Friday, March 10, 2023

donalee Moulton is visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #BWLAuthor #communications #freelance journalist #poems #short stories

 

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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