Chatting with donalee Moulton, author of Conflagration and Hung Out to Die
Welcome back to amazing Canadian author,
donalee Moulton who I first met through
Crime Writers of Canada.
donalee’s first mystery book Hung out toDie was published in 2023. Her second book, Conflagration, waspublished in December.
“Swan Song” was one of 21 short storiesselected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime, an anthology publishedby the Crime Writers of Canada. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Awards ofExcellence. A second short story featuring the Nunavut-based character in “SwanSong” was published in Black Cat Weekly. A literary short story,“Moist,” was published this spring in After Dinner Conversation andreprinted in The Antigonish Review. It has also been selected forinclusion in two anthologies.
donalee is the author of The ThongPrinciple: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored CelebrityCourt Cases. She is an award-winning freelance journalist. Her byline hasappeared in The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, NationalPost, and Canadian Business among other online and printpublications.
donalee lives in Halifax happily surroundedby family, friends, pets, and words of all shapes, sizes, and syllables.
What was the most difficultsection/piece you ever wrote? What made it difficult?
I wrote an article early in my career aboutan infant born several months prematurely (with only a tablespoon of blood inits entire body if I remember correctly) and the fight to save the little one.I recall drafting the article with tears streaming down my cheeks. In thatmoment I realized, for me, that journalism was about moving people as well asinforming them.
What sort of research do you dofor your work?
There were key elements to my first mysterybook Hung Out to Die that had to be authentic, at least in a fictionalcontext. I have done a lot of reporting on the cannabis industry and have hadthe opportunity to tour a cannabis-production plant before it opened. Likewise,for years as a freelance journalist I wrote on the health sector and healthissues, including mental health and personality issues. As a communicationsspecialist, many of my clients were from this sector. All of this research fedinto Hung Out to Die. Even more was required for my second book Conflagration!,a historical mystery set in 1734. Accuracy is paramount.
Which books and authors do youread for pleasure? Is there an author that inspires you?
I relish reading. I was a judge in the CrimeWriters of Canada’s Awards of Excellence last year, and I got to dive into morethan 40 fabulous – and very diverse – books that kept me on my toes and my eyesglued to the page. When I was younger and I was discovering the wonder and wowof the mystery genre, I devoured authors like Tony Hillerman, Martha Grimes,Ruth Rendell. More recently I have discovered writers like Richard Osman. AndDelia Owens’s Where the Crawdads Sing was nothing short of joyous.
Was there a person who encouragedyou to write?
My mother taught me to love language – andto respect it. She cared about words and getting the words right. She was mygreatest influence.
What would you say are yourstrengths as an author?
Ialways find it easy to get distracted when I am writing. As a freelancejournalist, however, I learned to stay on track. Working to deadline meantthere often wasn’t time to travel down interesting but non-essential paths. Youare also working to a specific word count as a journalist so you know no matterhow interesting the asides, they will not make it into the article for lengthreasons. Rigor is required.
How often do you write, and doyou write using a strict routine?
I am not a marathon writer. I am a sprinter.I can’t sit and write for hours at a time. I break up my writing by taking ayoga class, soaking up some sunshine, checking email, doing some paid work. Ido try to write 1,000 fictional words a day. Some days I achieve this. We don’tneed to talk about the other days.
CONFLAGRATION!
On a warm spring dayin April 1734, a fire raged through the merchants’ quarter in Montréal. When the flames finally died, 46 buildings – including the Hôtel-Dieuconvent and hospital – had been destroyed. Within hours, rumors ran rampantthat Marie-Joseph Angélique, an enslaved Black woman fighting for her freedom,had started the fire with her white lover. Less than a day later, Angélique satin prison, her lover nowhere to be found. Though she denied the charges,witnesses claimed Angélique was the arsonist even though no one saw her set thefire.
In an era when lawyers are banned frompracticing in New France, Angélique is on her own. Philippe Archambeau, a courtclerk assigned specifically to document her case, believes Angelique might justbe telling the truth. Or not. A reticent servant, a boisterous jailer, andthree fire-scorched shingles prove indispensable in his quest to uncover whatreally happened.
Angélique’s time isrunning out as Archambeau searches for answers. Will the determined court clerkdiscover what really happened the night Montreal burned to the ground beforeit’s too late?
HUNG OUT TO DIE
Meet Riel Brava. Attractive.Razor-sharp. Ambitious. And something much more.
Riel,raised in Santa Barbara, California, has been transplanted to Nova Scotia wherehe is CEO of the Canadian Cannabis Corporation. It’s business as usual untilRiel finds his world hanging by a thread. Actually, several threads. It doesn’ttake the police long to determine all is not as it appears – and that includesRiel himself.
Pulledinto a world not of his making, Riel resists the hunt to catch a killer.Resistance is futile. Detective Lin Raynes draws the reluctant CEO into theinvestigation, and the seeds of an unexpected and unusual friendship are sown.Raynes and Riel concoct a scheme to draw a confession out of the killer, butthat plan is never put into place. Instead, Riel finds himself on the butt endof a rifle in the ribs and a long drive to the middle of Nowhere, Nova Scotia.
ALL EBooks andPrint:
https://www.amazon.ca/Donalee-Moulton/e/B09WVR3K44/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk
