Thank you! Only problem with the manuscript review is that I had to completely re-write the manuscript – I learned a great deal from the exercise. – James Hutson-Wiley, author of Chaucer First Place Winner The Sugar Merchant
Author: chanti
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CHASING OTHELLO: Book 2 of the Cleopatra Chronicles by Tina Sloan – International Mystery, Action & Adventure, Global Thriller
Chasing Othello by Tina Sloan has lies and spies, betrayal and espionage, love and hate, all wrapped up in a story that grabs the reader on the very first page and doesn’t let go until the last.
Forty-something Cleopatra is shattered after discovering that one of her best friends was a terrorist who had planned to blow up Pearl Harbor. When she discovered his intentions, she was forced to kill or be killed. Her Krav Maga training allows her to win that battle.
Shattered by the betrayal, Cleo retreats to her father’s estate in Dubai, only to find out she is pregnant at age forty-four.
Life on her father’s vast estate is a respite, but when her ex-lover is shot in the process of bringing down yet another terrorist, Cleopatra returns home to Honolulu with her now two-year-old daughter, only to discover that she is the target this time.
There are deceptions and red herrings aplenty in this compelling thriller.
The CIA focuses on the terrorist while the mastermind of the plot hides in plain sight. He has his sights firmly fixed on Cleopatra long before anyone knows that she is in danger. The tension ramps up high as the clues are painstakingly pulled together by a movie director who thinks that Cleopatra’s secrets might be a great hook for his next movie.
The story is told through multiple first-person points of view. The narrative focuses in turn on each of the main characters, from Cleopatra to her former lover’s wife, to his newly-fledged CIA son, to the film director, to the mastermind. Each voice is distinct, and the flip from perspective to perspective keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace, while providing a plethora of clues to fascinate along the way.
Chasing Othello is a thrill ride from beginning to blistering, bittersweet end.
Readers will laugh, cry and cheer as Cleopatra Gallier manages to save her own day – with a bit of help from the CIA – and find her own way to happiness after much danger and death.
She should enjoy her peace while she can, because there are plenty of hints at the end that storm clouds still gather on her horizon. Readers who have fallen in love with her and her world will be left eagerly anticipating what those storms might bring in her future.
This story begins where the first book in the Cleopatra Chronicles ends and is more than friendly to newbies who want to jump right into this second volume – although once someone has visited Cleopatra Gallier’s world they will be itching to return – if only to see what details they missed.

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THE WAYS Of WATER: A Novel by Teresa H. Janssen – Biographies of Women, Early 20th Century, Coming of Age
In The Ways of Water, a meticulously crafted coming-of-age novel, author Teresa H. Janssen drops the reader a hundred years back in time, into the American southwest where water is scarce and the survival of the fittest is a reality.
In this place, “Life is a kettle of sadness, but along with it comes lumps of sweetness that are so exquisite… they give a girl courage to dream.”
Josie Belle Gore was only four when, in 1906, she traveled with her mother and three siblings from Texas to their new home in the Arizona desert to live the life of a railroad family.
Over time, her family wandered from desert to desert—in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico—wherever Papa’s job took them. The interplay of those harsh, yet enchanting lands of the American southwest with the human condition during the beginning of the twentieth century molded Josie’s character. Early on, she understood “…nothing on this earth comes easy. You just have to do what needs doing.”
For Josie, it seems natural and expected that after her mother dies, she, as the eldest daughter in the home, assumes responsibility for her siblings. However, when her father decides to marry her off at age fifteen to a much older man, Josie can do nothing else but run away. Drawing upon her own internal resources and wits, she makes friends, travels to new places, gains useful skills, and ultimately finds her destiny in post-WWI California.
This story flows with twists and turns much like those of a river.
Although atypical in regard to story structure, character development, and denouement, it works well. The authentic voice, rich sensory imagery, and often lyrical, poetic language create an emotional and descriptive feast. Inspired by the life of the author’s grandmother, this is a skillfully presented fictional autobiography.
In many ways, Janssen’s book echoes Mary Antin’s sentiment in The Promised Land (1911) “…We love to read the lives of the great, yet what a broken history of mankind they give, unless supplemented by the lives of the humble…”

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The 2022 Military & Front Lines CIBAs Short List for Service to Others
The Military & Front Lines Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir exploring the lives of those who serve their country and others. The Military & Front Lines Service Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.
Note: This is the newest division at Chanticleer! We are honored to recognize these specialized stories from those who serve.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 Military and Front Line Non-Fiction entries to the 2022 Military and Front Line Book Awards SHORT LIST. Finalists will be selected from the Short List. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2022 Military & Front Lines Book Awards for Narrative Non-Fiction.
Please join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Robert E. Lofthouse – Honor Through Sacrifice
- Colonel Van H. Slayden, USAF, with Patrecia Slayden Hollis – Normandy to Nazi Surrender, Firsthand Account of a P-47 Thunderbolt Pilot
- George Kohn – Vector to Destiny
- Tamra McAnally Bolton – A Blessed Life
- Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man’s Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
- Azim H. Jiwani, MD – Humanizing Medicine
- Isaac Alexis M.D. – The Seductive Pink Crystal
- Marcus A. Nannini – Midnight Flight to Nuremberg
- Christine Herbert – The Color of the Elephant: Memoir of a Muzungu
- Ashe and Magdalena Stevens – Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss and War
- Bruce Rowe, MD – Everything Under the Sun
- Brant Vickers – Chucky’s in Tucson
- Matthew J. Louis – Mission Transition: Navigating the Opportunities and Obstacles to Your Post-Military Career
- Jim Enderle – Fight, Flight, or Freeze
- Jonathon C. Benjamin – American Airman

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.
Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.
Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews
Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
This is a new division of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 Military and Front Line Awards is Martha Bolton with Linda Hope for Dear Bob… Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of WW2


Click here to see the 2021 Military an Front Line Book Award Winners for Service to Others
We are now accepting submissions for the 2023 Military and Front Line Book Awards. The 2023 Winners will be announced at CAC 2024.
See our Full List of Non-Fiction Divisions here!
Winners will be announced at the 2022 CIBA Awards Ceremony, sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!

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EXITS by Stephen C. Pollock – Poetry, Nature, Spirituality
Exits by Stephen C. Pollock embodies the malleable nature of poetry, balancing the reflective, spiritual, personal, and primal. It changes from rhyme to free verse, even within one poem, and shares thoughtful observations.
Some poems ask the reader to reflect on nature and human reactions to it. Arachnidæa: Line Drawings blends rhyme, stanza lengths, and free verse with the brutal truth of damaging trespasses that humans have taken into the natural world. Metamorphosis continues this theme as it shows the beautiful cycle of life from bloom to decay, and it challenges us to consider how our human intervention can render that cycle barren.
“The butterfly bush on our berm… grew to resemble some great green sphere / whose blooms and perfume intoxicate the senses / of black-veined yellow swallowtails….But in May — Roaches! Panic! Pesticide spray / for the house…Now the butterflies are gone… It’s a shame to be sure, and surely no one’s to blame, / though our berm, and world, will never be quite the same.”
Many of these poems reveal a darker side to nature, a struggle with health issues that can consume a person.
Syringe references the chaste nymph Syrinx of Greek myth who was turned into hollow reeds, and the poem itself juxtaposes pastoral images of a serene pond and horsetails with the experience of living with multiple sclerosis, creating a powerful visual lyric.
Spine of Dorian Gray alludes to the decaying of Dorian’s portrait in his attic, tied to the destruction of the speaker’s spine as the disease progresses. Nasal Biopsy compares the terrifying procedure that will reveal a possible cancer diagnosis with a spiritual experience of the sacrament and poses questions of faith in the face of nature.
Exits offers a unique and thematically rich collection of poetry, and each reading reveals more insights for the reader to contemplate.

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The Humor and Satire CIBAs 2022 Short List

The Humor and Satire Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Humor and Satire. The Humor and Satire Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring satire, humor, political ideology, parody, fantasy, and allegory or fable. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 Humor and Satire Fiction entries to the 2022 Humor and Satire Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Humor and Satire Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person.
These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2022 Humor and Satire Book Awards novel competition!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Reenita M. Hora – Operation Mom – My Plan to Get my Mom a Life and a Man
- David Bush – General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms
- Rob Roy O’Keefe – Small Stories: A Perfectly Absurd Novel
- Mike Murphey – The Outlaw Gillis Kerg … Physics, Lust and Greed Series, Book 4
- Matthew J. White – A Feral Chorus
- Daniel Eric Finkel – Mr. Taffle’s Pants of Insanity
- Dennis M. Clausen – One Flew Under the Bus
- Junior Burke – Buddha Was A Cowboy
- Steven Mayfield – Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.
- Mike Davis & TL Banks – Drunk Talk
- Marco Ocram – The Awful Truth About The Name Of The Rose
- Marco Ocram – The Awful Truth About The Herbert Quarry Affair
- Marco Ocram – The Awful Truth About The Sushing Prize
- Ben Bongers – The Saint Nicholas Society
- Micah Thorp – Uncle Joe’s Muse
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.
Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.
Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews
Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 Humor and Satire Awards is Roger Wilson-Crane for Certified


Click here to see the 2021 Humor and Satire Book Award Winners.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Humor and Satire Book Awards. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.
Please click here for more information.
Winners will be announced at the 2021 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
Join us April 27 – 29th, 2022! Register Today!
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at info@ChantiReviews.com.













