New York Dead

wherever I am, and I take a laptop when I travel while writing a book.
    CEW: You are known for being a master of creating suspense in a novel. What techniques do you use when plotting to achieve that timing of the suspense and action which keeps the reader eager to turn the page to see what happens next?
    SW: The process of writing is still a kind of magic to me, and I never try to analyze it too deeply, for fear that it might stop working. I do try to make each chapter a small story in itself, with a beginning, a middle and an end, and I try to end each one in such a way as to lead naturally into the next one. It seems to work.
    CEW: What did you enjoy most about having
Chiefs
turned into a mini-series?
    SW: I enjoyed the whole process. The producers were kind enough to let me read each generation of the screenplay, as it was being written, and to ask for my suggestions, some of which they actually took. I also enjoyed visiting the set in South Carolina and playing a small part (an FBI agent) in part three. They “dressed” the town three times, for the different periods of the story, altering something like twenty-three store-fronts and planting a large oak tree in the center of town. I was amazed at the thoroughness of the job. I made some friends, too; I still see Martin Manulis, the executive producer, when I am in L.A., and also Charlton Heston, and Steven Collins, and I hear from the producer, Bill Deneen, once in a great while. The director, Jerry London, pops up now and then; he and his wife usually stop and stay the night when they’re traveling from a shoot in Toronto to New York, and we play golf.
    CEW: How much do you use the Internet? Do you find it valuable for research?
    SW: I use the Internet mostly to answer email from readers, but I also keep track of my investments, buy cars, rent vacation houses and read about things that interest me, but I haven’t used it much for research, because I don’t do a lot of research these days.
    CEW: Rumor has it that you are writing a memoir — is this true?
    SW: I have written some chapters of another memoir, but I have no idea when it will be finished or when it will be published. I guess it’s not a priority right now.
    This interview was originally published July 1998 in
The Internet Writing Journal
(R),
http://www.writerswrite.com.

About the Author

    Stuart Woods was born in Manchester, Georgia; graduated from the University of Georgia; and served in the Air National Guard. A professional sailor, Mr. Woods participated in the Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) in 1976 and the catastrophic Fastnet Race in 1979, in which fifteen competitors died.
    W.W. Norton published Woods’s first novel,
Chiefs
, in 1981. It won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America that year and was made into a six-hour television drama starring Charlton Heston.
    Mr. Woods, who has written twenty-six novels — including nine featuring Stone Barrington — currently resides in Florida, New York City, and Maine.
    Please visit www.stuartwoods.com.

Books by Stuart Woods
    Stone Barrington Novels
    New York Dead
    Dirt
    Dead in the Water
    Swimming to Catalina
    Worst Fears Realized
    L.A. Dead
    Cold Paradise
    The Short Forever
    Dirty Work

    Holly Barker
    Orchid Beach
    Orchid Blues
    Blood Orchid

    Will Lee
    Run Before the Wind
    Grass Roots
    The Run

    Standalone Titles
    Chiefs
    Deep Lie
    Under the Lake
    White Cargo
    Palindrome
    Santa Fe Rules
    L.A. Times
    Dead Eyes
    Heat
    Imperfect Strangers
    Choke

    Nonfiction
    Blue Water, Green Skipper
    A Romantic’s Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and England

    Credits
    Cover design by John Lewis