Does the heat of July remind you of the unending desert…maybe the prairie where cowboys once roamed, prospectors risked life and limb in search of fame and fortune, and pioneer women and men ventured forth across thousands of miles in covered wagons in search of a better life?
It isn’t just a coincidence that July 31st is our last call for submissions to the Laramie Awards for Western Fiction, Pioneer, and Civil War fiction.
There is an old frontier saying “A cowboy is a man with guts and a horse” and we are pretty sure that “A writer is someone with guts and a pen.”
It takes guts to write a book, more guts to publish it, and even more to enter it in a contest. We have seem many authors who had the guts to enter and reaped the rewards.
LARAMIE AWARDS for Western, Pioneer, and Civil War Fiction Grand Prize Winners
2015
Doctor Kinney’s Housekeeper by Sara Dahmen won the Laramie Grand Prize in 2015 after taking first place for the Women’s Western Fiction category. It is a heartwarming story set in the early years of the Dakota Territories about the journey of a widow as she seeks a new life in a new place. Sara was present at the Chanticleer Author Conference Award Gala when her book was announced as one of the best books of 2015. Look for the Chanticleer review coming soon!
Sara Dahmen is a successful entrepreneur, metal smith, a print production designer and producer, and a parent of three. You can usually find her speaking at TEDx, historical writing conferences, or enthusiastically writing for trade publications. She also has written and illustrated children’s books. The 2015 Laramie Award 1st place winners are full of talented authors and books worth reading. Sara will present at the 2017 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
2014
In 2014 Not on My Mountain by Jared McVay took the Laramie Grand Prize. A story about a Vietnam veteran in Utah who puts up with being shunned by people in his small town for years, but comes to the rescue when a radical white supremacists set up a compound in an abandoned lodge located on the mountain where he lives and then takes four local teens hostage. Even though Rafe Talltree is an outcast of the town, he can’t allow the hatred of small minded bigots to ruin the lives of others, at least not on his mountain. The violence escalates and sides are taken in this contemporary western.
Jared McVay is a fiction writer, screenwriter, actor, and filled many other roles throughout his career, but being a master storyteller is his best role!
2013
And in 2013, D.B. Jackson won with Unbroke Horses. A Literary Western Thriller about an innocent boy kidnapped by Civil War deserters, with “…carefully chiseled characters and is written with unflinching clarity in short, powerful chapters dominated by taut dialogue and hard hitting action.”
D.B. Jackson is the author of multiple award winning Western novels. Waiting on Rain, his third novel, is currently in editing. The 2013 Laramie Award 1st place winners are full of talented authors and books worth reading.
Your book could earn a place in our Laramie hall of fame for 2016.
All you have to do is have the guts to enter.[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container backgroundcolor=”” backgroundimage=”” backgroundrepeat=”no-repeat” backgroundposition=”left top” backgroundattachment=”scroll” video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” bordersize=”0px” bordercolor=”” borderstyle=”” paddingtop=”20px” paddingbottom=”20px” paddingleft=”0px” paddingright=”0px” menu_anchor=”” equal_height_columns=”no” hundred_percent=”no” class=”” id=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_title size=”2″ content_align=”left” style_type=”single solid” sep_color=”transparent” class=”” id=””]What are the Laramie Awards?[/fusion_title][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_5″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]Our Laramie Awards are the Chanticleer Reviews search for the best western, pioneer, or Civil War fiction books of 2016!
We are looking for the best books featuring cowboys, the wild west, pioneering, civil war, and early North American History, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”2_5″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”1px” border_color=”#606060″ border_style=”solid” padding=”10px” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]
Our Chanticleer Review Writing Contests feature more than $30,000.00 worth of cash and prizes each year!
~$1000 Overall Grand Prize Winner
~$2800 in Genre Grand Prizes
~$28,980 in reviews, prizes, and promotional opportunities awarded to Category Winners
If Westerns are not your genre, then please take a look at the other 14 prestigious writing contests that we offer. Just click on this link to take you the Chanticleer Writing Contests webpage
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[Editor's note: Chanticleer no longer offers these services]
The JOURNEY Awards writing competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Narrative Non-fiction. The Journey Awards is a division of the Chanticleer Book Awards & International Writing Competitions.
The Journey Short Listers will then compete for 5 First Place Category positions that will be announced and awarded on April 1, 2017 at the 
Thank you for your great (review) service. Looking forward to being a part of your future growth in the future. 
Books by the Bay is an exciting opportunity for attendees to sell their books during the CAC weekend, but to also to gain exposure to a nationally recognized bookseller.
Registration for the 
First up,we have picks from Lacey Longpré. Lacey began as an intern for Chanticleer several years ago while attending Western Washington University. She has since become a valuable asset to the team as a proofreader, helping to organize our annual conference, staff reviewer, administrative assistant, social media pixie, and community relations.
Fragments of Your Soul by E.S. Erbsland
Broken Places by Rachel Thompson
Secondly, the Secular Revolution with its scientific enlightenment began to take hold in the mid-1700s as an accepted way to see and understand the Universe and our place within it. For the first time in recorded human history, the cultural concepts of religious dominance and doctrine were being challenged. The 1750s brought us the Age of Enlightenment.
Next, the first phase of the Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1914) was brought about by the harnessing of the energy of coal and steam rather than biomass energy (humans and animal muscle power). This lead to mass migrations of humans escaping famine, poverty, and intolerance to take place for the first time in history. Railroads and trains, and steamships, as well as sailing ships with more dependable navigational tools such as the marine chronometer (1748) that allowed for safer passage across the oceans made the migrations possible.
The beloved Chaucer Awards remain, but have metamorphosed into the Pre-1750 Historical Fiction awards. For those authors whose works are on the cusp of 1750 and who need to decide which contest to enter, the Chaucer Awards or the Goethe Awards, we suggest you determine if your work is influenced by the markers of the Industrial Revolution or if it is more to the medieval times and mores to decide which contest to enter–the Chaucer Awards (pre-1750) or the Goethe Awards (post 1750).
Our Chaucer Awards are the Chanticleer Reviews search for the best Early Period (pre-1750) Historical Fiction books of 2016!
Our Goethe Awards are the Chanticleer Reviews search for the best Late Period (post-1750) Historical Fiction books of 2016!
The Dante Rossetti awards have a long and proud tradition of winners. Most recently at our Chanticleer Author Conference Awards Banquet (a Gala event held every year in April) we awarded the 2015 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize to Nikki McCormack, author of The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, a young adult steampunk novel about a feisty teenage thief thrust into a murder mystery involving a clockwork cat. We are so thrilled to award this obviously talented author at the beginning of her, no doubt, successful future in publishing.
Last year, our Dante Rossetti Grand Prize was also handed out to an author at the beginning of a successful dynasty. Jesikah Sundin and her young adult cyberpunk novel Legacy: Biodome Chronicles, Book One. Jesikah not only wrote a compelling story, but also painted a picture that swept us away into this marriage of two worlds: one a “back to basics” group of pioneers living inside an experimental biodome community, and the other a futuristic world world of high tech and computers.
Our Dante Rossetti awards are the Chanticleer Reviews search for the best young adult fiction books of 2016!
Our Gertrude Warner awards, named for the famous author of The Box Car Children Series, are the Chanticleer Reviews search for the best middle grade fiction books of 2016!