A day with author Michael Wood @MichaelHWood @KillerReads

Today I’m thrilled to welcome author Michael Wood to the book review café. The author writes the DCI Matilda Darke Crime series. If you follow my blog you will know I read a large amount of crime books and hand on heart Michael Wood’s books are on my top five list of crime series. If you haven’t read them Yet I’ve included a link to the authors books further down this post, they are a MUST read if you love a well written crime thriller.

I’m a boringly organised person and like to have everything set out before I begin my writing day. Looking at a blank notebook or a blank laptop screen with nothing to do is my idea of hell.

I’m always writing. I’m either working on my current novel or making notes or planning future novels, characters and stories.

When I’m at the early stages of a novel, I like to plan out my characters and plots in pad and pen form. The best place to do that, for me, is in a coffee shop. I have my iPod on to block out background noise and scribble away.

Once I’m at the laptop stage, I work from home. I’m very structured and like to be at my desk early. I don’t give myself a set number of hours or a word count to write. I treat writing like any other job I’ve had so I write, edit, revise, research throughout the day. Anything above 3,000 words per day is a good day for me.

I break for lunch and I always have a pot of strong black coffee on standby when I feel the need to leave my desk and stretch my legs.

I write Monday to Friday. Weekends are for seeing friends, relaxing, catching up with DVD boxsets. Strangely, I write best during the hours of darkness. From midnight to six o’clock I’m very productive. Unfortunately, this isn’t ideal as it hampers the social life. So those kinds of days are very rare.

When I’m not writing I enjoy walking (it’s great for clearing the head, especially in winter), reading (as well as writing crime fiction I love reading it), seeing friends, eating out, and, most importantly, shopping for books. My reading pile is slightly getting out of hand as I currently have 306 books in my spare bedroom to read.

Writing is a special kind of job and I find that everyone approaches it in their own unique way. I’d never give anyone advice, but I’m happy to share my own ways of doing things if asked. Writing is not something you just do with your fingers, it comes from within. You don’t only need to be creative, you need to put your heart and soul into your work. And that is why I love writing so much.

Now, on with my next novel.

Michael Wood is a proofreader and former journalist in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He is the author of the DCI Matilda Darke series set in Sheffield. The third, A ROOM FULL OF KILLERS, was released in February 2017. A short story prequel, THE FALLEN, was published as an ebook in December 2016 by Killer Reads at HarperCollins.

Click on this link to check out Michael Wood books

 

My thanks to Michael Wood for taking time out of his busy schedule to write this post, it’s much appreciated.