Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

The 2023 CLUE Book Awards for Suspense/Thrillers – CIBAs Long List
The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Clue Suspense/Thriller Fiction entries to the 2023 Clue Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Clue 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 (CAC24).

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 21st, 2024 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2023 Clue Book Awards novel competition for Thriller/Suspense Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Roxana Arama – Extreme Vetting: A Thriller
- Craig H. Bowlsby – Requiem for a Lotus
- Nancy Adair – The Appearance of Guilt
- Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
- Joanne Jaytanie – Retrieving Remy, The Winters Sisters Book 5
- Jeremy Gluck – Face Value
- Ana Manwaring – Backlash Venom and Vendetta from ‘Nam
- Mikky Eagle – Burden of Proof – the Freya Files – A Most Despicable Deed of Arson
- B. C. Howard – SEL
- Chuck Morgan – Crime Scene, A Buck Taylor Novel
- Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogotá
- Kevin G. Chapman – The Other Murder
- T.O. Paine – The Excursion
- Corey Lynn Fayman – Gillespie Field Groove
- Paty Jager – Damning Firefly
- Mary Desch – Tangled Darkness
- Jonny Thompson – Ash and Sun
- Jonny Thompson – Atlantis
- Charlotte Stuart – The Sham Shamus
- Charlotte Stuart – Forget or Forgive? NEVER
- Jim Nesbitt – The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
- Caroline Taylor – The Pit Road War
- Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
- Gar Mallinson – Night Moves: The Stroll Murders
- Mark Shaiken – Cram Down
- Joshua Cohen – Past Imperfect
- Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
- Ron Roman – Of Ashes and Dust
- E. Alan Fleischauer – Sherlock and the Tiger
- J. Luke Bennecke – Echo from a Bayou
- Mark James – Friendship Games
- George Brown – Who Killed Jerusalem?
- Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions
- Dave Lager – Sniper’s Day
- Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
- Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
- Alexandrea Weis & Lucas Astor – River of Ashes
  Kamille Roach – Pine Creek
- Justin M. Kiska – Fact & Fiction
- Melissa L. Berger – What Mae Brings: A Novel
- Mike Van Horn – Controlled Flight
- Decima Blake – Hingston: Smoke and Mispers
- Cathi Stoler – With A Twist: A Murder On The Rocks Mystery
- Richard C. Brusca – The Time Travelers
- Bill Mesce, Jr – Median Gray
- Kathryn Lane – Missing in Miami
- Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
- D. R. Berlin – The Third Estate: Secrets of the Manor
- Lisa Towles – The Ridders
- Rita M Boehm – The Price of Revenge
- Philip Derrick – Saigon Spring
- Tejas Desai – The Dance Towards Death
- Martha Crites – Danger to Others
- Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
  Chris Chan – Ghosting My Friend
- Nina Romano – Dark Eyes
- McKinley Aspen – Praesidium
- Robert W. Smith – Long Way From Clare
- Jason Kapcala – Hungry Town
- V. S. Anderson – Three Strides Out: A Horse Show Novel of Suspense
- Howard Berk and Peter Berk – TimeLock
- T.E. Lane – The Cornbread Letters
- Brigitte Goldstein – Death of a Diva-From Berlin to Broadway
- Mary Keliikoa – Deceived
- Mary Keliikoa – Hidden Pieces
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 FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

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

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

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

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CLUE Awards is:

Have You Seen Me?

By Alexandrea Weis

The 2023 CLUE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC24 on April 20, 2024. Save the date for CAC24, scheduled April 18-21, 2024, our 12-year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2024 CLUE Book Awards are open now. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

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

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!
October 16, 2023
THE PENNY MANSIONS by Steven Mayfield – Historical Fiction, Mystery, Small Town Fiction

The Penny Mansions by Steven Mayfield, a historical novel of Paradise and Boise Idaho at the end of WWI, offers a concert of drama, comedy, and noir-tinged crime thriller.

The town of Paradise, Idaho, grew as a prospecting town, but the gold and people alike have dwindled. They no longer have a high enough population to keep the state government from taking the land through eminent domain. So, the town counsel puts an ad in papers across the country for families to purchase one of four mansions in town for only a penny. There’s a catch, of course – they must move in, fix the place up, and remain there for the next census count in 1920.

Readers will love the colorful characters who fill Paradise, from Bountiful Dollarhyde, an African American woman raised by the madam of what used to be the local bordello, to Lariot, a genius orphan skilled with rope tricks, and Goldstrike, an old prospector who gladly shares his strong opinions. These lively folk face a powerful threat. Gerald Dredd, a greedy land baron with a high office in the state government, uses his clout to bludgeon others into his schemes to ensure that Paradise doesn’t hit their all-important population count.

Through the people of Paradise, Mayfield explores themes of communities and found families – and what people will do to save them. He shows the dangers of government corruption gone unchecked until it creates malefic control.

Many of the characters are willing to sacrifice so much of themselves to save this small town in the Pacific Northwest frontier. And as the story pushes forward, even the newcomers to the town – not necessarily there in good faith at first – fall in love with the community and stand up against weaponized bureaucracy to save their newfound friends and home.

Mayfield’s writing style is extremely personable and fun.

The dialogue is playful and, at times, terrifying. Readers will connect with and worry for their favorite characters, and rightfully despise the antagonist and his willing compatriots. The Penny Mansions is also among the best depictions of a community banding together for a single cause.

There is a bit of a stylistic shift part way through the novel. After a major event, the story abruptly moves from a historic drama to a noir crime thriller. While this change might be jarring to some readers, the charm and humor of the book remains throughout.

The Penny Mansions will make readers chuckle and smile, and grimace with anger. Mayfield juggles emotion with ease, all while chugging the plot forward to intense confrontations.

October 16, 2023
Chanticleerians in the News! Journey Grand Prize Winner Mark Berridge on TEDx Brisbane
When your mission is to Discover Today’s Best Books, you come across good news regarding authors!

At 5pm PST (10am AEST) 10/13/23, TEDx Brisbane will begin. Around 5:16pm PST, Mark Berridge, the 2023 Journey Grand Prize Winner will take the stage and talk about his incredible journey chronicled in his book A Fraction Stronger. This article will be updated with a link to stream Mark’s talk as soon as it’s available!

We fortunate enough to hear Mark speak at CAC 23 where he received standing ovations! He is authentic, tenacious, and insightful! He finds belief and possibility in life’s impossible moments and is truly inspirational!
Mark Berridge to take Center Stage at TEDx Brisbane in Australia!

A Journey Grand Prize Winner and CAC Keynote Speaker, Mark constructively challenges pre-existing mindsets of his audience to inspire positive outcomes. He delivers stimulating perspectives from both his personal and professional experiences, from successfully negotiating multiple hundred-million dollar deals in his corporate career, to how he deals with uncertainty and adversity in his ongoing battle to overcome a devastating spinal cord injury.

Mark Berridge getting ready to present at TEDx

From TEDxBrisbane 2023: THE POWER OF INTENTION

Intention is a powerful thing. It takes a great idea and transforms it into determination. Determination to act, make a difference, grow, create, discover. To change minds, lives or perhaps the entire world.

The power of intention reflects the heart of the TEDxBrisbane community.

At TEDxBrisbane, we bring together thinkers, doers and changemakers on our stage and in our audience. We inspire, inform and challenge. We grow networks, spark and nurture collaborations, forge lasting communal memories, and generate intention and impact.

Curious to learn more?

Visit the TEDx Brisbane Facebook Page here

See Mark Berridge’s Personal website here

The Chanticleer Review of A Fraction Stronger

There’s still time!

Want to be a Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Winner like Mark? The last 11 CIBA divisions close in October! And submissions for the 2024 CIBAs are already open. You can see the full list of Awards here: https://test.chantireviews.com/contests/

The 2022 CIBA Blue Ribbon Winners

You know you want one!

Are you ready? Then Submit Today!

Why Opt for the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards?

Credibility: Our awards spotlight and guide readers to extraordinary writing. We are partnered with or recommended by ALLi, IBPA, Reedsy, and Book Award Pro.

Prestige: Whether it’s the Blue Ribbons, the Author Interview, or the Book Reviews, even advancing partway through a Book Award Program shows readers and publishing experts that you’re doing right by your book when it comes to marketing.

Support: The CIBAs are run by human beings, and we’re here for you. Each time you advance in our Tiers of Achievement, your name and book title are promoted on our high-traffic website, across social media, and in our newsletter.
October 13, 2023
The 2023 Shorts Award Long List for Short Stories and Essays
The Short Story Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in Short Stories, Essays, Novelettes, Novellas, Short Story Collections and Anthologies. The Short Story Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards program.

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Shorts in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Entries to the Shorts Book Awards Long List. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Shorts Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24). 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 20th, 2024 in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

Note: These are for Short Stories and Essays. There is a separate post for Novellas, Collections, and longer Essays

These titles are in the running for the Short List of the 2023 Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Collections and Anthologies!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Catherine Brown – The Heart of Kublai Khan’s Menagerie Keeper
- Catherine Brown – Finding Namaste
- Luray Embers – No Cat Is An Island
- A.J. McCarthy – A Rock
- A.J. McCarthy – The Strike
- Brian Feutz – Pity the Peasants
- Alice McVeigh – Pride and Perjury: A Jane Austenesque short story
- DL Fowler – Lincoln & the Dead
- Brittany Eden – Candles in the Dark from Fantasea
- Brittany Eden- Wishes
- Logan D. Irons – Bridge of Kings
- Sallie Barr Palmer – Conversation with a Vampire
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Sabbath
- Marie Sutro – Son Down
- Larry Sherrer – Spirit Letters
- Jay Ashkinos – June 18th, 2292: To the Forgotten
- PJ Devlin – Sea Purses
- Morgan Sloan – The Awakening
- Sharon E. Cathcart – Rose in Bloom
- Margaret Arross – Secret Pass
- S.M. Stevens – The Wallace House of Pain
- Robert S Phillips – The Great River
- George T. Arnold – Confession of a “Grammarholic”
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 FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

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

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

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

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SHORTS Awards is:

God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me

by Lori Lee Peters

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Short Story Awards is:

Old Man Baseball

by Mike Murphey

See the full list of Shorts 2022 Winners here (Collections)

And Here (Short Stories and Essays)

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Shorts Book Awards for Romance Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

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

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
October 13, 2023
The 2023 Shorts Award Long List for Novellas, Essays, and Collections
The Short Story Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in Short Stories, Essays, and Novellas. The Short Story Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards program.

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Shorts in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Entries to the Shorts Book Awards Long List. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Shorts Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions.

All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

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 20th, 2024 in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the Short List of the 2023 Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Collections, Novellas, and Essays!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Michele L. Sayre – A Ghoulish Good Time – Tales to Make You Scream
- Seán Thomas Dwyer – Tiptoeing Past the Dragon
- Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. – Miami Vengeance: A Griffin Knight Conspiracy Mystery
- Elizabeth Chesla – You Cannot Forbid the Flower
- David Joseph – I Didn’t Know What to Say, So I Just Said Thanks
- Louise Lenahan Wallace – The Windows of his Heart
- Brittany Eden – Wishes
- J. I. Rogers – The Korpes File Series – Short Stories: Vol 1
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Sabbath
- Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 4
- D. C. Gomez – Recruited
- Maziar Lahooti – Comanche & Djinn VS Grown-ups
- Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. – The Nocturnal Devil: A Griffin Knight Mystery Thriller
- Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. – The Windy City Terror: A Griffin Knight Horror Mystery
- Vali Benson – Blood and Silver
- Mary Ann Bernal – AnaRose and the Templar’s Quest
- JuJu – The Costly Wish
- Elizabeth R. Jensen – Fire and Wolves: A Tale of Etria
- Ekta R. Garg – The Truth About Elves
- Gary Baysinger – A Kind of Homecoming
- Paper Lantern Writers – Unlocked
- Celaine Charles – Stained Glass Secrets and Star Wishes
- Scott Swanson – Philly’s Bridge And Other Northwest Stories
- Charlie Aquavella – The Elevator – Forever Young
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 3 Cinéma Vérité
- Turtle – A Grading of the Human Species
- Laurie Stevens – The Devil and Daniela Webster
- Mack Little – Shelter in a Hostile World
- Tori Ross – Rocks
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 FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

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

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

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

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SHORTS Awards is:

God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me

by Lori Lee Peters

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Short Story Awards is:

Old Man Baseball

by Mike Murphey

See the full list of Shorts 2022 Winners here (Collections and Novellas)

And Here (Short Stories and Essays)

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Shorts Book Awards for Romance Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

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

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
October 13, 2023
IF YOU FIND ME WORTHY By Pam Landen – Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction

If You Find Me Worthy introduces forty-six-year-old Kate Baker, a woman who knows her own mind. As the former owner of a million-dollar private jet charter service, Kate is well established in the world of aviation as well as the world of CEOs.

Having started her career in the technology field, Kate is returning to her roots when her friend and former business partner asks her to use her technical expertise to assess the disaster recovery plan of North American Bank. She negotiates to exchange her assistance for a look into the bank’s lending practices for her study on the prejudice against female business owners.

Kate is certainly not looking for love. Having lost her husband to ALS years previously, she is focused only on her work, her son Stuart, and golf. However, when she meets Curtis Michaels, the CEO of North American Bank for the last seven years, she immediately feels an unfamiliar, and unwelcome, attraction. So begins If you Find Me Worthy by Pam Landen.

Curtis finds Kate exceptionally intriguing. He can’t help but constantly challenge the beautiful blonde.

A widower himself, Curtis has raised his daughter Sarah alone and carries the scars of his former bad relationship. He knows he shouldn’t even think about approaching Kate since she is temporarily working for his bank, but he can’t help himself.

The more Kate learns about Curtis, the more she realizes their similarities in the business and personal worlds, but Curtis’s demons threaten their fledgling relationship before it has a chance to truly blossom. She questions her ability to maintain her distance from the man who so clearly needs her help, but will the two be able to defeat the memories of his former life?

This novel’s greatest strength is character development.

Both Kate and Curtis have extreme depth. The pain from their former spouses has created a pain simultaneously unique to the characters while bearing striking similarities. Kate’s husband, Sam, left Kate with extreme feelings of inadequacy despite her running a successful business and caring for him during his illness. Their story is one Kate is embarrassed to admit to Curtis.

Unbeknownst to Kate, Curtis has his own shameful secret concerning his dead wife Carol. His trauma is, perhaps, the most critical to the novel’s plot as it keeps him from seeking future happiness with Kate. Though perfect for each other, the two have a chasm of hurt between them. The strength Kate has found through therapy and self-actualization won’t allow her to settle for less than Curtis’s full heart, but finding the patience to help him get the counseling he needs proves difficult. Numerous times, their relationship stands on shaky ground, but the growth of their love is endearing.

A major theme of the novel revolves around Kate’s research project – the treatment of women in business.

Kate must repeatedly prove herself in this “man’s world.” She faces extreme sexism from Jake, the lead marketing representative for the bank. His constant berating, questioning, and name-calling push Kate to her limit, but she refuses to allow Curtis to step in on her behalf. With few women in positions of power within the bank, Kate’s journey is entirely uphill with Curtis often throwing roadblocks in her path as well to test her business acumen.

An interesting twist is Kate’s acceptance of Curtis’s behavior. She sees Curtis as a flirt rather than an opponent. Though Curtis has macho-man control issues, his treatment of Kate is chivalrous and giving. She willingly gives up power to him on occasion, and she seems mostly unbothered by that power release. His validation of her feminism makes her feel like a beautiful, treasured woman for the first time in her life, and, in some way, actually accentuates her feminine power.

Behind the details of business and technology lies a touching romance. Recommended!

October 13, 2023
The 2023 HEARTEN Book Awards Long List for Inspiring & Uplifting Non-Fiction
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Hearten 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 2023 Hearten Non-Fiction entries to the 2023 Hearten Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Hearten 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 (CAC24).

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 20th, 2024 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2023 Hearten Book Awards novel competition for Uplifting and Inspirational Non-Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Lynne M. Kolze – Please Write: Finding Joy and Meaning in the Soulful Art of Handwritten Letters
- Anna Casamento Arrigo – Patience Insanity & Wisdom
- Lisa Niver – Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
- Syril Levin Kline – Inspiring Legacy: David and Carmen Kreeger’s Journey to Philanthropy
- Lally Pia – The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor
- Alexander V. Girman & Cynthia J Girman – A Voice from Heaven: From Earthly Struggles to Thriving in the Afterlife
- Duncan McLauren – Owning Your Destiny
- Terri Kim – The Enlightenment Stories Represented in the Samgook Yusa and the Princess Bari
- Julie Morrison – Barbed: A Memoir
- Alex Bisset – The Destination Birth
- Shanita Liu – Dear Durga: A Mom’s Guide to Activate Courage and Emerge Victorious
- Theo Boyd – My Grief is Not Like Yours: Learning to Live After Unimaginable Loss, A Daughter’s Journey
- Trudy Wells-Meyer – Some Things Are Simply Meant to Be
- Maria C. Palmer and Ruthie Robbins – On the Rocks
- Tony Jeton Selimi – The Unfakeable Code®
- Tony Jeton Selimi – A Path to Excellence
- Art Berman – Art in the Middle Ages: A Memoir of Midlife Renaissance
- Nove Meyers – Running Away From the Circus
- Patrick M. Garry – The Power of Gratitude: Charting a Path Toward a Joyous and Faith-Filled Life
- Nove Meyers – Running Away From the Circus
- Kate Hudson-Hall – Anxiety Hacks: Proven Techniques, Tools and Tips to Calmness
- Hollie Stuart – I Can See For Miles
- Cory Mortensen – The Buddha and the Bee
- Julie Scolnik – Paris Blue
- Cort Casady – Not Your Father’s America
- Elizabeth Rau – The Good Slope
- Joel Harris – Searching for Steve
- Steven Greenebaum – An Afternoon’s Dictation: Inclusive Revelation for the 21st Century
- Dian Seidel – Kindergarten at 60: A Memoir of Teaching in Thailand
- Aurita Maldonado – The Zen of Dancing in the Rain: Becoming One with the Storm
- Grant Harper Reid – The Apocalypto Kid Goes to College
- Nanette J. Davis Ph.D. – Raging Currents: Mental Illness and Family
- Catherine DeMonte – Beep! Beep! Get Out of My Way!: Seven Tools for Powerful Creation and Living Your Unstoppable Life
- Dr. Kelly Rabenstein – Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success (It’s All About Love)
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

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

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

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

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

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

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 HEARTEN Awards is:

Inner Trek
a reluctant pilgrim to the Himalayas

By Mohan Ranga Rao

Click here to see the 2022 Hearten Book Award Winners for Uplifting Non-Fiction

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Hearten Book Awards for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction & Memoir. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC24.
- Please click here for more information.
- See our Full List of Non-Fiction Divisions here!
Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony, sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

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

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!
October 12, 2023
Celebrate the 2023 Humor and Satire Hall of Fame

Humor and Satire Awards!

The Humor and Satire Awards are here to bring you a laugh!

***No Joke! The Humor and Satire deadline is October 31st!***

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring satire, humor, political ideology, parody, fantasy, and allegory or fable. The Deadline for the 2022 Humor and Satire Book Awards is the end of November.

Looking to learn more about the Humor and Satire Awards? Click here!

Lets take a look at the Winners of the Humor and Satire Award!

Delphic Oracle, USA
By Steven Mayfield

The Coen Brothers meet Garrison Keillor in Steven Mayfield’s quirky, offbeat, and often hilarious Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.

One June afternoon in 1925, seventeen-year-old Maggie Westinghouse, out walking alone as was her custom, comes upon a stranger in a railroad switch-house asleep on a pile of gunnysacks. Maggie, who has always stood a little apart from the town, has recently begun to experience visions that come upon her “in a leisurely way,” ending in a swoon and a restless sleep filled with exotic talk of which she later has no memory. No one knows what to make of it, but they soon will. After this afternoon’s chance encounter with July Pennybaker, a charming grifter on the lam, her world will never be the same. Neither will the town of Miagrammesto Station.

Eighty-nine years later, in the days leading up to and following the July 4th weekend, domestic dramas are playing out across Delphic Oracle, Nebraska (nee Miagrammesto Station).

Read more here!

Certified
By Roger Wilson-Crane

Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane is a multi-award-winning comedy-drama, following one man down three sharp turns in his life trajectory.

Based on real-life events, Certified shows the narrator’s birth, marriage, and death, three of the most significant milestones in human life. The book is divided into three sections.

“One Unexpected Birth” explores his flawed string of relationships until he meets Dawn, the love of his life. However, a woman from the past makes a comeback, threatening to shatter his newly found happiness.

“One Hapless Wedding” careens about his well-planned wedding in Puglia, Italy, which is trampled by Justin Timberlake who wants the same venue. “One Bizarre Death”, on the other hand, follows the loss of the narrator’s loved one and the pain and confusion that surrounds an unexpected death. Certified is full of humor, heart, and unexpected gems that one might find in a trunk of well-lived memories.

Read more here!

Arnold Falls
By Charlie Suisman

Charlie Suisman’s debut novel is a wonderful escape to a small fictional community in upstate New York. Here a melting pot of quirky residents brings Arnold Falls to life, a town with a unique history and charming inhabitants whose lives are intimately intertwined.

Settled in 1803 by the unscrupulous Hezekiah Hesper, the town for unknown reasons was named after Benedict Arnold. Adding to the oddities, the closest waterfall is twenty miles away. The area is known for sudden bursts of crab apple-size hail pelting the landscape without any scientific explanation. Hence the incentive for “Hail Pail Day,” a neighborly tradition surrounding the distribution of galvanized bucket head-coverings.

Suisman engagingly presents Jeebie Walker as the story’s primary narrator. A gay man in his early 40s, he moved north of the city in the hopes of a quieter life with his partner, Miles. Though things didn’t work out, Jeebie has settled into his fixer-upper, Queen Anne-style abode, and now seems a positive fixture in this hamlet.

Read more here!

The Kissing Rabbi
By Andy Becker

Based on a true story, Andy Becker’s tale The Kissing Rabbi is a smart, witty, and engaging novel that takes readers into the heart of a Jewish community in the Pacific Northwest.

Here a young, self-serving rabbi sets a town on edge when his salacious desires and personal financial agenda are brought to light by the people he was brought there to serve.

Rabbi Mishegas Dreidel, a young orthodox leader, arrives in the quiet town of Destiny, Oregon. His intentions seem noble as he opens up a synagogue in his basement and establishes a flock of dedicated followers.

Read more here!

My Only Sunshine
Lou Discher

Lou Dischler delivers an intricately woven story about one well-meaning boy who tries to make sense of the crazy he’s been born into. Get ready for one belly laugh of an adventure in My Only Sunshine.

Welcome to the Louisiana low country, home of 9-year-old Charlie Boone, a kid growing up in 1962. Charlie, a most unreliable narrator, concerns himself with giant wingless wasps and biting red velvet ants. Combine his critter-concerns with the legend of the giant slugs, the story of his mother taken up by a hurricane, and the episode of the puddle he and his brother dug that grew into a pond, then turned into a lake, and we have one wildly imaginative ride well-worth taking.

Dischler delivers an epic tale that shifts from Charlie’s first-person point-of-view with his youthful ignorance coloring his observations to his Uncle Dan’s and “Aunt” Lola’s in third-person point-of-view. While Charlie ages and grows in wisdom as the story progresses, his uncle never seems to gain a lick of sense. Dischler skillfully applies the laws of magic realism to Charlie’s wonderful way of viewing his world. Uncle Dan’s story, on the other hand, derives from an inept conman’s rap-sheet – from failed grifts to bank robbery bungles that succeed only by accident. Dischler guides us, normalizing the ridiculous to the point that the characters jump off the page and set up camp in your living room.

Read more here!

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Humor and Satire Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Humor or Satire story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Humor and Satire Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Humor and Satire Awards is your chance to shine!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners from CAC23!

And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

October 12, 2023
ROADS To The INTERIOR by W. Hans Miller – Poetry, Philosophical, Haiku

Roads to the Interior by W. Hans Miller is a journey through the interior of the mind, seeking to find answers, peace, and insight.

This book is inspired by, and dedicated to, the works of Matsuo Basho, the father of haiku and other spiritual writings. Haiku usually has a fixed pattern of three lines with a 5/7/5 syllable pattern – often referencing nature or reflecting on life – but the haikus within this book don’t always follow that tradition. Rather, Roads to the Interior turns the haiku’s reflective questions on the mind itself.

Each of this book’s three sections is filled with raw emotion, existential musings, and careful contemplation. Recurrent readings of this collection will allow readers to absorb yet more truths and insights.

Different poems make reference to many thinkers, writers, and literary characters.

“Part I – Wide Roads to the Interior”, considers struggle and longing. “Each Newborn Bubble” shares these truths: “Even Siddhartha had bad days. A dear friend tells me to persevere: don’t search for spring’s source, care for each newborn bubble.” In “Penance” the speaker says, “I’ll speak no more of my predicament, always fearing my words will mean less than they say. I’m taller now but wiser when I was seven…”

“Part II – Narrow Roads to the Interior”, reflects on the existential.

Poems such as “Longing to Trust the World” and “Nothing is the Answer” pull readers into this shift. “Paradise Lost” is shaped much like a cocoon, taking the reader from dust to revelation and then dust again. These poems draw on other authors such as (T.S. Elliot and Walt Whitman, and even the protagonist of Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”, through such lines as, “Mersault found a truth. A truth that brought light falling upon that which already lit his gentle indifference to the world. His death testimony cause peace and calm to warp their arms around an unfinished circle on his brow.”

The final section, “Your Brain’s Secret Interior Life: Seven Poems”, comes with an epilogue of the author’s journey through the complexity of the human mind. These last poems provide thoughtful considerations in the pursuit of understanding the Road to the Interior that each one of us must walk.

October 11, 2023
Celebrating the Military & Front Line Awards 2023 for Service to Others
Stories of Service to Others

The Military and Front Line Awards are here!

***Submissions are Open until the end of October***

You have until October 31st to submit and Enter the 2023 CIBAs!

We have long wanted to hold a Book Award Division for Narrative Non-Fiction that highlights the Service to Others embodied by those in our Military and Front Line Workers. You can enter the 2022 Military and Front Line Book Awards today!

The new Division honors the following Non-Fiction Narratives:
- Military and Armed Forces Service Narratives
- Medical Stories focused on Nurses, Doctors, Health Care Workers, and other Essential Workers
- Stories of Community Service Workers such as Firefighters and Police
- CARE, Peace Corps, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other service organizations
- Work in Agencies that serve their Community and Government
- Families of those who serve in these Community Roles
We’re honored to celebrate these Winners of the Military and Front Line Awards, as well as books that are in the spirit of this incredible genre.

Lost in Beirut
By Ashe and Magdalena Stevens

Seeking to “fill his vessel with the truth,” young Ashe Stevens joins his friends on a thrilling adventure beyond the safety of his comfortable American life to chase stardom in Beirut, Lebanon.

Leaving behind a raucous life of plenty in Hollywood – complete with hot dates, popularity, and financial success – to the unknown of the Middle East teaches Ashe to prioritize his values and beliefs. But nothing could prepare him for what’s coming next.

Journey with Ashe and his friends as they bring the rapper 50 Cent to Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East.” Along the way, Ashe dates not one, but two drop-dead gorgeous billionaires and falls head over heels for a blonde beauty to whom he promises to devote his life. But just as business is booming and true love reaches the height of bliss, the Israeli military bombs their beautiful city, “weaving a tapestry of death all over the night sky.” The team barely makes it out with their lives in a harrowing escape, leaving their love and livelihoods behind.

Read More Here

Dear Bob: Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War II
By Martha Bolton with Linda Hope

During World War II, Bob Hope traveled almost ceaselessly to outposts large and small, entertaining US troops – and inspiring them; Martha Bolton brings the extent of this work to light in Dear Bob.

Writer Martha Bolton worked with and for comedian Bob Hope. Now, with Hope’s daughter Linda, she has gathered and organized the letters written to Bob by the soldiers he helped.

Hope, English born, and born to entertain, once said he could not retire and go fishing because “Fish don’t applaud.” Among his sizzling lines – and there are hundreds recorded here – he told one audience that he’d gotten a wonderful welcome when he arrived at their camp: “I received a 10-gun salute… They told me on the operating table.”

His performances could have been forgotten were it not for the letters from soldiers of every stripe, and those soldiers’ families – who did not forget him.

Read More Here

The Color of the Elephant
By Christine Herbert

“The toughest job you’ll ever love.” That was the original slogan for the Peace Corps, one that Christine Herbert found to be wholly true, as she shows in The Color of the Elephant, a journal of her time serving in Zambia from 2004 to 2006.

This is a story about the journey rather than the destination. After all, the destination of any posting with the Peace Corps is the place you first came from, hopefully leaving something positive behind, and having changed and been changed by the experience.

For the author, her experience was that of a muzungu, a word synonymous in southern, central, or eastern African countries with foreigners such as Peace Corps volunteers and Doctors without Borders.

Read More Here

General in Command- Hearten 1st Place 2020
By Michael M. Van Ness

Michael M. Van Ness, the grandson of “the general in command,” has created a remarkable biography chronicling the adventures of a farm boy who rose high rank in the US military and served with distinction in two world wars as a combatant, officer, and sage observer.

Born in 1891, John Benjamin Anderson must have had considerable intelligence as well as patriotism and grit, since he was accepted at West Point Military Academy at age 19, an honor conferred on only 130 applicants per year—and finished in the top third of his class. He would soon serve under General Pershing in the Mexican War, giving him the experience of combat and coincidentally, his first ride in an automobile. That deployment earned him inclusion in Pershing’s ranks in World War I. It was then his diaries began, and though he protested humorously that “I hate to write,” these personal recollections give readers an up-close picture of the devastation of warfare.

Read More Here

Fly Safe
By Vicki Cody

Not many people can capture the emotions that coincide with war, but Vicki Cody joins the ranks of those who do in her wartime memoir, Fly Safe: Letters from the Gulf War and Reflections from Back Home.

This powerful memoir shows us the behind-the-scenes lives of the women, children, and families left at home while their soldiers set off for war, bringing us close to their raw vulnerability. Fly Safe fascinates as it informs readers of what one wife experiences as her commander husband leads his battalion to the middle east.

Cody takes us back in time to the early 1990s when the first President Bush called up troops in an operation called “Desert Shield,” which turned into Desert Storm. She captures the events that led up to our first conflict in the middle east, but far from being strictly pedantic and historical, centers on the warmth, love, and fears that most of the wives were experiencing. Her letters from her husband – and her journal entries read like daily affirmations and blend well in telling this story.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Military and Front Line Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Military and Front Line Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Military and Front Line Awards is your chance to shine!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners from CAC23!

And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
October 11, 2023