SPILLING INK: An Interview with Michelle Tang

Spilling Ink: Revealing Spells of the Writer’s Craft is back this month, featuring my interview with the incredibly talented Michelle Tang!

Find out about the magical ingredients in Michelle’s stories, her writing rituals, and all about her upcoming book, DuMort!

Please introduce yourself to everyone and share a bit about yourself.

Hello! My name is Michelle and I write mysteries, fantasy, and horror, usually about characters that look like me. I immigrated to Canada from the Philippines when I was a toddler, and I’ve lived in Toronto for about a decade. Ghost stories fascinate me to an unhealthy degree.

If your writing had a magic spell associated with it, what would the incantation be and what effect would it have on readers?

I can’t tell you the incantation–professional secrets and all that–but it involves a lot of guttural chanting, hissing whispers, and prayers to the deep unknown. If I do it just right, beguiling entities are summoned, who will capture readers’ minds and transport them into a world of my making.

Mrs. Mina Braithwaite has never quite fit into Mydalla’s polite society. Her features are so different from the other noblewomen, more like the city’s foreign workers, and she chafes at all the rules. Then there’s the furious entity that has followed her for years, crawling from shadows to hurt her and staining every memory with fear. Desperate for help, Mina crashes a private gathering to see the infamous occultist Alexandre DuMort in action. She doesn’t expect the pull of attraction towards the man, nor his invitation to join him in his work.

But DuMort has enemies, dangerous ones, and they dog his steps as closely as Mina’s entity does hers. Mina must choose between her old life, and the angry spirit that stalks her, or follow the famed occultist down a new path, where even worse things might haunt her.

Like the truth.

Authors are often said to weave their own magic with words. What magical ingredients or techniques do you use to cast your spell on readers?

The most important ingredient in my work are tears, and the most vital technique I perform is regularly threatening to quit writing when it gets hard. On a more serious note, I’m a big fan of foreshadowing, building dread drop by drop, like blood dripping from a scalpel.

Describe your writing process like a magic ritual or ceremony. What tools or talismans do you employ, what incantations or preparations do you make before conjuring up each new story?

The process of creation, like that of destruction, often involves ritual. Characters are born when they’re placed in my stories. In effect, I am giving them life: I am their god, and my power demands ceremony. I require a choir of tongueless servants singing my hymns with strained and bloody vocal cords (instrumental background music–but spooky); a dark muse whispering evil inspiration into my mind (a vague idea or, more likely, a “vibe”); and the cursed energy of countless deaths to inscribe my words onto the very planes of reality (enough battery in my laptop, or ink in my pen, to write the thing).

Share your latest release or anything upcoming you think readers might like!

My debut novella is coming out July 22, 2025 from Ghost Orchid Press! DuMort is a gaslamp horror story about a lonely woman haunted by a vengeful ghost, her infatuation with a visiting occultist, and the danger of living in Mydalla, a city where it’s illegal to speak of the dead. Pre-orders are currently available via Ghost Orchid Press’s website (https://bit.ly/tangdumort), or through Amazon (https://geni.us/dumort).

Where can people find you on social media?

I can most easily be found on my website: https://michelletangwrites.wixsite.com/author or emailed directly at MichelleTangWrites@gmail.com.

Thank you so much, Michelle! I encourage everyone to pre-order DuMort. Check out the pre-release reviews!