'The weeding is the hard part'

 

“I've never really had any troublecoming up with ideas; they just grow, like weeds. The weeding is the hardpart.” –Stuart Woods

 

Born in Georgia on Jan. 9, 1938Woods authored nearly 100 books, including more than 75 featuring his larger-than-lifedetective-turned-lawyer-investigator Stone Barrington.  

 

A University of Georgia grad(majoring in Sociology), he started writing as a journalist then turned toadvertising for many years before moving to England and Ireland to “explorelife, try sailing, and work on a novel.” Instead he wrote a successful guidebook to country restaurants, inns andhotels.

 

After returning to the States hewrote his first novel, Chief, after finding a police chief’s badge inhis grandmother's home. The badge, which had belonged to his grandfather, wasstained with blood and pockmarked by buckshot. After further exploring the story behind the badge he wrote the novelthat jumpstarted his creative writing career. The book, published in 1981, was made into a television series, won hima “best first novel” award from the Mystery Writers of America, and put him on awriting path from which he never wavered. He began his Stone Barrington series with 1991’s New York Deadand then released several Barrington books a year until his death in 2022.

 

“I can write anywhere,” he saidabout his ability to continually turn out books in the series.  “All I need is a couple of hours of solitudeand a computer, and I can write a chapter.”