Fame & Fortune: Stuart Woods
'Chiefs' author soars with five best-selling
book series
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| Woods: No,
I was born 300 miles from the sea. The biggest thing we had was a pond where you
could go bass fishing. But it had always fascinated me. I visited some friends
in Maine in the early 1960s and that was the first time I had ever done any sailing
and I enjoyed it a great deal. But I didn't have an opportunity to sail more until
I got to Ireland.
Bankrate: So you weren't
born into the yachting set. Was your family middle-class?
Woods: Yes. My family
business was a small-town department store in Manchester. My grandfather
owned that and my mother and her brother worked in the store. My
parents divorced when I was 2 and my mother later remarried to a
traveling salesman. We were quite comfortable; we were certainly
not rich but we lived in a nice house and I drove a Studebaker.
Bankrate:
Were you money motivated as a kid? Woods:
My dream was to be able to make a comfortable living writing books. I actually
sort of exceeded my expectations. Bankrate:
You were fairly comfortable in the advertising business. Was it unfulfilling? Woods:
The writing part was OK. I was not much good at the business part. Nor the company
politics part; I was no good at all with that. The writer and the art director
have the best jobs in advertising, but in some ways -- apart from producing the
work -- they have less effect than other people. Those who have a big effect with
the client do very well and end up having their own agencies. Bankrate:
Many Americans dream of living overseas. How did you manage to do it? Woods:
I spent about seven years living in England and Ireland, and then I had a house
on the Isle of Wight for 10 years where I spent my summers. I began in advertising
and then I went to Ireland to write my novel and worked two days a week in advertising
to support myself. By the time I bought the house, I had already published my
first novel and was making a living as a writer. Bankrate:
How did "Chiefs" change your life? It wasn't an instant hit, right?
Woods: It wasn't that
big at the time. It only sold about 20,000 copies in hardback, which
is a small, first-novel kind of sale. But the miniseries helped
sell a lot of paperbacks and helped establish me in the eyes of
the publishing industry as somebody who can be published profitably.
I just heard that the International Thriller Writers have chosen
it as one of the 100 best thrillers ever written, and they go back
to "The Iliad," I think. I used the money from that to
buy the house in England, so it made a lasting contribution to my
existence and still brings in a few royalties every year.
Bankrate:
Were you prepared for your success? Woods:
(Laughs) Oh, I thought it was long overdue! Really prepared, yes. I was 43 when
it was published. There are more younger people writing successful fiction nowadays.
It used to be that you had to live a little before you could write a successful
novel. Bankrate: How much of your
pre-author years went into what you would eventually make your living at, which
is crime among the rich and famous? | 
