Here I Go Again, (Not) on my own...

a cast of unusual suspects in 2012 as Neil Cross won
the Ngaio Marsh Award for Luther: The Calling

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

So last week, quite a lot earlier in the year than usual, I began the very early planning for the 2025 Mystery in the Library season, which is a nationwide and sometimes beyond annual series of free/koha author panel discussions held at libraries in cities, towns, and rural areas all across Aotearoa New Zealand, in association with the Ngaio Marsh Awards, which are my home country's annual book prizes for crime, mystery, thriller and suspense writing.

Now why would I, a Kiwi in London, spend lots and lots of my time each year programming library events all across New Zealand that I never get to attend? (current strike rate = 1 of 86 NZ MITL events + 1 of 4 international ones)

Well, it's because I'm the crazy fool who kickstarted the Mystery in the Library series back in 2015 (possibly sleep-deprived as a new father chaperoning Miss Now-Ten, Then Three Month's first visit with both sets of her grandparents). And after all, I was just doubling down on my even crazier idea in 2010 to establish the Ngaio Marsh Awards in the first place. There were plenty of doubters in the local books world; people I otherwise really respected who thought there was no way an annual prize celebrating excellence in Kiwi writing was sustainable. 

Anyway, flash forward to now; we're on the cusp of our 15th anniversary season of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, which continue to go from strength to strength (eg we'll have more entries this year, and each of the past few years, than the first few years combined), as well as celebrating ten years of Mystery in the Library events. 

Paul Cleave with this first of his
record three Ngaio Marsh Awards
for Best Novel, in 2011

It's funny, but I find often it's easier to focus on the things we haven't done (yet) than to appreciate the things we have done, or been part of. Not that you're not appreciative or enjoy those things as they happen, just that you keep moving on to the next. Whereas the ideas not yet fulfilled linger in the mind. Similar to chance not taken, I guess. At least that's how I sometimes find it, as someone who organises events and other things in relation to the crime and thriller world. In my head are all the things I've thought I could or should do at some stage, but haven't yet. Other ways to help authors, build communities, connect writers and readers. 

To shine a light on cool creatives and the power and joy of reading.

Right, not to get too philosophical, but that leads in to why I - a 6ft 2, 300lb man from New Zealand that often gets compared to Vikings - found himself tearing up in front of a library computer in SW London last week.

You see, I'd decided to start revving the engines a little earlier than usual for this year's Ngaio Marsh Awards, given 2025 is our 15th anniversary season (man, time flies) and we're going to be doing a few extra things to celebrate. Before launching into the planning of our Mystery in the Library series of event, which have formed part of the 'Ngaios season' for the past decade, COVID lockdown and restrictions years apart, I thought I should tally up all the MITL events we'd done so far, and the authors involved. 

I kinda ballpark had an idea, but didn't know exactly. 

So it turns out my random wee idea to hold an author panel event at the Takapuna Library back in May 2015 had blossomed quite significantly. 

So far, we've held 86 free/koha events at 34 libraries across Aotearoa (plus another four events at libraries in Australia, UK, and Iceland), featuring 208 diff Kiwi storytellers (approximately 300-350 total author appearances - still need to tally that exactly). 

Wow. Perhaps supporting and celebrating Kiwi crime writing was sustainable, after all. 

Sitting there in a SW London library this past week, thinking of how the Ngaios was partially sparked by visits to two libraries several thousand miles apart, in Vancouver and Auckland, how important libraries have been to me throughout my whole life (even as a kid with a wonderful home life that didn't need escaping from), and reflecting on all the hundreds of authors and dozens of libraries who'd been involved over the years, I was just overcome. 

With gratitude. 

Rather than thinking about the things I hadn't yet done, the events (including a second Rotorua Noir festival) cancelled or kiboshed by COVID, the crime writing projects and ideas that hadn't happened yet - a Ngaios website, anyone? an official New Zealand crime writing association? - I was overwhelmed by how much WE had all actually done, together. As the list of names and locations grew and grew and grew and grew, I was just so very grateful. 

How cool that our shared love of storytelling has led to something like this? 

Before we even start our 2025 Mystery in the Library season - likely our biggest and hopefully our best yet - we're held 90 free/koha events, connecting hundreds of authors and many thousands of readers, supporting libraries big and small, city and country, all over our map. All done on 'the smell of an oily rag', as my Mum used to say, rather than any arts body funding etc. It's amazing what you can do with a lot of goodwill, and a lot of great people. 

 

(Thanks to the fab folks at Wellington City Libraries, you can watch recordings of several of our Mystery in the Library events held at their Karori or Newtown Libraries in recent years, such as this 2024 Newtown event above)

Sometimes I think I get far too much credit for some of the things that have happened in the #yeahnoir (NZ crime, mystery, and thriller writing) world - eg I cringe at the title of this otherwise really lovely interview I did with a Kiwi journalist and booklover in 2023, about the Ngaios and Kiwi crime writing. 

I just saw a gap back in 2009-2010, and thought that perhaps I could help. I've loved tales of mysteries and thrills since I was a kid, so it's always seemed a great privilege to get to be more involved in the genre, around the outskirts in various ways, whether reviewing books, interviewing authors, appearing at festivals, putting together events, judging awards, or editing anthologies.

And how awesome to get to connect, sometimes in person and often from afar, with so many fellow crime-lovers, and get to create events where authors and readers and libraries can all come together. 

I'm a lucky man, surrounded by amazing people. 

Sorry to get philosophical on you, dear readers, but I just thought I'd share that oh-so-strong moment of gratitude that struck me this past week. Gratitude is a cure for ills, as they say, or a balm at least. And despite many hours of data collation and entry to realise just what we'd done, I certainly felt recharged and refreshed, rather than fatigued. It also fired me up in the days since, to see just what we could do with our 2025 Ngaios and events. 

Watch this space. We're just getting started. 

Until next time, ka kite anō. 

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'll be ending my fortnightly posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

“Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou ka ora ai te iwi”

(with your basket and my basket, the people will thrive)

dozens of Rotorua Noir attendees at the official opening of 
NZ's first ever crime festival at the famed Te Papaiouru Marae