Downloadable-Only Novel, The Chopin Manuscript, Wins at Audies
Raya Kuzyk -- Library Journal, 6/5/2008
- 13th annual ceremony returns to the Biltmore
- MC Scott Brick keeps long night lively
- Audiobook narrator "Anna Fields" honored posthumously
In 1999, the Audies, an awards ceremony held in conjunction with the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) and BookExpo America (BEA), rolled out the red carpet at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. On May 30, for its 13th year and with the nature of the industry entirely changed, it returned to that famed locale, with a more digital edge.
With nominees in 30 categories (complete list of Audie winners here) and several scripted presentations, the evening crawled, but celebrity audiobook narrator Scott Brick, who replaced Tim Curry at the 11th hour as MC, helped keep energy levels up between the big unveils. Brick, who’s recorded more than 400 titles—his Dune (Macmillan Audio) won an Audie for Best Science Fiction that night—recently launched his own production company, Brick by Brick Audio, and will publish a first novel later this year.
The 300 attendees listened attentively as a sampling of the narration played (listen here) following the announcement of each Audiobook of the Year nominee: The Chopin Manuscript (Audible), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Random House Audio Listening Library), I Am America (and So Can You!) (Hachette Audio), Inspired by…The Bible Experience: Old Testament (Zondervan Audio), and The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Audio).
The bells of change
The Chopin Manuscript, a serialized novel witten in parts by 15 suspense writers, among them Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, and Lee Child, won the top prize (see 4/15/08 mention in LJ Mystery Preview). It was created exclusively for audio and available only as a download. Its narrator, Alfred Molina, was already one Audie rich this year for his narration of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (Random House Audio Listening Library).
Also, The Secret (Simon & Schuster Audio), written and narrated by Rhonda Byrne, was inducted into the Audies Hall of Fame, and Yuri Rasovsky’s Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls (Blackstone Audio) won in all three of its nominated categories: Original Work, Audio Drama, and Achievement in Production. Other multiple award winners included Joe Hill, J.K. Rowling, and Sandra Dallas.
Gone but not forgotten
The night’s most resonant win belonged to the late Kate Fleming, who read under the pseudonym Anna Fields. Fleming died in 2006 when a flash storm flooded the basement of her Seattle home. Also lost to the flood was her 2004 Audie, for her reading of Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation (Blackstone), so at the 2005 Audies, narrators Brick and Carrington MacDuffie presented Fleming’s partner of nine years, Charlene Strong, and Fleming’s mother with a replacement. This year, Strong once again accepted an Audie on Fleming’s behalf, in the Best Romance category for her narration of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Natural Born Charmer (HarperAudio).
