Guest Post: Making a Return Visit by donalee Moulton

  

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 18^th.

 

 

                            

                              Making a Return Visit by donalee Moulton

 

          On June 18^th 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. 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/42q3oLc

 

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.

Guest Post: The Anthology Advantage by donalee Moulton

 

Please welcome  donalee Moulton  to the blog today as she shares her thoughts about her presence in the upcoming new anthology, Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense. Published by Superior Shores Press, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, the book comes out on June 18^th.

 

 

 

The Anthology Advantage by donalee Moulton

 

            As a freelance journalist, writing to deadline is as natural as breathing. When editors assign a story, they provide three essential pieces of information: topic, word count, and delivery date. Miss your deadline and kiss the possibility of a second assignment goodbye.

            This is not about editors flexing their weight. It’s about the reality of publishing. In the days before online everything, a story that didn’t arrive on time meant publications had a gaping hole in their magazine or newspaper. Gaping holes are filled when editors rush around like mad, cursing the name of the writer who missed their deadline.

            When I started to do more fiction writing than reporting, I found deadlines are often self-imposed. I will finish my first chapter by the end of the week. I will write a thousand words of my short story every day for four days. I will edit the story by Monday. I also found self-imposed deadlines are often more wishful thinking than etched in stone.

I missed the rigor of deadlines I didn’t dream up. Then I discovered anthologies. Genre writing is rife with anthologies – and anthologies have deadlines. They also often have themes, the journalistic equivalent of topic. The path ahead is paved for you. Here’s what we’d like you to write about. Here’s when you have to get it to us.

I wrote my first mystery short story, “Swan Song,” in 2021 in response to a call from the Crime Writers of Canada. To celebrate its fortieth anniversary, the national association planned to publish an anthology, Cold Canadian Crime. There was a theme (“cold” in the broadest sense of the word). There was a deadline. Count me in.

Since then, I have written fourteen more short stories. Most of them have been published, mostly in anthologies. A few have been reprinted in anthologies. At least one has been reprinted in several anthologies.

One of my recent anthology short stories is called “Maladaptive Anonymous.” In the story, the main character calls this group, somewhat disparagingly, Daydreamers Anonymous. The anthology, which will be out June 18^th, is entitled: Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers. Just as editors expect you to meet your deadline (or miss out on the opportunity), they also expect you to stick to the topic. You have lots of room to play, but the boundaries are there.

While every anthology editor has their own process, the process is usually rigorous. And appreciated. Judy Penz Sheluk, who edited Midnight Schemers, had three rounds of readers and after the first and third round we were provided with feedback – and helpful suggestions for improvements. There were also at least three rounds of proofreading. At some point, you think this is overkill until in the final proof you discover your main character has titled their head. In the published version, their head is now tilted.

 As a short story writer, anthologies bring me back to familiar ground. I am given three essential pieces of information: topic, word count, and delivery date. This helps me to focus on a theme – and to go to wonderful and wacky places with plots I might otherwise not uncover and characters I might otherwise not create. And I go there by deadline.

 

 Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/42q3oLc

 

 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.

Guest Post: In the Right Place by donalee Moulton

Please welcome fellow SMFS list member donalee Moulton to the blog today as she discusses the setting for her first mystery in the Riel Brava Mystery series.

 

 

 

                    In the Right Place by donalee Moulton

 

Céad míle fáilte. This Gaelic expression means “a hundred thousand welcomes.” If you live in Nova Scotia, as I do, this is an expression you will have seen for much of your life. (Pronouncing it is a different issue altogether.) A hundred thousand welcomes in any language speaks to the type of people you are likely to encounter when you come here and the values they place on such encounters.

 

Riel Brava – attractive, razor-sharp, ambitious, and something much more – is the lead character in my new mystery, Hung Out to Die. He lives in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia, about a 40-minute drive from Halifax, the province’s capital. In East Coast parlance, Riel is a come from away.

 

Raised in Santa Barbara, California, Riel has been transplanted to Nova Scotia where he is CEO of the Canadian Cannabis Corporation – one of the estimated four to twelve percent of CEOs who are psychopaths. It’s business as usual until Riel finds his world hanging by a thread.

 

Riel’s chief financial officer is found hanged in his office. The police determine the death is not the result of suicide. Still, Riel resists the hunt to catch a killer. Detective Lin Raynes draws the reluctant CEO into the investigation, and the seeds of an unexpected and unusual friendship are sown. Ultimately, Riel finds himself on the butt end of a rifle in the ribs and a long drive to the middle of Nowhere, Nova Scotia.

 

Fact is, I could have placed Riel in the middle of anywhere. The murder is not location specific. The victim does not fall from the Brooklyn Bridge or mysteriously appear atop Old Faithful, places that are singular. Nova Scotia made sense for me as a writer, and it made sense for Riel as a character. I live here; I know this province better than any other place. I can write about it with ease, and with a personal perspective.

 

For Riel, who lives uncomfortably in a world where people hug each other because they care and share the pain of others because their brain is wired that way, being in a place where he does not have roots, where he is an outsider, mirrors what goes on within Riel. It’s the right place for him.

 

Because I am from Nova Scotia, I can also authentically and naturally insert elements of life here. Take the language, for instance. You may discover some new words such as “bejesus” and “tinchlet.” There will be expressions common to the area. “Bless your heart” is one you’ll hear a lot in Nova Scotia, and Riel hears it as well. It does not resonate.

 

There is also food that has Nova Scotia marinated into it, as Riel discovers. Turns out Riel is now a donair aficionado. (I am not.)

 

One of the things I have learned as a writer is that I am in control, and I am not in control. I can decide to situate a character in a particular place, and the character will let me know if that is the right place as the writing unfolds. In the case of Riel, he ends up in the dark of winter at a deserted row of cottages called, what else, Céad míle fáilte.

 

I did not see that coming. I have a feeling Riel did.

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donalee Moulton ©2024 

donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. Conflagration! was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). 

“Swan Song” was one of 21 stories selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Her short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.  Both stories have been reprinted in several anthologies.