1.
What were
you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?
I
feel like I have always been a writer. In university, I wrote and published
poetry and short stories. I was a student journalist with the university
newspaper. I was also completing a Master’s degree and preparing to get a PhD
in sociology, with an emphasis on research. Two seemingly different paths. I
chose the former and for most of my career I worked in communications writing
everything from brochures to annual reports to websites to manuals. I was also
a freelance journalist writing hundreds of articles a year for online and print
publications across North America. Topics included everything from money
laundering to fibromyalgia to champagne. What I was not writing during this
time were short stories, poems, and other creative endeavors. My current path
is taking me – wonderfully – in that direction.
2.
Are you
genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or
romance, mystery or paranormal.
I’m
testing the waters. Last year, I had a non-fiction book published by Business
Expert Press. The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You
Say is a reflection of the work I did as a communications professional and
trainer. This month my first mystery novel was published by BWL Publishing.
It’s a traditional whodunit in many ways with a very untraditional main
character. I have also recently published three short stories, two traditional
mysteries and one with hints of the paranormal or the unknown.
3.
What is
your latest release?
My new book –
yeah! – is Hung Out to Die. The main character is Riel Brava.
Attractive. Razor-sharp. Ambitious. And something much more. Riel just wants to be left alone
to do his job and one day run for president of the United States. He has a
plan. Murder keeps getting in his way. It isn’t easy being a psychopath.
Raised in Santa
Barbara, California, Riel 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.
4.
What are
you working on now?
Hung
Out to Die was a surprise for
me. I would not have expected to create a main character who was
quintessentially male. I also discovered that having a main character who is
not in law enforcement or connected to that world becomes problematic for
future books. How many murders can you stumble across if you’re not Jessica Fletcher? I have just finished a second mystery that has
three main characters, all women, who meet in a morning yoga class. So now
instead of having one character who isn’t in some branch of law enforcement I
have three. Go figure. The writing takes you where it wants you to go.
5.
Do your
reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?
Absolutely and always. As a child I read Charlotte’s Web and realized,
I believe for the first time, how powerful the written word could be – how it
could create a singular world, how it could clarify critical issues, how it
could change you fundamentally as a person. As a tween, I discovered the Nancy
Drew mystery books and was drawn into a new realm: clues, red herrings,
suspense, and fun. Today, I read as wide and varied a selection of books as
possible. I am inspired by what I read and in awe of the writers who took me
there.
6.
Where can
we find you?
Website: donaleemoulton.com
Amazon Author URL:
amazon.com/author/donaleemoulton
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donaleemoultonauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/donaleemoulton
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaleemoulton/
Twitter:
@donaleeMoulton
Instagram:
donaleemoulton
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