Author Sara Gruen on Nessie, her new novel and Broadway’s ‘Water for Elephants’

TORONTO – Renowned Canadian novelist Sara Gruen says “a Nessie rabbit hole” led her to her latest story, “At the Water’s Edge.”

In the new book, the Vancouver native — whose hit novel “Water for Elephants” became a 2011 film starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson — writes of a privileged American trio on the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland during the Second World War.

Gruen says she first became interested in the Loch Ness Monster, a.k.a. Nessie, when she visited the Scottish Highlands and fell in love with Urquhart Castle at age 12.

“Of course at 12, I was sure I was going to see the monster, so I waited and waited and waited — and didn’t,” she says.

Then about four years ago, she was “procrastinating” on putting pen to paper (“I’m very, very good at writing-avoidance,” she says with a laugh) and found an online article about government secrecy surrounding the lake creature of Scottish folklore.

“There was an exhibit in, I think, Edinburgh of declassified documents,” she says, “and one of them was a letter from Scotland Yard that indicated that nobody had any doubt whatsoever that the monster existed, and they were trying to figure out how to protect it from big-game hunters.”

That sucked her into a long Nessie surf session online (her “Nessie rabbit hole”), followed by a trip to Scotland to start research for a new story after 2010’s “Ape House.”

“At the Water’s Edge” centres on young Philadelphia socialite Madeline (Maddie) Hyde, her husband Ellis and their friend Hank.

They take a dangerous ship trek to Scotland after a posh New Year’s Eve bash, in which they imbibe heavily and make spectacles of themselves.

Years prior, Ellis’s Army Colonel dad tried to prove Nessie existed, but the adventure resulted in public embarrassment for him.

Ellis hopes his journey will earn him more respect from his dad, who has always judged his son for not being able to enlist in the army due to being colour blind. Hank was also unable to serve, due to being flat-footed.

Gruen says she did research for the book in Scotland one winter and one summer, for a total of five weeks.

“I do try to immerse myself completely, so after I was crawling around (Second World War) ruins and castles and so on, I would set up shop in the corner of a pub and pretend I was Skyping and doing work,” she says.

“I would just listen to the lingo and the accent and try to absorb phrasing and sayings and things.”

She says she wrote half of the book before realizing that Maddie was the heart of it. That meant having to go back and rewrite it in Maddie’s voice and then tweak the other characters’ reactions to her.

Gruen, who grew up in London, Ont., also faced another obstacle during the writing process.

“One of my sons had some serious health issues in between, so it was broken up,” she says. “He’s fine now, but it was very, very scary.”

Gruen lives in North Carolina now with her husband and three sons, but she says she does long to return to Canada some day.

In the meantime, besides doing a book tour, she’s also acting as a consultant for a Broadway adaptation of “Water for Elephants.”

“I never ever in my life thought that something I wrote might end up on Broadway. That was just the farthest thing from my mind, but it’s really exciting,” says Gruen, noting she’s thrilled producer Peter Schneider (“The Lion King”) wants her “involved in the process as much as possible.”

“I know nothing about musicals but I’m sure willing to get in there and learn.”