Chemistry Lesson

I discovered the other day that sometimes the key to a good story comes down to one thing: chemistry.

I had what I thought was a good idea for a gritty Western novel: I’d take a Scottish doctor, newly emigrated to Wyoming, and I’d make him a Pinkerton agent who specialized in tracking down hard-to-catch criminals. First he'd shoot his quarry to bring him down, then he'd patch him up and bring him to justice. I’d make the doctor a loner, kind of a tough Clint Eastwood type of man who kept to himself and who had no need for anyone else in his life. Sounds kind of grim, no?

I was in the research phase of the project, doing a lot of online reading and ordering in lots of unusual books from the library, when I overheard my brother talking about a friend of his who has an unusual nickname: Wapiti Bob. “I’m absolutely stealing that nickname,” I told my brother. “That character is going into my next story.” The addition of Wapiti Bob was a gift that came straight from heaven. All of a sudden, the story changed its tone. Bob was the leavening agent for what could have been a very heavy story. He gave it necessary loft and humor and quirkiness. With the unexpected addition of Bob, I found myself sketching out a very different story—a buddy story about two very dissimilar people, the uptight, Type-A Scottish doctor and the laid-back, easygoing, “never met a man I didn’t like” cowboy. Add in the wide-open spaces of 1899 Wyoming, and all of a sudden, the story took on a life of its own.

In the process of doing research for the story, I did a lot of reading about how Scotch single malt whisky is made. I won’t take you through all the steps here, but at a certain point sprouted barley is mixed with water and yeast to create a mixture called “mash.” The mash is allowed to ferment in big tubs while the yeast eats up all the sugar in the barley water and changes it to alcohol. The strain of yeast that’s used (and the length of the time the mash is allowed to ferment) affects the taste of the end product. In this case, the doctor was the mash and Bob was the yeast. Together, they made for a very nice story.