Robert Ward, author of THE BEST BAD DREAM, next to the HighBridge table.

This year the convention was in St. Louis with the theme “Spirits of St. Louis.” As a former resident, it was a pleasure to have a reason to make a trip back.

The convention was a great opportunity to meet HighBridge authors such as NEA and PEN West award winner Robert Ward, Deon Meyer, and Colin Cotterill.

Susan Lovley, HighBridge, with Colin Cotterill (KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT).

Cotterill, author most recently of Killed at the Whim of a Hat, was one of two international guests of honor. Meyer went home with a different prestigious honor: The Barry Award for Best Thriller for Thirteen Hours. The Barry Awards, voted on by the readers of Deadly Pleasures, are presented at Bouchercon, as our Bouchercon’s own Anthony Awards.

Our buttons, featuring art from the BLACK MASK series, that we gave out at BoucherCon.

Otto Penzler, Mysterious Press, stands beside the HighBridge titles his imprint is collaborating with us to provide on audio.

Otto Penzler, along with Steve Stilwell, former owner of Minnesota bookstore Once Upon a Crime, and another convention goer.

HighBridge had a table in the “Book Room” to hawk our wares (and hand out our buttons featuring art from our new Black Mask series). That room was jammed with people—at least, it was when the sessions, which featured various author panels, were out. We abandoned our table as well in order to attend a few panels, including “Sparks Fly Out: Law Justice and Society.” The panel had a political edge, as authors discussed the need and the difficulty of sometimes putting aside their own political views to write a well-round novel. There were lots of good, intelligent audience questions and thoughtful author answers.

Colin Cotterill sat on several panels at BoucherCon.

Some of the panels had a humor angle, such as “Cranky Streets: What’s So Funny About Murder.” But even with serious subjects to discuss, the panels were decidedly amusing, with the highlight of many a panel being the authors bantering with each other.

In the tradition of all good sleuth and police procedural stories, the hotel bar was full (although no longer smoke-filled these days) and the gatherings, formal and informal, went on late. One such packed, “formal” gathering was a party by Grove-Atlantic celebrating the relaunch of the Mysterious Press imprint on their aegis. (HighBridge will be publishing these same titles on audio.) Mysterious Press imprint head Otto Penzler and Grove Atlantic head Morgan Entrekin gave a toast.

Otto Penzler, Mysterious Press, with the head of Grove-Atlantic Morgan Entrekin at the party celebrating the relaunch of his imprint.

The event was wall-to-wall people. A number of authors, including Thomas H. Cook and Deon Meyer, attended.

Deon Meyer (TRACKERS, THIRTEEN HOURS, BLOOD SAFARI) and myself, Steve Lehman, HighBridge.

In all, St. Louis was a great adventure. Now that we’ve experienced it, there’s no mystery why authors, publishers, and fans love to attend BoucherCon. Hope to see you in Cleveland in 2012.

(PS Whether or not you attended BoucherCon, if you’d like a set of the buttons mentioned above, drop us an email with your mailing address. Put “Buttons” in the subject line to help us sort out requests.)

PROPHET’S PREY

My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints 

by Sam Brower; foreword by Jon Krakauer
read by Jonah Cummings.

Tough but RIVETING story.

Get a 1st listen:

Summary:

From the private investigator who cracked open the case that led to the arrest of Warren Jeffs, the maniacal prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), comes the engrossing, horrifying story of how a rogue sect used sex, money, and power disguised under a facade of religion to further criminal activities and a madman’s vision.

Publication date: 09/27/2011

After receiving 32 video submissions and narrowing the field to 10 impressive finalists, APA is pleased to announce the winners of our 2011 Get Caught Listening Video Contest. The winners, as determined by popular vote, are:

• FIRST PRIZE Get Caught Listening – To Audiobooks! – Submitted by Joel Moss Levinson
• SECOND PRIZE – Forbidden Passions – Submitted by Jared Wheeler
• THIRD PRIZE – Get Caught Listening – The Twins – Submitted by Samantha Villegas

Our congratulations go out to our three winners, who take home $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000, respectively!

We’d also like to thank all those who submitted to the contest for all the phenomenal videos we received.

And just because June Is Audiobook Month is coming to an end, doesn’t mean you can’t Get Caught Listening all year round! Our YouTube channel isn’t going anywhere, so check out all the video submissions by visiting www.youtube.com/getcaughtlistening.

HighBridge has got its own favorite pig to celebrate on this day: Joseph Caldwell’s “troublesome pig” at the heart of his Pig Trilogy, available for the first time on audio.

The first volume, The Pig Did It, was a Washington Post Book World Best Book when originally published, and now Chris Patton relates these whimsical and ironic Irish-American tales, with some American slang, some Irish lilt, and an occasional snort (excerpts available by following the links on the cover images).

We can’t take credit for this excellent video/interview with Joseph Caldwell. It was produced by Open Road Media, publishers of the e-book edition of the stories. But we find it very nicely done and entertaining, and thought we’d share it with you on this day of Porcine Celebration.

Happy Valentine’s Day from HighBridge!

Ah, the triumphs of technology! You can find all our old posts from the HighBridge LowDown as “Notes” on our HighBridge Audio Facebook Page.

So you can catch up with past posts by checking there, and we will start somewhat “afresh” on this rebuilt (we can do that—we have the technology) HighBridge LowDown.