Back to where it all began, in several ways

I've organised 125+ library events in New Zealand; recently I got
to attend my second-ever, in person, at 'Miscreants in Motueka'

Craig on some Tuesdays

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

I hope that you’ve all enjoyed a lovely Easter holidays - for those that got them - and are having a good start to Spring, for those in the northern hemisphere, or Autumn, for those in the Southern Hemisphere. For me, I'm kinda getting to experience both, as I've spent the past two and a half weeks 'back home' in Aotearoa New Zealand, visiting with family and friends and packing in as much as possible on several fronts, during a long-overdue visit. 

Flying back to London tonight, all too soon. But very grateful for the time here. 

I don't know about you, but I've often found there's something pleasantly grounding or resetting about visiting my hometown and surrounding region, even though I haven't lived there full-time for decades. Life can seem so hectic and in flux, going from project to project (many of them fun and challenging in good ways, don't get me wrong) alongside various life events good and tough - not to mention all the added global uncertainties and upheavals - that its really wonderful to reconnect with something that has deeper roots in my own life story, and people who've known me for decades (or places I've known/experienced decades ago), often across and through various things, rather than solely because of a single shared activity, passion, or workplace, etc. 

I realise not everyone had a good or great childhood, so revisiting old haunts and long-term friends won't be the same largely positive (while at times jarring) thing for some others as it is for me, but for me it's always been a bit of a 'battery recharger' on several fronts, especially when I've been based abroad. 

It's all too rare that I'm in New Zealand to nab print copies of the papers
and magazines I contribute to, so it was lovely to yesterday get a copy
of the latest NZ Listener, completed with my April thrillers roundup

We've been visiting national parks, wildlife preserves, and scenic areas, gone wading and swimming at local beaches even though it's autumn (some nice sunny days and mild weather, the recent tropical cyclone aside), had lots of catch-ups with family and some old friends, eaten lots of steak and cheese pies and boysenberry ice cream, visited local artisans (from Höglund Art Glass to the makers of the Lord of the Rings ring), and had all sorts of of fun. 

Plus a few bookish things thrown in for good measure. 

To kickstart April, I even got to participate in an author panel at the Motueka Library, as part of the nationwide Mystery in the Library series of free/koha library events. I helped kickstart that series in 2015, and have been organising it from afar in London the past decade plus. We've now held 125+ events at 50 libraries across Aotearoa New Zealand, featuring 200+ different Kiwi storytellers, over the past decade or so. Crazy how wee ideas can grow into rather big things when people care and give their time. Thanks to amazing librarians, authors, chairs, and thousands of local readers, Mystery in the Library has become a fixture in the New Zealand literary calendar. 

With science teacher and film/TV actor
Doug Brooks, a high school pal - we used to
do Shakespeare competitions as teenagers

It has been a bit of a strange thing, if I'm honest, organising so many events that I never get to attend myself, but I have enjoyed the ongoing connection to my home country and the local books community there, and my parents raised me to serve and give back, so I've felt good about that too. At a distance. But there was something a wee bit special getting to attend 'Miscreants in Motueka' on 1 April - with my mother, daughter, and old schoolteacher and a couple of other mates in the audience, along with plenty of people I didn't know or hadn't met yet. It was the first time too that I've had a New Zealand event where some of my own books (the Dark Deeds Down Under anthologies) were onsale. I got to sign some copies for readers who bought them, plus some old friends. Which was cool. 

It was a nice, rather tangible reminder of what we've built with the Ngaio Marsh Awards and Mystery in the Library, but also where it all started, with my parents and schoolteachers cultivating and encouraging my love of reading, and how local libraries were a cool part of my Nelson-Tasman childhood, alongside local sports fields, outdoors areas, and friends houses. 

While there have been plenty of bumps, and some tough twists and turns, overall I think I've been a fairly lucky guy, in terms of some pretty cool chapters I've had in my life, and the great people I've got to meet and spend time with - a little or a lot - along the way. 

Given this was a very family-focused trip, I didn't get to catch up with as many Kiwi authors as I often do when I'm back home, but on top of the Miscreants in Motueka event and going for a dawn walk around the Auckland harbour with Maori filmmaker and award-winning crime writer Michael Bennett (Better the Blood, etc) this morning - a very nice way to kickstart my final day in Aotearoa for this trip - I've popped into a few bookshops and libraries while here, and been very pleased to see some good stocking and spotlighting of an array of cool Kiwi crime novels and true crime books. in most places We've come a long way since we started the Ngaio Marsh Awards in 2010. 

Ngaio Marsh Award winning authors Michael Bennett and Claire Baylis
on a spotlight shelf at the Papatoetoe Library in South Auckland

Over the weekend I even popped into the Papatoetoe Library, just up the road from where we've been staying in Auckland for the final days of our visit. As some people know, that's a key location in terms of modern New Zealand crime writing and the Ngaio Marsh Awards, even though we've never held a Mystery in the Library event there. 

In October 2008 - nearly 18 years ago! - I stopped by the Papatoetoe Library in South Auckland, having just returned to New Zealand from a yearlong OE backpacking through Latin America, North America, and Europe.

I'd loved mystery books my whole life - though had slowed down reading them while at law school and as a young lawyer at a large corporate law firm - but while travelling on that OE trip I'd read lots of crime/thrillers during 24 hr bus roads across Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and even spontaneously attended a Crime Writers of Canada event at Vancouver Public Library in April 2008, chatting to Canadian crime writers like legendary lawyer and award-winning author William Deverell, along with Mark Zuehlke and the late, great Lou Allin (a Vice-President of Crime Writers Canada who'd later become one of our inaugural Ngaio Marsh Awards judges in 2010). 

While sorting old boxes at my Mum's house
on this trip, I came across lots of old articles
I wrote 15+ years ago, including this
feature on Neil Cross in early 2009

On a post event stroll to the bus stop, Bill Deverell had asked me about New Zealand crime writing, but outside of Ngaio Marsh, Paul Thomas, and a few one-off books from the 2000s from the likes of Simon Snow, Michael Laws, and Nigel Latta, I sadly couldn't really tell him that much in terms of recommendations. 

Later that year, browsing the Papatoetoe Library shelves in October 2008, I stumbled across CEMETERY LAKE by Paul Cleave and THE RINGMASTER by Vanda Symon not just Kiwi crime novels, but the third and second books from each author!

By chance - a lawyer not getting a book review in on time for the legal magazine I started working at, so my editor needed me to quickly fill the pages before we went to the printers - I ended up reviewing Paul and Vanda's books for NZLawyer magazine. Further reviews then author interviews followed of other Kiwi mystery writers, and international ones... fast forward to late 2010, and the first-ever Ngaio Marsh Award was won - delayed after the earthquakes cancelled the Christchurch Writers Festival that year by 'Alix Bosco' for CUT & RUN. 

And that was just the beginning. 17 years of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. More than a decade of Mystery in the Library. Rotorua Noir in 2019, the first-ever New Zealand crime and thriller festival. Kiwi crime and thriller authors appearing semi-regularly nowadays at international festivals. Would it have happened without spontaneous visits to libraries in Vancouver and Papatoetoe in 2008? Months apart, more than 7,000 miles apart... both planting seeds.

Life eh? What can you do but be grateful? 

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 food basket and my food basket the people will thrive, ie everybody has something to offer, and by working together we can all flourish.)

Dozens of crime writers from New Zealand, Australia, and internationally coming
together at a local marae to celebrate storytelling at Rotorua Noir in 2019.