Floyd and his wife, Christine, spent fifteen years in Austria—long enough to master German, collect more passport stamps than they can count, and learn that Sacher torte is best eaten before noon. They later spent over a year in Russia, adding Russian to his list of “languages I attempt to speak” (with varying degrees of success). Back in the States, Floyd slogged through grading hundreds of college papers until he and Christine decided they’d earned the right to retire to a snug country house in western Montana. There, he entertains—some might say torments—his eight grandchildren with endless travel stories. After publishing Death Came Calling, But I Wasn’t Home, his memoir of Vietnam, Floyd swapped battlefields for bookshelves and now writes fiction full-time. You can sign up to get updates about his writing here.