A Writer’s Flashback: My 2005 Interview With Author Stuart Woods

He has long been known as one of America’s most consistently-selling novelists.

“I learned to write every day, whether I was in the mood or not, which is a rare thing for a writer to learn.” — Stuart Woods

I interviewed author Stuart Woods in 2005, along with nearly 75 other creatives, for a motivational non-fiction book, “How to Survive a Day Job.” My intent with the book was simple: I would interview a number of successful writers, actors, and others who have worked in a given creative arts field, to motivate those of us who had not yet attained our own artistic career goals.

At the time of his interview, Stuart was well into his career, and his brand, as a prolific novelist.

An edited version of the original introduction to his interview follows:

Stuart Woods is a licensed private pilot and a sailor who competed in the 1976 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (OSTAR). Beginning his passage in Plymouth, England, he arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, in forty-five days. His non-fiction work, “Blue Water, Green Skipper,” was in part an account of this race.

Stuart’s first novel, “Chiefs,’ won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was adapted into an acclaimed six-hour television miniseries for CBS Television starring Charlton Heston. He is the creator of several franchise characters, including Senator Will Lee, P.I. Stone Barrington, and Chief of Florida’s Orchid Beach Police Department Holly Parker; for the first time, the latter two appeared together in his novel “Reckless Abandon.”

Please visit www.stuartwoods.com to see what Stuart has been up to in recent years.

To the interview …

Stuart:

Born, raised, Manchester, Georgia. Public schools. University of Georgia. Ten months in the air force during the Berlin crisis. Career in advertising. Left advertising in ’73. Moved to Ireland to write my first novel, discovered sailing, everything went to hell. Took me eight years to finish the novel. That was “Chiefs.” I’ve been writing ever since.

Writing was always my first professional ambition. My mother taught me to read a year before I went to school…