Visit donalee Moulton's BWL Author page for book purchase links
I was recently interviewed for an online publication. I
thought I’d share the questions – and my answer with you.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Has this changed at all when you were really, really young?
When I was young, I wanted to be a lawyer. When I landed in
university – with law school around the corner – I discovered academia and
research. Then I wanted to get my PhD and teach. But through all of this
growing and evolving, I was writing. I wrote poetry and short stories. (I even
got some published.) I belonged to and joined writers’ groups. I worked for the
university newspaper. I published articles in magazines (and I got paid!).
When push came to shove – when it was time to head to TO for
the PhD – I decided to get a job that required less academic knowledge and more
writing skill. Just to see what this would be like, of course. I got my first
communications job and waved goodbye to any other career.
Do you prefer writing by keyboard, do you prefer pen and
paper, or do you have another favorite method?
I’m a keyboard person. It is the most efficient, and it is
the primary way of writing and communicating professionally. It has become
second nature. That said, I was never trained to use a keyboard, so I have my
own unique typing process. And that’s just fine. Writing is not about speed but
about thought.
What's the story of how you came to publish your first
written work (fiction or non-fiction, it could be a work in progress as
well)?
It’s probably a tie. At about the time I got my first
article published in the university newspaper, I also won a university poetry contest
and got my first poem published. Writing and publishing have gone hand in hand
for me. That may be because I had some early publishing luck or that being a
freelance journalist is contingent on being published. Or both.
What's one thing about being an author that most people
don't understand?
Tough question. I think, for me, the answer is solitude. I
live in a house with people who walk by, holler out, play noisy games on their
phone, and ask me questions mid-sentence. Non-writers don’t always see what the
big deal is. You just pick up where you left off. Writers know why this removal
from the fray of life is essential.
Do you do any writing exercises or other work to further
develop your writing skills?
I write. This sounds simple. Many days it isn’t. Some call
this dedication, others devotion. I’m not sure it matters what it’s called as
long as it happens. I will never be a better writer, I will never write another
book if I don’t sit down in front of my computer screen and begin to put words
on the paper.