Pickett is officially off this week from Santa Monica to Chile, where he will spend the next three-four months researching the third part of his Sideways trilogy. Even before departure, he’s blogged the first nugget of possible third-novel inspiration:

I did a corporate outing — my first — with a gaggle of guys and women from the adult beverage department of Walgreens (yes, Walgreens sells wine) — up to Sideways ground zero… The writer in me started to envision the opening of Sideways III (Chile). To wit: Miles has been reduced to corporate outings after the success of his novel and the movie that sprang from it. But he needs a change. Events will conspire to take him to Chile. That’s all I have right now.

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