found her husband dead when she came home, is so grateful to them for their comforting ways that she serves them the murder weapon for dinner.

There are so many twists and turns you can play with when writing these things. In my book, the central character is a wine nerd who dabbles in physics and accidentally opens two portals to the past, one to Château Lafite in 1860 and another one to a retired Thomas Jefferson in 1818. One generous (but misguided) critic wrote that "the author's (i.e. my) passion for vintage wines shows through on every page." Nice, except that I hate the taste of wine and never touch the stuff. I just used my imagination.