Late Harvest is set in the fabulous Mendocino wine country and features a hunky German hero, a precocious five-year-old and a host of secondary characters that include a couple of gypsies and a feisty old Appalachian woman (Sharp as a Toledo blade, and with the directness of a bordello madam, Mags Emory had never couched her thoughts. She never missed a thing. She knew all the under-workings at Cresthaven. Or almost all of them.).
I loved doing the research--staying in quaint bed and breakfasts, interviewing winery owners, tasting an astonishing assortment of late harvest wines (dirty job, but I had to do it). This story which was originally a Golden Heart finalist, is one of my favorites, not only for the story but because I broke the rules. (Still remember my then NY editor telling me "We don't like Germans." I like to think my German grandfather is smiling from his grave.)
