Lorelei the Lorelei seeks a best friend and to figure out what makes her truly special, all on her first day of public school. In Lorelei the Lorelei: The First of Many Firsts by Kristen J. Anderson, young Lorelei finds that not everything is as she expected.
After anxiously waiting for her dad and baby brother J.J. to get ready, and armed with the wisdom of her Mee-maw, Lorelei strides into Hillside Elementary School. She shows off her eclectic fashion and discovers that even a teacher named ‘Miss Grim’ can be welcoming. At first, Lorelei’s plans are coming together. She’s certain that Adeline, a girl who shares her exuberant nature, will be her best friend.
But Lorelei butts heads with Emily, aka “Hands” given her impatience to be called on. As a student of ballet and future sugary-cereal-advertisement star, Emily has little patience for Lorelei taking the spotlight.
As a newcomer to public school, Lorelei has to navigate this conflict while learning new schedules, rules, and terms. But she keeps her heart and mind open, even when she doesn’t quite understand all of her new classmates.
Anderson captures a childlike view of the world in her prose.
Lorelei sees the end of summer as a portend for the first snows of winter—and the hot chocolate to come along with it. While she holds strong opinions, Lorelei is quick to consider new ideas and come up with explanations for why things are a certain way. Anderson’s written voice builds on the natural humor found in Lorelei’s excitable perspective, making this book immediately approachable for young readers.
Lorelei herself is a relatable figure for many kids as she deals with the nervousness of a new experience.
As much as school might excite her, Lorelei often gets anxious and has to use breathing techniques to keep her asthma from flaring up. Lorelei the Lorelei will help young readers face their own ‘firsts’, as Lorelei herself deals with unexpected problems.
Throughout the book, Lorelei becomes a good role model for kids starting school or trying to make new friends.
Like anyone, Lorelei can get annoyed at her family’s antics, but the love and familiarity between them is always clear to see. She’s a good sister to J.J. and carries her kind nature into the classroom. By standing up for other kids when they get picked on or left out of the group, Lorelei shows the importance of making space for others. Her classmates return that kindness, supporting Lorelei even when her messy bangs escape from her hairband.
Lorelei ultimately learns not to make assumptions about people before she gets to know them, and that not everyone’s had the same experiences as her. In fact, she finds that her classmates have interesting stories of their own to tell. And, while understanding someone who annoys her is harder to do, especially after getting into an argument, Lorelei tries to empathize with Emily rather than become playground enemies for good.
Illustrator Audrey Suau perfectly matches the tone of the story with a cheerful picture for each chapter.
Little details, like Lorelei’s unique outfit, pop from the background. The characters are distinct and show their personalities in image and writing alike. Even bigfoot himself makes a cameo—at least, in the woodland of Lorelei’s imagination.
Young readers will find a welcoming tale and valuable lesson in Lorelei the Lorelei.
Lorelei embraces each new activity whether she was prepared for it or not, leaping in with an excitement that readers will share. She might not quite know what makes her unique by the end of the day, but she certainly makes her new friends feel special. After all, every kid could use a good friend on the first day of school.
CIBA 2023 Grand Prize award-winning Author Kevin Miller sat down for a 10-Question Interview with Chanticleer!
Recently, Chanticleer had the pleasure of speaking with Kevin Miller, former US Navy fighter pilot and author of The Silver Waterfall. Miller takes readers into the cockpit of the world’s most powerful military aircraft in his four book series, Raven One. Miller’s award-winning fictional account of the Battle of Midway, The Silver Waterfall, took home the 2023 Hemingway Grand Prize for Military Fiction. Miller is an expert in combat air battles and literacy advocate and I know you’ll enjoy learning more about him and his thrilling novels!
Here’s what we talked about:
Chanticleer: Your specialized military knowledge is the subject of your writing. Tell us a little about yourself. What led you to write about the Battle of Midway?
Miller: In a previous life I was a career Navy fighter pilot, with most of my time in the F/A-18 Hornet. To viewers of TOP GUN and TOP GUN II… yep, I did that. My career took me to command a carrier-based fighter squadron that I led in combat. Wrapping it up at the Pentagon, I retired with the rank of captain after serving 24 years, logging over 3,600 hours and 1,000 carrier landings on numerous extended deployments.
At my retirement ceremony a fellow aviator suggested that I write a book, a suggestion I immediately waved off. Undeterred, he pressed me – hard – and told me that I have stories. Later I gave it some thought. Yes, I do have sea stories, and a passion to answer the question I was asked so often when people found out what I did for a living; Wow! What is that like? Having no idea where to start or what writing entailed, I figured why not? At least my manuscript could be something for the kids. So, months later in the summer of 2005 I began writing what would become Raven One.
Before I wrote the first sentence, I had never considered writing a novel, considering it something that mere mortals could never attain. The discipline! As I wrote – seat of the pants – a story formed, and after fits and starts (setting it aside in frustration for months then picking it back up and writing in a flurry of activity) I finished Raven One in late 2009… and knew that I had something.
Querying literary agents to represent me, despite the encouragement of many to keep writing, proved a failure. However, Kindle Direct Publishing was coming into its own, and publishing as an independent author became more attractive with each rejection from “New York.” Networking led me to fellow aviation thriller author George Galdorisi, who led me to his micro-publisher and military thriller author Jeff Edwards of Stealth Books which is now Braveship Books. Under their guidance, Raven One was published in the summer of 2014. The novel peaked at #29 in all of Amazon by the spring of 2015.
Chanticleer: That’s a huge journey and a familiar one for many. Was there a point where you realized you had become an author?
Miller: Yes, holding that first copy of Raven One in my hands was a special moment. I wrote – and published! – a novel! But it was weeks later as the novel gained a following that I noticed the comments in the review section. The glowing reviews were from strangers who loved the book – comparing the writing to Clancy and Coonts – and encouraged me to write more. Soon I heard from my friends, many of them former squadron mates who know how to give and receive honest feedback. They were blown away by the story and how I told it, and they met me at gatherings with copies for me to sign. Gratifying! And that’s when I knew Raven One was not a one-off, and that I had to keep writing
Chanticleer: That’s wonderful! Likewise, your Chanticleer award winner, The SilverWaterfall, is a great story full of action, suspense, history, and so much more. Can you talk more about your relationship with your genre?
Miller: Writers typically write what they know about, so for me the military action-adventure genre is a natural. My Raven One series novels are military technothrillers, a genre first made popular by Tom Clancy. They are found in War Fiction, War and Military Action, Sea Stories, Sea Adventures, and the like. Amazon allows authors great specificity in genre selection, and I could probably keep my latest novel High End as a perennial #1 in an Authentic and Contemporary Carrier Aviation Fiction Above the Arctic Circle genre but playing games like that is not for me as I want my books to compete and earn their accolades honestly. That said, I often see romance books in War Fiction when the only “war” part is that the love story is set in a wartime setting. We know why authors do this; all’s fair in love and war.
The Silver Waterfall: A Novel of the Battle of Midway, for which I was honored to receive the 2023 Chanticleer Hemingway Award, is pure historical fiction. To me, historical fiction provides the human emotion to a true event without changing any of the facts of that event, such as Shaara’s Pulitzer-winning masterpiece The Killer Angels. Our novels put the reader there, amid the real men who fought these battles, giving these historical figures voice as to what they experienced. Some historical fiction authors are too loose with facts and invent facts, even going so far as to impugn the reputations of the real men who were there. I could not live with myself if I did that, especially for an event like Midway, already full of drama and amazing chance.
Just won the CIBA Grand Prize in the Hemingway/Military Fiction division!
Chanticleer: We’re always astounded at the commitment to veracity of our historical fiction authors. The amount of research that goes into that is incredible. For your own writing day, how do you stay on track to finish your books?
Miller: Stephen King says that 1,000 words of writing is a good day of writing. If I get to a break in the story and stop for the day at 950 or 875 words I don’t beat myself up, but 1K per day works, especially if you have other activities (I do business consulting and teach middle school history) to fill your day. Promotion is part of my writing workday, as of course is research for my type of technical and historical writing.
Outlining? Yes and no. I have one in my head and follow it, but because it’s not written down, I can ride along on those magical moments when my writing takes me someplace I had never expected. The Silver Waterfall involved a historic event that has been written about extensively and that I knew well, but even in that novel I could “ride” when the muse took me to a new place when describing the human experience of a known historic event.
As Stephen King suggests, I’m one of those who writes and sets it aside for a few weeks to germinate, then prints it out to go over it with a pen to fix/improve. Several cycles: read it “fresh” after several months and you’ll unearth little gems to spice it up and rough patches you missed to sand and polish.
Chanticleer: You’ve talked a bit about Tom Clancy and Stephen Coonts as comp titles for your work earlier on, but which authors do you for inspiration, advice, or just because you like their work?
Miller:
Herman Wouk
Wouk is an absolute badass of a writer, from his unflinching views of human nature to his superb research of his subject. As a Midway historian with a carrier aviation background, Wouk – who was an officer but not an aviator in WWII – wrote passages in War and Remembrance about the carrier pilots at Midway that impress me not only by their accuracy in flying the airplane but their human emotions in the middle of deadly aerial combat. His fictional German historical commentator von Roon – a brilliant character – gives context to the history the characters are living inside. The Caine Mutiny is a masterpiece in human conflict and the unfairness of life. Wouk puts you inside the mind of a three-dimensional character like no one else.
Michael Shaara
Many are not familiar with this name from 50 years ago, who at the time received a Pulitzer for The Killer Angels, the classic historical fiction novel of the Battle of Gettysburg. Shaara – who was an Army veteran but not a noted Gettysburg historian – brought Lee, Longstreet, Chamberlain and Pickett to life without changing any facts of the battle, giving the reader the honest insights and impassioned pleas of the real men who fought at Gettysburg as to how they should deal with the enemy across the field. Shaara was 100% my inspiration for The Silver Waterfall. As the country was recovering from its Vietnam War trauma, The Killer Angels was not successful when published in the mid 1970’s. Shaara did not live to see it adapted into the movie Gettysburg and the commercial success Angels has subsequently received. Another of his works was published posthumously and adapted into a movie: For the Love of The Game.
Captain Edward L. Beach
Ned Beach was a WWII submariner who after the war and while still on active duty wrote the novel Run Silent, Run Deep, an immediate hit with post-war audiences that was adapted into a movie starring Clark Gable. The story is of conflict inside the control room of the submarine between two officers who each want the same woman back home but must cooperate to lead the crew against the enemy above them. This human tension centered in pride is a feature of all my novels. Beach wrote more novels including Dust on the Sea and Cold is the Sea, both to critical acclaim. During this time, he was given command of the nuclear submarine Triton that circumnavigated the world while submerged, an incredible feat in the day. Sadly – and not surprisingly to this naval officer – Beach was not selected for promotion to admiral as the higher ups were jealous of his fame and considered his creative pursuits unseemly.
I write in his third-person style, calling my protagonist by his last name while placing the reader on the bridge of a ship or in the cockpit of an airplane as it really is, and expecting the reader to keep up.
Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy grabs you and does not let you go with the raw human power of his writing. Just wow. Like all the greats, he is honest – and fearless. Known best for The Prince of Tides and Beach Music, for me as an aviator, The Great Santini will always be my favorite. However, it is far from a military technothriller. It is a human story as all of his are about the reality of the most sinful of the deadly sins, pride. The Lords of Discipline is another unforgettable work which, like Santini, is more memoir than fiction. Pat Conroy had a rough upbringing, and as they say in sports, left it all on the field in his writing, holding nothing back. Just wow.
Khalid Hosseini
I’ve never visited or even flown over Afghanistan – my time in the fleet was before that – but I have been there thanks to the writing of Khalid Hosseini. Like millions of readers, I too was enthralled by The Kite Runner and his sequel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini’s vivid descriptions of place, the detail, and of course his insights of human nature and the fascinating culture of Afghanistan – both lovely and horrifying – are unforgettable. He explained Afghanistan to foreign readers in a no-nonsense style, unapologetic and fresh. We recoil at the cruelty and betrayal – I cannot believe they treat their fellow human beings like this! – but turn the page anyway as Hosseini assures us, yes, they do. I seek to describe and explain my former world with verbal images like Hosseini did his.
Chanticleer: That is an amazing personal canon to draw from. Do you also enjoy craft books, and do you have any you would recommend?
Miller: The classic Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott was enjoyable, but Stephen King’s On Writing, Pat Conroy’s My Writing Life, and especially Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work and Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t were each helpful to me and I would recommend them to anyone who writes creatively. People often ask me for my insights as they prepare to write a book. I explain that writing, at the bestselling and award-winning level, is hard, hard work and there’s no escaping it. While I cannot explain how I write – I just let it rip! – these giants have written helpful guides. Enjoy.
Chanticleer: While most people think of writing as a solitary activity, we often find it has far reaching impacts. How has being an author affected your involvement in the community?
Miller: Author implies authority, and I am an authority on the Battle of Midway, now recognized by all in my circle because of the success of my historical fiction novel. Two years ago, I spoke at a gathering of all the U.S. Navy admirals in naval aviation about the lessons of the battle, lessons they can use today, and next year I’ll speak at a large event to commemorate the battle. Because I am also connected to today’s fleet, my Raven One series novels are prescient for today, especially my last two that involve China and Russia, and I’m often invited to give talks at Rotary Clubs and veterans groups to educate the public about the need for strong sea services. Publicity earned from the CIBA recognition of The Silver Waterfall cemented my position as an authority on Midway.
Chanticleer: That’s incredible! Becoming an expert of such an important historical event is really quite an accomplishment! And we at Chanticleer are very happy to know your CIBA award has helped to bring more attention to the Battle of Midway and your wonderful novel. Are there any activities you are involved in that improve or promote literacy?
Miller: I teach middle school history at the honors level, one day per week. My honors students are above average readers, and during the semester I assign reading. The novels Around the World in 80 Days for 6th grade geography, and The Red Badge of Courage in 8th grade U.S. history are examples, and after they complete the reading, I have them write essays about them in class. They grumble of course, but where else will they read these classics of literature?
Chanticleer: Being a teacher is such a gift to the future. Thank you for doing that work. Your students sound lucky to have you. If we can bend your ear for us for a teachable moment, what are some marketing tips that you would recommend to our authors?
Miller: My publisher says there is nothing like writing a new book to sell your current one, however paid FB and Amazon ads work, as do email lists. Promo stacking with services such as Amazon, BookBub, Robin Reads, ENT and others is an effective strategy. While I’ve snagged three BookBub featured deals (all for Raven One) I’m still struggling with breaking the code on what works (regarding Canva creatives) for BookBub advertising. Posting on social media almost daily about my flying days and sometimes me with my book is effective; Chanticleer author D.D. Black does this very well on Instagram. So does Tony Selimi, who says authors must get famous to get a larger audience. Get a Facebook business page with others on social media to gain follows. LinkedIn is good, Pinterest during the Christmas gift giving season, and, of course, email. Recommend investing in KDP Rocket, and David Gaughran is a superb follow for indie writers on all aspects of publishing and promoting.
Chanticleer: That is a wealth of excellent information for authors. What about for readers, what help can readers be to authors?
Miller: Receiving a kind email from a reader is gratifying, and I always write back thanking them, and then ask them to leave a review. WE all know and crave the social proof of reviews, but my sense is that only 1-2% of readers leave one. Wish that Amazon allowed us to thank them when they do. Passing the word of course is nice of readers. Word-of-mouth advertising can’t be beat. Then there’s good old-fashioned encouragement. Writing as we know is hard drudgery, and for me the end-product is what drives me, not any joy or “rush” in the act of writing. Doing the work as Pressfield says and producing something that people can appreciate today and decades from now is my “why.” Thank you to the readers, known and unknown to me personally, who have encouraged that.
Retired U.S. Navy Captain Kevin Miller graduated from the University of Mississippi and was designated a Naval Aviator in August 1983. He flew the A-7E Corsair II and FA-18C Hornet operationally and commanded a deployed strike-fighter squadron. He finished his career in the Pentagon serving on the staff of the Secretary of the Navy, retiring in 2005.
After leaving the service Kevin was employed as an associate at two Washington DC defense consulting firms, then as a not-for-profit executive, and today is the Owner/Principal of MPK Defense Consulting. He is also the Best-Selling and Award-Winning author of the Raven One military action-adventure series and the historical fiction novel The Silver Waterfall: A Novel of the Battle of Midway that was awarded the 2023 CIBA Hemingway Award for excellence in 20th Century Wartime Fiction.
Kevin lives in Pensacola, Florida and is working on his next novel. Find out more about Kevin and his novels on his website.
Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.
The icy edge of Antarctica serves as the center of a sinister organization, Diablo Corps. The ruthless leader, Walter Brown, threatens global mayhem if his aspirations for power are not met. With technological efficiency and the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure, Diablo Corps is poised to leverage its capabilities against the G7. Soon, an anonymous climate-related warning is sent out, with events such as the hacking of the London metal exchange proving to authorities the true weight of that threat.
Such dire actions demand an immediate answer. A classified team of specialists is called upon to gather at Ramstein Air Base. With naturally skilled leader Craig, sharp and observant Evelyn, and the humor and humility of Rufus and August, the promising recruits form the Bedlam Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and venture out into the peril of a frozen land.
On another canvas of the story, the scientific research vessel RV Aquavit is tasked with conducting climate change studies in Antarctica. Courageous climatologist Carine and the Scandinavian Protection Agency (SPA) parallel the QRF as heroes pitched against the demons perpetuating world chaos. Dodging obstacles around every corner, they take on not only corporate greed and environmental exploitation but also treacherous sabotage.
Themes of unchecked power and betrayal lie deep in the narrative.
The characters resist and even turn on former allies, reflecting how tyranny often creates conflict between those who submit and those who rebel. A broader struggle between morality and ambition builds on these ideas, such as in Brown’s use of environmental concerns as a facade for cyber terrorism. With grandiose goals of reshaping the global system and addressing climate change, Brown personifies the darker side of ambition blinding one to ethical considerations.
Real-life debates on corporate greenwashing and genuine intentions find space through the fictional discourse.
Brown hijacks environmental concerns to seek profit and power. His intentions, appearing to be rooted in environmental activism, ultimately turn an altruistic cause into a danger to global geopolitical stability and humanity. While characters like Brown’s assistant, Chris, embody the moral drive of humanity against powerful evil forces, the story also suggests the importance of aligning individual efforts with collective action and systemic solutions.
Krzak weaves a complex web of action and cutting-edge technological intrigue, balancing quick, fast-paced scenes with cliffhangers and slower introspective sequences. With its atmospheric writing, Frozen Conquest caters to the readership of dark, intense settings.
Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a story wrapped in the undercurrents of greed, treachery, resistance, and resilience of the human spirit. It warns how the river of ambition, without the banks of morality to guide it, can flood and destroy everything in its path.
Scientific and moral questions swirl in Charlie Robinson’s latest thriller, Heavy Hysteria: A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Involving the Minerals of this Sacred Earth.
Readers are thrust into a suspenseful journey with worldwide implications alongside Dr. Charlie Cavanaugh, a 68-year-old priest and scientist.
Arriving home after a spiritual retreat, he is surprised by an FBI agent sitting with Cavanaugh’s gun on his lap. The agent has subverted a freshly enhanced security system to retrieve Cavanaugh’s encrypted, unpublished Hybrid Hysteria report from a concealed USB stick.
The FBI needs Cavanaugh’s assistance with a delicate national security issue.
His widely researched and circulated Applied Physics Letters scientific publication revealed the severe danger that specific configurations of the Gauss Hybrid Electric Auto Company’s batteries posed for human health. That report saved thousands of lives—and his expertise is called back to action.
GHEA is now under new management. Prices for GHEA battery minerals are rising rapidly, putting national security and electric car manufacturers at risk.
A small secret organization wants to build on Cavanaugh’s research to track down the people behind the threat, focusing on the “Tones,” a rogue group within the Deep State. But chances are high that Cavanaugh’s involvement will again put him on the Tones’ radar, who previously abducted his fellow scientists and co-authors.
Following the widely acclaimed Hybrid Hysteria—a Novel of Corporate Intrigue Both Holy and Diabolical, this serpentine tale reveals deep-seated treachery and calamitous profit-driven deception.
Cavanaugh, a man of the cloth, shrewdly transcends his duty as a “simple priest” and takes on the unfamiliar hat of a spy to unearth complex truths. With a bull’s eye on his back, he assumes challenging positions that push him into the unfamiliar dark web.
Heavy Hysteria’s corporate espionage transcends tribal territories and state borders.
It is a truly compelling plot with a vividly drawn, sharp-witted hero, ticking all the boxes of a suspense thriller. Together, these features draw readers with ever-growing curiosity towards an exciting and unforeseen end.
Well-written and propulsive, this novel delivers much more than it promises.
Robinson’s background in electrical engineering and neuroscience also adds a unique power to his narration. Heavy Hysteria: A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Involving the Minerals of this Sacred Earth earns a high place within its genre.
With an intriguing premise, this tour de force is bound to captivate readers whether or not they’re fans of suspense thrillers.
Climate Dragon by S.W. Lawrence offers a unique blend of climate fiction, thriller, and real scientific inquiry, setting the stage for an intriguing trilogy centered on dual crises—an impending climate catastrophe and the outbreak of a mysterious disease.
Jake Harper, a newly minted engineering professor, and his romantic partner Abbey London, an infectious disease specialist, balance their burgeoning careers with their bustling inn outside Washington, D.C. But the demands of their lives are disrupted as the two crises draw in Jake and Abbey—the only people prepared to face them.
Jake’s suspicions of a cyberattack on the North American power grid grow after attending a lecture at George Washington University. Meanwhile, Abbey discovers an alarming new bleeding disorder spreading among the drug-injecting population, raising the stakes for both her career and personal safety as she navigates the risks to her pregnancy.
Climate Dragon splits into two threads: Jake’s investigation into the cyber-threat and Abbey’s race to stop a new plague.
Jake zeroes in on a suspicious attendee at one of the lectures. When a consultant at the Department of Energy’s NEST (Nuclear Emergency Support Team) unit stays at the inn, Jake reports the shady man. Jake’s suspicions, we come to discover, are well-founded.
At the same time, Abbey dives into her own mystery when the university’s infectious diseases department is called upon to consider a post-mortem patient who presented with unique and confounding bleeding disorder symptoms, including an inability for the body to coagulate blood-draw sites. More patients with the same symptoms soon arrive on the scene, suggesting a spreading hematologic disease. Cautious of her pregnancy but eager to abide by her medical oath to observe and treat the disease, Abbey risks exposure each time she engages with an infected patient.
Lawrence’s integration of fact into fiction will be a highlight for the scientifically curious reader.
The story thrives on discourse. Conversations between the guests at Jake and Abbey’s inn serve as a kick-off point to a discussion of how individual actions can be taken in response to the planet’s impending climate crisis, as seen when one couple shares their building process for an energy-efficient home.
The stakes for both the protagonists and the society they inhabit are left somewhat ambiguous, leaving readers to interpret much of what’s at risk. This, coupled with pacing issues, occasionally detracts from the narrative’s momentum. However, Climate Dragon’s engaging world and likable characters give readers strong reason to care about the fates of both.
Cli-Fi lovers will find Climate Dragon a rewarding read, especially through its intersection of science and storytelling.
The audiobook version, with alternating male and female narrators, enhances the experience. The epigraphs at the start of each chapter add a thoughtful layer, enriching the themes and grounding the story in broader scientific and cultural contexts.
With Climate Dragon, S.W. Lawrence lays a solid foundation for the trilogy to come. The novel concludes on a satisfactory and hopeful note while leaving enough threads to entice readers into the next installment of this thought-provoking series.
The Mind & Spirit Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction. The Mind & Spirit Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Spirituality, Enlightenment, Self-Help, Mindfulness, Well-being, Meditation, Energy, and more.
These titles have moved forward from the 2024 Mind & Spirit Non-Fiction SEMI-FINALISTS to the 2024 Mind & Spirit Book Awards FINALISTS. All FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE and GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 2024 Mind & Spirit Book Awards novel competition for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating these authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Wilma Macliver – Life Behind the Masks
Jill Amy Sager – Guidance From the Universe Hopeful Messages for Everyday Challenges
Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
Bobby R. Patton, Rusalyn H. Andrews, Jennifer Page Daily – Keys To Healthy Communication
Thomas Weems – Unlocking Kabbalah a New Synthesis of Astrology Tarot and the Tree of Life
Damian Fozard – Disbelief
Marijke McCandless – Naked in the Now: Juicy Practices for Getting Present
Lisa Rhyne – Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet
Eileen Marlowe – The Call to Connect Spirit
Anne Kiehl Friedman – Higher Love: A Psychedelic Travel Memoir of Heartbreak and Healing
Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Guides and Self- Help Non-Fiction. The I&I Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring HOW-TO, Guidance, Travel Guides, Cookbooks, Instruction, Insight, Self-Help, and more.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2024 I&I Non-Fiction SEMI-FINALISTS to the 2024 I&I Book Awards FINALISTS.All FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE and GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 2024 I&I Book Awards novel competition for Guiding and How-to Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Semi-Finalist authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Margaret C Beeler – Tropetails: A Cocktail and Mocktail Book for Bookworms
Lorraine Ballato – Success with Hydrangeas a Gardener’s Guide
Karen Gross – Mending Education Finding Hope Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma
Melina Palmer – The Truth About Pricing
Mary Deal – Advanced Self-Hypnosis Techniques Hypno-Scripts Book 2
Tania Israel – Facing the Fracture How To Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation
Elizabeth Fulgaro – Soul Care-Song Prayers: A Spiritual Practice Toward Resilience and Well-Being
Katherine Fabrizio – The Good Daughter Syndrome: Help For Empathic Daughters of Narcissistic, Borderline, or Difficult Mothers Trapped in the Role of the Good Daughter
Katie Myers – Being Seen
Nuala Walsh – TUNE IN: How to Make Smarter Decisions In A Noisy World
Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Bob Dahms, MBA, CPA, CMA – Let’s Talk About This: 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business
Douglas A. Burton – The Heroine’s Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
Jacqui Clarke – Stop worrying about money
Angela Lomenzo – Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women
Matthew J. Louis – Hiring Veterans: How To Leverage Military Talent For Organizational Growth
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
Bella can’t wait to visit a new butterfly garden, but in Bella Brown’s Messier Than Messy Room by J.W. Zarek, she has to tidy up some overwhelming clutter first.
Initially, Bella’s excitement for painting at the butterfly garden makes her too impatient to clean her chaotic room. But with encouragement from Grandma Yetta over the phone, Bella finds the task isn’t nearly as daunting as she worried.
Well suited to young readers, the writing will engage children in both structure and style.
Short, rhythmic sentences create an exciting, tumbling pace throughout Bella’s room. Although the prose can be a bit repetitive, certain words—especially the great variety of motion verbs—pop onto the page in bubbly magenta letters, making for a fun vocabulary teaching opportunity.
Grandma Yetta speaks in calm blue, which contrasts well against Bella’s lively pink. New readers will have an easy time telling dialogue apart.
Illustrator Anastasiia at GetYourBookIllustrations perfectly complements the book’s eager tone with vivacious use of color.
She makes Bella’s messy room into a delight of scattered visual details. Those who look closely will notice the appearances of Pip the Domovoi, an adorable fluffy companion in the wilds of laundry and toys. Pip adds a little game to nearly every page spread, rewarding curious young readers.
Anastasiia captures childlike whimsy and creativity, making a towering clothes monster from Bella’s pile of laundry. Bella’s toys and games become a crashing wave, and her stuffed animals pillow fight on her unmade bed. Bella’s long hair, adorned with flowers and tiny hearts, flows wildly behind her as she leaps around her room, adding to the energetic feeling of the book even as the backgrounds become clean and organized.
With a color scheme focused on pinks and blues, these illustrations match the two main characters—Bella and Grandma Yetta respectively. Giant pink butterflies cover Bella’s walls, and when she finally goes to the vibrant butterfly garden, she draws a special blue one on a thank-you card for Grandma Yetta’s help.
Bella Brown’s Messier Than Messy Room teaches valuable lessons about taking care of chores rather than putting them off for later.
Grandma Yetta guides Bella to clean her room one step at a time, organizing both her thoughts and her space alike. For children who struggle with cleaning, or focusing on other important tasks, this story shows that getting help from someone can make all the difference in handling things that seem hard.
This colorful, comforting book will help young readers keep their spaces clean and take on other challenges. With pages full of energy and fanciful illustrations, Bella Brown’s Messier Than Messy Room provides both useful examples to follow and an engaging little tale.
The Harvey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Business and Enterprise Non-Fiction. The Harvey Chute Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring motivational, strategy, technology guides, social media, finance, investing & money, communications, marketing, business, and economics. We will put these books to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.
These titles have moved forward from the 2024 Harvey Chute Non-Fiction Semi-Finalist to the 2024 Harvey Chute Book Awards FINALISTS.All FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE and GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 2024 Harvey Chute Book Awards novel competition for Business and Enterprise Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating these authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Ben Peterson – Engage Your Destiny
Daniel C. Rodgers – Escape the Clock Your Program Guide for Financial Freedom and Early Retirement
Richard Weylman – 100 Proven Ways To Acquire And Keep Clients For Life
Roger Spitz – Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
Jenny Li Fowler – Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities
Anastasia Karklina Gabriel – Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy
Zontee Hou – Data-Driven Personalization: How to Use Consumer Insights to Generate Customer Loyalty
Kori Reed – Men-in-the-Middle Conversations to Gain Momentum with Gender Equity’s Silent Majority
Neal Schaffer – Digital Threads: The Small Business and Entrepreneur Digital First Marketing Playbook
Melina Palmer – The Truth About Pricing
Nick Barter & Christopher Fleming – Future Normal: 8 Questions to Create Businesses Your Children will be Proud Of
Jacqui Clarke – Stop Worrying About Money
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
The Mind & Spirit Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction. The Mind & Spirit Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Spirituality, Enlightenment, Self-Help, Mindfulness, Well-being, Meditation, Energy, and more.
These titles have moved forward from the 2024 Mind & Spirit Non-Fiction SHORT LIST to the 2024 Mind & Spirit Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2024 Mind & Spirit Book Awards novel competition for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating these authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Kristin Sven Larsen – Joy of Being Mindfully Present
Wilma Macliver – Life Behind the Masks
Teri M Brown – 10Little Rules for a Double-Butted Adventure
Jill Amy Sager – Guidance From the Universe Hopeful Messages for Everyday Challenges
Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
Bobby R. Patton, Rusalyn H. Andrews, Jennifer Page Daily – Keys To Healthy Communication
L.A. Mcmurray – God Is in the Odd the Ordinary and Outside Church
Lori Pappas – The Magic of Yes Embrace the Wise Woman Within
Thomas Weems – Unlocking Kabbalah a New Synthesis of Astrology Tarot and the Tree of Life
Dr Harry Somaraju – Anxiety To Ahh-Mazing in Days
Manisha Jane – Truth Was Once Taboo a Memoir of Self-Knowledge in the Age of Spiritual Sovereignty
Damian Fozard – Disbelief
Marijke McCandless – Naked in the Now: Juicy Practices for Getting Present
Joseph Clarke – SOL: supportive guidance for healing & awakening
Christin Collins – be. love.
Eileen Marlowe – The Call to Connect Spirit
Anne Kiehl Friedman – Higher Love: A Psychedelic Travel Memoir of Heartbreak and Healing
Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
Lorelei the Lorelei seeks a best friend and to figure out what makes her truly special, all on her first day of public school. In Lorelei the Lorelei: The First of Many Firsts by Kristen J. Anderson, young Lorelei finds that not everything is as she expected.
Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.
The Mind & Spirit Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction. The Mind & Spirit Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Guides and Self- Help Non-Fiction. The I&I Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
The Harvey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Business and Enterprise Non-Fiction. The Harvey Chute Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
