Robert Dugoni’s novel, The World Played Chess examines the demands of society and family, through the dawning adulthood of three different men in three different eras.
Vincent Bianco, a Southern California lawyer raises his teenage daughter and high-school-senior son. He unexpectedly receives the Vietnam journal of William Goodman, with whom he had worked construction in 1979. Goodman scribbled the journal in pencil during desperate breaks in his service in Vietnam. This record describes Goodman’s harsh initiation and horrifying acclimatization to the war.
Mirroring the Marine’s rapid maturation in the jungles of southeast Asia, Bianco recalls his own privileged coming of age. He compares it with his son Beau’s coming of age in present-day 2016 and 2017. With each entry in Goodman’s journal, Bianco remembers conversations, events, and decisions of his own pivotal summer. He sees similar decisions play out in his son’s life. What happens when they make decisions without thought, in frustration, or when they don’t make decisions at all?
Tragedies and near-tragedies mark all three of the novel’s timelines. The three primary characters think and overthink their choices.
Goodman’s squad leader, Victor Cruz emerges as the true protagonist of the story. Victor watches over Goodman during his time in Vietnam, providing contrast to Goodman’s background. His actions after Goodman suffers a wound and returns to duty provide the impetus for the shocking key moment in this novel.
We all must determine who we will be. Men, according to Dugoni, find this choice critical to a good life.
Dugoni picks at the threads that have woven the lives of his most important characters. What leads to our academic careers and work lives, what brings us together with the people we care for? These questions, while not always clear, have crucial and sometimes horrible consequences. In the end, we are faced with the lives we have led and can either come to terms with them or not. Either way, one question remains: do we deserve our fates?
Dugoni’s novel zigs and zags, just like the decisions and events that comprise human life. The reader can come to a conclusion about the novel’s characters in a gestalt way, only in the end realizing how artfully the author has led them to self-examination. We live our lives in moments, and, like William Goodman, Vincent Bianco, Beau Bianco, and Victor Cruz, we get the lives we deserve — even if we don’t deserve them.
Please enjoy Chanticleer’s Business and Marketing Tips and Tools for Writers for a Happy and Productive 2022!
Start the year out right with our suggestions on the best practices for 2022.
Must-Dos for Authors and Publishers for 2022!
At Chanticleer, as many of you know, we do things a little differently. We are bringing you an author checklist, things for your author development and business.That’s why we’re here!
We suggest tackling one Must-Do a month in any order that you chose except for the first three. Also, we will have a handy checklist to print out at the end of the series for your author lair to help keep you on track.
We wish you a successful and productive year for achieving your publishing goals! ~ The Chanticleer Reviews Team
On the First Blogpost of 2022, Chanticleer gave to me…
Advice on how to care for arguably the most important tool in our toolbox. Care to guess what it is?
We will give you a hint. It stores your intellectual property, aids in getting words from your brain into little alphabet letters that add up to a story. And for most of us, enables us to create what we love most—books and stories!
Your hardworking computer – whether it is a desktop, laptop, pad, or your own Mad Maxx creation of technologies (like Argus’s), deserves a little bit of attention.
Computer Care for Authors and Publishers
We often forget how important it is to maintain a clean computer on the inside and outside, even if our desk and the surrounding area is spotless. Here are a few tips to get you started. And, yes, this is your annual reminder!
1. Clean your keyboard
If you don’t want to be like the person in this XKCD comic, you might want to clean your keyboard. Luckily, this is an easy task you can do once a week. Or at least once a year…
Ewwww!!
Wipe it down with a slightly damp microfiber cloth, dry it with a different cloth, and then use a disinfectant wipe or a cloth just damp with rubbing alcohol to finish it out (do not use bleach!). Probably best to do this when your computer and keyboard are unplugged because keyboards are actually quite delicate inside.
Gross stuff under the keycaps. Maintenance will prevent your computer keyboard from getting to this state.
Also, as the character in the cartoon that you clicked on above, turn your keyboard or laptop upside down and give it a gentle shake or two about once a week. Gentle being the operative word. You may be surprised to see what falls out of it.
Especially if you have a cat for an intern. Here’s looking at you, Janet Oakley!
Janet’s intern, Kinky Boots, hard at work.
We’ve even seen Argus vacuum his keyboards. But, that is up to you.
Really consider giving this a try. Your keyboard will feel cleaner. All the bits of dust and crumbs of food you’ve learned to ignore will be gone, and it will be such a pleasant experience for your hands.
Clean your screen
We’ve all had that experience of editing and suddenly an errant apostrophe or period appears where there ought not to be one. We click on it to edit it, but something about the way it appears doesn’t quite make sense, and then we can’t delete it from the page. That’s when it clicks. The screen is just dirty.
To clean it, a microfiber cloth is always the recommendation. Always dab any cleaning solution (Windex and/or a little bit of mild soap and water are recommended but check before trying anything else!) onto the cloth not directly on the screen itself.
Password Management
6.85 million passwords are hacked each day or 158 every second. INC magazine 2018 – this number has gone up substantially since 2018.
The concept of a healthy mind healthy body can be applied to healthy software healthy hardware. Now that you have a clean machine, make sure you have a good password system. While two-factor authentication (such as when you need to type in a code from your phone or email as well) can seem like a hassle but is also another key factor in security. For reliable password managers, see the following.
and so do numbers, characters, and upper and lower cases matter it comes to passwords
We use these here at Chanticleer —but use caution and be prepared!
Make sure that the password that you decide on is something that is memorable to YOU. The only other person who should have it is your estate executor or life partner or someone that you would trust with your bank accounts and credit cards.
If you happen to momentarily forget your master password, because someone was talking to you while you were creating it —you will need to start over. There is no way to recover your account, unless you happen to find the random piece of paper you scribbled your master password on… Experience is a cruel teacher…
IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD for your business/work accounts and your personal household accounts or publishing accounts. This is how hackers can take people down by infiltrating a business password —harder but to do but then they have access to so many personal accounts because so many people use the same password for home and personal accounts.
But after hearing from several authors whose computers were hacked, bank accounts taken over, ransomware remotely installed, and other malicious activity that drained their credit card balances and credit ratings, and stole their intellectual property (as in books – published and unpublished), do not go another day without a password manager.
There is no excuse. There are several excellent password managers that are FREE or as little as $36 per year.
For more information here are three links to articles about password managers from reliable sources:
Here is a link from CNet on the Best Password Manager to Use for 2021.
[Note from Editor: Do NOT proceed to this step until you have your Password Manager project all sorted out. ]
As we barrel forward into the future there’s so much that this has started to be a bigger and bigger project. Luckily, PC Mag has a great article about how to clear your cache on any browser. While this can be a little tricky to navigate, it can be worth it for the faster computer speed. PC Mag also focuses on the security risks of the cache, but chances are most of us don’t have to worry too much about those.
WHY SHOULD YOU CLEAR YOUR CACHE from COOKIES?
This is called “Browser Hygiene.” Really.
Browsers tend to hold onto information and like a clogged drain, after a while, it will slow down the speed and performance of your computer. Where your browser holds onto this information is in its “cache.”
A computer’s cache (pronounced ‘cash’) is also where websites that you visit implement their “cookies” — that bread crumb trail that rambles through the internet linking your computer to the websites that you visit. Each and every website uses cookies — even yours is guilty of it. It is the nature of the internet…
Have you ever had this happen to you?
“I don’t see the change. You said you updated on your web page.”
That is because your computer is storing and showing you the previous cache of the website it stored in its cache. You are not seeing the latest and greatest of the website that you are revisiting, but a “shadow” of it.
To see the latest version of a website or webpost, you will probably have to clear your computer’s cache which will delete cookies.
Each computer and browser has a different system, so we advise you to search on your browser (i.e. Google it) on how to clear the cache for your particular system.
Also, you can decide how much of the cache that you want to clear. All of it? Only the cookies? Save the passwords? Clear the passwords? (the reason to do #2 Password Management first). It is probably a good idea to clean the password cache at least once a year. But remember that you will need to do a fresh login for each website that you visit. See #2 Password Management.
We clear our caches here at Chanticleer at least every three months or as needed to access new data from websites that we visit.
More info:
Remember all that fuss about Data Privacy back in May 2018? Cache and Cookies are what that was and is all about. Here is a handy link to Chanticleer’s blog post about it. Are you ready for the GDPR? (General Data Protection Regulation)
Virus Protection
What are the odds of becoming a victim of a cyber attack? One in Four
Any highly rated anti-virus and anti-malware program will update itself on a daily basis for latest hacking techniques, Trojan horses, phishing methods, ransomware, adware, spyware, and worms (I shudder to think about this one), and other malicious activity. This is different than updating the program itself. Is your antivirus program a couple of years old? If so, time to do some research.
Again, we’re going to turn to the experts here and look at CNET’s best Windows antivirus Protection. A good antivirus keeps your computer running in top shape, and it keeps your data and writing easy to access for yourself, so you don’t end up like one of the characters in Neal Stephenson’sReamde who end up with all their files locked away by ransomware.
Now for some potentially bad news.Ifmalware has made it into your computer, you will need to have it professionally removed or contact the family and friends computer geek to save your computer and your sanity. If you are computer handy, then you have probably already taken steps to rid your computer of it.
The scary thing about malware is that once it has infiltrated your computer, it may be hard to detect even by anti-virus protection. That is how sneaky and under handed malware can be.
Some symptoms that your computer may be infected with malware:
Your computer is slowing down
Your computer crashes more often or “locks up”
Your friends and contacts receive strange messages from you
Suddenly you do not have any storage space available
Your homepage changed itself without you changing it.
PUPs show up. These are Potentially Unwanted Programs that have infiltrated your system when you give your consent to install additional tools on your computer. We think “barnacles” would be a better name.
Make sure that your computer (and smart phone) has the latest anti-virus and anti-malware programs protecting it.
Now for some definite good news!
Highly rated by independent and professional reviewers of Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware programs are available from free to $59 a year. A small price for piece of mind.
Don’t think that it can’t happen to your computer. Computer viruses and malware are prevalent and widespread. Once they find a home, they tend to go systemic in a very sly and under-the-radar kind of way. Your screen will not flash or start posting pictures of Moriarty when your computer has been invaded. Today’s hacks tend to be silent but deadly.
That’s what we want to see! You are safe!
Back up your files
Anything that you’d have trouble replacing, it’s worth backing up. There are several places like One Drive, Dropbox, or Google Drive that will let you store files for free, up to a certain point. Luckily, external hard drives are getting cheaper all the time, and you can always do both. Whenever one of my free online drives fills up, I move anything I’m not currently using onto my external hard drive. I also make sure to periodically back up my writing.
This is such a great fear of mine that on my fire list (list of things that I need to immediately grab in case of fire) I have my external hard drive above everything else. I’m sure if you aren’t someone who has lost data, you know people who have, and I dearly hope to never have to worry about that.
Cyber Threats STOPS with each of US!
Once your computer and files are all protected, you’ll be free to write without any anxiety over your head. Like cleaning and maintaining most things, a routine means you only need to do a little work when the time comes to get everything squared away.
We hope these were handy reminders. We all get busy and can easily procrastinate about taking care of these mundane but vital tasks. We certainly do!
If there is something we should add to this blog-post or you have an experience that you would like to share or a question that you would like to ask about this blog post, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com
We’d love to hear from you!
Thank you for joining us and please stay tuned for the next Business and Marketing Tools and Tips for Writers Article!
Thank you for joining us for this Writer Resolutions Article
Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be June 23-26, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
Because of COVID, we are offering flexible registration packages—just in case!
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 Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@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 on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information availablehere.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn morehere.
If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Reviewhereor to one of our Chanticleer International Awardshere.
Writer’s Toolbox
Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer Resolutions article.
In The Incident, Avis Adams’ creative young adult novel, two teens face the precarious events and consequences surrounding a natural disaster while ultimately realizing the true value of friendship and family bonds.
Nearly seventeen, Josh Woolf has recently lost his beloved grandfather and is now concerned that his Dad wants to sell the family farm. While his father is away at a conference to address climate change and the potential of “El Primo,” a violent storm system predicted to wreak havoc across the country, Josh and his Mom batten down the hatches in preparation for a severe weather front headed their way. Amidst the tumultuous mayhem of dropping trees, shattered glass, and unhinged window screens, Adams finely details the storm’s intensity. She masterfully captures the fear of the unknown as Josh is forced to deal with a significant medical emergency then later defend his family’s property against encroaching ne’er-do-wells.
Meanwhile, Emma Tate is at odds with her own Mom and ventures out of the house to attend a downtown climate change protest.
With worsening weather conditions, she gets caught up in violent winds but luckily finds shelter with Lilli and Jade, the quirky owners of an artsy tattoo establishment. Jade’s comment, “It’s been a long year today,” truly captures the essence of time’s slow passage during the continuing days of hurricane chaos. This new trio of “sisters of the storm” soon form an unlikely bond, depending on one another in their efforts to help Emma get back home. In the aftermath of continuing storms, Adams creates an atmosphere with an apocalyptic feel. Suddenly the streets are filled with zombie-like wanderers, dogs appear wild, and looting and shooting define daily life experiences.
The book’s chapters move easily between the difficult journeys of Josh and Emma’s coming-of-age narratives.
While each story encapsulates their personal experiences, Adams unexpectedly leads their teen paths to cross, allowing readers to recognize the similarities of their circumstances. Themes about the desire for parental approval, and family love and pride, are aptly woven within a narrative laced with newfound friendships, violence and upheaval, and budding amorous interests.
Whether showcased through Emma’s nervous habit of chewing on the end of her ponytail, a Grandmother’s Danish plate collection that withstands the wrath of Mother Nature, or Josh’s finding solace in playing his violin, such added intricacies all serve as calming elements in a storm. While the opening prologue also serves as an audience draw indicative of a central character’s precarious situation, Adams purposefully returns to the scene later in the story to reveal a fortuitous meeting.
Readers familiar with violent environmental events will recognize the chaos and casualties Adams showcases. The Incident clearly offers a message about the inability to escape a hurricane’s path and the web of destruction and feelings of fear and helplessness it often leaves behind for those in its wake.
Adams leaves us with a contemporary tale that brings two storylines into a clever joining. As the present state of global warming forces its way into our consciousness, with a bevy of well-crafted characters facing the rising tensions of a planetary dilemma, Adams’ The Incident provides a quality and thought-provoking read.
Twenty-seven-year-old Sabrina “Bree” Hunter has the chance to grasp her dream of being a published author, but will her binge eating spell the end of that dream?
After years of working for a demanding B-list talent agent in Los Angeles, Bree earned a publishing deal with Fast Track Books. She should celebrate, thrilled that her life will finally go down the right path since her graduation from Dartmouth. However, Bree has a problem that isn’t easily fixed. Her publisher expects the skinny beauty on her webpage, a picture taken many years previously.
Since the days of the photo, Bree has become a compulsive eater. She spends every moment of her day obsessing over junk food. Bree turns to food to comfort her, console her, and to bring her joy. This addiction has caused her to gain forty pounds since college. Finding dieting on her own harder than she expected, Bree agrees to attend a support group meeting. Her sister, Lena’s, boyfriend has recently found success in breaking his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Bree just doesn’t believe the sharing and belief in a higher power will help–until she meets Daniel. A successful lawyer and recovering over-eater, Daniel now strikes the figure of a hunk with blue eyes, as if right off the pages of her own novel. With a three-month deadline looming, an unappreciative boss, and her own doubts, Bree must find a way to overcome her compulsion.
Sabrina’s addiction provides amazing insight into an area most people ignore.
Compulsive eating is as much an eating disorder as bulimia or anorexia. However, many choose to see it as a choice rather than a real issue. Even Bree herself has a difficult time properly naming the truth of her overeating–as an addiction. The depiction of her compulsion will be a revelation for most readers. From hiding food in her desk to digging in the ladies’ room trash for candy, Bree shows her compulsion. Her behavior mimics that of a drug addict to a sad and astounding degree. Bree cannot see that she loves comfort food like a user on a bender.
The extremity of Bree’s disorder will affect the reader. The burden of secrecy becomes overwhelming, crushing Bree’s spirit and her willpower at times. Her need to diet on a deadline only serves to enhance her cravings and creates a time crunch sensation. She struggles under the sense of an inevitable disaster with an impending, unavoidable culmination.
Setting the novel in a place where image rules and only the skinny succeed highlights Bree’s struggle. Bree sinks to shocking depths to fulfill her urges. She must hit that metaphorical bottom before she can admit her addiction and begin to climb away from it. Readers will celebrate with her as she finds her true self in the land of Hollywood fakes.
The reasons behind Bree’s addiction define part of her story, her growth into a confident, accomplished woman.
Bree began associating comfort with food when her mother left Lena and her with their absentee father. At only nine years old, Bree raised her baby sister. They waited hungrily for their father to bring home food for them after he finally left work. Lena became both sister and pseudo daughter to Bree, who continues to bail her out even at the age of twenty-three.
Bree has lost her vibrancy and her confidence, cowering behind her love for and addiction to sweets. Though she has accomplished more than Lena, Bree can only see her sister’s slimness, her perfect ease, in comparison to Bree’s own self-labeled corpulent incompetency. She will do anything, even considering bulimia and fasting, to achieve the same perfection in herself.
She knows her weight causes her doubt and unhappiness, but she cannot overcome it alone.
Through the insistence of the sister who works on her own issues, Bree attends a support meeting and begins the program that will change more than the numbers on the scale. When she meets Daniel, she has a hard time believing someone like him could like someone like her. However, spending time with him and the other members of her group soon empowers Bree.
Bree’s recognition of the imperfection of others begins her metamorphosis. She learns that even those people who have seemingly flawless lives are far from that ideal. She stops bullying herself and being her own worst enemy. Eventually, she fully sees the time she has wasted in pursuit of the unattainable and finds satisfaction in who she is and the potential her REAL life holds.
Videos will be available for replay for six months on The Narrative Project’s website,
so you can watch when you have time!
Don’t worry about starting on the fourth or the fifth or even on the seventh! Just get started!
WRITE THAT BOOK ALREADY in 2022!
You’ll get two videos a day delivered straight to your inbox. THEN, we’ll be playing the videos during LIVE watch parties in a private Facebook group so the coaches at THE NARRATIVE PROJECTcan be with you to answer your questions and cheer you on in your commitment to…Write That Book Already!
If you’ve ever thought about writing a book or keep starting to write a book, this conference will coach you to succeed in writing that book that you have always wanted to!
Why haven’t you written that book already?
If you’re like most of the would-be authors, it’s because you need some answers to some of the following questions:
How do I get myself to sit and write?
What do I do with my manuscript once I’ve got it written?
Why does MY particular story matter so much that I should write it NOW?
What are the best strategies for getting past my writing blocks?
Is it selfish to spend the time to write a book? AND how can I write this book with kids underfoot or the pressures of my job keeping me so busy?
How can I tap into MY best creative process?
How can I know if my book is relevant?
How can contests and reviews help me get my book into the hands of my ideal readers?
How can I get in the right mindset to push past my inner critic?
How can I get the support and accountability I need to keep going even on the hard days?
How can my writing be a light in the world right now?
Why should I think about my author’s platform and marketing even while I’m writing and how can building that platform encourage me to get your book done.
Write That Book Already presenters are among the most encouraging and knowledgeable BOOK PEOPLE in the world.
Kiffer Brown, Michelle Cox, Laura Davis, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, Paul Hanson, Ebony Haywood, Linda Joy Myers, Jamey Stegmaier, and others!
If you have a book in you, you don’t want to miss this!
You’ll walk away inspired, motivated, and COMMITTED to Write That Book Already!
When you sign up for the conference using this link, you will have access to the VIDEOS and Replay of VIDEOS on the Write That Book Already Virtual Conference!
Just click this link to be taken to The Narrative Project’s website to sign up for FREE! Just scroll down to the sign-up link.
And don’t forget to SAVE the DATES for the Chanticleer Authors Conference – April 7 – 10, 2022 at the Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash!
Author Linda Gartz tells of her childhood and early adulthood amidst social upheaval in the city of Chicago in her memoir, Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago.
Gartz grew up the second child of second-generation immigrants to the US. Her father’s father boldly made the trip to the land of opportunity at age 21. She spent much of her childhood in cramped quarters with her parents and her older brother, living alongside strangers. They paid this price for the “dream” – the couple bought a house in a decent neighborhood; keeping roomers, even living in the same flat with them, helped pay expenses.
Gartz’s grandmother, a talented dressmaker, helped out with childcare and other chores while her mother worked to manage all the finances, tenants, and repairs in their rooming house; she had to do this alone half the year while Gartz’s dad traveled for his job. But Grandma K suffered mental illness and abused Gartz’s mother and father, sometimes violently. Gartz’s father felt oppressed by her presence, which caused ongoing, if mostly unspoken, conflict in the home.
Chicago’s social and economic upheaval served as a microcosm for national change, and as backdrop for the Gartz family drama.
African Americans fled the dangerous and economically dead-end South for more promising prospects in places like Chicago. But majority white cities and regions resisted their incursion through restructuring and re-designating neighborhoods and school districts. All the while, the civil rights movement sought large-scale change amidst peaceful protests, riots, and violent reprisals from the law.
The influx of black workers into her own neighborhood affected Gartz’s choice of schools and friends. Civil rights struggles incited her sympathies while her parents expressed their older prejudice. They feared that all of their hard-earned investments would vanish if “the colored” came in. Still, the teen had black friends and neighbors. She felt touched by the spirit of rebellion in a new testing of societal limits: sexual freedom.
Gartz felt driven to compose this intelligent account of the changing times when she and her brother “found our gold” in the attic of their parents’ home: diaries, letters, cards, calendars and notebooks reaching back to the couple’s own youth.
The undercurrent of family tensions became clear. Grandma K’s psychosis put the house on edge. Gartz’s father struggled to balance his home and work life, needing to earn money with a job that required six months of travel across each year, and also supporting his over-burdened wife with the demands of their rooming house with as many as eleven tenants. Her mother saw her behavior in the sexual revolution as shocking. Gartz includes details of the subtleties of “redlining” that allowed cities and regions to keep African Americans down and poor by limiting their ability to own property. Family photos pepper her book, lending emotive touches. The result is a vibrant look at the coming of age of a nation through the eyes of a frank, freethinking woman.
“If you’re going to have a character appear in a story long enough to sell a newspaper, he’d better be real enough that you can smell his breath.” ~ Ford Madox Ford
She might has well been talking to three empty chairs…
You see, it’s impossible to write fiction without understanding its underpinnings such as conflict, scene structure, and character development. Without this understanding , you might write two or three or four hundred pages, but you won’t end up with a story; instead you’ll produce a lot of words on a lot of pages or a haphazard pile of scenes loosely clustered around characters who never quite come to life.
The best fiction touches the deep layers in us. A writer achieves this effect by embedding dozens of techniques into his or her story.
Do your characters sound like this?
We hope that you have found these encore posts to be useful reminders and prompts for your work-in-progress!
And in cased you missed it, here is the link to our New Year’s Eve post with the first five articles. Click here.
NOW for Kiffer’s Number One Tip for Writers in 2022!
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.
Try to unspool the “mind-film” in your brain before reworking every sentence. Get your story out. Let the characters introduce themselves to you. Create the Atmosphere.
There will be plenty of time to craft and hone sentences later. Meanwhile, fall in love with your story. Experience the rush and the thrill of creativity!
We wish you joy and peace in the New Year from all of us at Chanticleer!
We hope to see you at the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2021 CIBA Banquet and Ceremony
Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
Secondary Characters. They can drive their co-stars crazy and they can also drive the plot. They can star in their own subplots and often support the protagonist’s goals. Or thwart the protagonist’s goals.
Benny, the unforgettable secondary character in “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis
Using characters’ eyes to reveal emotion and meaning. If you’re serious about writing, you must notice subtext and how to convey it. And that often begins with the eyes.
Beth Harmon knows she will win several moves out in this scene of Queen’s Gambit
A look at more advanced ways of considering writing from some of the best craft books to come out in the last decade. Consider the narrator in your story, structure, proportion, and, most importantly, the heart of your work.
How-To tips and examples for adding fuel your characters’ fires. Your character should always have a lot to prove and master, so he or she can get off on the wrong foot and things can go downhill from there. Naturally.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy protagonist, the last known Earthling – Arthur Dent
Learn how to edit ruthlessly with these top tips with handy links! Make sure you get the most out of your next round of editing for your work-in-progress.
The Editor – going over the ms with an MOV.
We hope that you have found these encore posts to be useful reminders and prompts for your work-in-progress!
We wish you joy and peace in the New Year from all of us at Chanticleer!
January 1st, 2022, we will post five more of the The Top Ten Writing Posts for 2021 along with Kiffer’s Number One Tip for Writers in 2022!
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 Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@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 on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information availablehere.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn morehere.
If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Reviewhereor to one of our Chanticleer International Awardshere.
Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be June 23-26, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
There is a beautiful Icelander holiday tradition that we are growing quite fond of here at Chanticleer.
The small Nordic island, with a population of only 329,000 people, is extraordinarily literary. They love to read and write. According to Rosie Goldsmith of the BBC, “The country has more writers, more books published and more books read, per head, than anywhere else in the world.”
Many Icelanders give books as Christmas gifts as part of Jolabokaflod, and from Christmas Eve until New Years there is an unspoken reading frenzy.
Iceland’s National Treasures And High Literacy Rate
Icelanders are obsessed with preserving their language. You will find that the bestselling teen novels –Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc. – have all been translated to Icelandic.
Books and literacy are huge in Icelandic culture. To properly understand it, you have to realize that our national treasures are not really beautiful buildings or famous art pieces or collections like so many other countries have. They are manuscripts, preserved on sheepskin, for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Reading is very important for us, both in schools and in society in general. The literacy rate is somewhere around 99%. I don’t believe there is anyone in Iceland that doesn’t know how to read unless there are some specific challenges or disabilities involved. – The Uncorked Librarian .com
And, of course, knitting also goes along with this beloved tradition and so does hot chocolate!
Jolabokaflod or Yule Book Flood happens once a year on Christmas Eve in Iceland. The flood begins with the release of a catalog of new publications from the Icelandic Publishers Association. And it is distributed FREE to each and every Icelandic home. The majority of books sold in Iceland are sold from September to early November. Of course, these books are in print. E-pubs are not given. This tradition started in 1944.
The Icelanders even have a popular TV show,Kiljan,that is entirely devoted to books. Authors appear on prime TV shows.Book readings and author events are treated like rock star events.
“In Iceland book lives matter in every sense of that phrase: The shelf-life of the book, the lives in the book, the life of the writer and the life of the reader. God bless the Jolabokaflod.”~Hallgrimur Helgason
To an Icelander, the very best Christmas present is a book! This tradition hails from WWII when many items and food were rationed. These sentiments may always have existed, in one way or another, since Icelanders have been saga-nerds for thousand of years.
Loved ones gather – perhaps virtually this year – and gift one another books. What happens next? They spend the night reading together. What a delightful holiday tradition!
Jolabokaflod – Christmas is the time where you snuggle up and read your presents.
We thought you might like to see some of our top holiday-themed books – just in case you would like to have your own Jolabokaflod…
So, snuggle in and preview some of our favorite books for the season. Let’s share some book love!
From the riveting opening that takes place in NYC’s Lower East Side’s sweatshops until its gripping conclusion, this enthralling novel vividly portrays the desperate times of German immigrants landing at Ellis Island in 1905 in search of a better life. Love of Finished Years by Gregory Erich Phillips is one of Kiffer Brown’s favorites for the holidays. She cites the novel’s heartwarming WWI Christmas Eve scene that takes place in the trenches in the heat of battle as unforgettable.
Since it’s Christmas time, clever Oscar decides to write a letter to Santa and ask for the spots he so desperately wants. Fearing his request won’t reach the North Pole in time, Oscar decides to take it there himself. He meets many a character en route and learns some new lessons. A beautifully illustrated and wonderfully told children’s Christmas story of the importance of being yourself. Highly recommended.
With the loveliest prose and sharp humor, Slade offers the best Christmas gift for her readers with this gem of a book. Whether it’s 1390, 1543, 1825, or the present day, there’s a mystical sisterhood at Ladywell that bridges time, a linking of strong women who tend home and hearth and pass on the secrets of the land. The past re-emerges into the blissful bustle of Freya’s current life as she learns of a family connection with King Richard III. Is this connection tied to a future event? Will the secrets of the past travel to the future?
An exquisitely written English tale set for Yuletide cheer. A book to curl up with during the holidays. Highly recommended.
For anyone who’s ever fought a battle and held onto the promise of hope, here is a heartfelt story of a boy whose endless desire for Christmas changes not only him but his entire world. This story has the makings to be a seasonal classic! Plausible fantasy with a clear connection to our national past composed by a practiced wordsmith, My Christmas Attic can be appreciated as a classic seasonal saga with a cinematic quality that speaks of broader possibilities.
Cleopatra’s lustful affair with young Jake Regan becomes more complex as she discovers his presence in Hawaii is due to a Christmas holiday vacation with his (Norman Rockwellesque) family. Mother and his two brothers have arrived. Jake’s dad is expected to arrive at any moment from yet another far-flung business trip. But the coup d’état is that Jake’s longtime girlfriend, who also is en route, is expecting wedding bells to be announced at the gathering. It becomes obvious that Cleo and Jake’s unrelenting passion will have an impact on the Regan family.
A steamy, fast-paced suspense novel that will take you on a get-away armchair vacation to Hawai’i!
Combining a romance novel with a thriller is not easy, but Chasing Cleopatradelivers the goods with plotting as intricate as a silver spider’s web.
Merry Christmas and a Happy PTSD by Chris Oelerich is highly recommended for those who suffer from PTSD, for the family members and friends of those who suffer, and for those who are simply interested in having a greater understanding beyond what is reported in the popular press about this debilitating disorder. Oelerich’s methods to overcome PTSD are plain-spoken and practical, with an overall message of optimism for those with PTSD.
This is a very personal, no-holds-barred, yet ultimately, empowering discussion of PTSD and its effects on those who suffer from it. The author hopes thatMerry Christmas and a Happy PTSDwill be used as a tool to reduce PTSD symptoms in others who suffer from it so that they, too, can live healthier and happier lives.
We wish you a very merry and warm Holiday Season!
If you would like to read more book reviews to discern the perfect selections for your own Jolabokaflod click here to read more Chanticleer Book Reviews!
If you think we should include your book (must have been reviewed by Chanticleer Reviews) in this article, please email us with the title, your pen name, and the pages that have the holiday scenes and email us at AuthorOutreach@ChantiReviews.com
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2021 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2021 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2021 Somerset 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 (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 running for the SHORT LIST of the 2021 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Ben Sharpton – The Awakening of Jim Bishop: This Changes Things
Adrian Spratt – Caroline
Linda Stewart Henley – Waterbury Winter
Daniel Pare – No Matter The Price
Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One
M. J. Simms-Maddox – The Mysterious Affair at the Met
Anne Pfeffer – Binge
Valerie Taylor – What’s Not Said
C. A. Price – Allison’s Gambit
E. A. Coe – The Other Side Of Good
Margaret Ann Spence – Joyous Lies
Suzanne Kamata – The Baseball Widow
Vicki Volden – All the After
Kent Politsch – Beebe and Bostelmann, a historical novel
Susan Speranza – Ice Out
Gary Lee Miller – Finding Grace
Ruthie Stevens – You Can’t Blame the Flower
V.N. Writer – Who Stole My Hula Hoop?
Mekiya Walters – Ashes, Ashes
Teng Rong – Brilliant White Peaks
Natalie Symons – Lies in Bone
Ruth Hull Chatlien – Katie, Bar the Door
Patrick Garry – Through the Waves a Steady Path
Ariane Torres – We are the Kings
Dan Schorr – Final Table: A Novel
Karen S. Bennett – Beautiful Horseflesh
Dawn Newton – The Remnants of Summer
Douglas Green – A Dog of Many Names
Jeff Richards – Everyone Worth Knowing
Robert Gwaltney – The Cicada Tree
Sarah E Zilkowski – Beasts of War
Vanessa Carlisle – Take Me With You
J.B. Liquorish – The Prophecy
Bob Siqveland – Lines Through a Prism
Richard C. Brusca – In the Land of the Feathered Serpent
Natalie Symons – Lies in Bone
Judy Keeslar Santamaria – Jetty Cat Palace Cafe
Joanne Kukanza Easley – Just One Look
Charlie Suisman – Hot Air
Tom Glenn – Secretocracy
Sandra Vasoli – The Masterpiece Pursuit
Suzanne Simonetti – The Sound of Wings
John Hansen – Old Water
Richard Jespers – Wakedale: A Novel
Robert Steven Goldstein – Cat’s Whisker
Alex Sirotkin – The Long Desert Road
John Hansen – Badger Creek
Eric Lotke – Union Made
Pamela Hamilton – Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale
Sue Phillips – You Oughta Know
Chera Thompson & NF Johnson – A Time to Wander
Cara Sue Achterberg – Blind Turn
K. – Resistance, Revolution and Other Love Stories
Susan Lynn Solomon – Dancing Backwards
Debra Whiting Alexander – A River for Gemma
Anne Moose – House of Fragile Dreams
Jane Ward – In the Aftermath
Linda Rosen – Sisters of the Vine
Drema Drudge – Victorine
Kathy Sechrist – Success Is The Best Revenge
Rick Lenz – Hello, Rest of My Life
Malcolm Spicer – Freedom From Privilege
Cinda K. Swalley – The Golden Hearts Club
Shan Leah – Thieves, Beasts & Men
Gene Helfman – Beyond the Human Realm
Emily A. Myers – The Truth About Unspeakable Things
Sarahlyn Bruck – Daytime Drama
Roberta Seret – Love Odyssey
Barbara Linn Probst – The Sound Between the Notes
Lynn McLaughlin – Jackson
Michael R. Frontani – Dante’s Forge
Jenn Bouchard – First Course
Florence Reiss Kraut – How to Make a Life: a novel
Michelle Lynn – Silver Heels
Susannah Marren – A Palm Beach Scandal
C. Victorya Grace – Julip Lullabies and Silent Cries
Jordan Stanford – My Dream
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.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary 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.
Author Linda Gartz tells of her childhood and early adulthood amidst social upheaval in the city of Chicago in her memoir, Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago.
