Stuart Woods

Novelist Syd Jones interviewed Stuart Woods. Part of their exchange:

Stuart, it’s great to have you with us at Scene of the Crime. We like to focus on setting here, and Stone Barrington seems to get around quite a lot. Could you describe your connection to some of these locales?

I live in three places: Key West (my domicile and legal residence) in the Winter and early spring; Mt. Desert Island, Maine, in the summer and New York City in the spring and autumn, when I’m not touring. Because I’m always looking for 70 degrees farenheit.

What things about these places make them unique and good physical settings in your books?

Key West is artsy and full of people who are there because they have nowhere else to go. (At least, they won’t freeze in winter.) Maine is there when I have to get my characters out of the stifling city and into a pleasant summer. And there’s only one New York.

Did you consciously set out to use your location as a “character” in your books, or did this grow naturally out of the initial story or stories?

The former, I think. Stories work better in some locales than in others.

How do you incorporate location in your fiction?

That grows...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue