When I was an undergraduate, I wrote a short story entitled, "My Grandfather's Wake," for a fiction workshop. It wasn't a great short story, and most of it wasn't fiction. But it had a pretty good first line, if I do say so myself:The groundhog didn't see his shadow when I was five, but it was still a very long winter. I think I was influenced by Harper Lee on that one. Or maybe Truman Capote (inside fiction joke). The story went on to tell the story of the day my grandfather died-Groundhog Day, exactly a week before I turned…