9mm Interviews: Taking stock

Well yesterday the Crime Watch 9mm series celebrated its 25th instalment, when the multi-talented Stella Duffy, who grew up in the rural North Island of New Zealand, was featured. The series has now been running for four months, so I thought now might be an opportune time to pause for reflection, look back on all the great interviewees thusfar, and get some feedback on how to make it even better in future.

I've got to be honest, when I started the series in March, I never really thought I'd get to 25 interviewees this quickly, nor that I'd be going so well with my goals of mixing up the big-name international bestsellers with local authors and lesser-knowns from here and overseas. I'm pretty happy with the series overall, and would just like to say thank you to all the authors who've generously given their time to be part of the series, and answered all the 9mm questions, no matter how random they may seem at times.

There are already some great future instalments 'in the can' so to speak, including 9mm interviews with James Lee Burke, Mark Gimenez and PD James (I know, I've been talking about the latter one for a while - I've been saving it to publish on the day of her 90th birthday), and some others already organised on the horizon, including with Michael Connelly, Peter Robinson and Michael Robotham. I'm fairly confident I will soon also be able to provide 9mm interviews with Peter James, RJ Ellory, Val McDermid, Simon Kernick, Paul Thomas, Liam McIlvanney and Neil Cross - all of whom I will be meeting in the coming couple of months at the 2010 The Press Christchurch Writers Festival or other New Zealand events.

The 25 published 9mm interviews thusfar are:

1. Lee Child
2. Paddy Richardson
3. Jack Kerley
4. Paul Cleave
5. Margot Kinberg
6. Vanda Symon
7. Dennis Palumbo
8. Andrew Grant
9. Rob Kitchin
10. Linwood Barclay
11. Lou Allin
12. Declan Burke
13. Craig Russell
14. Joan Druett
15. Martin Edwards
16. Shamini Flint
17. Gregg Hurwitz
18. C. George Muller
19. John Connolly
20. Roy Vaughn
21. Mark Billingham
22. Stuart MacBride
23. Michael Koryta
24. David Carnoy
25. Stella Duffy

A FEW OBSERVATIONS:

• Gender split: we've had 18 male authors and seven female ones (although out of the first 16 interviews the split was a more even 10/6 ), so clearly I need to work harder to include more female crime and thriller writers moving forward. Other than upcoming interviews with PD James and Val McDermid, I have also been in touch with Lisa Unger, Faye Kellerman and Donna Moore, so hopefully that will help kick-start a better balance.
• NZ and international: this is also an 18/7 split, or 17/8, depending whether you count Stella Duffy as a Kiwi author. That probably isn't too bad (and isn't as much of an issue as the gender split), but still, a good reminder that I should keep up my earlier efforts to sprinkle as many Kiwi authors throughout the series as possible - since they may not be covered as much elsewhere, unlike the big-name international bestsellers. Including female Kiwi writers like Lindy Kelly, Dorothy Fowler, Cat Connor, Jeannie McLean and Alix Bosco will obviously help on both fronts.
• Geographic/national diversity: so far there have been seven New Zealand-based authors (the equal most of any country, which mitigates the above issue I guess), seven US-based authors, three Irish authors, three England-based authors, two Canadians, two Scottish authors, and one from Singapore. Seven countries isn't too bad, but I could definitely improve the diversity on this front. Clearly I need to target a few Australian authors, along with some from continental Europe, Asia, South America and Africa (although language differences will hamper things slightly with these latter regions).

So those are some of my thoughts, given the series so far. What are yours? What do you think of the mix? Who have been your favourite interviewees? Who would you most like to see join the series? How could it be improved? I'd really love to have your feedback, so please share your thoughts, and leave a comment or two.