Until laptops replaced loud typewriters, author Michael Malone wrote his first eight books in pencil. “Writing for me is very oral – I listen to the characters.” Despite his quiet approach to his craft, Malone pours energy into Hillsborough through hosting parlor concerts in his historic Burnside home and producing plays. Born in Durham, Malone and wife Maureen lived in Philadelphia, New York, and London before moving to Hillsborough (“a town, not a suburb”) in 2000. Upon arrival, the “floodgates opened of writing. It was like going back to the landscape of your imagination.” Malone loves that Orange County “…lives in history and is always working to change it. Other places get stuck. Orange County struggles not to.” He desires a community arts center as it is “culture at its sanest when people come together to create something.”
