USD English Alum Pens Mystery Thriller
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“Susan Wolfe’s linguistics class was one of my favorite classes,” said Moehling. “I just told her on Facebook that everything I needed to know to be good at Wordle, I learned in her linguistics class.”
In addition to his prowess at 2022’s wildly popular online game, Moehling also credits USD for giving him the ability to write and communicate well. Now a senior regulatory affairs program manager at the Minneapolis office of Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company, Moehling can add published novelist to his resume.
Poisoned Pen Press will release “And There He Kept Her,” a mystery thriller set in northern Minnesota, this June. This book is the culmination of years of work and a fair amount of rejection, but Moehling said the journey is worth it.
“To see it go from words on a computer to a book in my hands is a dream come true,” he said.
The novel begins with two small-town teenagers breaking into an elderly man’s house looking for prescription drugs. Plans go awry when the man, who has a secret to keep, locks them in his basement. The deputy sheriff, new in town and another keeper-of-secrets, tries to find the missing teens and comes across some surprises along the way. Moehling adds a twist not often seen in the genre—his protagonist is gay.
“I think that’s what my agent and publisher responded to,” he said. “You don’t see a lot of crime novels with a gay cop, especially in a small rural community.”
Early this spring, Moehling said he was looking forward to promoting the book when it comes out this summer even though he admits the task of self-promotion doesn’t come naturally. He said he retains some of the shy, bookworm tendencies he had as a child.
“I grew up as an Army brat and every three years we had to pack up and leave our house, our school, our friends and start over wherever the Army sent us,” he said. “But there was always a library wherever we went. I was obsessed with books.”
The works of Stephen King became a favorite as he moved on from children’s books. Vampires, ghostly hotels, rabid dogs that terrorize people thrilled the young bookworm. “I thought, ‘I want to write books like this guy,’” he said.
After graduating from high school in Oklahoma, Moehling visited USD and met Wolfe, the English chair, “who was just bigger than life,” he said. “I was a closeted gay kid from Oklahoma and she had a poster for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance on her office door and talked to me about joining the Honors Program. She was a big influence on me as a student and as a young person trying to figure myself out.”
Studying Honors English and creative writing with now-retired English professors Nancy McCahren and Brian Bedard helped him hone his skills as did working on The Volante student newspaper. After graduation, Moehling moved to Minneapolis and then to Minnesota State University, Mankato, to pursue graduate education. A technical writing job beckoned before graduation and thus started a career in the medical device industry that began in 1999 and led to his current job in program management at Medtronic.
“I’ve had an incredible career in the medical device industry,” he said. “It’s important and meaningful work and I feel good about the way we’re able to improve people’s lives and health through technology.”
While he advanced in the corporate world, writing fiction took up Moehling’s evenings and weekends. Securing a literary agent ultimately led to a publishing contact, with a lot of rewrites and edits along the way. “You spend hours and hours just writing and writing and then you get to the point where you crack the nut,” he said. “Somebody thinks your book is good enough to want to be your agent and somebody else thinks it’s good enough to publish.”
The summer release of “And There He Kept Her” will keep Moehling busy with promotional events—another aspect of the publishing world that’s new to the first-time author. “The thought of going out and doing readings and book signings is a little bit terrifying but I’ll get used to it,” he said.
His advice to current USD students interested in creative writing and getting their work published: “You have to sit in the chair and do the work. Finish that first draft. Tap into a writing community of people whose opinions you respect and who inspire you to do better. It’s not an impossible dream.”
“And There He Kept Her” will be available wherever books are sold on June 14. You can contact Moehling through his website (www.joshuamoehling.com) or via social media. On Instagram: @jmoehling. On Twitter: @joshuamoehling
