donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). donalee has two new books 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’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.
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.
donalee has co-authored two new non-fiction books Better Policy | Better Performance: The Who, Why, and What of Organizational Policy and Newsworthy: Media Relations Without the Spin. As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.
donalee has published numerous poems, short stories and essays in journals and other publications across Canada and beyond. She lives in Halifax happily surrounded by family, friends, pets, and words of all shapes, sizes, and syllables.
10 Questions for donalee
1. What is your favourite book?
When I was about eight or nine, someone gifted me Charlotte’s Web, and my life was forever changed. Not only could words transport you to new worlds, they could become a part of your heart, change you in ways you could not have imagined. I wanted to do that. And I wanted a pig.
2. What is your favourite movie?
For reasons that remain unfathomable to me, I am a huge fan of While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman. People cannot talk while it is on. I’d be happier if they didn’t even breathe. I can also be easily convinced to watch anything where Nicolas Cage takes off his shirt.
3. If you could move to any province where would you live?
I’m not going anywhere. Joyfully. I was born, raised, and chose to remain in Nova Scotia. It’s home. And now it is home to most of the characters that live in the pages of my books.
4. If they were making a movie from one of your books, who would play the protagonist?
Hung Out to Die, my first book, started with a bath. I’m a big believer in bubbles, candles, scrubs, essential oils, and music with birds chirping in the background. Friends call this bathroom time my shrine. One night immersed in a lavender cloud I realized it was time to begin writing my first mystery. Get off the pot kind of thing. That led me to a litany of possible characters and crimes. Through the mist Riel emerged. Not fully formed but fleshed out enough that I wrote down my ideas before I even moisturized. In my mind, Riel looked remarkably like Gabriel Macht who played Harvey Specter on the TV show Suits.
5. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
On the spectrum from pantser to plotter, I lean left. When I was writing my first mystery Hung Out to Die, I had brief backstories for the main characters. I had an outline of the plot, I knew who the killer was, and why they had committed the crime. Then I dove in.
Writing my second book, Conflagration!, was a slightly different process. I may have leaned a little more to the right. The book is a historical mystery and follows the trial of Marie-Joseph Angélique almost 300 years ago. I immersed myself in the details of the trial and everything connected to it.
Now I trust the process I need will reveal itself. If I need to stop and plan, I plan. If my characters nudge me forward, I tag along for the ride.
6. Who inspired 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.
7. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most?
Generally, I prefer drafting to editing and outlining. I like to have fun. Outlining feels like work. Editing feels rewarding, the outcome is satisfying, but it’s not fun. When I’m drafting, characters take me places I never expected to go. Wonderful places.
8. Has a real person ever inspired a character in your stories?
Until recently, the answer to that question was a resounding “no.” However, I have just completed the second short story featuring Mary Margaret, a hit woman from Grand Bank, Newfoundland. Mary Margaret was inspired by my good friend Cheryl Ann, who, like Mary Margaret, hates being called by her full name and who also pronounces it en-chee-la-das. It’s just wrong.
9. On average, how long do you write in a day?
In a good week, I’m writing every day, but 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 writing-related 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.
10. Are you part of a writing critique group?
I am one of nine Frivolous Pencils. Our writers’ group has been meeting in person once a month for several years now. We eat, we laugh, we workshop. The people in the room are an indispensable source of insight and inspiration. I am a better writer because of them.