By Cecilia Nasmith/Northumberland 89.7 FM/Today’s Northumberland
Hamilton Township author Linda Hutsell-Manning has begun a Christmas tradition of her own – revisiting her very own book Finding Moufette,
It actually came out last year, the author said in a recent interview, but she plans to promote it each Christmas.
“People look at the cover and say it’s lovely – I haven’t had a picture book for such a long time,” Hutsell-Manning said.
The story is actually one she came up with years ago, one she called The Christmas Stocking Cat and shopped around to publishers. But, around the turn of the century, “there was this big push in the Canadian children’s market and at schools not to use the word ‘Christmas.’ I thought maybe I should change the title,” she related.
She based Moufette on a beloved pet her daughter had during her university years, a black cat with a white stripe from chin to tail. Its name is actually the French word for “skunk.”
Little Mourette gets lost during a Christmas Eve snowstorm, but Santa finds it and takes it home.
Illustrator Hannah Suyon did “a stellar job,” Hutsell-Manning declared. Though she was taken aback by the anime quality of the illustrations, she’s getting positive comments on the artwork.
“The whole thing is totally charming,” she stated.
Finding Moufette has an emotional hold for the author as well, as its release occurred about a month before she lost her husband Jim last Nov. 19. She had readings scheduled and, believing her husband was on the road to recovery from a stroke, she carried on with sharing the story of the headstrong little cat.
Losing her husband has meant losing her biggest fan, she reflected. He would read her works-in-progress and offer helpful views, but he also took care of such tech needs as her website and business cards. Fortunately, her son David has begun to assume some of that responsibility as she builds a new life.
Hutsell-Manning is back with her Spirit of the Hills poetry group, and (as always) is still physically active. She and her husband were avid runners, and she still frequents the YMCA and takes every opportunity for a walk on the boardwalk and a swim in Lake Ontario.
And the intervening year has seen another work published, a surrealist feminist novella called Heads I Win, Tails You Lose by AOS Publishers last January (though, of course, both this book and Moufette had been in the works about two years previously).
She calls this book a surreal story because it could not actually happen. A quiet, subdued librarian finds her flamboyant professor husband quite changed after a terrible car accident, and not just because he becomes a paraplegic. His body starts to disintegrate – all but the head, which she props atop his stuffed clothing.
“I had so much fun writing it,” she said.
January 2025 will see the publication of The Killing Room, a short story she had envisioned as a contribution to an anthology published by At Bay Press as a stand-alone book.
This is a somewhat autobiographical story based on the time her family got behind her father’s dream of cashing in on the fried-chicken craze with a poultry operation on their farm north of Baltimore. From the ages of 11 to 13, it fell to her to be the chief chicken killer in this operation. She never dared tell a soul about this, except for her very closest friend.
Hutsell-Manning submitted this manuscript during the COVID pandemic, which just goes to show how much waiting goes into a literary career. The story sat with At Bay Press, where she submitted it for their From The Heart series, for a couple of years before they got back to her.
At an age where so many writers have just stopped writing, Hutsell-Manning says, “I will not quit.”
She resumed readings this fall, with her daughter Laura along for support.
Finding Moufette (from Pandamonium Publishers) continues to sell, she added, and readings are scheduled locally in December.
Dec. 5 – 10:30 a.m, – Brighton Public Library (35 Alice St.)
Dec. 7 – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Spirit of the Hills Writers Christmas Book Sale at the Cobourg Public Library (200 Ontario St.)
Dec, 13 – 7 p.m. – Warkworth Christmas Fair makers Market at Warkworth Town Hall (40 Main St.)
Dec. 14 – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Christmas Market at the Cobourg Public Library
If you’d like to include Finding Moufette on your Christmas shopping list, check out Lighthouse Book in Brighton, Furby House Books in Port Hope and The Reader’s Nook (formerly Let’s Talk Books) in Cobourg.
And to keep up with the latest from this remarkable author, check out www.lindahutsellmanning.ca
