The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romantic Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best new books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, and stories that appeal especially to fans of affairs of the heart to compete in the Chatelaine Book Awards (the CIBAs). 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 Chatelaine Romantic Fiction entries to the 2022 Chatelaine Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Chatelaine Shortlist. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions. 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 SHORT LIST of the 2022 Chatelaine Book Awards novel competition for Romantic Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
Jerry Gundersheimer – Reach: A Nexus of Life and Love
Reenita Malhotra Hora – Operation Mom
Valerie Taylor – What’s Not True
Evie Alexander – Kissing Games
Tonya Ulynn Brown – The King’s Inquisitor
Anthony R. Licata – Caesar Obsessed: Passion, Conquest, and Tragedy in Gaul
Jacek Waliszewski – Air Boat
Susan K. Hamilton – Stone Heart
Carol Van Den Hende – Orchid Blooming
Linda Cardillo – A Place of Refuge
Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One
KC Cowan – The Bennets: Providence & Perception
M. I. Dugast – Ekstasis – The Return of the Sovereign Heart
Amy Schisler – The Good Wine
Josanna Thompson – A Maiden’s Journey
Wendy Rich Stetson – Hometown
D. Lieber – A Very Witchy Yuletide
Marie Jones – Those We Trust
T.K. Conklin – Outlaw’s Redemption
Debra Whiting Alexander – A River for Gemma
Suzanne Smith – Lilah’s Limit
Patricia Ann Williams – The Garret on Boulevard Voltaire
Cinda K. Swalley – The Golden Hearts Club
Emma Lombard – Grace on the Horizon
Eve M. Riley – The Refusal
S.G. Blaise – The Last Lumenian
Manmohan Sadana – Healing Strings
Gail Meath – Agustina de Aragón
Gail Hertzog – Crossing the Ford
Kelly Miller – Captive Hearts
Mary Kolles and Mary James – Cyber Nothing
Mike Owens – It Had to Be You
J Fremont – Magician of Light
E.F. Dodd – Risky Restoration
Clare Flynn – Jasmine in Paris
Alice McVeigh – Harriet: A Jane Austen Variation
Joy Ross Davis – The Hit Man’s Wife
Cheri Champagne – To Woo A Troublesome Spy
Cheri Champagne – The Charming Spy
Daniela Valenti – Sentinel 10: The Crystal Skull
Anna Casamento Arrigo – The Shadow’s Secrets
E.E. Burke – Tom Sawyer Returns
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.
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.
Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane is a multi-award-winning comedy-drama, following one man down three sharp turns in his life trajectory.
Based on real-life events, Certified shows the narrator’s birth, marriage, and death, three of the most significant milestones in human life. The book is divided into three sections.
“One Unexpected Birth” explores his flawed string of relationships until he meets Dawn, the love of his life. However, a woman from the past makes a comeback, threatening to shatter his newly found happiness.
“One Hapless Wedding” careens about his well-planned wedding in Puglia, Italy, which is trampled by Justin Timberlake who wants the same venue. “One Bizarre Death”, on the other hand, follows the loss of the narrator’s loved one and the pain and confusion that surrounds an unexpected death. Certified is full of humor, heart, and unexpected gems that one might find in a trunk of well-lived memories.
A work of depth, this story is carefully wrought with nuance and wisdom, serving up a worthy exploration of the human imperfections in our contemporary world.
With honesty and sensitivity, Author Crane makes this chronicle of a man’s choices inviting and restorative. Even with our best efforts and good support, the myriad attachments we develop over a lifetime, to desires, expectations, people, possessions, and ideas, all keep circling back to clutter the pathway and entangle us. Crane’s novel manages to give an empathic portrait of the struggle to break free and find peace.
Backstory weaves naturally with the narrator’s present life, making the plot easy to follow and understand. Dialogue and prose are well-balanced, working together to show the emotional depth of the characters. The most striking aspect of Certified is the quality of writing, which is original, fresh, and unique. Every word counts throughout the protagonist’s thoughts, emotions, and opinions on life.
With its stellar prose, the text introduces new characters along the way who are equally fleshed out.
Certified emphasizes the impact of small, seemingly insignificant moments on its characters, showing their capacity to change people and the world around them.
It takes natural talent for an author to make a fictional narrative appear to be a real-life story. Crane offers readers this rare experience, prompting readers to see themselves in the story. Themes of hope, heartbreak, loss, love, and change flow seamlessly, leaving no cliffhangers as they propel toward the end.
Overall, this is a tightly woven and intelligent comedy-drama that, despite its length, is compelling enough to binge-read in the course of a weekend. Comedy fans will enjoy Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane along with the heartfelt lessons that it imparts.
You have an idea. Not just any idea, a big idea! We’re talking ten thousand pages, hundreds of thousands of words, the next Great Doorstop of a novel!
Consider breaking that up into a series!
It might be easier to split up the book digitally
Smaller books are more accessible, and a series keeps you in the front of your readers’ minds. With books consistently coming out, winning awards, and receiving reviews, the marketing for those happens much more naturally than having to bring out a backlist of unrelated novels. When a book takes place in a series, a reader who read an earlier book already knows they’re going like what they pick up.
Theme is the central idea of the series. Your theme informs the main character’s goal, their motivation to pursue that goal, and the threats to their success.
Your stories are grounded in the theme. A hero who saves the world from evil plans will experience different challenges than two teenage friends who love to solve small-town mysteries. The theme helps you maintain the tone of each book in the series. If one book is filled with irony and another is deadly serious, your readers will be disappointed and stop reading. That’s why your theme is important to the success of the entire series.
There’s no guaranteed formula, but you can start out by doing some serious research into great series that have already succeeded. The tools you discover will help fashion unique work for you and your voice.
Let’s Dive in!
Research and Read
All good story research starts somewhere
Everyone will tell you to be a great writer, you should be a great reader. Think about the series you want to write, and ask yourself: What authors do I admire who are doing something similar? You’re going to want to look through their books for all that we will discuss here, as well as comparing it to your own understanding of structure and what makes a good story.
Now that you have your list and a running understanding of what’s making the books work, you can take notes on what your favorite series are doing that makes them your favorite series! Your notes should cover the important events in each book, and then ask yourself what the overall point of the book was, and finally how did that book fit into the series as a whole.
With regards to character, you’ll want to examine which central characters return, and how many new characters come on the scene (these are named characters where you receive background on them and they have a non-trivial impact on your main cast).
At the end, do a comparison of themes between books and ask how they relate to other books in the series.
Here are some of our favorite series that also won First Place in the Series Awards! you could look through for ideas. Let us know if any of them are similar to what you want to write!
Shelley Nolden’s debut novel, The Vines, embraces multiple genres as it chills, fascinates, and horrifies, from historical and magical realism to fantasy and horror.
Nolden has melded fanaticism, medical anomalies, and the frailties of human behavior together with a historic setting, creating a narrative Kudzu vine that grows rapidly and spares nothing in its path. This particular vine consists of two main branches that intertwine, bridging time and linking parallel realities, one past, one present.
The Gettler men of Long Island, New York have shepherded a secret medical research project for generations, with the exception of Finn, the youngest man in the family.
Beginning with Otto, Finn’s great-grandfather, who worked at the Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island at the turn of the 20th century, this family has been consumed by unanswered medical questions about universal conditions that impact the human race.
Years after Otto’s death, the Riverside Hospital was ultimately closed, leaving North Brother abandoned, subject to the ravages of rats, birds, and vines. However, Finn’s father and grandfather secretly continued Otto’s research at the now crumbling, empty medical facility.
Although aware of their secret research, Finn had always been excluded from the details, despite his curiosity. What exactly were they doing? And why?
In 2007, the 28-year-old Finn clandestinely crosses the East River to North Brother. Instead of learning about his family’s secret research, he encounters an unfriendly, mysterious woman, her body scarred from previous physical abuse, yet fit and strong, bathing in one of the abandoned buildings.
More than a century ago in February 1903, Coraline McSorley, Cora to most, is infected with typhus and quarantined at Riverside Hospital, New York City’s most notorious pesthouse.
The ensuing story skips back and forth in time, slowly revealing itself through flashbacks, real-time, and places in between. As it grows, The Vines becomes more engaging. Nolden utilizes historical people, places, and events associated with North Brother Island to create a story in which Cora, along with the island itself, are sympathetic characters irrevocably tied to a family whose fanatical, convoluted curiosities dominate every aspect of their lives.
Several chapters into the book, the hook is set deep, pulling the reader in close and holding them there.
The Vines offers readers a mystery to be unraveled, connecting dots back and forth in time as the pace and action increase. Rather than ending with a conclusive resolution, The Vines leaves questions for the reader to ponder, matching the curiosity of the story’s characters.
Readers pulled into this mystery will be glad to find another baited hook dangling just beyond the gateway to the future, as Nolden suggests a sequel is in the works.
The Dante Rossetti Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Young Adult Fiction. The Dante Rossetti Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Named in honor of the British poet & painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti who founded the Pre-Ralphaelite Brotherhood in 1848.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring stories of all shapes and sizes written to an audience between the ages of about twelve to eighteen (imaginary or real). Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopian, Mystery, Paranormal, Historical, Romance, and Literary, we will put them to the test and choose the best Young Adult Books among them for the winners of the Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction. For Middle Grade Fiction check out our Gertrude Warner Awards and for Children’s Literature see our Little Peeps Awards.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 Dante Rossetti Young Adult Fiction entries to the 2022 Dante Rossetti Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Dante Rossetti Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the 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.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2022 Dante Rossetti Book Awards novel competition for Young Adult Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
Eric A. Vasallo – The Mysterious Disappearance of Colby Blue
PJ Adair – The Viking Girl
Melodie Leclerc – A Rare Occupation
Elizabeth Maddaleni – The Beauty of a Spiral
John Henry Davis – eM
Reenita Malhotra Hora – Operation Mom – My plan to get my mother a life and a man
Hermione Lee – Where the Magic Lies
Aron Myers – Crescent
Anna Finch – Voiceless: A Mermaid’s Tale
Jacqueline Pretty – Powerless
Frances Schoonmaker – Sid Johnson and the Phantom Slave Stealer
Alan Frost – The Slayer, the Seer, and the Dream Stealer
Kristina Bak – Cold Mirage
James Gregory Kingston – The Girl From Potter’s Field
David Tenenbaum – The Last Plague
Nick Delmedico and Nick Delmedico – Aliens vs Dinosaurs: The Rise of Roughstone
Frances Howard-Snyder – Sighs of Fire
Michael J Cooper – Wages of Empire
Bird Jones – Blue-Eyed Slave
Glen Dahlgren – The House of Prophecy
Stavros Saristavros – The Tome of Syyx
Rebecca Garner – Why Won’t My Boobs Grow… and Other Annoyances
Brooke Maddaleni – Next Door
Steven Michael Beck – Soar a Burning Sky
Michael Bialys – The Chronicles of the Virago: Book III the Triumviratus
Umut Sasoglu – Evelyn
Michele Kwasniewski – Rising Star – Book One of The Rise and Fall of Dani Truehart series
Michele Kwasniewski – Burning Bright – Book Two of The Rise and Fall of Dani Truehart series
Tomm A. Boyer – The Deceived
Jennifer Alsever – Burying Eva Flores
Endy Wright – Blood for the Fisher King
J. L. Sullivan – From Brick & Darkness
Lenore Borja – The Last Huntress (Mirror Realm Series Book I)
Laurel Anne Hill – Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846
Jennifer Haskin – Princess of the Blood Mages
Shina Reynolds – A Light in the Sky
Marie Sontag – Yosemite Trail Discovered
W.W. Marplot – Space Story
M.K. Lever – Surviving the Second Tier
Anne-Marie Amiel – Crusader’s Way: Book One of the St. Edmundsbury Mysteries
U.W. Leo – ARKO: The Dark Union (A Sci-fi Adventure Series)
Jeanne Roland – Journeys: the Archers of Saint Sebastian
Avis M. Adams – The Incident
Tamara Hart Heiner – Year 1: Renegade
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.
The 2022 DANTE ROSSETTI Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 11-year Conference Anniversary!
Submissions for the 2023 DANTE ROSSETTI Book Awards are open now. Enter here!
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
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.
The Chaucer Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in pre-1750s Historical Fiction. The Chaucer Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Chaucer Book Awards competition is named for Geoffrey Chaucer the author of the legendary Canterbury Tales. The work is considered to be one of the greatest works in the English language. It was among the first non-secular books written in Middle English to be printed in 1483.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring Pre-1750s Historical Fiction, including pre-history, ancient history, Classical, world history (non-western culture), Dark Ages and Medieval Europe, Renaissance, Elizabethan, Tudor, 1600s, 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 Chaucer Early Historical Fiction Long List to the 2022 Chaucer Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2022 Chaucer Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. Winners 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 April 29, 2023, at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2022 Chaucer Book Awards novel competition for Pre-1750s Early Historical Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
Patrice Adair – The Viking Girl
Eric Schumacher Ramirez – The Hummingbird & The Serpent
Aaron Mead – Neither Slave nor Free
Regan Walker – Bound by Honor, Book 2 in The Clan Donald Saga
David Bush – General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms
GK Johnson – The Zealots
Kerry Chaput – Daughter of the King
A. M. Linden – The Valley: Book Two of the Druid Chronicles
Jean Gill – The Ring Breaker
Patricia Bernstein – A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower
Meredith Allard – Down Salem Way
Elizabeth R. Andersen – The Scribe
Rozsa Gaston – Anne and Louis Forever Bound
Amy Maroney – Sea of Shadows
Amy Maroney – Island of Gold
Kelly Evans – Unfinished: The Inspired Life of Elisabetta Sirani
Donna Scott – The Tacksman’s Daughter
Mary Ann Bernal – Forgiving Nero
Eileen Stephenson – Imperial Passions – The Great Palace
Philip Remus – Collegium, Brotherhood of Rogues
M.D. House – The Barabbas Legacy
Cindy Burkart Maynard – Finding the Way
Rebecca Kightlinger – Megge of Bury Down: The Bury Down Chronicles, Book One
Susanne Dunlap – Voices in the Mist
Philip Remus – Gods of Men, Where the Spartans are Made
Mack Little – Daughter of Hades
Prue Batten – Reliquary – Book One of The Peregrinus Series
Alexander Geiger – Immortal Alexandros
Anna Belfrage – The Castilian Pomegranate
Andrew Rowen – Columbus and Caonabó: 1493-1498 Retold
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 for the 2023 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Early Historical Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
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.
Time to start your engines because, NaNoWriMo or not, you’re a writer and ideas are key to jump-starting your writing!
Inspired by Editor and Friend of Chanticleer, Jessica Morrell, let’s dive in!
For those who may not know, NaNoWriMo is a community effort where people around the world join together, each trying to write 50,000 words of a story in the month of November. For some, 50,000 words is a pittance of what they can normally create in a month; for others, it’s an impossibility.
No matter where you fall, NaNoWriMo is a great tool to put words on the page and to write with a community rather than all alone.
It’s a myth that writers are solitary creatures
In the week before you get started, take care of all the basic necessities – i.e. finish your procrastination tasks. Clean your house, stock up on brain food for the upcoming month and write down easy meal ideas. Don’t forget to make sure you have all the coffee and tea you need to fuel you, and then please be sure your laundry is done.
Ready? Set. WriMo!
The point of a first draft is to exist. As Stephen King says, the first time you write something down, you’re telling the story to yourself. One of the best ways to motivate your story is to know your characters well. Studying modern characters is a great way to start off.
Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel
Kirsten Raymonde reading the titular Station 11 comic book, played by MacKenzie Davis
Child actor Kirsten Raymonde’s life is forever changed when she witnesses the death of actor Arthur Leander, sending her world into chaos hours before the world is decimated by the Georgia Flu. With the collapse of civilization and the death of her parents and little brother, Kirsten holds on tight to her passion for acting as she grows up, joining the Traveling Symphony and protecting the players and musicians there as if they were her own flesh and blood.
The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime, based on The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) almost shares a romantic moment with Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi)
Arondir is an elf responsible for the safety of a large swath of human lands in the aftermath of the battles with Morgoth. However, most elves regard the humans with a suspicion that engenders deep distrust between the two races. This prevents him from gathering crucial information about a recent poisoning. On top of that, neither the human inhabitants nor his elven companion approves of the close connection he has with the local healer Bronwyn, who seems quite taken with the handsome Arondir.
What do we notice?
Both these characters are firmly set in their backstory, which shows us the goals they have in the status quo at the start. Once the status quo is disrupted, you have the character’s motivation to return to a state of equilibrium, because they are now frustrated in meeting their goals.
Consider questions from Mastering Suspense Structure & Plot by Jane K. Cleland:
What does this character keep secret?
What does this character fear?
How does this character respond when their secret is in danger of being exposed?
Understanding these elements of your character under pressure will help create believable and compelling people for your readers to want to watch and study.
Remember, even for NaNoWriMo, you need an engine to start!
Conflict is the engine of your story. What is the conflict in yours? For Station 11, it’s the looming threat of the mysterious Prophet who is terrorizing the communities who are the audience and friends of the Traveling Symphony. In Rings of Power, it’s the growing strength of Sauron, Morgoth’s most loyal disciple. How does this conflict put pressure directly on your main characters?
HANDY REMINDERS
If you are NOT participating in NaNoWriMo, then we hope that this post will spur you on as write your work-in-progress (w-i-p) or your next work.
RULE # 1
WRITE FAST!
EDIT SLOW!
Don’t edit your first draft as you write it!
Writing your first draft should be a mad dash to get your story out of your brain. Don’t hinder it by worrying about each little detail. There will be time for that later. NaNoWriMo or not.
Not taking our word for that piece of advice?
Chelsea Cain, a bestselling thriller author (with a TV series to her credit), gives this piece of advice:
Write the bare-bones version of the scene first using mostly dialogue, and then move on and in the second draft flesh out the scenes with description and action.
“Action is dialogue. Dialogue is action.” –Robert Dugoni, Amazon Bestselling Author
What is YOUR STORY?
Story is essentially a problem that needs solving for the protagonist. –Jessica Morrell
What is yourprotagonist’sproblem that must be solved—or else?
What is the worst thing that can happennextto your protagonist?
Remember that it is not your problem. It is your protagonist’s problem, obstacle, impossible dream.
Start at least one subplot. This subplot(s) should also complicate the protagonist’s goals.
No matter when the problem begins (it’s always in Act One) the problem is weighty and vexing, perhaps insurmountable. If the problem is not immediately personal, it should become so that it will create a bond (connection) between the protagonist and antagonist. Classic examples are the connection between Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty and Harry Potter and Voldemort.
What is the inciting event or threat?
The inciting incident might lead to the problem. This event will disrupt the status quo, demand response, and set actions in motion. It’s a threat that unbalances the story world and creates dilemmas that must be dealt with.
To name a few:
The tornado incident in theWizard of OZ
Katniss’s little sister selected for theHunger Games
Luke Skywalker ‘seeing’ and hearing Princess Leia calling for help inStar Wars
These are great tips to get your creativity groove on!
Remember you want to send your protagonist into new emotional territory with new challenges and pressures.
And at the same time, she will need to deal with new physical territories such as a new school (Footloose) or a different culture (Dances with Wolves) or a different legal society with different norms (Handmaid’s Tale)or a new environment (Deadwood) or a different time (Outlander)or galaxy (Farscape).
Don’t be afraid to stage danger in benign or lovely settings or conversely gentle scenes in dangerous and gruesome settings.
Kiffer’s Note: I just saw this bucolic scene while watchingThe Wheel of Time first episode. All white coats and white tents. And then, bam! We learn that the guys in white are not the “good guys” —at all—even if their name is Children of the Light.
Bucolic looking camp scene in Wheel of Time inhabited by these characters all in white.
Atmosphere
Allow the overall atmosphere and mood to imbue your writing from the get-go.
The atmosphere lends itself to the overall tone and mood of a work. Allow it to permeate your work as you write.
The atmosphere inShadow and Boneseries by Leigh Bardugo
OrSex in the Cityby Carrie Bradshaw
Why use atmosphere in your first draft? (or during NaNoWriMo)?
Because it will affect your mood and approach to your story.
It will make you focus on creating unease–a necessary ingredient not always considered in early drafts.
Unease contributes to writing a page-turner.
Atmosphere underlines themes–even if you don’t have your themes nailed down yet.
Here is the link to our Writer’s Toolbox article onAtmosphere
Emotional Baggage
Know your protagonist’s main emotional wound, sometimes called baggage in real life. How is it going to affect his or her ability to solve the story problem? (See the questions below to jumpstart creativity.)
Remember that Writers (that is you) should carry a notebook everywhere you go. You never know when a brilliant solution is going to appear.Jessica Morrell
If I could offer a single piece of advice about creating characters it would be this (Jessica Morrell):
Take risks with your main characters.
Make them stand out from the myriads of fiction published each year.
And don’t be afraid to allow eccentricities, quirks, and oddball ways of seeing reality.
More questions for your protagonist from Jessica Morrell—these are guaranteed to get your creative wheels turning:
First, ask yourself these questions and then “ask” your protagonist. Have your protagonist go into depth. Find out what your protagonist’s iceberg under the waterline is all about.
Photo taken in Greenland’s waters.
Kiffer suggests that you take a walk when you are considering these questions. Be sure to either take notes or record your thoughts on your smartphone while you explore your protagonist’s emotional baggage.Walk a mile in your protagonist’s shoes.
What’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
What is your biggest regret?
What is your superpower?
Who do you cherish most in the world?
If you could change one thing about your world, what would it be?
What is your average day or schedule?
What 5-6 words sum up your values?
What do you do after a really bad day?
How do you celebrate?
The secret you’d never tell your significant other? Your mother? Your sibling?
What reminds you of home?
What item must you always take along when traveling?
Favorite drink?
Secret vice?
Pizza or tacos? Cookies or tequila?
Favorite climate?
Reading or television to unwind?
Breakfast or coffee only?
We hope that we helping you, Dear Writer, to arm and prep yourself to get down to the writing of your next work—the reckoning.
Ernest Hemingway: There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter andbleed.
Chanticleer Editorial Services
When you’re ready…
Did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or David at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or DBeaumier@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.
We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top editors on an ongoing basis. Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions are being held.
God visits a punishment of immortality on three men in Lloyd Jeffries’ A Portion of Malice, the first in the Ages of Malice series. The leader of these immortals, Cain the first murderer, seeks to even the scales by taking all of God’s children away from Him.
In the modern day, Emery, a renowned journalist fallen on personal tragedy, was planning suicide before the immortal Roman Longinus found him. Longinus brings him to meet Thaddeus Drake, a man with the uncanny ability to make peace between warring nations. Drake reveals himself to be the biblical Cain and offers Emery all the money and luxury he could ever need if he simply tells Cain’s story. Emery agrees, and upon seeing the terrible mark on Cain’s hand, can’t deny the truth of his immortality.
Cain and Longinus introduce Emery to their fellow immortal, Igneus. While Emery learns more about these strange men and how Jesus rejected Cain’s begging for forgiveness, earning his eternal rage, he becomes pulled into their far-reaching conspiracy. Cain and his companions long ago formed the secret organization X’Chasei, and over two millennia have become the undisputed masters of the world. However, Cain is not content with this power alone, and as he begins to enact the prophecies of Revelations, Emery realizes how dangerous these people truly are.
The plots of X’Chasei catch Emery in a whirlwind of power, implication, and scripture.
While Cain holds a deep hatred for God, he also understands Him far better than anyone else could; he has walked with God, has heard His voice, and knows the true extent of His word. John the Apostle was also made immortal, given a sacred task by Jesus, and in retribution, Cain exiled him to Patmos and stole a record of divine visions given to John. Cain remains a mysterious figure throughout the story, keeping Emery guessing as to his true plans, and whether there could be any way to stop him.
Longinus and Igneus serve Cain’s plot, though both Emery and the reader only get to see the final, disconnected steps of it. This story becomes a mystery of biblical proportions, with disparate plotlines winding together for the climax.
Even as he orchestrates murder and revolts to get his way, Cain remains a sympathetic character. His companions share that humanity, making a fascinating cast of villains.
For millennia, Cain wandered the Earth as a vagabond, unable to settle in any one place, with the guilt of his brother’s death hanging around his neck. Even so, he sought forgiveness from the son of God. When he’s rebuked, the reader sees the extent of his despair, his suffering, and even some truth to his claim that “God prefers blood.” His fury mingles with a deep longing, a loneliness that defines him. While, two thousand years later, he rejects the idea of God’s forgiveness, he desperately wishes to make amends to his brother Abel.
While Longinus enjoys his place of power over the mortals of this world, he cows to Cain, showing a hint of vulnerability even as he kills for the sake of X’Chasei. However, Igneus is the only one of them who truly connects with Emery. Smaller and prone to fear, Igneus has spent his eternity dwelling on the cruelty he’s surrounded by and finds a kindred spirit in this mortal man brought into their circle.
Author Lloyd Jeffries offers beautiful and painful descriptions of both the modern world and biblical times.
The characters’ emotions become palpable, and they speak to each other with weight behind their words. The climax could have delivered more completely on the themes of Cain’s story, but A Portion of Malice holds a strong tension that will keep readers excited to follow all of these people – mortal and immortal – to the next part of this imaginative series.
Fear often tells us where to use caution, to play it safe, and how to know what’s best. Our favorite way to get a scare is from the books we love to read.
What are the Spookiest Genres?
Knock knock…it’s the villain from the last book you read
Well, there can be plenty of honest debate on the subject. For us, we often find the Paranormal, Suspense, and High Stakes Thrillers are the creepiest stories.
And we can’t forget Southern Gothic—shudders and chills even in a hothouse environment! More on that tomorrow on All Hallows Eve!
Leading the pack is the modern masterpiece Dracul by J.D. Barker and Dacre Stoker featuring vampires including Dracul himself. Dracul is everything horror can and should be. It doesn’t rely on gore, but rather captivating storytelling; and yet, the terror and intrigue are unrelenting.
Of course, we’ve said before that the reasons we like to be scared range anywhere from wanting that rush of dopamine that fright can offer, to better understanding the terrors of modern-day society. What better way to do that than reading some hair-raising literature?
Recommended Reads to Scare you and Make you Think from Chanticleer!
First Place Winner of the Shorts Awards, the art in this is reminiscent of Alice inWonderland, but the focus is much more on depression and anxiety, two of the most difficult things for us to confront in the world.
In the Underwood by Kourtney Spadoni is a memoir in graphic novel form, a thoughtful and gentle story about a young girl struggling with mental health issues, and learning how to keep them at bay as she grows up.
What if Alice’s adventures in the strange and fabulous Wonderland were the result of a mental health crisis instead of a story?In the Underwood draws metaphors inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and evokes the mood of Robert Frost’s classic poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
Author Spadoni relates with a simple narrative and delicate art style how as a child she was prone to severe bouts of anxiety, leading to her crying uncontrollably in her classes and avoiding other children in social situations. Now that can be scary!
A current Short Lister for the 2022 Cygnus Awards, Hartlove’s tale follows a trans woman’s experience fighting the eldritch beings of H.P. Lovecraft. The cover makes it clear! This book will give you the tingles! A great book for social commentary.
Sarah, a transgender schizophrenic teenager, has spent the past seven years in a psychiatric ward. When all her symptoms of schizophrenia disappear after receiving a special necklace from a nurse, she must learn to live in a world that moved on without her, in The Insane God by Jay Hartlove.
She receives strange visions of two opposing gods in battle with each other, which Sarah and her brother Nate work together to understand. The reality of these visions threatens to endanger the lives of everyone on Earth unless they change the course of an eternal battle.
The Insane God touches on topics such as mental illness, mental health, gender identity, and racism.
This Global Thriller First Place Winner was actually written before the COVID-19 pandemic, with eerie echoes into the future of a pandemic apocalypse that focuses on one woman’s mission to reunite with her family.
Nicole Mabry draws from her own life, the impact of a deadly snowstorm, and the subsequent shutting down of the subways to create Past This Point, an action-packed dystopian novel featuring a strong woman who seeks a way out of a world gone mad.
Karis Hylen is working in New York City a massive snowstorm shuts down the city. A total quarantine of the city becomes quarantine for half of the nation.
This suspenseful novel took home a Clue First Place Win for its intricate story where the killer and detective are already acquainted.
The Mask of Midnight by Laurie Stevens centers on a game of cat and mouse, made sinister and horrifying by the intricate plots of a murderer.
When L.A. Police Detective Gabriel McRay arrests serial killer Victor Archwood, known as the Malibu Canyon Murderer, he has no idea that the killer has some serious vengeful plans directly involving him. Archwood is a most clever, resourceful “mouse” who confounds McRay, the Los Angeles Police department, the L.A. district attorney, and an entire jury through skillful lawyering and a commanding interpretation of the evidence. Despite what appears to be an airtight case against a mass murderer, a jury finds him not guilty.
2022 CIBA DEADLINES FOR OCT 31
OZMA – Fantasy Fiction
Global Thrillers – High Stakes & Lab Lit
Paranormal – Supernatural Fiction
The only thing scarier is not entering!
Chanticleer Editorial Services – when you are ready
Did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Tools of the Editing Trade
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
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In Twisted, Steve Mullaney gives readers a tale of fear, cruelty, and perversion, involving those who lurk in the darkest corners of the internet.
Readers are first introduced to Derek, a man who roofies women in order to record his sexual activities with them for profit on the dark web. He runs a complete operation to peddle his illegal media, including ways to cover his identity and launder the money as well as maximize his profits through technical skills and better equipment to up his production quality.
Meanwhile, Ned, a philandering family man, gets an offer to work remotely for three weeks each month away from his family. At his new job, he gives in to temptation and starts a romantic relationship with a woman named Gina. This relationship will lead him to cross paths with Derek, and become entwined in his horrific world.
Mullaney explores themes of depravity and assault, and the consequences of such activities through the eyes of both victims and offenders. Readers walk through the systems of rationalization that even the vilest characters assemble to justify their actions.
Ned, the character who holds the point of view for most of the story, starts as a narcissist who cares for no one but himself. His self-centered ways are put to the test when their consequences fester to the point where he must deal with them whether he wants to or not.
Mullaney does a great job painting a grim picture of how business in the dark web functions, as well as providing believable details of how a man can hide the fact that he has a family and kids in another state while dating single women. At times, the details can feel gratuitous, but they add a strong sense of realism that heightens the horror aspect of this story.
Overall, Twisted will give readers a feeling of grime, leaving them to wonder if and how characters like Ned will pay for their actions.
Anyone looking for a trip along the darker wires of the web will find just that in the pages of Twisted. Mullaney has penned a delightfully ‘twisted’ thriller with serious bite that will drive readers page by page to the end.
Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane is a multi-award-winning comedy-drama, following one man down three sharp turns in his life trajectory.
