Hobart author Danielle Wood set for big screen debut with her novel Starcrossed

She writes her novels from a gypsy caravan in the yard of her home, but this Hobart author could soon see her work being given the Hollywood treatment.

Tasmanian author Danielle Wood writes popular romantic comedy under the name Minnie Darke. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

HOBART author, academic and former Mercury journalist Danielle Wood is making waves from the gypsy caravan in which she writes.

As she celebrates the launch of The Lost Love Song, her second romantic comedy under the nom de plume Minnie Darke, Wood awaits news from Hollywood on the first.

Film rights for Starcrossed, published last year in 24 countries, have sold to production company Stampede, which has partnered with Australian superstar Margot Robbie to bring the story to the screen.

STAR-CROSSED AUTHOR DELIVERS BLOCKBUSTER ROM-COM

“Now they are just looking for money, but it’s a cruelly uncertain business,” Wood said.

In Starcrossed, astrology held together Wood’s cunningly plotted love story. This time a song is the glue.

Australian actor Margot Robbie will help bring Danielle Woods’ first novel to the big screen. Picture: AFP

“Someone famously once said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, meaning it’s impossible, but I didn’t let that put me off,” Wood said.

The premise is a concert pianist writing a love song for her partner on the eve of an international tour but leaving before she gets the chance to play it to him.

“Instead, it is passed on. First of all it’s overheard in a bar in a Singapore hotel room ... The song finds its way all around the world, but the question is. will it manage to find its way all the way back home to the person for whom it was originally intended?”

Danielle Woods’ latest novel The Lost Love Song.

Each time the song changes hands, the author describes a different kind of love.

“At one point it’s a love story between two teenagers. later on it’s between estranged half-brothers, then later on it’s between a commitment-phobic man and the woman he’s been dancing around for a long time.”

Wood teaches creative writing at the University of Tasmania. She won The Australian/Vogel Award in 2002 for her first novel, The Alphabet of Light and Dark, and has published in numerous genres.