Please welcome back donalee Moulton to the blog today as she follows up on her post last Sunday, The Anthology Advantage, with additional thoughts about her presence in the upcoming new anthology, Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, as well as other tales. Published by Superior Shores Press, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, the book comes out on June 18th.
Making a Return Visit by donalee Moulton
On June 18th the anthology Midnight
Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense
will be available on store shelves, virtual and otherwise. Nestled in those 301
pages, you’ll meet private detective E.M. Montgomery. (You have to guess what
the E.M. stands for.)
Em,
as she’s known to friends and family, has now made an appearance in six short
stories. This is both deliberate and inadvertent. She is continuing a trend
that started with my first mystery short story—and taking it much, much
further.
A
few years ago, the Crime Writers of Canada put out a call for an anthology to
celebrate their fortieth anniversary. The theme was cold in the broadest sense.
I took the easy route and opted for sub-zero temperatures. My story, “Swan
Song,” is set in Iqaluit in the Canadian arctic. Here temperatures often drop
below zero. Fahrenheit.
Three
judges commented on each entry, and all three remarked on how much they liked
to read a story set in place they didn’t know much about. I knew a little about
Iqaluit having worked there as a consultant over a period of five years. It
occurred to me, and several of the people who read “Swan Song,” that fictional
police chief Doug Brumal might have more than one case to solve. When I went to
write my second short story, “Troubled Water,” I returned to Doug and the
Iqaluit Constabulary.
And
now there’s Em, a private detective in Halifax Nova Scotia. A call went out for
humorous mystery stories, and I decided to create a new character and my first
PI. In that story Em solves the murder of man who is an avid birder. Em starts her
own life list, and each story is named after a bird including “Zebra Finch,”
and “Belted Kingfisher.” (In Midnight Schemers, the title has been
changed to more closely reflect the theme of the collection.)
I’ve
discovered that bringing back characters lets you explore that character more
as a person with peccadillos and personality, and not simply a means to solve a
crime. It also means their friends, family, colleagues, and other human (and
non-human) adjacents make return visits. A small world begins to grow one short
story at a time.
In
Em’s case, she’s coming back in a big way. I have a contract to write Cardinal,
my first paranormal mystery. It’s part of a cross-Canada series, and Em is
making her inaugural appearance as the main character in a book.
I
can’t predict what characters will come back to life. They seem to dictate
their own comings and goings. I now have three stories featuring a retired
lawyer in New Orleans who sells sex toys. She’ll be back. I just had a story
accepted featuring a student at the College of the Atlantic in Maine. It’s
unlikely she’ll ever solve a second crime. I have no idea why.
But
I’ve learned to listen. They’ll let me know if their work is not done.
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donalee Moulton ©2025
donalee Moulton is the author of Hung out to Die, Conflagration!, and has two new books coming out in 2025, Bind and Melt, the first in a new series, the Lotus Detective Agency. A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business.
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