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You've somehow stumbled upon the page of Dan DeWitt, genre-hopping author of the zombie thriller ORPHEUS, the Norse mythology adventure ODINSONS, and the horror short-story collection UNDERNEATH. There's lots more where those came from, so stick around.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

The 11-Year-Old Cigar

On 13January2001, I got married. On 14January2001, I realized that everybody had gotten one of the cigars that I'd bought to celebrate the occasion ... everybody but me. Oh, the tragedy that is my life.

About a year ago, I was cleaning out a back room, and I found my wife's honeymoon purse. I looked inside and saw a familiar metal tube. As it turns out, my wife thought to put one aside for the cruise. Yes, very thoughtful. Unfortunately, we were so busy funning it up that she forgot all about it.

I pulled it out of the tube and inspected it. The construction was still good, but it was incredibly brittle due to its absolute lack of moisture. If you don't know anything about cigars, they'll keep pretty much indefinitely if you store them in a good humidor at the right temperature and humidity; outside of those conditions, however, you're asking for trouble.

Being a guy with a good humidor, I figured that I had nothing to lose, and popped it in. I'd heard the occasional tale of cigars "coming back to life" after years of neglect, so why not?

You're probably wondering what this has to do with you, the writer.