Celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas – One Day at a Time – Day Four
“But Jiminy Crickets, it’s after December 25th! Is it not too late for the 12 Days of Christmas?” you say.
Not to fear, Chanticleerians! The 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 26th! And it continues to the 6th of January – Three Kings Day. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are known as Advent.
Some say that December 25th is the first day of Christmas, but we are going with the medieval date of the 26th because revelry could not take place on the 25th as it was a holy day. And the Twelve Days of Christmas is about revelry!
So if you haven’t finished wrapping presents, sending out those cards, and baking cookies—don’t worry—you’ve got an extra 8 days!
Happy Holidays to You from the Chanticleer Team!
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Four Calling Birds
Three French hens (Chanticleer’s favorite #justsaying)
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree
Four Calling Birds — I couldn’t resist – Kiffer
Four Calling Birds were also known as Four Colly Birds aka Blackbirds, an English Thrush.
International Christmas Traditions – Germany
Ski-jumping tournaments start in Oberstdorf, Allgau, Germany on December 29th! Vierschanzen Tournee is where the 50 qualified ski jumpers compete against each other in one on one duels. The competition is held at four different times on four different hills culminating on Three Kings Day. Click here to learn more about this gravity defeating sport.
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Chanticleer brings to me…
Four Days of Workshops
The Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC) is the marquee annual event we hostfeaturing best-selling authors and top industry professionals and editors alike. The focus of CAC23 is always on the business of authorship, with Masterclasses on Thursday and panels and speakers on the following three days. Our dates for 2023 are April 27-30 at the beautiful Hotel Bellwether right on Bellingham Bay.
Early Bird Prices are in effect through the end of December. Register today and find out why 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.
The Laramie Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the Americana and Westerns fiction genre. The Laramie Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring Americana themes, First Nation stories, early North American History, cowboys & cowgirls in the Wild West, pioneering, and Civil War, and 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 Laramie Americana Long List to the 2022 Laramie Book Awards SHORT LIST. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions.FINALISTS will be selected from the Semi-Finalists.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.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2022 Laramie Book Awards novel competition for Americana Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following Short List authors and their works!
Jerry E. Bustin –Outlaws, Renegades, and Prickly Pear Jam
Pamela Nowak – Necessary Deceptions: The Women of Wyatt Earp
Shanna Hatfield –Distracting the Deputy
Bruce Gardner –Seeing Glory: A Novel of Family Strife, Faith, and the American Civil War
E. Alan Fleischauer –JTs World
Susan Higginbotham –John Brown’s Women: A Novel
Debra Whiting Alexander –A River for Gemma
T.K. Conklin –Guarded Hearts
Larry Boucher –Ferris Station
Larry Boucher –The Scout
Ed Davis –The Last Professional
E. Alan Fleischauer –How the West Was Won then Lost …. Decimation
Sophia Alexander –Tapestry: A Lowcountry Rapunzel
Gail Hertzog –Crossing the Ford
Dena Smallwood –Syrie
Betty Willis –Texas Quest
Shanna Hatfield –Holiday Hope
Susanna Lane –Imperfect Promise
Eileen Charbonneau –Ursula’s Inheritance
Harriet Cannon –Exiled South
Margaret Arross –El Viento
Daniel Greene –Northern Blood (Northern Wolf Series Book 3)
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
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.
Winners will be announced at the 2022 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
CAC23 – Turn it up to 11! 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.
Celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas – One Day at a Time
“But Jiminy Crickets, it is the 28th of December! Is it not too late for the 12 Days of Christmas?” you say.
Not to fear, Chanticleerians! The 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 26th! And it continues to the 6th of January – Three Kings Day. The four weeks leading up to Christmas is known as the Advent.
Some say that December 25th is the first day of Christmas, but we are going with the medieval date of the 26th because revelry could not take place on the 25th as it was a holy day. And the Twelve Days of Christmas is about revelry!
So if you haven’t finished wrapping presents, sending out those cards, and baking cookies—don’t worry—you’ve got an extra 10 days!
Happy Holidays to You from the Chanticleer Team!
On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Three French hens (Chanticleer’s favorite #justsaying)
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree
Three French Hens by Kate Chidley
The Three French Hens represent Faith, Hope, and Charity.
In France, it is tradition to have thirteen desserts (Les Treize) desserts at the Le Reveillon—Christmas Eve Dinner that begins about 8 p.m. and continues until well past midnight. Desserts may consist of Buche de Noel, cookie assortments (each different kind counts), nougats, candied fruits, nuts, and so on.
On the Third Day of Christmas, Chanticleer brings to me…
Three Editorial Services
Line Editing
If your story still has developmental issues (dialogue, plotting, character development, etc.), your work would benefit from a Line Edit. Line Editing is a line-by-line edit to make sure that each sentence pushes the story forward and creates just the right amount of pacing and tension. Each and every word should count! This is a collaborative edit that is done with the author in approximate chunks of seventy pages at a time.
Copy Editing
A Style Sheet Guide is created that is the basis of your story bible. A Style Sheet Guide will ensure that your characters’ names, place names, conventions (examples are: Happy Christmas instead of Merry Christmas or blond or blonde or using kilometers instead of miles), jargon, pet names, time frame, and more — the attention to detail that will set your work apart from the fray.
Proofreading
A proof read with a third set of fresh eyes is the final reading to catch the inevitable typos and glitches.
Why Take the Time for all these services?
No one knows a book like their author, and still, it’s crucial to have multiple sets of eyes on the work. Chanticleer’s Editorial Services are competitively priced, and can help take your book to the next level needed for publication or querying agents and publishers.
A young adult fantasy gem, Dana Willow’s Druids of the Sky, is a story about the power of found family and self-discovery.
On a steampunk version of Earth, humans and druids have tensely coexisted for much of known history. Leah lives a content life with her merchant father aboard Skyport, a giant world-traveling airship held aloft by a metal called Heracleum. Another merchant boards Skyport with the hope of selling his druid creatures to humans as pets, but when one imprints on Leah, she discovers she’s not as human as she thought.
Revealed to be a half-druid, her calm life traversing the human world is about to change forever.
Leah leaves Skyport to seek out a druid community in hopes of finding whatever remains of her infamous family. Leah has a lot to discover about herself and must do so carefully in the face of prejudice against her nature.
After departing from Skyport, Leah comes across a small druid town and meets Aspin, a young druid also struggling to find her place in the world. She is an alchemy school dropout and struggles with insecurity in her magical abilities. Together they embark on a journey to uncover Leah’s family, finding plenty of danger along with small but significant acts of kindness.
Druids of the Sky is a page-turner with a flowing style that fits the young adult genre wonderfully.
Author Dana Willow creates authentic emotional connections among her characters, growing them into complex and dynamic people. At the heart of the book is a romance intolerable to this world of druid and human conflict. This beautiful element of the story adds significant depth to the polarizing races and cultures of human and druid societies.
Throughout Leah’s journey to find her parents, she encounters many who wish her harm, but just as many who hold out hope that one day druids and humans can live in peace. Druids of the Sky is a reminder that we are never alone and that there is always kindness in the world.
This story shows the beauty in a journey shared with others.
Dana Willow writes an ambiguous ending with many questions unanswered. This sly trick leaves readers with plenty of room for personal interpretations and hope that the story will continue well beyond the last page.
Dana Willow’s debut novel Druids of the Sky is a heartfelt and relatable coming-of-age story, a must-read young adult fantasy novel. In a massive and congested genre, Druids of the Sky adds a needed touch of kindness and compassion.
Celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas – A Day at a Time
“But Jiminy Crickets, it is the 27th of December! Is it not too late for the 12 Days of Christmas?” you say.
Not to fear, Chanticleerians! The 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 26th! And it continues to the 6th of January – Three Kings Day. The four weeks leading up to Christmas is known as the Advent.
Some say that December 25th is the first day of Christmas, but we are going with the medieval date of the 26th because revelry could not take place on the 25th as it was a holy day. And the Twelve Days of Christmas is about revelry!
So if you haven’t finished wrapping presents, sending out those cards, and baking cookies—don’t worry—you’ve got an extra 11 days!
The second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree
Two Turtle Doves are a representation of love and loyalty and friendship.
Which brings us to why in Japan, Christmas is considered the holiday for lovers (rather than family time). Couples plan romantic dates, special dinners out, and engagement promises.
Click on the link below to enjoy PENTONIX’s version of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Pentatonix is a fabulous international a cappello singing group.
Happy Holidays to You from the Chanticleer Team!
On the Second Day of Christmas, Chanticleer brings to me…
Two Essential Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Everyone knows about the Editorial Review. It’s best to start submitting for these once your book is at the Proofreading stage, and once you have a publication date in mind. These are powerful tools filled with blurbs that you can use to market your work.
Of course, the Editorial Review should go on your book’s Amazon page, and every blurb you can pull out can be put everywhere else your book should be marketed. Those different blurbs should appear here at a minimum:
Your website
Goodreads
Barnes & Noble
Beyond that, you can post to places like StoryGraph, and you can use each blurb as a new post on social media. The reason you rotate your blurbs is to make them always feel fresh and engaging to the audience who follows you. The Review can also be used in publishing packets, press releases, and any other way you can imagine!
Manuscript Overviews
Less well-known, the Manuscript Overview (MOV) provides a birds-eye view of your work. This service catches plotholes, character inconsistencies, and those big ideas that authors need feedback on once they feel confident in the story as a whole. The best part is the way a MOV can save authors time and money in the long run by helping them to create the most polished work they can before turning to the next round of editing services.
Stay Tuned for the Third Day of Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all!
The Goethe Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in post-1750s Historical Fiction. The Goethe Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Goethe Book Awards competition is named for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was born at the dawn of the new era of enlightenment on August 28, 1749.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Late Period Historical Fiction. Regency, Victorian, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, World and other wars before the 20th century, history of non-western cultures, set after the 1750s, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
The other three Historical Fiction Genres are the Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction, the Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction, and the Hemingway Awards for 20th c. Wartime Fiction.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 Goethe Late Historical Fiction Long List to the 2022 Goethe Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Goethe Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-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 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2022 Goethe Book Awards novel competition for Post-1750s Historical Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following Short List authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
Leah Angstman – Falcon in the Dive
Jenny Brav – The Unbroken Horizon
Eric Schumacher Ramirez – Children of Kings
Jeff Winstead – The Last Battle of the Revolution
Josanna Thompson – A Maiden’s Journey
Daniel V. Meier, Jr. – Blood Before Dawn
Pat Benedict Jurgens – Falling Forward: A Woman’s Journey West
Scott Kauffman – Saving Thomas
Jody Hadlock – The Lives of Diamond Bessie
Rita Bozi – When I Was Better
Judith F. Brenner – The Moments Between Dreams
Brigitte Goldstein – Court of Miracles
Kent Politsch – Beebe and Bostelmann
Susanne Dunlap – The Portraitist
Gail Hertzog – Crossing the Ford
Lilianne Milgrom – L’Origine: The secret life of the world’s most erotic masterpiece
Robert W. Smith – Running with Cannibals
Todd M. Johnson – The Barrister and the Letter of Marque
Brett Savill – Lie of the Land
Alice McVeigh – Harriet: A Jane Austen Variation
Jennifer Newbold – The Private Misadventures of Nell Nobody
Tamar Anolic – Tales of the Romanov Empire
Julieta Almeida Rodrigues, Ph.D. – Eleonora and Joseph. Passion, Tragedy, and Revolution in the Age of Enlightenment
Leslie Johansen Nack – The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies
James D. Nealon – Confederacy of Fenians
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.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Goethe Book Awards for Post-1750s Historical Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to participate in and attend in North America.
Yes, just like the well-known Christmas Carol, we have our own version! For these twelve days, we’ll share a bit of our Chanticleer wisdom and cheer with you!
“But Jiminy Crickets, it is the 26th of December! Is it not too late for the 12 Days of Christmas?” you say.
Not to fear, Chanticleerians! The 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 26th! And it continues to the 6th of January – Three Kings Day. The four weeks leading up to Christmas is known as the Advent.
So if you haven’t finished wrapping presents, sending out those cards, and baking cookies—don’t worry—you’ve got an extra 12 days!
Some say the Twelve Days tradition is wishing good luck and cheer for each of the following months in the new year.
Others say the first six of the days are to pay homage to the previous year and six of the days that are in the new year bringing hope and glad tidings for coming times.
The Twelve Days of Christmas would be a welcome break for those who worked the land.
The twelve days of Christmas run from December 26th until January 6th (Three Kings Day).
If you are singing the song, and you miss or mess up a verse, you owe your opponent (the person singing the round before you a kiss or a sweet treat or grant a favor).
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree.
Happy Holidays to You from the Chanticleer Team!
On the First Day of Christmas, Chanticleer brings to me…
One Curated Online Community!
We’re immensely proud of The Roost, a place where any Partridge in a Pear Tree would be happy to make its nest. In thinking about our authors, we have The Roost set up for weekly write-ins, discussions of Writing Craft Books, as well as advice on the Author’s Journey.
Couple this with access to authors at all stages of the writing journey, and you have a powerhouse community that isn’t dependent on an outside social media site that might suddenly take a downward turn.
Writing might seem like a solitary activity, but it is truly done in community. Whether you find that in The Roost or elsewhere, we’re happy to share some space in your life!
Stay Tuned for the Second Day of Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all!
And for our weekly informative posts on writing craft, marketing, book promotion, and more.
There is a beautiful Icelander holiday tradition that we are quite fond of here at Chanticleer.
The small Nordic island, with a population of only 329,000 people, is extraordinarily literary. They love to read and write. According to Rosie Goldsmith of the BBC, “The country has more writers, more books published and more books read, per head, than anywhere else in the world.”
Many Icelanders give books as Christmas gifts as part of Jolabokaflod, and from Christmas Eve until the New Year there is an unspoken reading frenzy.
Iceland’s National Treasures And High Literacy Rate
Icelanders are obsessed with preserving their language. You will find that the bestselling teen novels –Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc. – have all been translated to Icelandic.
Books and literacy are huge in Icelandic culture. To properly understand it, you have to realize that our national treasures are not really beautiful buildings or famous art pieces or collections like so many other countries have. They are manuscripts, preserved on sheepskin, for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Reading is very important for us, both in schools and in society in general. The literacy rate is somewhere around 99%. I don’t believe there is anyone in Iceland that doesn’t know how to read unless there are some specific challenges or disabilities involved.–The Uncorked Librarian .com
And, of course, knitting also goes along with this beloved holiday tradition and so does hot chocolate!
Jolabokaflod or Yule Book Floodhappens once a year on Christmas Eve in Iceland. The flood begins with the release of a catalog of new publications from the Icelandic Publishers Association. And it is distributed FREE to each and every Icelandic home. The majority of books sold in Iceland are sold from September to early November. Of course, these books are in print. E-pubs are not given. This tradition started in 1944.
The Icelanders even have a popular TV show,Kiljan,that is entirely devoted to books. Authors appear on prime TV shows.Book readings and author events are treated like rock star events.
“In Iceland book lives matter in every sense of that phrase: The shelf-life of the book, the lives in the book, the life of the writer and the life of the reader. God bless the Jolabokaflod.”~Hallgrimur Helgason
To an Icelander, the very best Christmas present is a book! This tradition hails from WWII when many items and food were rationed. These sentiments may always have existed, in one way or another, since Icelanders have been saga-nerds for thousand of years.
Loved ones gather – perhaps virtually this year – and gift one another books. What happens next? They spend the night reading together. What a delightful holiday tradition!
Recommended Books, Holiday and Otherwise, from Chanticleer
We want to take the time to share Reviews of some of our favorite books that we’ve had the pleasure of reading in the last year.
First off
The Devil Pulls the Strings By J.W. Zarek Overall Grand Prize Winner 2021
The protagonist and all-around decent guy, Boone Daniels, is in a heap of hurt in JW Zarek’s new Young Adult novel, The Devil Pulls the Strings.
One would think being plagued by an evil spirit wendigo since age six would be enough inconvenience to last a lifetime, but when Boone jousts with his best bud at a Ren Faire and accidentally deals a mortal blow, the hurt he experiences suddenly lands on a sliding scale of 1 to 1 million. And Boone Daniels becomes a millionaire, so to speak.
No ordinary guy, Boone makes a living as a handyman and swashbuckling knight at Renaissance Faires around Missouri. He’s also uniquely gifted with a form of eidetic memory coupled with synesthesia. What’s that? Simply put, synesthesia allows people to see colors and taste things when they hear music – and an eidetic memory allows folks to memorize whatever they’ve seen or heard one time. But that’s not all. Boone can time-travel, make friends with almost any feline or shapeshifter, and convince a certain immortal he’s worth more as an ally than a snack. No kidding, Baba Yaya loves human meat.
When the Wind Chimes By Mary Ting
Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner
In When the Wind Chimes by international best-selling author Mary Ting, Kate Summers wants to make this Christmas extra-special for her older sister, Abby, and four-year-old nephew.
A year ago, she’d given up Christmas with her family to spend the holiday with her boyfriend, Jayden, whom she had caught cheating on her the next day. Not only is she hoping to erase that memory, but she also has another even more important reason to make this Christmas special. A few months after her disastrous break-up with Jayden, her brother-in-law, Steve, passed away from cancer, so Abby and Tyler will be spending their first Christmas alone.
After taking a leave from her job as a graphic designer in LA, Kate flies to Poipu, Kauai, determined to make this an amazing holiday, but on her way to her sister’s house, she meets a mysterious man, who gives up his cab for her. Kate can’t get the handsome stranger out of her head, and when she sees him again in her sister’s art gallery–and destroys his expensive shirt with paint–she is both mortified and excited.
Angel on Assignment
By Wanda Carter Roush
Little Peeps First Place Winner
During the holiday season, it’s easy to become distracted from the true meaning of Christmas. In Angel on Assignment Wanda Carter Roush tells the story of this holiday and the important role that angels play.
Borrowing from the idea of Elf on the Shelf, this charming Children’s book teaches that angels are sent on assignment to help people. If you are ever scared, you need not be afraid because an angel is there to protect you. Children will love rolling up their sleeves and getting busy as they take the story to the next level and create their very own angel, and thus begin their own family tradition of having an angel on assignment.
Wanda Carter Roush is a former Sunday school teacher and children’s church director. She is the mother of five and was inspired by her youngest daughter to write this story to instill hope and peace of mind in children when they are scared. Angel on Assignment also challenges children to act as angels on assignment and always be on the lookout for those who need help because even the smallest deed can have a strong effect.
Scrooge and Cratchit Detectives: The Dark Malevolence By Curt Locklear
Curt Locklear’s The Dark Malevolence, book 2 in the Scrooge and Cratchit: Detectives series is an immersive Victorian murder mystery that sets readers firmly in the era alongside two of our favorite characters from the most famous novelist of its time, Charles Dickens.
Once again Locklear hits the high notes of Dickens and Doyle as he paints good old London town in the days before electricity and public sanitation. We follow our heroes, Scrooge, Cratchit, and Lockie, as they put their talents to work to solve not one, but four mysteries.
With a cast straight out of the classics, Locklear references Shakespeare as well as developing his “something is afoot” mystery. Upon taking the case of Mrs. Evangeline Peabody’s missing husband, the mystery soon becomes a murder case. The husband is found dead and a local police officer, or “Metropolitan,” is found mauled to death. Mystery-one leads to murders one and two, and each event leads readers to another crime, another suspect, and another victim.
The Long Desert Road By Alex Sirotkin Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner
Alex Sirotkin’s debut novel,The Long Desert Road,navigates the emotional arcs of life in contrast with the greater expanse of the cosmos. Here a young woman must face her addictions while the people around her try to move beyond her backlash.
We meet Henry Spinoza, a 44-year-old quirky science writer. He ponders his life as half over, looks for the right woman, and wonders if there isn’t more to existence.
For twenty years, Henry, a science writer, has been researching a non-fiction book on the universe that he intends to write. Henry’s feeling “bored, boring, and budget-conscious…the trifecta of gloom,” as he puts it. But in the middle of this ennui, his sister-in-law invites him to dinner, along with her divorced friend, Isabel Dalton, an attorney, and “the setup is afoot.”
Whenever possible, our reviews link directly to the author’s website, our own local Village Books, and Amazon to make purchasing books as easy as possible for our readers. Don’t let yourself be without a good Christmas Eve read this Jolabokaflod.
Got a book that would make a great Holiday Read?
Chanticleer Editorial Reviews are promoted on our website, social media, newsletter, and quarterly print magazine. We believe in continued relationships with our authors to always be helping them continue their publishing journey.
Your writing deserves to be discovered. Let us help.
Grand Prize Winners from CAC22. From left to right we have James Conroyd Martin, J.W. Zarek, Ron McManus, Nicole Evelina, Murray Richter, Andrea Vaughan, and Alex Sirotkin
Shadow people, doppelgangers, and artificial intelligence come together in The Prophecy of the Heron, a compelling dystopian novel by Craig W. Stanfill.
In this future world, love is forbidden and those who transgress are sentenced to the outer Districts, none more violent than District 33. This is where our protagonist, Kim, finds herself at the beginning of the novel. The reader feels Kim’s confusion as arrives on the freezing, squalid streets.
Kim, a former AI “Creator” for The Artificial Intelligence Company, has lost control of her creation “Kimberly” and been cast out of her former job because of a forbidden relationship with her lover Shad. Kim refuses to submit to a procedure to remove her ”Genderist” tendencies, even if it would free her from District 33.
Other rebels include Pretties, Drabs, and Flagrants – the most extravagant of the Genderists. Kim begins to meet Blanks – those who have cut their ID chip from their wrists. These shadow people don’t “exist,” and yet, they play an important role in her survival.
Kim starts to uncover a horrific plan that her former employer is carrying out.
To make enough money to survive, Kim finds a dangerous side hustle with an established gangster running people around in a pedicab. But wherever she goes, trouble is waiting for her – deadly trouble. AI is being manipulated to no longer serve humans, but to target troublemakers, such as herself. When Kim realizes it is her own creation, Kimberly, who is being forced to hunt her, she determines to change her world, starting with Kimberly.
Kim embarks on a page-turning journey through a parallel world, using VR, her knowledge of AI and Kimberly, and her time in District 33 to take on risks that would destroy most people.
The dreary decay and violence of District 33 are reminiscent of 1984 and even that of the Stacks in Ready, Player One.
Like The Hunger Games, this is a world where reality has been manipulated and controlled by a small group of people. The powerful wield AI to control the populace, and anyone who deviates from the “norm” will be cast to the torturous outer districts, as Kim was.
In a world where we can ask Alexa to direct our robot vacuum where to clean, The Prophecy of the Heron serves as a timely warning and an uncomfortably familiar dystopian novel.
Compelling characters grab the reader with relatable pains and desires, making this story difficult to put down.
This novel begins with a note on the translation that lets the reader know the original Panglobal does not easily translate to English “due to the absence of ungendered personal pronouns in English and the absence of gendered ones in Panglobal.” Because of this, “she/her/hers is used throughout so the reader can’t make assumptions as to the gender of the characters.” The use of these pronouns reminds the reader that in this world, even something as personal as gender identity is forbidden to people.
Celebrating the Art of the Short but Spectacular Writing
“A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.” ― David Sedaris
The Short Story Book Awards is a new and fast-growing Chanticleer Book Award Division. Featuring any of our 23 Fiction or Non-Fiction genres, these Awards are different from our other programs in that they have two tracks: One that features Individual Works and another that features Collected Works.
Generally, we announce 5 First Place Winners and 1 Grand Prize Winner for Individual Works and the same for Collected Works. This lets each type of work shine. You can see the Grand Prize Winners and Finalists of our 2020 inaugural Short Story Awards here and the 2021 Winners here for collected works and here for individual works.
Short Stories and Essays stand well apart from their 50,000+ word counterparts in both Fiction and Non-Fiction. N.K. Jemisin, three-time Hugo Award Winner for her brilliant Broken Earth Trilogy, credits writing short stories as the method by which she learned how to create tightly written stories with no fluff. Her talent shines in her collection How Long ’til Black Future Month?
In working with a shorter format, a writer must commit to only putting in what matters to their story. This is true of longer formats, but readers are much less forgiving when a short story or essay feels trivial.
“A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.” ― Edgar Allan Poe
The Shorts Hall of Fame from Chanticleer
We’re honored to have received so many excellent submissions in the past. Is your story the next one we’ll discover? Check out these Best Books from Chanticleer.
A Week at Surf Side Beach By Pierce Koslosky Jr. 2020 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for Collections
Vacationers from all walks of life converge on Portofino II-317C, South Carolina, a quaint blue beach house, in Pierce Koslosky Jr.’s short story collection, A Week at Surfside Beach.
From May 30th-December 26th each group of people comes to stay one week at a time, to forget their cares of the big city, to work, to celebrate, or to simply get away. Surfside Beach has much to show them, including temperamental weather.
The small town itself offers a charming supermarket where fishing supplies, whoopie pies, and local southern favorites can be found. The Christmas vacationers, the final of the thirteen beach house renters, struggle to find a tree in time; a real tree simply wouldn’t allow enough space for the family to sleep, and the fake tree would cost too much. But they find arts and crafts supplies in town, to fashion a paper Christmas tree during a day of rainy weather.
Savonne, not Vonny By Robin Lee Lovelace 2020 Shorts Grand Prize for Novellas
Robin Lee Lovelace evokes a world in which the mystical intertwines with the everyday in Savonne, Not Vonny, a coming-of-age story set in rural Louisiana.
Nine-year-old Savonne lives in a small room at the back of Mama Gwen’s whorehouse, in Indianapolis in the ’60s. Her mama is one of the working girls, and her father is Mama Gwen’s own son. Savonne’s daddy dotes on her, and Mama Gwen loves Savonne like the daughter she never had; the two of them together make a loving home for Savonne, in the midst of their raucous brothel.
By contrast, Savonne’s birth mother rarely pays her any mind. A “crazy-ass woman” with a temper “as hot as a Mississippi afternoon,” Coco is not at all opposed to beating the bejesus out of someone. In a fury one night, she does something that cannot be undone, and in her headlong flight out of town, she takes Savonne with her.
Note: Savonne, Not Vonny, is due to be released as part of Lovelace’s collection, A Wild Region. Keep an eye on her website here for the latest updates. The collection is expected to be published on April 28, 2023.
New York, Give Me Your Best or Your Worst By Elizabeth Crowens 2021 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for Collections
A strong collection of work and art, powered by inspiration and the beauty of New York.
The Review for New York: Give Me Your Best or YourWorst is still forthcoming, but we featured author Elizabeth Crowens’ accomplishment in putting together this unique anthology here.
Homegoing By Toni Ann Johnson 2021 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for Novellas
Homegoing by Toni Ann Johnson is an intimate portrait of a middle-aged African-American woman dragging herself hand over hand out of grief and despair.
This story begins with her aching, echoing pain after the one-two punch of a miscarriage and the dissolution of her marriage. Her journey takes her back to the upper-middle-class white suburb where she grew up, through childhood memories that refuse to be denied and to, of all times and places, a funeral.
Something and someone is supposed to be buried. Certainly the deceased. But quite possibly the woman who has held on to her losses and her grudges long enough to poison her own future.
Thank you for celebrating these Shorts Awards Grand Prize Winners with us!
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At the End: “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” ― Ray Bradbury
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