Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

SUMMER STORM: Magic at Myers Beach Book 2 by Alan B. Gibson – Urban Fantasy, Romance, Fairies

In Summer Storm, the second book of Alan B. Gibson’s Magic at Myers Beach series, local business owner Greta the Witch has a chance at fame, fortune, and fairytale love—if she can keep it all from being stolen first.

Picking up cleanly after Summer Thunder (Book 1 in the series), this story opens with Greta worrying about her social life. Her best friend Lily has left on an extended honeymoon with her husband Theos the King. Fortunately, her acquaintance, Julie, moves back to town, and while they soon develop a close friendship, things get awkward when she learns that Julia received a massive financial gift from Lily and Theos, and she was left with nothing.

Greta can at least focus on her business, the Witch’s Cauldron, and being the star of a reality show that’s planning to film her daily life. And when Greta meets a mysterious and charming man—Zsombor, or “Dos” to his friends—she finds herself rocketed to a level of stardom she couldn’t have imagined. She attends an opening gala for the renovated Fairy Kingdom tea house, and after a mixture of disastrous and fabulous public appearances she becomes Myers Beach’s rising influencer star.

Summer Storm paints a cheeky but emotionally resonant portrait of stardom in the modern, fickle internet age.

Greta’s sudden fame brings incredible business success and access to a world of fashion, connections, and glamor that dazzles her. But the internet audience constantly demands more posts and more of Greta’s witchy brand. She relies on Julie for her social media expertise, especially as the adoration of fans threatens to overwhelm her.

Fame is a double-edged sword. And while Greta indulges in so many adoring eyes, that fame distances her from the people she truly wants to connect with. Her online persona dominates her presence among professional peers, and with all the time that her media presence takes to maintain, Greta falters in some of the most important relationships in her real life—most worryingly, her growing romance with the otherworldly Dos.

When a major scandal break over Greta’s head, she faces an even darker side to notoriety. An accusation of murder, no matter how quickly proven false, staggers Greta’s image and sets her up for a much more focused, malevolent force.

Greta meets unique, fantastical characters along her journey—friend and foe alike.

Dos, despite his strangeness, proves himself capable of the seemingly impossible, as he charms Greta by connecting with the soul of the woods, bringing magic to her singing performances at a local retirement home, and even helping her fund her charity.

Greta befriends the similarly magical Alias, who proves to be much more than the handsome beach bum she first imagines him to be. He and Dos maintain a sense of mystique and unpredictability, all while showing Greta a world of wonders and good fortune—before she even learns that they’re actually fairies.

With yet more characters like the gossip star Rona Divine, skateboard prodigy Christophe, and of course the multi-talented Julie, Summer Storm fills its setting with a vibrant and exciting cast.

But as Greta’s good fortune starts to turn, and the cruel sorceress Zsa Zsa Hajdu intrudes on her life, she struggles to hold onto her important connections.

Greta’s idyllic adventure of romance and fame begins to unravel. Zsa Zsa wields great and terrible influence in both her personal and public worlds, and by the time Greta realizes the danger she’s up against, the true witch might be impossible to stop.

Greta turns to her friends in the tug-of-war for Dos’s heart, but she’ll need to embrace her own strengths and authentic passions to stand up against supernatural danger.

Readers will love Greta for her drive and fears alike.

She becomes caught in the difficult questions of what truly matters to her in life, and what she’s willing to do or give up for it. Her layered, realistic personality plays well off when matched with Dos’s fantastical attitude, creating a romance that feels genuinely transformative for both characters.

Ending with a sharp cliffhanger, Summer Storm will set readers up eagerly for the next installment of the series, Summer Lightning, with conflicts of the fairy kingdoms stepping into the spotlight.

August 12, 2024
The Gertrude Warner Middle Grade Fiction Awards Round Up for the 2023 First Place Winners!

The Gertrude Warner Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Middle Grade Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Rae Knightly’s book, EXOSTAR will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Gertrude Warner contest page year ’round!

The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention all year ‘round!

The 2023 Gertrude Warner Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners’ post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Gertrude Warner Winners!

Alex Paul – The Amarrat Invasion

The Amarrat army continues its march across the northern land route to attack Lanth. But Arken Freeth has been critically wounded by his encounter with a deadly Tant and may not survive to lead the Nanders to war. Meanwhile, the Amarrat armada is crossing the Circle Sea to rendezvous with their army at the River Zash.

Zuul, the Amarrat king has equipped Yolanta, king of the Tookans, with a fleet of twenty fighting ships, and he is leading the Amarrat armada across the Circle Sea. Yet Yolanta is plagued by doubts about his loyalty to Zuul after he invaded Yolanta’s mind.

Lanth is frantically preparing to defend itself as Arken’s friend, Asher, sails to the Nander Water Cave. He is accompanied by his mother, the Queen of Tolaria, who plans to read the Necklace of Tol in hopes of divining a strategy to defeat the Amarrats.

The collision of these forces is inevitable. But who will win the battle at sea against the Amarrat Armada?

Find it on Amazon

Chris Norbury – Little Mountain, Big Trouble

LITTLE MOUNTAIN, BIG TROUBLE is an inspirational story about a young boy with a big dream and the courage to chase that dream no matter the obstacles.

Twelve-year-old EJ is a short, unpopular, shy, self-described loser. He lives with his mother and younger brother on the wrong side of town and spends every other weekend with his hard-to-please, deadbeat father. Because surviving school and his home life are challenging enough, EJ’s the last kid you’d expect to dream of someday climbing Mount Everest …

… until he’s matched with a volunteer Big Brother. Russ is the opposite of EJ in almost every way. Despite their differences, they bond over helping EJ achieve his mountain-climbing dream. Their first goal is to hike to Minnesota’s highest point, Eagle Mountain.

But when a ferocious thunderstorm strikes in the middle of their trek, EJ and Russ are plunged into a life-or-death crisis. Fighting his loser self-image with every step toward safety, EJ learns that standing tall has nothing to do with height and everything to do with determination, heart, and courage.

Find it Locally or on Amazon

Liese Sherwood-Fabre – Wilhemina Quigley: Magic School Dropout

Family wields the greatest magic.

A missing father. A mother bewitched. Wilhelmina must use her unpredictable magic to catch whoever—or whatever—is stalking her parents. Will her powers be enough to restore her family?

When Wilhelmina accidentally sets her remedial magic class on fire, she is sent to live in the ordinary world with a mother she barely knows. Her adjustment gets off to a very rocky start. She has sudden, unexplainable bursts of magic—mostly while navigating the middle-school minefield—and her mother’s behaving like she’s under some spell. Despite her handicapped magic, Wilhelmina vows to get to the bottom of it all—even if she could vanish without a trace just like her father.

“Wilhelmina Quigley: Magic School Dropout” is a fish-out-of-water story with touches of mystery, fantasy, and humor. A witty tale of enchantment.

Find it Locally or on Amazon

Kevin Dunn – Vicious is My Middle Name

With a partially-shaved head, purple Doc Marten boots, and the sinking realization that no one in a fifty-mile radius has ever heard of her favorite all-female punk band Lite Brite, 13-year-old Sydney Vicious Talcott wants to be anywhere but her new home of Beaver Dam, NC, especially when mean girl Brittany Winters treats her like the punch-line to every joke. But just as life begins to seem more tolerable with her two new book-nerd friends and a growing appreciation for the beauty of the Appalachian mountains, Sydney discovers that a shady corporation is planning to build an environmentally-damaging asphalt plant right next to the school. Her attempts to work through the system to stop the plant’s construction fail, so it’s up to Sydney to fight the corporation and their political lackeys the only way she can, using the do-it-yourself tools she has learned from punk rock. But before she can triumph, Sydney, her family, and friends must endure bullying, harassment, immigration raids, and more.

Find it Locally or on Amazon

Alisse Lee Goldenberg and Joseph Goldenberg – Lucky At Bat

Lucky At Bat follows the story of a young boy named Jack and his two rescue rats-Lucky and Gus-Gus. When Jack discovers that Lucky has a talent for baseball, the little rat becomes the mascot and secret batting coach for Jack’s Little League team. Unfortunately, a rival team considers Lucky’s presence “cheating,” and tensions rise, resulting in a terrible accident. Lucky and Jack wonder if maybe a ballpark is no place for a rat.

Now it’s up to Jack’s teammates and Gus-Gus to show both Lucky and Jack that they are special and important, and they should not give up on their dreams, no matter how big those dreams may be.

From Chanticleer:

Alisse Lee and Joseph Goldenberg, a mother and son team, knock their new middle-grade novel, Lucky at Bat, out of the park.

This story follows ten-year-old Jack and his pet rats. Baseball is a major theme, and with Joseph as illustrator, Lucky and Gus Gus come to life. Their mutual friendship and support raise them up against the forces that would try to bring them down.

When Gus Gus and Lucky arrive in Jack’s life, he is thrilled to have pets and wants to share his life and passions with them. One of those passions is baseball, and Lucky finds something appealing about the game. When Jack’s little league team begins playing, he invites both his pets, but only Lucky goes.

When the team meets Lucky, they make him their mascot, and turn around their losing record.

Read More Here

Find it Locally or on Amazon

Ben Gartner – One Giant Leap

I’m pretty sure I’m about to die in space. And I just turned twelve and a half.

Blast off with the four winners of the StellarKid Project on a trip to the International Space Station and then to the Gateway outpost orbiting the Moon! It’s a dream come true until space junk collides with the ISS, turning their epic trip into a nightmare of survival. Alone aboard the Aether starship, the kids have to work as a team to save the adults before the ISS is destroyed. Suit up, cadet, and launch into adventure with One Giant Leap!

Find it Locally or on Amazon

Sue C Dugan – SOS

Thirteen-year-old Brandon, Amy, and their family are on a cruise to Bermuda when hurricane-force winds sink their ship. Brandon and Amy escape into a life raft. Brandon needs to use his wits to keep himself and his sister safe until they are rescued by The City of Benares—an evacuee ship with children fleeing from the Germans during WWII. They seem to have gone back in time!

Although their situation is confusing and seems like a dream, not all is terrible when Brandon meets the beautiful Eleanor, who is going to New York to escape the London bombings. They can’t comprehend why they have gone back in time. The atmosphere on the ship is fun, even though the threat of the German torpedos is real. When the ship is sunk by a torpedo, Brandon, Amy, and Eleanor escape and are rescued by the Titanic. They remember what happened with the iceberg and know they must leave and plan their escape. They leave the Titanic to be rescued by the SS Austria—a wooden ship from the 1800s—where the passengers view them suspiciously. When the Austria burns and sinks, they are adrift until they find land, spot a small plane taking off from the jungle, and know they’ve discovered a way home.

Find it Locally or on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Gertrude Warner First Place Winners!

Watch for our Spotlight and Hall of Fame Articles that will feature incredible books, including Rae Knightly’s amazing EXOSTAR!.

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Gertrude Warner Awards!

Got a great Middle Grade Book?

The 2024 Gertrude Warner Book Awards are open through the end of August!

Submit to the Gertrude Warner Awards Today!

August 11, 2024
ISLAND MOON by Ruth Amanda – Picture Books, Animal Stories, Children’s Mystery & Wonder Books

Ruth Amanda’s Island Moon is a magical moment captured in a poem.

The narrator lives on an island where the moon sings of fairies and the magic of the night. While out on a nighttime walk, the narrator breathes in the island scents and hears the waves kissing the shore. In the froth of the waves, and in the moon’s magical light reflecting on the water, the narrator sees the fairies dancing.

While describing all the animals active during nighttime, the narrator sees a tired sea turtle coming ashore to lay eggs. The moon blesses the creature, calling in the tide to aid the exhausted turtle back home to the sea. The songs of the night birds and the rays of the moon’s light follow the narrator back to bed and into their dreams.

The rhyming of the poem and illustrations are truly beautiful. In a few short lines and pages, you are transported to a tranquil night on the island of Barbados.

Many readers will find comfort in the perfectly captured quiet peacefulness of night. Ruth Amanda herself calls the island of Barbados home and draws inspiration for her writing every day, even carrying around a notebook for when an idea strikes.

The lively illustrations are also by Ruth Amanda, and her creativity shines throughout them.

Readers will see all the active nighttime animals going about lives, from the curious green lizards climbing on the window blinds to the tired sea turtle coming ashore to lay her eggs.

At the end of the story, Ruth includes a fact sheet about Barbados and the animals from the story, giving context to the story and teaching readers about her home island.

Whether it is read as a bedtime story or on a lazy afternoon, young and old alike will adore Ruth Amanda’s Island Moon.

August 9, 2024
The 2024 Shorts Spotlight for Brief but Spectacular Writing
Short but Sweet

***Send us your short story today***

Shorts Awards submissions close at the End of August!

H.G. Wells once described the purpose of a short story to be “The jolly art, of making something very bright and moving; it may be horrible or pathetic or funny or profoundly illuminating, having only this essential, that it should take from fifteen to fifty minutes to read aloud.”

A Story doesn’t need a long winding plot to get it’s point made. Compelling characters and plot twists in 5 pages can have much the same effect as 100.

In 1846, Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay called The Philosophy of Composition. In it he described his theories on writing Short Stories, using The Raven as the example. He had 3 theories for writing – Length, Method and ‘Unity of Effect.’

According to Poe, the limits on the length of a short story is what makes them so good.

In his words “For it is clear that the brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect.” On length, Poe said for one of his stories: “[W]hat I conceived the proper length for my intended poem – a length of about one hundred lines. It is, in fact, a hundred and eight.”

In terms of method, He states that a writer should first think of how they want a story to end. Of course, that’s just how he wrote, you can start from the beginning, or the end, or maybe the middle. His last theory is everything together. Emotion, Length, Tone, and making them all work together.

The Shorts Awards launched just a few years ago and is already one of our most competitive divisions!

Your Short Fiction and Non-Fiction deserve to be discovered!

There are several options when submitting to the Shorts Awards to match your type of writing:
- Single Story or Essay – also great for Novellas and Novelettes!
- Short Story Collection
- Novelette Collection
- Novella Collection
- Essay Collection
You can also submit anthologies to any of the collection options! Just pick the one that best describes the type of work found in the anthology! This includes anthologies with a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and even poetry!

Let’s dive into some wonderful short work that we’ve reviewed recently!

THE GARDEN PLOT DIARIES
By Endy Wright
Shorts Finalist

Endy Wright’s The Garden Plot Diaries is a delightful collection of four short stories about life, relationships, and consequences.

Wright captures the gossip and rivalries between factious groups of town folk, all between sixty and ninety-something, who have known each other since childhood and carry the grudges to prove it. Our delightful narrator professes, “I am a rambling old man with a tale to tell and in no hurry to tell it.” So, settle in.

Read more here!

A WILD REGION: Tales and Stories from the Heartland
By Robin Lee Lovelace
“Savonne, not Vonny” won the Shorts Grand Prize!

A Wild Region: Tales and Stories from the Heartland by Robin Lee Lovelace is a wonderful collection of Weird fiction (emphasis on Weird), showcasing the oddities and fantastic adventures which hide among the everyday people of the midwestern United States.

Lovelace opens with ‘Virgie’s Headless Chicken’, setting the tone for the full collection as Virgie attempts to reproduce a circus sideshow act. Lovelace shares her familial inspiration for this story in a fascinating preface.

Read more here!

NEW YORK: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst
By Elizabeth Crowens
Shorts Grand Prize Winner

Prepare to be carried away to bustling, vivacious streets as you read Elizabeth Crowens’ New York: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst.

This captivating literary anthology is a love letter to the great city from a group of brilliant artists and authors, which delves into the multifaceted lives of New Yorkers.

Short fiction and a few poems describe the ins and outs of New York living. Murder mysteries, revenge, family struggles, family sagas, and, of course, the most important questions regarding real estate. Finding the perfect place to live in the city may be difficult, but this story brings into vivid relief the heart of what makes New York special: the people.

Read more here!

A WEEK at SURFSIDE BEACH
By Pierce Koslosky, Jr.
Shorts Grand Prize Winner

Vacationers from all walks of life converge on Portofino II-317C, South Carolina, a quaint blue beach house, in Pierce Koslosky Jr.’s short story collection, A Week at Surfside Beach.

From May 30th-December 26th each group of people comes to stay one week at a time, to forget their cares of the big city, to work, to celebrate, or to simply get away. Surfside Beach has much to show them, including temperamental weather.

The small town itself offers a charming supermarket where fishing supplies, whoopie pies, and local southern favorites can be found. The Christmas vacationers, the final of the thirteen beach house renters, struggle to find a tree in time; a real tree simply wouldn’t allow enough space for the family to sleep, and the fake tree would cost too much. But they find arts and crafts supplies in town, to fashion a paper Christmas tree during a day of rainy weather.

Read more here!

WISHES, SINS, and the WISSAHICKON CREEK
By PJ Devlin
Somerset First Place Winner

Wishes, Sins, and the Wissahickon Creek by PJ Devlin emulates the lives of fictional characters brimming with hope and promise yet living a truthful life of existence in the gorgeous setting of Pennsylvania’s Wissahickon Creek.

The book encompasses ten short stories making it a complete work of fiction. Devlin creates characters which are rich in both experience and struggle. Not only do they live in a real world created by Devlin, but her characters, a mix of children and adults, both struggle with daily, real-world issues most Americans deal with. The stories are all relatable in this sense, which makes the text come alive, page after page.

Read more here!

Thank you to everyone who submitted to the 2024 Shorts Awards! We can’t believe that the whole adventure starts again when the Shorts Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards close on August 31st, 2024.

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

You know you want it…

Submit to the Shorts Awards today!
August 8, 2024
Chanticleer 10 Question Author Interview Series with Thomas Goodman – Award-winning book, The Last Man, Laramie Grand Prize Award, Author Life

From the 2023 Laramie Division Grand Prize Winner for Americana and Western for his book The Last Man, we have a brand new Chanticleer Author Interview!

Thomas Goodman won the Grand Prize in the Laramie Division of the 2023 Chanticleer International Book Awards for his novel, The Last Man. The Laramie Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the Americana and Westerns fiction genre. The Laramie Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

The Laramie division includes:

Western Romance, Adventure, Caper, Classic Western Romance, Adventure Caper Classic Western,

Civil War/Prairie/Pioneer, Contemporary Western, Americana, and First Nation

Join us in getting to know the thrilling writing of the Western genre’s newest talent, Thomas Goodman!

Chanti: Tell us a little about yourself: How did you start writing?

Goodman: I first heard the story of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery in the 1990s when I lived in the small Texas county where it took place. All the accounts ended with the deaths of three of the four robbers, with little information about the life of the last surviving member of the gang. As it turns out, the details of his spectacular prison escapes and eventual rehabilitation are as fascinating as the violent endings of the other three robbers. By the time he died in his 90s around the same time I learned of the robbery, he had received a full pardon and had been a married model citizen for 50 years. In his honor, I named my book, The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery.

Thomas Goodman donating his book, The Last Man, to “Books for the Brave,” which stocks military bases with books the troops can read for free.

Chanti: Let’s talk about genre. What genre best describes your work, and what led you to pick that genre for your writing?

Goodman: Identifying the genre was a challenge. It’s closely based on a true crime, so it’s non-fiction; but telling the story required some measure of speculation, so it’s fiction. Like any good novel in the crime genre, it’s a grim and violent story; and yet like any compelling novel in the inspirational genre, it’s a redemption story, too. And the story begins in the 1920s with an old-fashioned bank robbery in a small Texas town, which makes it a Western; but the story ends in post-WW2 society, which makes it historical fiction.

Thankfully, booksellers and libraries allow books to be cataloged in various genres, but my “go-to” answer when asked about the genre is “historical crime fiction.”

Chanti: What about your own personal writing structure day to day? Do you have a routine?

Goodman: Since I have a full time job, I write 3 days a week from 6:00-8:30am before the office day begins. Between the 2 approaches to writing–the “plotters,” who create a broad outline of the plot before they begin, and the “pantsers,” who start writing and just see what develops–I am definitely a “plotter.” That said, I’m often surprised at what a character decides to do or what turn my well-planned plot takes when I’m in the middle of writing.

Look for the Chanticleer Review of this Laramie Grand Prize Winner! Coming soon and will link to this article!

Chanti: It’s difficult finding time to consistently write. How do you approach your writing day to stay consistent?

Goodman: When I was at a writers conference six years ago, I met an author who had traditionally-published a series of cozy mysteries. She told me she would get up at 5am and write until 7:30am when it was time to go to her “real job” as an assistant elementary school principal. That gave me the idea to write from 6am until 8:30am when my office opened. Once I began to write under that schedule, I completed my book in 2 years.

Chanti: Who are a few of your favorite authors and how have they influenced your work.

Goodman: James Wade’s All Things Left Wild gave me the confidence to believe that the Western genre wasn’t a dead genre.

I also really like Texas author Paulette Jiles (News of the World, Chenneville, and especially Stormy Weather.) She strikes the right balance between situating her story in a world over a 100 years ago without bogging the plot down with a lot of details and explanations of how life used to be—a constant temptation for a historical fiction writer.

For prose that’s beautiful but not syrupy, I love Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, and Annie Proulx’s Close Range: Wyoming Stories.

Chanti: Reading books in our genre is so crucial to developing voice. What else has helped you grow your author chops?

Goodman: John Trumby’s The Anatomy of Story is helpful. So is Steven James’s Story Trumps Structure. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is next on my list.

Chanti: Those are both great. Lamott is the starting inspiration for so many wonderful writers. Do you have any books about the business of writing that have helped you?

Goodman: Ricardo Fayet’s How to Market a Book and Amazon Ads for Authors was helpful. And David Gaughran’s book, Following, Strangers to Superfans, and Let’s Get Digital. Every author should read Tammi Labrecque’s Newsletter Ninja.

Chanti: And from that wealth of knowledge, what are your best marketing tips? What’s helped sell more books? How have you gained notoriety? What strategies have you used to expand your literary footprint?

Goodman: Get a desirable reader magnet and build your newsletter list; sign up for the festivals that fit your genre and engage with customers at your book table; convince customers to leave starred reviews at their favorite online bookstore and review sites, and give them the direct link(s) to those sites.

Author Tom Goodman, hiking McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Chanti: What are you working on now? What can we look forward to seeing next from you?

Goodman: I’m writing a novel around a minor character who showed up late in my debut novel. She’s in her 70s when readers meet her as a boardinghouse owner in The Last Man. I go back to 1905 when she was 35. It’s turning out to be a gentler family drama as opposed to the grim and violent story of my first novel. But I’m liking it so far. After that, I’ll probably return to the crime genre. I’ve discovered a true story from the very early 1900s in East Texas about a “pistol-packing preacher” who faced down a violent gang of bootleggers who was shredding his town to bits. Irresistible story!

Chanti: Before we let you go, who is the perfect reader for your book?

Goodman: Someone who likes historical fiction that closely tracks with real characters and events.

Chanti: Thank you, Thomas Goodman, for sharing your author journey with us. I am looking forward to seeing you at the next Chanticleer Authors Conference!

You can follow Thomas Goodman through his Facebook page here.

Thomas Goodman won the Laramie 2023 Grand Prize for his amazing true crime/historical fiction novel, The Last Man! And also, because he believed in his work enough to enter it into the Laramie division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards…

In other words, if you don’t enter, you will never know how your work stacks up against the other entries.

If you want a shot at the HONOR of Laramie Americana & Western Awards for 2024, don’t delay, enter the Laramie B00k Awards today!

August 7, 2024
ROLLING HOME, Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 5 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail, Mystical & Supernatural Fiction

David Fitz-Gerald concludes the Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series with a grand finale for an eclectic cast of characters, as the long wagon train is finally Rolling Home to their new lives in the wild west of Oregon.

With the end of the trail just out of reach, however, their hopes dwindle and their hunger rages. The rigor of the western environment continues to test their determination and threaten vows of heartfelt romance. These weary people ache and mourn losses, while seeking new ways to survive and pull each other forward in the face of impending winter.

This wagon train of travelers will also face venomous villains who have been lurking in the shadows, outlaws waiting for their best opportunity to pounce.

Now they feel the traveling train is at its weakest, and strike without mercy. Dorcas and her family are in a desperate situation, clinging to the hope of a better life ahead. But even if they can hang on to reach that final destination, they doubt whether the life they’d planned in Oregon is still the future they want.

Injured at the beginning of this final leg of their journey, Dorcas Moon struggles desperately to keep her family together.

Her young children have had to rapidly grow up and take on responsibilities well beyond their years in order to keep pace with this treacherous, unpredictable life. Surrounded by perils, their joys are fleeting and cannot be taken for granted.

Fellow travelers have become friends and family, tying their futures together, and Dorcas feels the weight of responsibility for all of their dreams.

Dorcas’s children are pulled deeper into the world of spirits and the paranormal. Even Dorcas begins a tentative connection with those forces. She must also open herself to feelings in the material world— she had been resistant to embracing the love she has for Agapito, but now she can no longer hold back. Does he feel the same?

The wagon train keep moving, but at times with a painful slowness. When they roll through snow on the trail, their fear becomes tangible. If they’re caught in the heights of the mountains when winter descends, warmth and safety will be impossible to reach.

Disagreement among the travelers on the best way forward fuels those fears. Decisions need to be made and mistakes can be deadly. The dangers of river crossings claim Dorcas’ own belongings and wagon. And when the outlaws strike, Rose and Dorcas herself are both kidnapped. Precious lives are lost and more surprises yet wait in store. Will they ever see the promised land of Oregon?

Our wagon master, author David Fitz-Gerald, has skillfully guided readers on an epic journey to a time and mode of travel that excites the imagination and pushes the limits of suspense.

His story is compelling from the first book all the way through to this incredible end of the trail. The growth of the characters through their adventures, sacrifices, and joys along the way shows human nature’s persistence and people’s dedication to each other. As long as there is the glimmer of hope, Dorcas and her band will set their sights on the future, and set their wagon wheels Rolling Home.

The Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series by David Fitz-Gerald won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Series Awards for Genre Fiction.

August 7, 2024
Making Character Introductions Memorable from the Desk of Editorial Assistant Scott Taylor
Think of Characters like Speed Dating

Is he actually cute?

Who is This Guy and Why Should I Care?

Writers often fall in love with our characters before their names ever appear on a page. They’re charming, intimidating, scrappy, and clever. Most of all, they matter to us.

But how do you get the reader to agree that this brainchild of yours is worth checking out? Like all good first impressions, shaping how your character enters the story is important.

This introduction will shade every other moment the character will have. Here are three tips to give your characters the best chance at a second date.

Lights, Camera, Action!

When the character enters they need to be doing something important. Maybe it’s key to the plot, maybe to themselves or another person—or, even better, both.

We see characters through their actions: What they’re capable of, what they’re willing to do, what they want. And seeing what someone is in a position to do tells the reader almost everything they need to know about the role that person will play in the broader story.

In her sci-fi novel A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers introduces the character Owl by having her save a young girl’s life.

She felt some spit hit the back of her leg.

The voice changed. ‘Hey! This way! Come towards me!’

There was no time for questions. Jane 23 ran at the voice.

A machine stuck out from one of the scrap piles, a huge machine with thick sides and — and a door.

Though Owl is only known as a nameless, disembodied voice at this point, she’s already a meaningful character—a sanctuary of kindness in an otherwise horrifying ordeal.

This immediately establishes a dynamic between Owl & Jane 23—savior and saved. With this foundation, Chambers develops a deep and resonant relationship between the characters, as Owl guides Jane 23, encouraging her to keep going despite all the danger and hardship around her.

This introduction also serves the function of pushing the plot forward. Jane 23 has her first real chance at survival. She escapes the beasts—for now.

While not every character needs such a dramatic entrance, consider whether some of your characters might be well-illustrated by emphasizing them first with action. This may be delivering a casserole to a grieving widow, binding a magical beast in chains of cold iron, or stuffing a wedding invitation deep at the bottom of a cluttered drawer.

And speaking of drawers…

In what environment do we first find your character?

A prison cell implies too much to list here. Go deeper. Ask yourself what does your character have on the wall of their prison cell? This is a great opportunity for contrast. You can show how your character relates to the world around them, how they clash or are at peace with it.

This tells the reader what kind of power they hold. Remember, that also means what kinds they clearly do not. If your character visits wealthy distant relatives, are they put in an opulent guest room or are they relegated into the former servant’s quarters?

Loren Eiseley opens his short story, The Star Thrower, with an impactful example of contrast and powerlessness. The protagonist muses on how he’s come to a place called Costabel, concluding that his arrival there might have been simply inevitable. He immediately relinquishes his agency, which is given significant meaning by the description of the beach itself.

The beaches of Costabel are littered with the debris of life. Shells are cast up in windows; a hermit crab, fumbling for a new home in the depths, is tossed naked ashore, where the waiting gulls cut him to pieces. Along the strip of wet sand that marks the ebbing and flowing of the tide, death walks hugely in many forms.

He isn’t just resigned to the idea that he would inevitably end up somewhere—but here. A place where uncaring fate casts vulnerable creatures to their deaths. It’s easy to see the kinship he shares with them.

This gloomy introduction reveals his lack of self-worth and deep sorrow, which, crucially, frames the protagonist’s experiences and transformation through this story.

What’s Your Problem?

So, why are you still single?

Characters are most interesting when they’re actively dealing with their big conflict!

This is obvious with protagonists, but especially consider also how you can flesh out the side characters or antagonists. A conflict-focused introduction establishes where a character stands in the plot as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Armistead Maupin opens Tales of the City by immediately connecting us with the inner conflict of the protagonist.

We meet Mary Ann just as she’s made the decision not to come home to the Midwest, and instead stay in San Francisco. She has no job here, no apartment, but when she calls her mom about her decision, she’s resolute—more than resolute, she’s excited.

“Her mother began to cry. ‘You won’t come back, I just know it.’

‘Mom… please… I will. I promise.’

‘But you won’t be… the same!’

‘No! I hope not.’”

In much of Mary Ann’s following story, she embraces and struggles with the culture of 1970s San Francisco, as she’s pulled along by the bay winds of fate. And right here at the start, the contradictions in her character are established.

She’s impulsive, terribly so. Desperate to be part of a wider world. Perhaps careless, maybe unprepared, a stranger in the place she now calls home, but she’s alive! Readers fall in love with Mary Ann because she needs to be free from the world she came from, and because she has the bravery to take that risk.

This leads to a hint of trouble yet to come. As Mary Ann claims her adult life, she’ll struggle with new and changing relationships. Her impulsiveness enthralls the readers and stresses her emotional connections.

Best Foot Forward

Next time you introduce a character revisit these three tips. Even if you choose a different introduction method, examine the essential parts of your characters and how those elements shine through in their first appearance. That spark—what makes them curious, important, worth reading a story about—will seize your readers and carry them through to see not only what becomes of those characters, but what they become.

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Even better, find a new Chanticleer Reviewed Book with a great introduction!
August 6, 2024
EVERYTHING WE HAD: No Merciful War Book 1 by Tom Burkhalter – WWII Aviation, Historical Fiction, Military History

Everything We Had, book one of Tom Burkhalter’s No Merciful War series is an inexorable thrill that will grip readers tight. It starts with a poker game, through which a main character’s luck soon becomes evident. But will that luck hold out?

Jack—the poker player—and Charlie—Jack’s older brother—have been separated by war, even though that war has yet to be declared. Everything We Had focuses more on the machinations leading up to US involvement in World War II than on actual combat. The gears of war that have so many young men caught in them move with gradual but inevitable force, and so Everything We Had takes a more thoughtful approach to a historic moment in time.

Connecting with the characters is a gradual process as you get to know the intricacies that make up their individual personalities. This sets the reader up to feel the emotions of the characters as they face an uncertain fate, and throughout the book the author’s clear and methodical research shines with details such as specific views, locations, and—most notably—comprehensive descriptions of the airplanes Jack and Charlie pilot. This allows the reader to become deeply familiar with the motivations of the characters and the capabilities of the airplanes they fly.

The importance of their family gradually emerges, too, through their mother’s letters and their memories of their father who flew racing planes. The more readers learn, the more attachment they feel to these characters, giving weight to the growing danger they face.

Even side characters in Everything We Had have names, hometowns, and sweethearts they’ve left behind. This grants a sense of truth in the actual people who were lost to war.

Readers may not track every last piece of information—especially the technical details of planes and flight—but the story remains accessible, with its most important details emerging with time. Like flying a P-26, it takes a bit of patience and skill to follow everything in this book, but Burkhalter trusts his readers to keep up.

The perspective switches between Jack, Charlie, and occasionally Al, who becomes Charlie’s navigator. Al’s viewpoint lends interest at first, but Everything We Had focuses on Jack and Charlie’s narratives as they become more complex and dire.

Through dialogue, readers start to piece together the puzzle: why Jack and Charlie’s father is gone, who Jack’s mysterious love interest is, and the strength of Charlie’s desire to be a leader. Burkhalter makes good use of dialogue for exposition as readers see how the war gradually unfolds, and how little information the men prepping for combat are told. For much of the book, Jack and Charlie aren’t even sure of each other’s whereabouts.

Sensory descriptions help ground this intricate story.

A few wonderful flying scenes—including Jack flying in challenge to a rival pilot—give physicality to the technical descriptions of planes. Small details, like a black Bakelite telephone, and a manila envelope holding mysterious contents, make the narrative even more tangible—not to mention historically accurate. Character descriptions remain simple, but with so many named characters in the story, this helps avoid overwhelming the reader with information.

The book uses true-to-form period language and stereotypes of US enemies. While this can make for an uncomfortable read at times, it serves the book’s historically-accurate illustration of a growing conflict. However, the main characters show their good hearts. They speak respectfully of women and, for the most part, of each other. In fact, a sense of camaraderie grows steadily even among former rivals as the war creeps closer.

When the war arrives, late in the book, it shakes the reader like a stone thrown into the still pond of the characters’ lives, who wait for war with a growing sense of apprehension.

With war, of course, comes injury and more death than these characters have ever seen.

Yet Burkhalter steers away from lurid, bloody descriptions and instead focuses on how the violence affects Jack and Charlie internally as people. They come from a privileged background, with a healthy dose of luck, and have distinguished themselves each as leaders by the time war arrives. Yet it’s far from certain that these accolades will help protect them from the hopeless-sounding odds: the US is under-prepared and low on supplies, while the enemy has at least one ace in the hole.

After such a carefully paced book, the ending comes quickly, and leaves some loose ends untied, nudging readers to continue with this fascinating series.

Thanks to Burkhalter’s meticulous research, real events, places, and even people in the early Pacific war get a well-deserved remembrance in the form of fiction.

The No Merciful War series by Tom Burkhalter won First Place in the CIBA Series Awards for Fiction Series.

August 5, 2024
MAJOR JAKE FORTINA And The TIER ONE THREAT by Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Terrorism Thriller, International Mystery & Crime, Global Thriller

Why would Iranian terrorists break into a Paris cemetery and steal the bones of an American Jewish WWI veteran? The answer lies in the deadly parallel history of WWI and the Spanish flu, but it’s a mystery that Jake Fortina will have to uncover in Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke’s thriller, Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat.

During WWI, the Spanish Flu killed millions of people—some estimates as high as 100 million—but a Jewish nurse tossed off the flu like a cold and continued to serve her country. Iran’s leaders believe the DNA in her bones will let them develop a virus that could kill Americans and Israelis by the millions while simultaneously developing immunity for Iran’s own population.

This threat drives the story as it reaches deep into multiple countries and their governments, who collectively try to figure out the importance of the bones theft and, ultimately, what to do about it.

Jake Fortina is an Army foreign area officer, a special position designed to handle international and political-military duties. He’s called to work with an FBI agent in France to track down the terrorists, but must be careful so they can derail the plot and arrest the perpetrators.

The chase starts in Paris and winds its way eventually to the Italian coast. Jake’s skills are more diplomatic than James Bond as he navigates the complex relationships between multiple governments.

Even the carrying of a weapon by an American agent into some countries is forbidden unless specifically approved by a government agency. Jake and his fellow officers must swim in these political waters in order to track down the terrorists.

This novel favors patriotism, professionalism, and process over slam-bang cinematic action. Virtually every aspect of Jake’s actions, his relationships with colleagues, the cooperation of governments—from heads of states to ordinary agency and military officials— is spelled out in detail. Author Steinke paints Jake’s intricate world with undeniable authenticity.

Readers will enjoy a well-written thriller and come away with a better understanding of how the real world works (or should work) when confronted by an existential threat. It is at once a novel and an education in international diplomacy and coordination, balancing all aspects well.

August 2, 2024
The 2024 Long List JOURNEY Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction
The Journey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Journey 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 true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2024 Journey Non-Fiction entries to the 2024 Journey Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2024 Journey Short List. 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 (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 Four Points by Sheraton sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2024 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the Long List authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
- Michael Salsbury – Running From Tragedy
- Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
- Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
- Shannon Bohrer – Judicial Soup
- Judie Dziezak – Petals from Mars: A Memoir of Resilience and Triumph over Adversity
- Carolyn Saletto – One Hazel Green Eye
- M. Lorrie Miller – Invitation to Co-Creation: A Spiritual Path from Child Abuse and Religious Trauma to Love, Healing, and Oneness
- Tamra McAnally Bolton – His 100th Year
- Kirsten Throneberry – Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
- Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
- Aja Mia – The Heartbreak of Time Travel
- Jennifer Gasner – My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
- Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
- Jill Vanneman – The Betterment Campaign
- C.J. Hudson – Destiny Lives on Fairhaven Street
- Linda M. Lockwood – Sky Ranch: Reared in the High Country
- Etsuko Diamond Miyagi – Diamond – The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan
- Karen Elizabeth Lee – The Village That Betrayed its Children
- Liz Alterman – Sad Sacked
- Anne Gately – Sunburnt – A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer
- Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, you say?
- Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
- Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
- Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
- Ernestine Whitman – Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
- Jacqueline Acho – Cancer Culture: Fixing the Landscape by Infusing Empathy
- Kathi N. Miner – The Committed Professor – My Fall from the Lectern to the Ward
- Jennifer Cramer-Miller – Incurable Optimist: Living with Illness and Chronic Hope
- Bridey Thelen-Heidel – Bright Eyes
- Ginelle Testa – Make a Home Out of You
- Deborah L. Staunton – Untethered
- E. Adrienne Wilson – I’d Rather Be Dead Than Deaf: A Young Woman’s Journey with Liver Cancer
- Lindsey Henke – When Skies Are Gray
- Turtle – Turtle
- Heidi Beierle – Heidi Across America – One Woman’s Journey on a Bicycle through the Heartland
- Claudia Marseille – But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
- Mary Jumbelic, M.D. – Here, Where Death Delights
- Lisa Rhyne – Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet
- David H. Hutton – Drums of a Distant Tribe
- Tracy Mayo – Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self
- Marsha Jacobson – The Wrong Calamity
- Anna Casamento Arrigo – Weeds Beneath the Open Meadows
- Ana Manwaring – Saints and Skeletons A Memoir
- David Vass – Liar, Alleged
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

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

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 JOURNEY Awards is:

Barbed: A Memoir

By Julie Morrison

See the full list of 2023 First Place Journey Winners here!

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Journey Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2024 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 3 – 6, 2025! Save the Date for Registration!

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

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
August 1, 2024