Today is publication day for Dead Flowers and I want to talk about Nottingham, where I live and where the novel is set. I was born in Nottingham in 1971, moved away in the early 90’s, then moved back to the city, in part to study Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University, in 2002. I…
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novelist and all that
Opportunity Knocks
So, in the latest in my blog series about Dead Flowers, I’m going to talk about Opportunity Knocks. This was TV talent show in the 1970’s (briefly revived in the late 80’s, I think) The show pitted some very different acts against one another, a bit like a school talent show. So, any one week,…
Read MoreThe Pitcher and Piano
Tonight, it’s another location from the book and, actually, another pub. This one’s the Pitcher and Piano, a converted church that is one of the most beautiful bars in the city. This pub sits at the top of the same cliff where the Loggerheads nestles at the bottom. As pubs go, the two places couldn’t…
Read MoreThe Loggerheads Pub
The Loggerheads is one of my major settings in Dead Flowers. In fact, more action takes place there than anywhere else in this Nottingham-set novel. The first reviews are in and they’ve been lovely, which makes me very happy. One of my favourite comments so far was from The Bookbag about the setting. “Monaghan’s other…
Read MoreElvis
My new novel, Dead Flowers, is out later this week. In the run up to its release, I’m going to post a short blog every day about an aspect of the story. Today is all about Elvis. Elvis is my main character Sian’s dog, a retired cadaver dog who used to help the police find…
Read MoreDead Flowers – cover reveal
It’s getting exciting now as my next novel Dead Flowers will be out in just four weeks. My lovely publisher Verve have revealed the cover, so here it is! You can read more about the book and preorder it on Amazon here! Or read first reader responses and reviews on Netgalley here!
Read MoreIndigenous sea criminal subject matter
Indigenous sea criminal subject matter One is auditorially stimulated by a number of thoroughfares Immobilise the tuning dial that is in your possession Consider oneself to be comfortable as if in one’s own domicile We are in possession of vegetation, some of which we have propagated by our own means Recline in one’s own royal…
Read MoreWhat might have happened if R Kelly had been a member of a writer’s workshop
In today’s writing workshop, we’re going to look at R Kelly’s Ignition (remix) I enjoyed reading this piece of work and can certainly see that there’s a rhythm to the way you use words. I particularly liked the bouncing, tooting and beeping, which are lots of fun and encourage participation with the text. That said, I…
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again
I’ve always loved autumn. The carpets of shed leaves, the colours, the skies. Halloween and all the fancy dress and apple bobbing and toffee. Bonfire Night and fireworks, the smell of gunpowder in the air. And, in Nottingham, the fair comes to town too. I love that feeling of being cosy inside whilst the rain…
Read MoreWhat is crime fiction?
This week, on a course about Crime Fiction, we were asked the question ‘what is crime fiction?’ You’d have thought we’d know, since we’d signed up for a fairly significant chunk of education on the subject, but it was harder to answer than you might expect. It was really quite a clever bit of teaching,…
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