In her latest sinister romance novel , The Bourbon Thief , Tiffany Reisz spins a disturbing , pot likker - soaked narrative that pore around a family bourbon distillery . wander a plot that crosses generation of Kentucky indigene , from older southerly gentry to contemporary con artists , Reisz approaches the oft - romanticized distilling business with a critical oculus and wicked sense of humor .
Supercalltalked with Reisz to larn her own thoughts on imbibing , why distilling is appropriate for the southerly mediaeval genre , and how to burn upbourbon .
Supercall : Bourbon dynasty playact a huge role in the book . Do you ever wassail while writing?Tiffany Reisz : I once tried drink while indite because I had aspiration of being the distaff Hemingway , but after a glass of wine-colored I just want to sleep . Then I remembered when he said “ write drunk , edit sober ” it was metaphorical , not actual advice .
Flickr/Josh Edlin
I was born and raise in Kentucky and hold out a few years in Lexington , which is right on along the Bourbon Trail . I contain Kentucky pedigree horseracing in a book , so I thought about what else was stark Kentucky . The solution of class is bourbon .
SC : What make Bourbon dynasty a right topic for a work of Southern Gothic fiction?TR : It ’s mature for metaphor . Bourbon is known as “ the good spirit ” because nothing extra get going into it . You ca n’t add anything artificial or season it with anything but the charred woodwind instrument of the bourbon barrel . It also has the concept of the Angel ’s Share . As the Bourbon dynasty ages , it evaporates , and they say the angels drink it . All the mythos made it a flock of merriment to spell about . Plus , it tastes good .
SC : You deconstruct a caboodle of that religious mysticism . Distillers often discuss the Angel ’s parcel very wistfully , but in your book it becomes a metaphor for the tragical cost character must give for good fortune . Did you go into the account book bet to take bourbon down a peg?TR : By the end we have a character who is start out her own still . She ’s seek to create an even more dependable spirit . It ’s insufferable to separate Kentucky and bourbon from the dark history of the South and the Civil War and slavery , and the dark time of proscription when the still were shut down . It ’s a complicated chronicle and I wanted to explore that . The drink itself is not to blame .
SC : Speaking of the dark , complex past of bourbon , Jack Daniel ’s recently made changes to itsofficial marque historyto recognise the role of Nearis Green , a slave who taught Daniel the distilling practice . What do you think about brand addressing these aspects of their pasts?TR : I’m happy that these level are starting to come out , though it ’s certainly belated . There ’s a secret history to the South that ’s been crush . There ’s this lingering guilt a lot of citizenry palpate , but probably not enough people find .
SC : Did you have a go at it a lot about bourbon before you started , or was this a learning process?TR : I did n’t be intimate much beyond my love for a good Bourbon Sour . I had a lot of sport going to a band of distilleries on the Bourbon Trail — the duty tour guides are a wealth of entropy and comment . I find that even though I ’d been born and evoke in Kentucky , I ’d taken the expanse for give , so it was exciting to learn more .
SC : What was your pet distillery?TR : Buffalo Trace was interesting because the still has swamp in the past tense . It ’s mighty near the Kentucky River , putting it mostly where the fictional Red Thread still would have been in the playscript . I get to talk to one of the hitch guides about the deluge . He recalled wading through chest - high water and seeing crumb swimming for their lives around him . I make love these short detail that come up out when you talk to the people that work there .
SC : Did any other brand story inspire the book?TR : There were four distilleries that outride undetermined in Kentucky during proscription for “ medicinal intention . ” doc were writing trillion of prescriptions for alcohol for people who purportedly needed it as medicine . I pretended Red Thread was one of the handful that stayed undefendable .
This might be giving away a short bit , but there was a fervour at the Heaven Hill still in 1996 which inspired me . Bourbon dynasty burns very , very red-hot . There are newspaper articles about it that say , even 500 feet off , the fireman ’s helmet were start to melt . No one knows what started it because there was no evidence leave after everything burn .
SC : Your book follows two stiff female protagonist , who are often underestimated and patronized by men . Did you get a fortune to speak to any adult female in the spirit business?TR : Unfortunately , no . It ’s very male - dominated . There is one historical model that leaps to heed : Margie Samuels , wife of William Samuels of Maker ’s Mark . She project the logo , and the red wax sealskin was her idea . She was incredibly significant to the history of Maker ’s Mark . Overall , though , it ’s a very macho business enterprise . It was fun to create a fancied character that gets her own still in the end .
SC : at long last , this is a romance novel . How do you see the human relationship betweenbooze and romanceand sex ? Where does alcohol primed in?TR : The place of alcohol in the story of Tamara and Levi is very irregular . They ’re not large drinker , but they own a distillery that is fraught with play and peril . But it was also fun to have some of my character meet at a Bourbon dynasty taproom . Plenty of great relationships have start at bourbon bars . And plenty have ended there too .
