'The weeding is the hard part'

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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