Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

Learn to Professionally Produce your Audiobook on a Budget | A FREE LIVE Webinar – by HINDENBURG SYSTEMS
LEARN FROM THE BEST!

How to RECORD, EDIT, and PUBLISH YOUR AUDIOBOOK!

SAVE YOUR SEAT for Hindenburg’s FREE LIVE TRAINING SESSSION MARCH 21st

This is a Beginner Course for Those Who are Interested in Audio Book Creation

TELL YOUR STORIES

with the audio editor made for storytellers

From podcasting to radio and audiobook production, Hindenburg has all the tools you need to easily record, edit, and publish professional audio without the technical hassle. Spend more time doing what you love.

High audio quality is key to keeping listeners engaged! This workshop addresses the challenge of how to create immersive compelling audiobook productions through the use of “non-verbal” audio techniques.

If you are ready to take the quality of your audiobook production process to the next level, don’t miss out on this workshop. This hands-on workshop will help you streamline your production process from beginning to end as well as learn new audio techniques.

You can click on the link below to be taken directly to the Information and Registration Form for this FREE event.

March 21st: How to Record, Edit, and Publisher Your Audiobook

*Download the required workshop resources here.

The Format: Hindenburg senior trainers, including Jonathan Hurley, will perform and demonstrate skills to take your audiobook creation skills to the next level. Throughout the class learners will adjourn to virtual group tables to practice each skill.

Required Materials:
1. Hindenburg Narrator 30-day Trial – Download Link
2. Student Materials – Download Link
3. *Hindenburg 7-day Workshop Training Trial – Download Link
Kindly download and install your trial and student materials prior to your workshop.

Thank you again for your continued interest in Hindenburg products.

*Hindenburg typically allows (1) 30-day software evaluation trial per user. However, as a courtesy, Hindenburg is happy to provide you with a 7-day workshop training trial so that you may participate in hands-on portion of the workshop

This FREE 1.5-hour Webinar for Beginner Narrators will provide an overview of:
- How to create an immersive experience through “non-verbal” audiotechniques
- Ways to avoid mistakes and keep the work professional
- Basics of Hindenburg Pro
WHAT YOU WILL NEED IN ADVANCE of the FREE Hindenburg WORKSHOP WEBINAR
1. Register for the FREE webinar in advance so that you will receive the unique access link in your email. Click here
2. Download the required workshop materials here. (email Hindy at Events@Hindenburg.com prior to the workshop if you have trouble)
3. Before You Start on Monday, March 21st at 10 a.m. Pacific Time
  1. Install the Hindenburg trial license software. (30-day Trial link here)
  2. Wear headphones (with mic preferably)
  3. Download student material
Help is here! Hindy will have “office hours” with this learning lab. And HINDY experts and tutorials are available online 24/7.

*For 30 minutes prior to the session start time, Hindenburg staff will be available to assist you with trial license and course material downloads.

*Your FREE Hindenburg software and course materials must be downloaded, installed, and ready for use prior to the start of the session.

Yes this workshop will be recorded so you can watch it again! Join us (Kiffer and David) at this FREE audiobook webinar.

HINDENBURG HAS YOUR BACK

with customer support and also community

With video tutorials, live webinars, a vast knowledge base, and fast customer support, Hindenburg is here when you need them. They offer more than just support, they offer a thriving community of users who share your love for audio storytelling.

Chris Mottes, Hindy CEO, teaching podcast editing at Harvard University.

Knowledge of audio recording systems is a powerful tool in marketing your own work, from recording audiobooks for yourself, to helping friends record their work.

Record like a Professional

Don’t just take our word for it! Here is what PremiumBeat says about it this article.

“Why Hindenburg is the BEST Podcast Editing Software”

I found that Hindenburg’s workflow is lean, streamlined, and intuitive—they’ve trimmed all the fat and left only the good parts…it’s much more straightforward to use. –Logan Baker

Hindenburg will also present at the 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference

Register today for the Chanticleer Authors Conference, June 23-26, 2022. CAC22 will be LIVE and IN-PERSON with a Virtual Option to attend at the beautiful Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, WA. Find out why it’s the conference that Serious Authors recommend.

Participants of CAC22 will qualify for an EXCLUSIVE session with Hindenburg after the conference, and they frequently have digital perks for the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Winners.

The learning continues! Learn from the Best!
March 10, 2022
The DEVIL’s BOOKKEEPERS: The Noose Tightens, Book 2 by Mark H. Newhouse – Jewish Literature, Jewish Historical Fiction, WWII Historical Fiction

Mark H. Newhouse, son of German Holocaust survivors, includes the very personal and poignant first-hand sourced materials made available to him by the Yale University Press in his important historical fiction series, The Devil’s Bookkeepers. This inclusion lends a ribbon of humanity and compassion that raise the series to premiere status – a study, if you will, of the immutable human spirit. Newhouses’ series should encourage all who read it that hope is a gift and kindness and understanding is the answer to hate. It is a gripping story of love and survival that will haunt you until it’s shocking climax.

From the first day of 1942, the conditions in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland, deteriorate. In Mark H. Newhouse’s historical fiction novel, The Devil’s Bookkeepers: Book 2, The Noose Tightens, those who thought their situation would get better now wish to survive and save their loved ones, But can they?

The narrator Bernard Ostrowski, an engineer, should have enjoyed the prime of his life. He married a beautiful young wife, Miriam, who gave birth to their newborn daughter Regina. Ostrowski landed a lucky position in the records office of the ghetto’s leader, Chaim Rumkowski (an actual historical figure drawn by the author in dark, realistic detail). Rumkowki uses brutal force to forge the ghetto prisoners into a manufacturing hub for the Nazis in a still hotly debated effort to save its residents as the Nazi noose inexorably tightens.

Ostrowski’s team includes a young man named Singer. And as the war continues to escalate, Singer urges Ostrowski to escape with his wife and child. Singer even promises to help them do so. However, Singer disappears, leaving an astonishing letter declaring his love for Miriam behind. The letter torments him as he tries to survive and save Miriam and his daughter.

In the meantime, the Nazis begin deporting Jews from Poland – to where, no one knows.

Rumkowski receives news that will shatter the bookkeepers’ faith in his leader’s basic decency. As the Nazis ramp up the expulsion of Jews from the city. Ostrowski, finally realizes that the noose is closing on everyone in the ghetto. Starving and weakened, he and Miriam must attempt to escape.

Newhouse opens each chapter with brief vignettes from the primary sourced materials that will chill the reader.

This book offers truth enmeshed with a well-crafted, imaginative, and credible story that will change and challenge readers. Newhouse wishes that in absorbing it, we may all say, “Never again to anyone.”

The Devil’s Bookkeepers series by Mark H. Newhouse is highly recommended and won the Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBA Fiction Series Awards.

Read our review of the first book in The Devil’s Bookkeepers series, The Noose, here.

March 9, 2022
The 2021 Ozma Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction – CIBAs FINALISTS 2021
The Ozma Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Fantasy Fiction. The Ozma Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards discovers the best books in the Ozma Awards featuring magic, the supernatural, imaginary worlds, fantastical creatures, legendary beasts, mythical beings, or inventions of fancy that author imaginations dream up without a basis in science as we know it. Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Dragons, Unicorns, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Gaslight Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, or other out-of-this-world fiction. These books have advanced to the Long List in the 2021 CIBAs OZMA division.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2021 Ozma Fantasy Fiction Short List to the 2021 Ozma Book Awards FINALISTS.

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists and announced at CAC22!

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person.

These titles are in the running for the First Place Winners of the 2021 Ozma Book Awards novel competition for Fantasy Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
- Susannah Dawn – Battle for the Armor of God
- Jenn Lees – The Crossing. Arlan’s Pledge Book 1
- Susan Chapek – The Scarlet Mantle
- P.H.C. Marchesi – Florissant
- David Fitz-Gerald – Waking Up Lost
- Laurel Anne Hill – Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846
- James Priest – Kirins: The Seer of Serone
- Allegra Pescatore – Where Shadows Lie
- Glen Dahlgren – The Game of War: The Trials of Dantess, Warrior Priest
- KC Cowan – Asa’s Redemption
- J.W. Zarek – The Devil Pulls the Strings
- J.P. Hostetler – Around Curiosity’s Edge: Hidden Meridians
- L. A. Thompson – Isle of Dragons
- G.L. Cramb – Druid Quest: Maegics Heir, Book 1
- Mark A. Alvarez II – Dutybound: Light Wings Epic Vol. 1
- Susan Faw – Heart of Tunise
- S.J. Hartland – The Last Seer King
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the 2020 OZMA Awards was Christpher Russell for Rebirth: Divinity’s Twilight

Click here to see the 2020 Ozma Book Award Winners for Fantasy Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Ozma Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2021 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

This will be a HYBRID conference available virtually and in-person with safety protocols in place.

We are offering a flexible Registration Program with Options for today’s challenging times.

June 23 – 26, 2022! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 10th annual conference and discover why!

Join us for our 10th annual conference and discover why!
March 7, 2022
A SEASON in LIGHTS: A Novel in Three Acts by Gregory Erich Phillips – Contemporary Literature

Gregory Erich Phillips’ A Season in Lights is a well-crafted, engaging exploration of creatives, each following their heart and trying to reach their dream.

Against backdrops of the 1980s AIDS crisis and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, the story entwines the lives of a 30-something dancer and an older musician as they strive to make their artistic mark in the cultural capital of New York City.

Here in a two-fold unveiling, the story comes to life from the first-person perspective of Cammie, a starry-eyed aspiring dancer from Lancaster, PA, and the third-person reveal of Tom, a more seasoned black pianist. He longs for a classical career but is too often labeled a jazz musician. Cammie first encounters Tom in a studio dance class where he’s taken a job as the musical accompanist. Befriended by the gay dance instructor, Tom heeds the worldly advice offered about surviving in the Big Apple. “All you’ve got to do is convince people that you belong. You’ve got to tell them who you are before they tell you.”

Phillips’ masterful narrative is layered with a backstory for each character, with details revealing multi-dimensional individuals.

Small town Cammie is close to her ailing father; she has a troubled yet artistically talented sister; and a mother who seems to carry everyone’s burdens. Cammie harbors guilt for leaving behind family obligations to follow her own path. Tom has tried to leave behind his own familial ties. Unfortunately, with an absent father who landed in prison for dealing drugs, and an older brother who seems headed in a similar direction, Tom is hesitant about the consequential outcome of such connections. Within their May/December style romance, these primary characters find solace and understanding with relatable family concerns and the need to venture beyond expectations and comfort zones.

As a dancer and musician himself, Phillips clearly draws on his own knowledge and experience to render authentic, believable characters in his writing. Here, personal experience from the NY stage easily translates to the page. Capturing the lighted spectrum of Broadway, the back alley theaters, and side-street clubs, the city becomes a character unto itself. The city seems alive as a place for second chances with its vibrant electric pulse.

In a nod to Broadway, Phillips presents his novel in three acts.

While the overall narrative effortlessly alternates between earlier times and the present day, the trio of segments maintains an appropriate momentum to propel events forward. Whether considering the classic themes of sibling rivalry, racism, and interracial romance, or the more contemporary struggles of theatrical LGBT community prejudice, drug addiction, or the new need for social distancing, the topics are well incorporated throughout the story line.

From the worry and fear showcased in HIV testing and AIDS-related complications ignited in the ’80s to the stress and anxiety of shutdowns, casualties, and the unknowns of the more recent COVID19 virus, Phillips highlights the extraordinary opportunities for friendship and healing. Even though the city and its inhabitants are scarred, the hope remains that New York will rebound. A surprise twist in the book’s final moments sheds a brighter light on the central characters, the NYC community, and the world at large in recognizing that we’re all in this together.

A Season in Lights is a modern-day tale featuring artists, dancers, and musicians and their efforts to honor the famous NY song adage, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Through passion, grit, and determination against the odds, the final reveal is a lesson about making the most of the moment. Phillips has done an outstanding job with this creative, literary presentation that will indeed have readers looking for an encore.

A Season in Lights: A Novel in Three Acts by Gregory Erich Phillips won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary Literature – and is a novel that comes with high recommendations.

March 7, 2022
PAUSE by Sara Stamey – Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Family Fiction, Literary Fiction
Sara Stamey’s Pause features a hero who defies gravity, a scintillating setting, and a lovely backdrop for this riveting story.

This story is about women: strong, weak, abused, cherished, divorced, cancer survivors, mothers, sisters, friends, frenemies. It is a book about survival and hope, about getting back to self to reemerge into a life worth living.

Meet Lindsey, a fifty-two-year-old divorced woman going through menopause, living alone with her two cats, and worrying about her 1 and ¾ breasts. Readers will be hooked from the very beginning with the first of many poignant and funny journal entries. Here is Lindsey’s reality: a middle-aged woman suffering hot flashes that sear her skin and cause spells of nausea, who suffers PTSD from an abusive spouse.

Lindsey never thought of herself as a victim, though.

The fact that she walked on eggshells around Nick becomes a reflection of Lindsey’s parents’ relationship. Her father’s abuse of the mother and the mother’s frailty combined with her refusal to accept help and get out of the situation leave Lindsey feeling helpless and trigger her PTSD.

A certifiable mess, Lindsey seeks out an old flame, Newman. And at least for her, the flame ignites, and Lindsey finds herself falling in love. Newman, however, never opens up to her or becomes more available than a part-time lover. When she meets Damon, she is torn between being treated like a queen by a man ten years younger than her or as a booty-call by Newman.

Stamey weaves these issues and more into her novel, giving her protagonist a chance to try on life again after surviving cancer and divorce.

Lindsey’s spiritual awakening occurs as she works as a medical transcriber at a local hospital. While typing up a rush job on an emergency case, she discovers that a friend’s son was admitted with head trauma. The doctor who did the neurosurgery regularly botches the surgery, either killing his patients or leaving them vegetables. She informs the parents of her fears about this doctor while launching a full-scale lawsuit against the hospital that knowingly kept this doctor on staff and destroyed their son’s chances for recovery.

She gets fired for breach of confidentiality and finds herself unemployed, but her original plan to pursue environmental writing, essays, articles, and books after graduating from college beckons. She finds her first topic while riding through a park slated to become a hospital parking lot. She submits her essay about endangered owls living in the trees there; the piece is published and becomes instrumental in saving the space. The paper’s editor recognizes her talent and approaches her with another project with an environmental theme, and Lindsey agrees. A new career blossoms for her, which builds her up instead of tearing her apart.

Stamey develops Lindsey as a woman who won’t succeed until she takes charge and stands up for herself and her dreams.

Lindsey must learn to heal and move beyond cancer, the divorce, and the PTSD of the abuse. Readers will adore Lindsey for all of it. Powerfully written with melodic imagery, Stamey draws her readers in. Be prepared to cry, laugh, and cheer for Linsey as she finally takes the leap of faith necessary to begin believing in herself.

Stamey’s Pacific Northwest backdrop is captured in her skillfully crafted narrative. Readers are with Lindsey on the rapids, riding bikes through a maple forest, or walking beside a salmon-filled stream. We sit with her looking out over the Pacific Ocean at sunset and watching eagles as they hunt along the shore. Stamey’s brush strokes are deft, and her palette is rich as she creates this story’s world.

Stamey’s Pause is a riveting tale of one woman’s exploration to discover herself in a world where she has been dominated and controlled. She learns to take back control and finds herself whole and healed.

Pause is beautiful and thought-provoking and comes highly recommended. This title won 1st Place in the 2020 CIBA Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction.
March 4, 2022
Closeups in Fiction – from Jessica Morrell’s Editor’s Desk – A Chanticleer Writers Toolbox post
Studying and Borrowing Techniques from Filmmakers

Let’s discuss using closeup “shots” of your characters in fiction. Filmmakers have a large repertoire of techniques that writers are wise to study and borrow. Closeup camera angles are powerful in film and an important technique fiction writers need to emulate throughout their stories.

When to Use a Wide Angle in Your Scenes

I write many, many notes and suggestions to my editing clients, some within the pages of the manuscript, some included in a long, detailed memo. At times I suggest a wide angle or establishing shot to introduce setting and atmosphere–especially helpful when a character arrives at a new place or when major action is about to go down.

“We’ll always have Paris.” Casablanca Original Book: Everyone Comes to Rick’s by Murray Bennett and Joan Alison in 1940.

When to Use Closeups

However, I’m certain that every story I’ve worked on needed more ‘closeup’ shots of characters, so I suggest when to bring the viewpoint– fiction’s camera lens–closer. In film or television the director and cameraman have lots of choices about how to use distance to achieve drama. There are full shots, medium, long, POV, closeup and extreme closeups. A closeup shot tightly frames the actor’s face and signals significance. They’re typically used to portray deep emotions and create connection between audience and actor. There are also ‘extreme close-ups’ where the camera lingers on a subject, usually the actor. But close-ups can also focus on hands and body parts, props, jewelry, or other objects of interest.

Be Cognizant of What You Are Revealing to Your Readers in Your Closeups

Obviously closeups are intimate because they’re revealing. They showcase significant emotions, realizations, decisions, and important moments or actions. They also reveal when characters have something to hide.

When Harry Met Sally – The SCENE that set the story. By Nora Ephron

Romance films and dramas employ these shots especially when characters are surprised, shocked, filled with dread, or when feelings shift. Closeups, naturally, are often used in horror and suspense films to increase the audience members’ heartbeat. Alfred Hitchcock was fond of using them, such as in the grisly shower scene in Psycho. You know the one.
- Convey important moments, reversals, revelations.
- Enhance threat and danger.
- Enhance evil and malevolence.
- Shock value as when a monster or villain is in the frame.
- Focus on, reveal a character’s state of mind.
- Slow the pacing.
- Portray damage, pain, the cost paid by characters.
- Allow readers to see the world through the character’s eyes. * See The Eyes Have It post link below.
- Reveal closeness, intimacy, estrangement, coldness between characters.
- Suggest or define character arc.
- Show other ‘sides’ of a character, including subtler traits.
- Illustrate a character’s emotional bandwidth, as in how she or he handles the best of times and the worst of times.
- In scenes that contain violence, brutality, or horror, a closeup amplifies the dangers as in the ‘here’s Johnny’ moment in The Shining when Jack Torrence, played by Jack Nicholson is terrorizing his family. Notice how it’s clear that he’s sunk into madness.
The unforgettable “Here’s Johnny” scene in The Shining.

As you’re revising, make sure that during the most poignant moments in the story, readers are pulled in. Allow your readers to witness emotions flickering across the character’s face. Let them sense what’s churning beneath a character’s exterior.

Notice Beth’s hands, her eyes, her posture. The juxtaposition of the watch she wears versus the clock on the wall. Her black and white dress adjacent to the black and white chess board. See how she is capturing the white pawns.

Beth Harmon knows she will win several moves out in this scene of Queen’s Gambit

Here is the link to the Eyes Have It Post

Keep writing, keep dreaming, use your voice

Jessica Page Morrell

Jessica Morrell is a top-tier developmental editor and a contributor to Chanticleer Reviews Media and to the Writer’s Digest magazine. She teaches Master Writing Craft Classes along with sessions at the Chanticleer Authors Conference that is held annually along with teaching at Chanticleer writing workshops that are held throughout the year.

Jessica Classes and Workshops at CAC22
- - Using Film Techniques for Fiction Writers – Camera angles, method acting for getting into a character’s pov, and creating subtext and tight dialogue
    
    Your Brain on Writing
    
    Captivating Co-Stars that add depth to your work-in-progress
Don’t Delay! Register Today!
March 3, 2022
How to Create and Edit an Audio Podcast FREE LIVE Webinar – by HINDENBURG SYSTEMS – LEARN FROM THE BEST!
LEARN FROM THE BEST!

How to RECORD, EDIT, and PUBLISH YOUR PODCAST!

SAVE YOUR SEAT for Hindenburg’s FREE LIVE TRAINING SESSSION in MARCH

Hindenburg’s Promise: Leave this 1-hour Hindenburg live training equipped with a basic technical understanding of how to record, edit, and publish your podcast in today’s most popular narrative platforms (Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn, etc.)

Introduction To Podcast Editing on 14th March 2022

Click the link above to reserve your space on Monday, March 14th at 10 a.m. Pacific Time

Before and after the session starts, you will have access to a networking lounge where you can jump from table to table. There will also be a Speed Networking option at the top that you can join to meet new people.

This FREE 1-hour Webinar will provide an overview of:
- Podcasting with a Single Host (one microphone with one or two people)
- Round Table Recording (Panels)
- Conducting Phone and VOIP Interviews (aka – Zoom, Facetime, Hangouts, Skype)
- Sound Signature (Your “audio” brand for intro, extro, and background for your podcast)
- Publishing (hitting the airwaves around the globe)
- Q & A
WHAT YOU WILL NEED IN ADVANCE of the FREE Hindenburg WORKSHOP WEBINAR
1. Register for the FREE webinar in advance so that you will receive the unique access link in your email. Click here.
2. Download the required workshop materials here OR email Hindy at Events@Hindenburg.com before March 11th, 2022.
3. Before You Start on Monday, March 14th at 10 a.m. Pacific Time
  1. Install the Hindenburg trial license software.
  2. Wear headphones (with mic preferably)
  3. Download student material
Help is here! Hindy will have “office hours” with this learning lab. And HINDY experts and tutorials are available online 24/7.

*For 30 minutes prior to the session start time, Hindenburg staff will be available to assist you with trial license and course material downloads.

*Your FREE Hindenburg software and course materials must be downloaded, installed, and ready for use prior to the start of the session.

March 14 How to RECORD, EDIT, and PUBLISH a PODCAST Webinar

At 10am PST, March 14, 2022, Hindeburg Systems will be hosting a FREE webinar (and yes it will be recorded and can be sent to you) on how to record, edit, and publish your podcast. Learn from the best and how by clicking here. Be sure to let them know that Chanticleer sent you! Hindenburg often offers free perks and discounts to Chanticleer members.

Join us (Kiffer and David) at this FREE podcasting webinar as they sharpen their audio skills. Hindenburg Systems powers OnWord Talks podcasts!

Chris Mottes, Hindy CEO, teaching podcast editing at Harvard University.

Knowledge of audio recording systems is a powerful tool in marketing your own work, from running podcasts for yourself, to helping friends record their work.

Record like a Professional

Don’t just take our word for it! Here is what PremiumBeat says about it this article.

“Why Hindenburg is the BEST Podcast Editing Software”

I found that Hindenburg’s workflow is lean, streamlined, and intuitive—they’ve trimmed all the fat and left only the good parts…it’s much more straightforward to use. –Logan Baker

Hindenburg will also present at the 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference

Register today for the Chanticleer Authors Conference, June 23-26, 2022. CAC22 will be LIVE and IN-PERSON with a Virtual Option to attend at the beautiful Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, WA. Find out why it’s the conference that Serious Authors recommend.

Participants of CAC22 will qualify for an EXCLUSIVE session with Hindenburg after the conference, and they frequently have digital perks for the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Winners.

The learning continues! Learn from the Best!
March 2, 2022
The 2021 Paranormal Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction – CIBAs FINALISTS 2021
The Paranormal Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Supernatural Fiction. The Paranormal Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs) is looking for the best books Paranormal books featuring magic, the supernatural, weird otherworldly stories, superhumans (ex. Jessica Jones, Wonder Woman), magical beings & supernatural entities (ex. Harry Potter), vampires & werewolves (ex. Twilight), angels & demons, fairies & mythological beings, magical systems and elements. These books have advanced to the Long List Level of Achievement in the 2021 CIBAs.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2021 Paranormal Supernatural Fiction Short List to the 2021 Paranormal Book Awards FINALISTS. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

Congratulations to the 2021 Paranormal Book Awards FINALISTS!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
- Avanti Centrae – The Doomsday Medallion
- Robert Herold – Moonlight Becomes You
- Rebecca Kightlinger – Megge of Bury Down: The Bury Down Chronicles, Book One
- Catori Sarmiento – But the Wicked Shall Perish
- Elizabeth Crowens – The Time Traveler Professor – Book Three: A War in Too Many Worlds
- J. W. Zarek – The Devil Pulls The Strings
- Kaylin McFarren – Annihilation
- K.T. Anglehart – The Wise One
- JP McLean – Blood Mark
- J.G. Schwartz – The Curious Spell of Madam Genova
- Henry Anderson – Cape Misfortune
- Miki Mitayn – The Conscious Virus
- John Stafford – A Hand of Vengeance
- Daniela Valenti – Sentinel 10: The Crystal Skull
- T.K. Conklin – Outlaw’s Redemption
- Jonathan Floyd – Lost on the Edge of Eternity
- David Fitz-Gerald – The Curse of Conchobar
- Nola Nash – Crescent City Moon
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE WINNERS of the 2021 Paranormal Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction!

Note: If you are an author who entered sequential titles into a division, we may have moved the latest book into next year’s CIBAs so that it would not be in competition with the earlier book in the series. We also suggest that you check out our Series Book Awards.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the 2020 PARANORMAL Awards was Kaylin McFarren for Soul Seeker

Click here to see the 2020 Paranormal Book Award Winners for Supernatural Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Paranormal Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2021 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

Save the Dates! June 23 – 26, 2022! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 10th annual conference and discover why!

Featuring: International Best Selling Author Cathy Ace along with A+ list film producer Scott Steindorff.
March 2, 2022
The 2021 Global Thriller Book Awards for High Stakes Suspense – CIBAs Finalists
The Global Thriller Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in High Stakes Thriller Fiction. The Global Thriller Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring suspense, thrilling stories that put the balance of world power or that will end the world as we know it. We include with Global Thrillers the Lab Lit genre. Lab Lit is when Fiction Meets Real Science and Research or stories that are based on real science and research up to a certain “what if” point.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2021 Global Thriller High Stakes Fiction Short List to the 2021 Global Thriller Book Awards FINALISTS. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the FINALISTS of the 2021 Global Thriller Book Awards novel competition for International Suspense and Intrigue

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
- Avanti Centrae – The Doomsday Medallion
- E. R. Barr – Gods In The Ruins: A Vatican Archives Thriller
- Randall Krzak – Mission: Angola (Xavier Sear Thriller Book 1)
- Stu Jones & Gareth Worthington – Condition Black
- Norman M. Jacobs, MD, – A Divine Wind
- J Lawrence Matthews – One Must Tell The Bees
- Andrew Kaplan – Blue Madagascar
- Ron McManus – The Chameleon
- John Stafford – A Hand of Vengeance
- Roberta Seret – Treasure Seekers
- Kristie Clark – Killing Dragons
- Timothy S. Johnston – Fatal Depth
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE WINNERS of the 2021 Global Thriller Book Awards novel competition for High Stakes Fiction!

First Place and Grand Prize 2021 Global Thriller award winners will be announce at the CIBA Awards Ceremony and Banquet on Saturday, June 25, 2022. The CIBA Awards gala is hosted by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
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Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging for the First Place Positions and Grand Prize Winner of the 2021 Global Thrillers, a division of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards.

The Grand Prize Winner for the 2020 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards was William Maz for The Bucharest Dossier

Click here to see the 2020 Global Thriller Book Award Winners for High Stakes Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Global Thriller Book Awards for High Stakes Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2021 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

VIRTUAL and IN-Person – June 23 – 26, 2022! 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 10th annual conference and discover why!

Featuring: International Best Selling Author Cathy Ace along with A+ list film producer Scott Steindorff.
March 2, 2022
MYSTERY in HARARE: Priscilla’s Journey into Southern Africa by M.J. Simms-Maddox – Terrorism Thriller, Historical African Fiction, Travel Adventure Thriller

In M.J. Simms-Maddox’s atmospheric thriller, Mystery in Harare: Priscilla’s Journey into Southern Africa, a former legislative aide’s wedding day turns deadly.

As the second installment of The Priscilla Trilogy opens, Priscilla J. readies to walk down the aisle in an American church to marry Jonathan. Not the man of her dreams, but the man she believes may be right for her. Love isn’t exactly on the table, but Priscilla hopes it will be in the future.

Before she can even take her vows, her soon-to-be husband is murdered in cold blood in front of her and those in attendance. Priscilla catches a glimpse of the murderer before succumbing to unconsciousness. She’s been drugged, and the kidnappers will confound and surprise readers.

When Priscilla gains consciousness, she is no longer in the United States but in the hinterland of Zimbabwe, Africa.

Priscilla is plunged into the murky and precarious world of the oppressive Apartheid regime in South Africa. How and why are the questions readers must discover for themselves. Suffice it to say, her endurance is tested repeatedly, she must learn how to look out for herself even as she struggles to find out the reasons behind the bloodshed in the church.

M.J. Simms-Maddox presents a thoughtful and compulsively readable story complete with a beguiling beginning. The tale spins into several twists and turns that readers will not see coming. The author aptly displays the toughness of the Southern part of Africa and its vibrancy and fluidity. Capturing this duality and melding it with the political atmosphere in America during the 1980s is the summit of this novel. Further, the book has obvious relevance to actual historical events.

Mystery in Harare comes with exceptionally well-drawn characters and a creatively imagined plot that gives it a resonant and all-embracing echo.

The beautifully evoked African settings and accompanying descriptions make this a real stand-out in cerebral mysteries. Simms-Maddox brings the reader along, making us feel a part of the story, careening down the path with Priscilla in all her experiences. Indeed, the author creates in Priscilla an individual with a formidable spirit and charisma that will appeal to many readers. The book concludes with a satisfying ending, but this is not the end of the series. One more title will complete the Priscilla trilogy.

Mystery In Harare is undoubtedly a successful terrorism thriller novel and a good place to start understanding the underbelly of the period of Apartheid in South Africa and its implications on all of its citizenry.

Mystery in Harare: Priscilla’s Journey into Southern Africa by M.J. Simms-Maddox won First Place in the CIBAs 2019 Mystery and Mayhem Book Awards and comes highly recommended.

March 2, 2022