Chapter 23: “Miraculous smalltown girl” scoops the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best YA Book!
Sorry if you’ve heard already, but the winners of the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards were announced at the WORD festival in Christchurch this week – and Miracle won the award for Best YA Book!
Woohoo!
Here’s something I stole from the Kete website:
Lane was stunned to find herself onstage accepting the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Kids/YA, adding to the Best First Novel prize she won in 2018 for All Our Secrets. She joins Paul Cleave, Jacqueline Bublitz, and Michael Bennett as winners of multiple Ngaio Marsh Awards. The judges praised Miracle, which stars a teenager trying to deal with devastating events and clear her father’s name after he is arrested for a brutal attack, as “poignant and funny, with a complex storyline and memorable, well-developed characters including a fascinating heroine with her authentic adolescent voice.”
Me 'stunned' on stage as I was interrogated by Louise and Gareth Ward, co-authors of The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone.
Vanda Symon (Best Novel Award finalist) later told me I also deserved an award for the world’s shortest speech! In my defence, I hadn’t wanted to prepare anything in case I jinxed it.
From what I remember of my too-short speech, I thanked the fabulous Craig Sisterson who tirelessly organises every last detail of the Ngaio Marsh Awards from the other side of the world (even the “miraculous smalltown girl” words in my headline were his). I probably should’ve also given a nod to my publisher Cloud Ink and to my family and friends (including everyone reading this!) for their (your) support. So here’s my belated “thank you”.
Congratulations to David Bishop, winner of the Best Novel Award for RITUAL OF FIRE and Claire Baylis, winner of the Best First Novel Award for DICE.
New short story ‘The Barbecue’ – in Dark Deeds Down Under 2
Edited by the aforementioned Craig Sisterson, Dark Deeds Down Under 2 is the second volume of a crime and thriller anthology, featuring “22 outstanding storytellers” from both sides of the Tasman (including Charity Norman, Renée, Stephen Johnson and … ahem … me).
Now available from Wellington Unity's Books or you can order here
Ink in my veins
I also recently appeared on the fabulous Rachael Herron’s Ink in your Veins podcast. Among other things I talked about tracing my love of writing back to Year 6, when I won a creative writing competition.
“My prize was a hard cover copy of Anne of Green Gables, which I still have. I don’t think I wrote much else for another 20 years, but it was always something I was going to do.”
Spot Sister Patricia's typo (hint: a type of writing I don't remembering mastering in primary school)
As for She Loves You (novel number 3), I’m now working on another draft. Hopefully I’ll have more news on that before another year gallops by. Until then, here are some pics from recent events…
