Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

The M&M 2022 Short List for Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries – a Division of the CIBAs
The M&M Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Cozy and not-so-Cozy Mystery & Mayhem. The M&M Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards.)

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 M&M Long List to the 2022 M&M Book Awards SHORT LIST. These entries are now in competition for 2022 M&M Semi-Finalists. The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBAs divisions’ Finalists. We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremonies on April, 27-30, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. at the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles have advanced to the SHORT LIST of the 2022 M&M Book Awards for Mystery & Mayhem

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
- Scott Kauffman – Saving Thomas
- Miriam Verbeek – The Website
- Michelle Cox – A Spying Eye
- Gail Noble-Sanderson – The Book of Rules
- Lori Roberts Herbst – Frozen in Motion
- Kathleen Kaska – Murder at the Menger and Eagle Crossing
- Eileen Charbonneau – Missing at Harmony Festival
- Nancy J. Cohen – Styled for Murder
- Charlotte Stuart – Moonlight Can Be Deadly (A Discount Detective Mystery)
- Nicole Asselin – Concession Stand Crimes
- Tony Garritano – I Saw What I Saw: A Harmony Neighborhood Mystery
- AG Flitcher – Boone and Jacque: Cytrus Moonlight
- Elizabeth Crowens – Hollywood Holmes
- Lynn Slaughter – Deadly Setup
- Doug Dorsey – Kick Ball Slay: An Introduction To West Coast Swing…AND A Murder Mystery
- Cheryl Denise Bannerman – Cats, Cannolis and a Curious Kidnapping
- Rima Ray – Ruby Roy and the Murder in the Falls
- Roxanne Dunn – Murder Undetected
- Susan Wingate – Gag Me: A Friday Harbor Novel
- Landis Wade – Deadly Declarations
- Judy L Murray – Murder in the Master
- Dime Sheppard – Crime Writer
- Betty Jean Craige – Life and Death at Zoo Arroyo
- Lori Robbins – Murder in Second Position
- Traci Andrighetti – Valpolicella Violet
- Gail Meath – Songbird
- Kathleen Rhoads Carpenter – Summer’s Cloud Over Berry
- E.E. Burke – Tom Sawyer Returns
- M. K Graff – The Evening’s Amethyst: A Nora Tierney English Mystery
- Carl and Jane Bock – Day of the Jaguar
- Elizabeth Woolsey – Horse Doctor Adventures Small Town Secrets
- M. K. Dean – An Embarrassment of Itches
- Ellen Butler – Pharaoh’s Forgery
Good Luck to All as Your Works Compete to Advance to the Next Level of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

Congratulations to Michael Scott Garvin whose work Ophelia’s Room took home the Grand Prize for the 2021 M&M Book Awards

“Michael Scott Garvin’s latest psychological thriller makes us question everything – and trust no one. Here’s one that will keep you up at night! Highly Recommended!” – Chanticleer Reviews

Here is the link to the 2021 M&M Book Award Winners!

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony will be held during CAC23 on April 27-30, 2023 for the 2022 CIBA winners.

Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!

We are now accepting entries into the 2023 M&M Book Awards, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at info@ChantiReviews.com.
October 27, 2022
AFTER The RISING And BEFORE The FALL by Orna Ross – Historical Fiction, Irish Civil War, Family Saga

Award-winning Irish author Orna Ross has created a volume comprising the first two novels of The Irish Trilogy, drawing from her Irish birth and upbringing for a special grasp of the country’s history, how its wars and political strivings have affected its people directly, personally, over multiple generations.

Her two books take on a span of time rooted in the early 1920s and delve deeply into the interlocking fate of the extended family and ancestry of Jo Devereux. Jo, the book’s central narrator, leaves Ireland in her twenties, only returning in her forties in 1995 when she learns that her mother is near death.

The journey back will draw her into the family’s complex relationships, and reacquaint her with Rory, her former, and perhaps only, true love.

Reading through old family papers, Jo will find out more about her mother, her grandmother, and some of the men from her past. These family secrets are compelling and often painful, driving Jo to discover more, eventually uncovering a murder with people she knew and cared for possibly at its center.

Underpinning the drama among her closest and most cherished people is her growing understanding of her home country. Ireland’s war for independence from England has always found most emphasis in its popular lore, but the far-less publicized conflict that followed, the Civil War, may have killed more people than the one that preceded it and lingers even today in bitter memory.

Jo will have to absorb all of these revelations about her forebears while she copes with the ever-changing modern culture in her new home of San Francisco.

The insider’s gaze at 1960s gay culture and feminism are significant sidebars in both past and present portions of Ross’s vibrant and varied narrative. The book ends with Jo contemplating her future, with some crucial questions yet unanswered, begging a sequel.

Ross is a highly practiced wordsmith; this series has already garnered recognition, awards, and the attention of the media.

She is able to mix, match and contrast evocative elements of romance, warfare, women’s rights, men’s feelings, historical nuance, and human-scale humor (especially highlighting that aspect of the Irish conversational flow), all in their appropriate historical niches, developed deftly to keep her story in full motion. This is a book for dedicated readers of any age or clime and will have them waiting attentively for the final installment.

After the Rising by Orna Ross won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Goethe Awards for post-1750s Historical Fiction.

October 26, 2022
The CYGNUS 2022 Short List for Science Fiction Book Awards – a Division of the CIBAs
The Cygnus Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Alternative History, and Speculative Fiction. The Cygnus Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring space, time travel, life on other planets, parallel universes, alternate reality, and all the science, technology, major social or environmental changes of the future that author imaginations can dream up for the CYGNUS Book Awards division. Hard Science Fiction, Soft Science Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Cyberpunk, Time Travel, Genetic Modification, Aliens, Super Humans, Interplanetary Travel, Climate-Fiction, and Settlers on the Galactic Frontier, Dystopian, our judges from across North America and the U.K. will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 CYGNUS Science Fiction Long List to the 2022 Cygnus Book Awards Short List These entries are now in competition for the 2022 Cygnus Semi-Finalists. The Semi-Finalists will compete for the Finalist positions. FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC23.

Save the Date! CAC23 is April 27-30, 2023 at the Hotel Bellwether

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2022 Cygnus Book Awards novel competition for Science Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Jay Hartlove – The Insane God
- Timothy S. Johnston – An Island of Light
- Melissa Diyab – Crossing Over
- Charles Ross – The Future is a Memory
- J. N. Johnson – Pig
- Annie Williams – Maximized Entropy: Death of the Internet
- Dana Dargos, Said Al Bizri – Einstein in the Attic
- D. H. Ford – Rogue Reborn
- O.E. Tearmann – Deuces Are Wild
- Lou Dischler – Mona’s Odyssey
- Ash Bishop – Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc.
- S.G. Blaise – The Last Lumenian
- S.G. Blaise – True Teryn
- Michael Simon – Extinction
- Nik Frank-Lehrer – Future Show
- Sydney Raeburn-Power – The Sleepers
- Dimple Desai – The Lambda Factor
- Isaac Petrov – The Advent of Dreamtech
- PA Vasey – Harbinger
- John J. Spearman – Pike’s Passage
- E. R. Harris – Surf the Milky Way
- U.W. Leo – ARKO: The Dark Union (A Sci-fi Adventure Series)
- Fulmer/Proto Dagg – Terminus
- Kristopher Clewell – The Penrose Triangle
- Wilson Whitlow – Consent, Vol. 1: Erdos
- Joanna Evans – Sinai Unhinged
- Prescott Harvey – In Beta
- Bryn Smith – Magnus Nights: The Helios Incident
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

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Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

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The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 CYGNUS Awards is:

A War in Too Many Worlds

By Elizabeth Crowens

Click here to see the 2021 CYGNUS Book Award Winners for Science Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2022 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

IN-Person – 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!
October 25, 2022
Spotlight on the October Awards! Don’t be Afraid!
Adventure rises. Will you answer the call?

October is the best month to step out into an adventure. We have three scintillating Programs to Submit to:
- Ozma Awards for Fantasy
- Paranormal Awards for Supernatural Fiction
- Global Thrillers for High Stakes Suspense
This spooky month feels like the best time for stories that inspire us to dream of realities beyond imagining, and threats to the world that leave us white-knuckled and waiting for the conclusion. What better place to find your next reads and submit your work than the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Here are the Awards that are hungrier for your work than a horde of zombies.

Ozma Awards

Fantasy is that special world where anything can happen. We often go beyond Earth for this, looking into swords and sorcery, chosen ones and villains awash with power.

Start out with our 2021 Fantasy Grand Prize Winner A Plague of Flies by Laurel Anne Hill.

Excellent prose & description with an effective mingling of historical and fantasy elements. The tension is gripping and the pace is good.

Follow that up with From Brick and Darkness by J.L. Sullivan, a great YA Urban Fantasy.

A new Teen Favorite, this Urban Fantasy delves down passages of mythology and more when Bax Allen unwittingly unleashes a demon into the world.

And then you can wrap everything up with the 2020 Ozma Grand Prize Winner, Divinity’s Twilight by Christopher Russell.

In the epic space opera a group of cadets must face the bloody past of their world, threatened by age-old conflict, and change the course of empires. Highly recommended!

See the full list of 2021 Ozma Winners for Fantasy Fiction here.

Paranormal Awards

What goes bump in the night and who are the superheroes who face them? The supernatural genre often involves vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and superheroes. The characters may begin as ordinary, but they soon discover they may be extraordinary or transformed to be more than human.

We would be remiss not to crow about J.W. Zarek’s The Devil Pulls the Strings. Reminiscent of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, this book took home the Overall Grand Prize Awards.

J. W. Zarek weaves magic on the page, developing an epic, urban fantasy – first in series – readers will want to stick with for a long time. Highly recommended.

The Insane God by Jay Hartlove brings back the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft in his mystery led by a trans woman.

Sarah is cured of schizophrenia, only to face a battle with The Insane God. Her story balances humor, social issues like gender identity, and cosmic horror. Recommended!

And, of course, it never hurts to remember Stoker’s Dracula with a book like Suburban Vampire Ragnarok by Franklin Posner that won First Place in the Paranormal Awards.

Scott Campbell must face his divorce, job, and thirst for human blood, while caught in his fellow vampires’ political infighting. Recommended!

See the full list of 2021 Paranormal Winners for Supernatural Fiction here.

Global Thriller Awards

When you write a Global Thriller, you write about global consequences. The stakes are higher than ever before, whether or not this is a meticulously researched disease or a terrorist attack of epic proportions, you’ll want to read each one of these stories in one sitting.

Ron McManus’ The Chameleon won the 2021 Global Thriller Awards

Delightful to read with great development of story and characters. Clearly researched with a healthy dash of personal experience. A story to relish.

Then you have First Place Winner Mission: Angola by the prolific Randall Krzak. Anyone who needs a series would be wise to check this one out.

Xavier Sear is caught between dangerous factions and outnumbered in the first book of a new action-packed, tension-filled thriller series. Highly recommended!

For those who prefer more of an environmental story, check out A Divine Wind by Norman M. Jacobs, another First Place Winner.

See the full list of 2021 Global Thriller Winners for High Stakes Fiction here.

You Can’t Win if you Don’t Submit!

Enter the CIBAs today! Your book deserves to be discovered.
October 19, 2022
IN The UNDERWOOD by Kourtney Spadoni – Graphic Novels, Mental Health, Coming of Age Memoirs

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.

She describes episodes in which she withdraws and attempts to hide within herself. A cat, in Wonderland and in real life, appears and acts as an occasional guide through the fantasy land, where a mad queen in red tells her over and over again that she’s not good enough, that she’s weak, before she eventually learns to stand up to the queen.

Ultimately, she manages to tell herself that despite her fears, “it’s not the end of the world.” This phrase becomes her personal talisman. Through her ups and downs, she steps forward and through the darkness before coming out on the other side, addressing her fears and eventually conquering them.

In the long run, Spadoni comes out of her shell, gains friends, develops a group with whom to share similar interests, and learns how to control and deal with the anxiety that overwhelmed her when she was younger.

However, later on, depression comes for a visit, and she has to step up for another fight—a fight she is now better equipped to win.

The art and coloring of In the Underwood match the mood of the work, and like the Frost poem, they conjure the depth and even the darkness and stillness of the night. The words themselves seem to swirl in a mist, sometimes vivid and sometimes faint, reflecting the author’s mind, both when it’s at its lowest and darkest and when it’s at its strongest.

Kourtney Spadoni’s tale about battling mental illness as a youngster, told in vibrant graphic novel form, is a winning combination and should be a go-to for young people in crisis.

In the Underwood by Kourtney Spadoni won First Place in the 2021 CIBA Shorts Awards in the Graphic Stories category.

October 14, 2022
The Goethe 2022 Long List for Late Historical Fiction
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 entries to the 2022 Goethe Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Goethe Shortlist. 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.

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 Goethe Book Awards novel competition for Post-1750s Historical Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Leah Angstman – Falcon in the Dive
- Fred Skolnik – A Woman of Valor
- 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
- Naomi Wark – Songs of Spring
- 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
- Cathy A. Lewis – The Road We Took
- 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
- Ashby Jones – The Crossing
- Sandra Vasoli – Pursuing A Masterpiece
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.

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 onto the next rounds of judging.

Click here to see the 2021 Goethe Book Award Winners for Late Historical Fiction.

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.

Please click here for more information.

For our other Historical Fiction Awards, please see the following:
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 participate in and attend in North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
October 13, 2022
Abibliophobia and Audiobooks – Are Your Books Available Audibly?
Are your books available audibly? If not, you may be missing out on significant sales!

ABIBLIOPHOBIA exists! – even with audiobooks

The Voice Technologies Powering Amazon’s Alexa (often referred to as “voice assistants”) Are Ushering in a New Era of Storytelling and an exciting Platform for Authors to Reach More Readers.

Authors can use this new platform of voice technology to increase their readership (aka listener-ship) and to increase book sales.

Audiobooks

Voice Assistants are increasing the popularity of audio-books more than ever by making easily accessing them with voice commands and hands-free listening while the listener drives, washes dishes, knits, cleans, rake leaves, cooks, bakes bread, or takes care of the laundry.

Some audiobook-o-philes say that after listening to an audiobook that they enjoyed while multi-tasking, they noticed such a huge improvement in getting those daily tasks completed that they incorporated the habit regularly and always have the next audiobook lined up. Audiobookophile clubs are popping up every where to share favorites with other likeminded individuals.

In fact, some tell me they get nervous knowing that they don’t have the next book or series lined up. I understand that! The thought of taking a trip without several books available to makes me twitch! There’s that abibliophobia again!

Here are five reasons why your books should be available as audio-books.

Click on this link to read more about them.
1. Audiobooks are the Busy Booklovers Friend!
2. The Oral Tradition of Listening to Stories and the Spoken Language
3. Increase and Develop Vocabulary and Spoken Syntax
4. Hone Listening Skills and Critical Thinking Skills
5. The Growth of Audio-Books is corelated with the Increase of Use of Voice Assistants.
Hands Free Reading with Audiobooks

The major reason for audiobook listeners is to be able to multi-task in this age of never enough time to get everything done.

Alexa and other voice recognition services makes accessing audiobooks easier than ever before.

People (aka readers aka listeners) listen to audiobooks while driving, folding laundry, cooking and washing dishes, while walking (getting those 10,000 steps in), cleaning, and other daily tasks that may be mundane but we all need to do.

Listening to audiobooks while doing these daily tasks makes them much more enjoyable and creates good habits!
- Publisher’s Weekly reports that audiobook sales have shown a double-digit increase every year for the past ten years and are not showing any indication of slowing down.
- The global impacts of COVID-19 continued to significantly affect the Audiobook Service market in 2020 with global sales of more than 3.3 billion USD – and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 24.4% over the next several years. (Grand View Technologies, San Francisco, Calif.)
- 2021 Audiobook sales in America increased by 25%!
- June 7, 2022 report shows 1.6 Billion dollars in audiobook sales in 2021.
- The USA is the biggest consumer of audiobooks at 1.6 billion in sales of the global market’s 4.8 billion dollars.
Audiobooks are awesome. There is no doubt about that!

Audiobooks honor the time-old traditions of storytelling with the latest in digital technology!

Storytelling-a time-honored tradition

Why are audiobooks important to authors and their book promotion marketing strategies?

They are important because they continue to connect your works with more readers/listeners.

Also, put some short stories out there to hook new readers.

Robert Dugoni does this with his series. He makes a short audiobook available to hook you into his Tracy Crosswhite crime fiction series. Here is the link to get the free audiobook download on Amazon.

Short stories can hook new readers because they allow readers to sample your work without investing the 8-10 hours required for the average reader to read a 110,000-word novel.

And most of us can read faster than we can listen to an audiobook. The average 110,000-word novel would take about 12 to 13 hours of listening time.

However, most of us do not have the 8-10 free hours to read a book each week especially if we have other hobbies or interests. BUT, listening to a book or a story while we go about our daily tasks will enable most of us to reconnect to books!

And for “readers” (aka listeners) to connect with your stories!

We’d love to hear from you! –Kiffer

Looking for an awesome audiobook to listen to:

Try Chanticleer’s award-winning author Janet Oakley’s action thriller series that takes place in Norway during World War II. Espionage, spies, romance, and betrayals!

You can find The Jossing Affair and The Quisling Factor narrated by Chris Humphreys available on the following audiobook-selling platforms:
- Libro.fm
- Audible
- Amazon
October 11, 2022
SEEING GLORY: A Novel of Family Strife, Faith & the American Civil War by Bruce Gardner- Christian Historical Fiction, Civil War, American Slavery

Seeing Glory by Bruce Gardner is a sweeping, thought-provoking Christian historical novel of the American Civil War. The novel portrays the critical roles of family ties and religious faith in shaping personal attitudes and actions towards the horrors of slavery and the war itself.

Spanning the era from the famous abolitionist John Brown’s Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 through the end of the war nine years later, Seeing Glory focuses on the gut-wrenching conflicts over slavery and the southern way of life faced by David, Emma, and Catherine Hodge, fictional siblings, raised on a wealthy plantation in Virginia.

David returns home from a prestigious northern college filled with radical new perspectives. He challenges his father’s and his southern church’s assurances that the Bible says slavery is approved by God. When David calls out the truth as he now sees it, he ignites a firestorm that tears him away from his family at the beginning of the Civil War, sparking huge changes in their individual destinies. Soon after meeting Abel Bowman—an ardent abolitionist and follower of John Brown—David moves north to Ohio and becomes an embedded war reporter with Abel’s Union army regiment. Mutual zeal for the abolitionist cause abounds, but will it help or hinder the two men’s endurance of horrific battlefield violence and scandalous personal accusation?

Devastated by David’s departure from the plantation, his younger sister Emma is torn between the realities of slavery and her Christian faith. Unable to bear the cruelty that she sees her family’s slaves being subjected to, Emma flees north with her maidservant Sallie, one seeking freedom, the other seeking purpose.

Meanwhile, the elder Hodge daughter, Catherine, strives to be the perfect southern plantation mistress after her mother’s death. After marrying a Confederate officer, she is forced to manage both her ailing father’s and her 0wn plantation once her husband is off to war. The pressure of her siblings’ abandonment weighs on her as the war creeps closer, threatening to destroy everything she’s worked for.

Christian beliefs were a big part of the historical abolitionist movement. In Seeing Glory, each of the Hodge siblings and Abel Bowman face their own personal issues of faith, privilege, and forgiveness. It is through the lens of faith that these engaging characters discover their unique paths for surviving the war and supporting the abolition of slavery in the United States. On their journeys, they become involved in many historical events, interacting with famous people like Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Angelina Grimké—a former plantation daughter from South Carolina who eventually became a nationally known abolitionist, journalist, teacher, and women’s rights advocate.

Although Seeing Glory falls within the Christian Historical fiction genre, Gardner doesn’t shy away from describing how the Bible was too often used by southern politicians, pastors, and churches to justify slavery—but on the other hand how ardent commitment to a “glorious cause” like abolition could at times be taken too far. Likewise, Gardner doesn’t downplay the brutality of slavery nor the destruction and devastation of the Civil War, though his novel is not excessively gruesome or overly explicit in its descriptions.

Fans of historical fiction will appreciate the compelling mix of fictional and historical characters woven through the emotion-packed saga of Seeing Glory, eager to discover what will happen next. Highly recommended!

October 10, 2022
JUS BREATHE by B. Lynn Carter – Black Historical Fiction, 1960s Historical Fiction, Family Life Fiction

A young woman strives to survive without a home, even as she must fight herself and her instincts, in Jus Breathe by B. Lynn Carter.

“It’s more like I walked away,” I said, fractured memories of the day I left surging into my mind. “My mother married herself a husband. It’s like the tale of the evil stepfather, I guess.” The words were spilling out. “On the first day that we moved in with him, he almost broke my jaw. So I left. She had to let me; you know – the survival thing. She knew. We both knew.”

In New York City during the tempestuous 1960s, Dawn flees an abusive family situation after her father leaves the family and her mother remarries. Determined to stay in education, she couch-surfs with friends and explores her contacts through school. Dawn manages to live and even graduate. With the help of sympathetic teachers and a social worker who believes in her, she goes to college. Dawn finds friends and boyfriends and makes her own way toward adulthood.

And then her life goes awry again, though this time, she has a harder time choosing whether to run.

An overwhelming and toxic relationship with handsome Danny, a low-level drug dealer with ambitions, has Dawn making mistakes and second-guessing her plans, a journey made more complex with an accidental pregnancy. Throughout her young life, she’s had a term, “leaving time,” a point wherever she is and whomever she is with that indicates she has to gather her belongings and find a new situation. With a new life to take care of, Dawn finds that Danny ignores her own ambitions. Is it leaving time?

Despite the obstacles that she encounters on her journey toward adulthood, Dawn establishes her goals and works toward them, even though at times she seems to work against her best interests.

Dawn’s struggles to get through school and become an adult are harrowing and draw the reader to experience those struggles with her.

She remains relatable, with complicated reasons for the decisions she makes. Dawn’s world – specifically, her friends, her foes, and the people around her – are fully fleshed out, and the mysteries and surprises that she encounters, both pleasant and unpleasant, all work toward helping her grow into her own power.

Author B. Lynn Carter’s tale about a young woman growing up in a time of social unrest in a city in turmoil is heartwarming and thought-provoking, giving a glimpse into the trials and tribulations of young adulthood.

October 10, 2022
The Chaucer 2022 Long List for Early Historical Fiction
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 entries to the 2022 Chaucer Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2022 Chaucer Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. 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 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST 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
- Daniel V. Meier, Jr. – Bloodroot
- GK Johnson – The Zealots
- Kerry Chaput – Daughter of the King
- Tonya Ulynn Brown – The King’s Inquisitor
- 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
- Lee Swanson – A Dangerous Journey Home
- Meredith Allard – Down Salem Way
- Elizabeth R. Andersen – The Scribe
- Brigitte Goldstein – Princess of the Blood – A Tapestry of Love and War in 16th-Century France
- Rozsa Gaston – Anne and Louis Forever Bound
- Amy Maroney – Sea of Shadows
- Amy Maroney – Island of Gold
- Karen Martin – Dancing the Labyrinth
- 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
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Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 CHAUCER Awards is Too Soon the Night by James Conroyd Martin

Click here to see the 2021 Chaucer Book Award Winners for Early Historical Fiction.

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.

Please click here to submit to the 2023 Chaucer Awards

For our other Historical Fiction Awards, please see the following:
Winners will be announced at the 2022 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

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.

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.
October 6, 2022