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 to Die was published in 2023. Her second book, Conflagration, was published in December. 

“Swan Song” was one of 21 short stories selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime, an anthology published by the Crime Writers of Canada. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Awards of Excellence. A second short story featuring the Nunavut-based character in “Swan Song” was published in Black Cat Weekly. A literary short story, “Moist,” was published this spring in After Dinner Conversation and reprinted in The Antigonish Review. It has also been selected for inclusion in two anthologies. 

donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored Celebrity Court Cases. She is an award-winning freelance journalist. Her byline has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business among other online and print publications. 

donalee lives in Halifax happily surrounded by family, friends, pets, and words of all shapes, sizes, and syllables. 

What was the most difficult section/piece you ever wrote? What made it difficult?

I wrote an article early in my career about an infant born several months prematurely (with only a tablespoon of blood in its 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 that moment I realized, for me, that journalism was about moving people as well as informing them.

What sort of research do you do for your work?

There were key elements to my first mystery book Hung Out to Die that had to be authentic, at least in a fictional context. I have done a lot of reporting on the cannabis industry and have had the opportunity to tour a cannabis-production plant before it opened. Likewise, for years as a freelance journalist I wrote on the health sector and health issues, including mental health and personality issues. As a communications specialist, many of my clients were from this sector. All of this research fed into 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 you read for pleasure? Is there an author that inspires you?

I relish reading. I was a judge in the Crime Writers of Canada’s Awards of Excellence last year, and I got to dive into more than 40 fabulous – and very diverse – books that kept me on my toes and my eyes glued to the page. When I was younger and I was discovering the wonder and wow of the mystery genre, I devoured authors like Tony Hillerman, Martha Grimes, Ruth Rendell. More recently I have discovered writers like Richard Osman. And Delia Owens’s Where the Crawdads Sing was nothing short of joyous.

Was there a person who encouraged you to write?

My mother taught me to love language – and to respect it. She cared about words and getting the words right. She was my greatest influence.

What would you say are your strengths as an author?

I always find it easy to get distracted when I am writing. As a freelance journalist, however, I learned to stay on track. Working to deadline meant there often wasn’t time to travel down interesting but non-essential paths. You are also working to a specific word count as a journalist so you know no matter how interesting the asides, they will not make it into the article for length reasons. Rigor is required.

How often do you write, and do you 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 a yoga class, soaking up some sunshine, checking email, doing some paid work. I do try to write 1,000 fictional words a day. Some days I achieve this. We don’t need to talk about the other days.

 

CONFLAGRATION!

On a warm spring day in April 1734, a fire raged through the merchants’ quarter in Montréal. When the flames finally died, 46 buildings – including the Hôtel-Dieu convent and hospital – had been destroyed. Within hours, rumors ran rampant that 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 sat in 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 the fire.

In an era when lawyers are banned from practicing in New France, Angélique is on her own. Philippe Archambeau, a court clerk assigned specifically to document her case, believes Angelique might just be telling the truth. Or not. A reticent servant, a boisterous jailer, and three fire-scorched shingles prove indispensable in his quest to uncover what really happened. 

Angélique’s time is running out as Archambeau searches for answers. Will the determined court clerk discover what really happened the night Montreal burned to the ground before it’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 where he is CEO of the Canadian Cannabis Corporation. It’s business as usual until Riel finds his world hanging by a thread. Actually, several threads. It doesn’t take the police long to determine all is not as it appears – and that includes Riel himself.

Pulled into 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 the investigation, 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, but that plan is never put into place. Instead, Riel finds himself on the butt end of a rifle in the ribs and a long drive to the middle of Nowhere, Nova Scotia.

ALL EBooks and Print:

https://www.amazon.ca/Donalee-Moulton/e/B09WVR3K44/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk