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The 2025 SEA Shorts Awards Long List for Short Stories, Essays, and Novellas
The SEA Shorts Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Short Stories. The Shorts Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The SEA Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Short Form Fiction, Narrative Non-Fiction and Essays. 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 from all of the 2025 SEA SHORTS entries to the 2025 SEA Shorts Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 SEA Shorts Award Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 SEA Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Short Stories!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- AJ Skelly – Murder at Mistlethwaite Manor
- Amichai Kolberg – A Sweet and Faithful Lullaby
- C. V. Lee – Her Noble Groom
- Catherine Brown – Purrfect Revenge
- Cathryn Devries – Son of Osivirius
- Charlie Robinson – Bow Tie Sex a Serious Scientific Study
- Chell Linn Araya – Don’t Talk To Strangers
- Christopher Macdonald – The Wobbly Man
- Dan Baltrusis Jr. – My Wife Was Right the Zombie Apocalypse
- David Fitz-Gerald – A Pioneer Christmas Beyond the Oregon Trail
- Don Jacobson – The Last Gift: An Austenesque Short Story
- Dr. Gregory Steinberg – No More To Lose Till Death Do Us Part
- Elizabeth Klein – Kingdom of Longing
- Gail Heath – Minuet
- Gail Noble-Sanderson – All Is Fair
- Grace Haygood – A Love To Call Home
- J. L Oakley – Mr. Brown Reads
- Jackson Kuhl – The Island of Small Misfortunes
- Jalon J Jakab – Inside the Walls
- Jamie Kirkpatrick – The Dreamcatcher
- Joseph Kovler – At the Corner of Hitler and Goering
- Julia Marie Davis – Catbird
- K. E. Adamus – Last Episode
- K. E. Adamus – Sanity Test
- K. E. Adamus – To Outwit the Fate
- Katherine Smith Dedrick – Tangled Verdict
- Kathleen Kaska – The Diary of Simone Lablanc
- Kregg P.J. Jorgenson – An Accidental Muse
- Kregg P.J. Jorgenson – Emotional Loss Prevention
- Lasse Toft – 70 Things You Can Do While Being Hospitalized
- Linda Griffin – Morgan’s Landing
- Linda Harris Sittig – B-52 Down the Night the Bombs Fell From the Sky
- Maggie Enriquez – The Rebirth of a Phoenix
- Marie Sutro – For the First Time
- Marie Sutro – Not the North Pole
- Marie Sutro – You Oughta Know
- Mary Ann Bernal – Anarose and Medusa’s Curse
- Morris Hoffman – Boy of Heaven
- Murray Eiland – Mount Zephon Gateway To Mot
- Murray Eiland – Philosopher of Fire
- Natia Khaduri – Leading with Love a Journey of Resilience and Impact
- Paisley Summer – The Movie Theatre
- PJ Devlin – Original Sins
- Richard Leslie Brock – Cephalonia
- Richard Leslie Brock – The Atonements
- Ruud Richardson – The Spy: A Short Story
- Sandra Wagner-Wright – The Life & Times of Sarah Good Accused Witch
- Sarena Straus – The Patchwork Man
- T.O. Paine – The Abduction
- TK Sheffield – Horse Thief: A Nomad Vet with a Score To Settle Takes on Horse Thieves in a Midwest Showdown
- TK Sheffield – The Glitching Ghoul: AI Terror at a Writer’s Retreat
Congratulations once more to the 2024 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for Short Prose

Something About Lizzy

By Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi

Click here to see the full list of 2024 SEA Shorts Book Award Winners for Short Stories and Essays.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 SEA Shorts Book Awards for Short Stories, Novellas, and Essays!

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! 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!
September 9, 2025
The 2025 Fiction Cover Design Awards (CCDAs) Long List
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Our design is inspired by books designed by the incomparable Coraline Bickford-Smith. Her simple, beautiful, and evocative designs do so much to make the book work as a visual ambassador, capturing the essence of story and compelling potential readers to pick it up, click on it, or share it with others. A well-designed cover signals professionalism, sets expectations for your genre, and serves as a powerful marketing tool to stand out in both digital and physical spaces.

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring clear genres, audience, time periods, typography, and longevity across genres of Historical Fiction, Romance, Literary, Satire, Speculative Fiction, and Youth Reads.

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CCDA Fiction entries to the 2025 CCDA Fiction LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 CCDA Fiction Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards novel competition for Fiction Books!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works:
- AJ Humphreys – Trip a Psychological Horror Novel
- Andrew D.H. Moore – Children of Solo
- Anne Polli – Mason the Magnificent
- McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio Shadows in the Wind Book Two
- Catherine M Mathis – Ines the Queens of Portugal Trilogy
- Charlie Robinson Cover by Ruth Noble – Bow Tie Sex
- Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
- Debbie Black Cover by Kelly Black – Deetjen’s Closet a Quest for Magic
- Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
- Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
- Erika Lynn Adams – Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder
- Gary Gabel – The Constitution Kids
- George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
- Glen Dahlgren – The Wrath of Order
- Gregg Brandalise – The Death of Us All
- JL Spears – Daemon Protocol
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- KD Straus – To Be True
- Leslie Liautaud- Butterfly Pinned
- Margaret Porter – Sequins and Starlight
- Maria Giuseppa – R&R a Feast of Words
- Mark A. Gibson – Roses in December
- Michael Bailey – Sweet Hunger
- Michele Sayre – Darke Realms One Tough Temporary She Alpha Arcana 2
- Miki Taylor – Bentley Makes a Dump Cake
- Once Upon a Dance – A Tail of Twirls
- Richard G Nixon – The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon the Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509
- Sarah V Barnes – She Who Rides Horses a Saga of the Ancient Steppe Book One
- Sarah V. Barnes – A Clan Chief’s Daughter
- Sean Hagerty – Cabal
- Sue C. Dugan – Cat-Atonic
- Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
- Susan Rogers – Warrior Pose
- Sydney Roubian – Scarecrow Finds a Heart
- Tamar Anolic – The Keepers
- Theresa Janson – Reservations a Samantha Wright Crime Series
- T.O. Paine – The Crisis
- Travis Davis – War on the Porch
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

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

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations to our very first Fiction Cover Design Grand Prize Winner!

Luna, Rhone & Stone Book Two

By Strider S.R. Klusman

Click here to see the rest of the 2024 Winners.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards for Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! 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!
September 9, 2025
The 2025 Harvey Chute Spotlight for Business & Finance
Mastering Financial Success!

The Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, financial literacy and strategic thinking have never been more crucial. From navigating investment complexities to building sustainable business models, professionals and entrepreneurs need reliable guidance to thrive. The Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance celebrate the exceptional works that provide this essential knowledge, recognizing authors who translate complex financial concepts into actionable insights that empower readers to take control of their economic futures.

Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!

We’re proud to celebrate our 2024 Harvey Chute Division Grand Prize Winner, Jacqui Clarke for her transformative guide Stop Worrying about Money. This comprehensive work goes beyond traditional financial advice to address the psychological and practical aspects of money management. Clarke, described as “Australia’s best-kept money secret,” delivers a holistic approach that helps readers clarify their values, set realistic goals, and build genuine financial security. Her book tackles everything from combating expense creep and avoiding common money traps to overcoming setbacks and mastering long-term planning, all while maintaining an accessible and encouraging tone.

What sets Stop Worrying about Money apart is its emphasis on financial literacy as a journey of self-awareness rather than merely a destination of wealth accumulation. As our review noted, Clarke “blends theoretical financial advice with pragmatic applications, incorporating real-life examples, case studies, and interactive exercises” that transform potentially dry subject matter into engaging and digestible content. The book addresses critical issues from building a trusted “finance village” of advisors to understanding the impact of financial decisions on personal relationships. Clarke will be invited to participate in a Chanticleer Author Interview, offering readers deeper insights into her expertise and approach to financial empowerment.

The Harvey Chute Awards recognize the full spectrum of business and finance literature, encompassing categories from traditional Finance and Investing & Money to contemporary essentials like Social Media, Technology Guides, and Communications. This comprehensive approach reflects the reality that modern business success requires mastery across multiple disciplines, whether you’re developing a Motivational framework, crafting Business Strategy, understanding Economics, or building Marketing expertise.

Explore All Business & Self-Help Divisions

The Harvey Chute Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of transformative non-fiction:
- Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment: Spiritual growth, mindfulness, meditation, and personal enlightenment
- I&I Awards for How-To and Self-Help: Practical guides, self-improvement, skill development, and instructional works
The Doctor’s Voice
By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli

A Harvey Chute First Place Winner!

Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.

Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.

Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.

Read More Here

The Money Map
By Kasey J. Claytor

A Mind and Spirit First Place Winner!

“There is something magical about money—the way it appears and disappears, grows and shrinks, and, in a similar way of taming a hesitant wild horse, with calm assuredness and confidence, not only will you learn to control it, but you will find you can joyfully master it.” -Author Kasey J. Claytor

Claytor insists that every successful endeavor starts with an individual’s thinking and beliefs. She details this concept – and how to live with it in mind – in her new book, The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success.

From the onset of her business-oriented career, Claytor has drawn from her beliefs as she upholds financial success as a spiritual goal. In this volume, she takes the mystery out of money to show it as an extension of the mind, body, and spirit. Claytor ensures the beginning of an endearing journey toward clearer financial decision-making, investments, and goals by asking readers to identify the worries of their own ego and to eliminate unproductive ideas and actions.

Read More Here

Tax MythBusters
By Lily Tran

Tax MythBusters: Don’t Fall Prey to the Tax Misconceptions, compiled by tax professional Lily Tran with essays by other financial, tax, and accounting professionals, gives valuable insight into the myths of what can and cannot be claimed as a deduction for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This work provides tips and strategies to optimize tax planning and make the most of available deductions. As the foreword reminds the reader, “Knowledge is power when it comes to taxes,” adding that gaining a better understanding of the tax rules and regulations will allow you to “make smart financial decisions and protect yourself from unnecessary risks.”

The essays that make up this work are short, succinct, and to the point about the pitfalls and challenges that face small business owners, framing these dangers as “myths.”

Read More Here

Reconfigurement
By E. Alan Fleischauer

Chanticleers 2022 Harvey Chute Grand Prize Winner!

A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”

Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.

In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurement combines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.

Read More Here

These reviews represent just a glimpse of the strategic insights and practical wisdom waiting to be discovered in today’s business and finance literature.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional business and finance works we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Harvey Chute Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous outstanding titles as they advanced through our competition tiers. In a market flooded with millions of books, professional recognition cuts through the noise. The CIBAs provide ongoing promotion that maximizes your digital footprint and expands your readership through:
- High-traffic website features
- Social media promotion across established platforms
- Newsletter spotlights like this reaching thousands of industry professionals
- Long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

You wouldn’t hide a business! Don’t hide your book!

The business and finance market continues to demand fresh perspectives and proven strategies, with professionals, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking guidance they can trust and implement. Whether your work provides innovative investment strategies, practical business solutions, cutting-edge technology insights, or foundational financial education, the Harvey Chute Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your expertise deserves.

Business and finance literature has the unique power to transform lives, build wealth, and create sustainable success. From comprehensive guides that help readers master complex financial concepts to targeted strategies that solve specific business challenges, every expertly crafted work has the potential to become an essential resource. Don’t let your knowledge remain untapped! Enter the Harvey Chute Awards today and join the distinguished authors who’ve found their professional audience through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Harvey Chute Awards today! Deadline: September 30th

You know you want it…
September 8, 2025
LANDER’S GATE by Kevin S. Moul – Supernatural Suspense, Conspiracy Thriller, Mystical

What fears, desires, passions, and talents in our bodies are shaped by past cycles? Lander’s Gate by Kevin S. Moul merges such Buddhist teachings of reincarnation with suspenseful fantasy into a riveting thriller.

Lander Gate has the ability to access others’ past lives and relive that experience with them, spinning new stories that change the course of their futures. Through its cinematic setting and rich language, Lander’s Gate encourages readers to remain curious about their past lives and current passions.

Our window to Lander opens on October 26th, 2009. A bruised and battered man wakes up on the street without any memories, only a hospital bracelet with the name “Lander Gate” and the strange ability to walk through the stories of others’ past lives.

Despite his unfortunate circumstances, Lander is determined to make the best out of his situation. Somewhat aware that his experience in Wrimo Hospital was haunted by extreme violence, Lander hides on the streets of Phoenix, Arizona. He learns to endure the discrimination faced by the houseless community, trading support for his newfound skills at life-changing storytelling.

In experiencing moments of others’ past lives, Lander makes himself vulnerable to overwhelming emotion but wields a vast amount of affective power.

He solves past and future crimes, inspires people to locate their hidden talents, and reaches into people’s psyches to reveal the origin of their deepest fears. However, Lander’s powers drain him even as they save his life. Each time he makes contact with another’s past, they spiral into a doubled experience that merges the present and the past. “You can think of it as being in two times at the same place,” Lander explains. He must walk the line between using his talents for the benefit of his community and drowning in an infinite pool of the past.

Along the way, Lander gathers a collection of friends who benefit from his gifts and join him on his mission to understand his own origins and destroy Wrimo Hospital’s evil core: the powerful Dr. Aradice. Tracing the story of Aradice’s past medical abuse and finding empowerment between the lines, Lander learns to understand his power, accept his story, and receive love from others.

Lander’s Gate is steeped in enlightening Buddhist principles that allow readers to imagine a humanity built on shared experiences, intentional care, and honesty.

Readers who are drawn to morally complex narratives, Eastern philosophy, and action-packed mystery will find Lander’s Gate by Kevin S. Moul impossible to put down.

September 8, 2025
The 2025 Dante Rossetti Hall of Fame for YA Fiction

Got a Young Adult in your life?

The Dante Rossetti Awards finds the best books for them!

The Dante Rossetti Awards celebrate stories that bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood. Young readers exist in a liminal space, and we are pleased to feature Young Adult Fiction in the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Join us in celebrating the previous Grand Prize Winners of the Dante Rossetti Awards!

The Realm of Gods: The Chronicles of Chaos Book 3
By Glen Dahlgren

Our review for the newest Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what GoodReads readers have been saying:

“I honestly cannot begin to describe how much I loved The Realm of Gods!! I’ve been so very invested over all four books and I’m so very sad it’s come to an end – but what an ending it was!

I’m not even sure what to say without spoiling it, I’m still absolutely reeling from how epic the ending was!!

think I’ve gone through just about every emotion reading these books. I’ve laughed, I’ve grieved, I’ve whooped with joy – even nearly throwing my phone (always at those halfway points) and the ending literally gave me goosebumps it was just brilliant!!”

-Toni

“The Realm of Gods is an epic conclusion to The Chronicles of Chaos series, and I absolutely LOVED it. The story picks up right where the last book left off, diving straight into the action. The world-building is fantastic, and the characters continue to grow in ways that feel natural yet surprising. I especially appreciated how even the villains were complex and interesting, making the stakes feel higher and more intense. Listening to the audiobook added another layer of immersion, and the narration really brought the characters to life.

This final book wraps up the series beautifully, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you hooked. The pacing is perfect, and the emotional depth of the story shines through. If you’re a fan of epic fantasy like The Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time, this is definitely a series worth diving into. Highly recommend!” -Amber

“The Realm of Gods is a perfect ending to a great series however this reader is very hopeful the author will add to the series in the future. Like with the previous books I found the story to be interesting and captivating and just an absolutely fun, thought-provoking read.” -Dwayne

Sour Flower

A Manuscript

By Maryanne Melloan Woods

Sour Flower, the unpublished feel-good coming-of-age novel by Maryanne Melloan Woods, contrasts the joys of teen friendship with the hardships of growing up in a broken family.

As a fourteen-year-old in 1970s San Francisco, Marigold (call her “M”) Hayes is fed up with her life.

M is very much aware of her role as the mature buzzkill in the family. Her parents, college dropouts and now divorced hippies, barely have it together. M often has to act as the mature adult for the sake of housing and basic necessities. With a spaced-out father who barely supports them and a mother who thinks her daughter is a square, it’s a miracle that M has kept her family afloat for so long.

When her English teacher suggests M apply to Barnum—an elite prep school offering scholarships to students in need—she dares to hope. Maybe this could give her a chance to pursue her dream of becoming a financially stable businesswoman.

Read More Here

Wages of Empire
By Michael J. Cooper

Michael J. Cooper’s latest historical fiction novel, Wages of Empire, draws readers into the perilous journey of sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair and his father into WW1. On this path, their lives will intersect with such historical figures as TE Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, the Arab nationalist Faisal ibn Hussein, the proto-Nazi and advisor to the German kaiser Guido von List, and Kaiser Wilhelm II himself.

Set in the summer of 1914 we find Evan living in the American southwest where his father moved the family from England for his Oxford sabbatical. Evan struggles to cope with his mother’s death in childbirth and yearns to escape his father’s controlling grip. As war breaks out in Europe, Evan decides to leave home and join the fight, without telling his father.

Read More Here

Taro: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan
By Blue Spruell

Adventure, classic tales, fantasy, and exciting action combine in TARO: Legendary Boy Hero of Japan, a well-poised debut novel by award-winning author Blue Spruell.

In the turbulent final decades of the sixteenth century, feudal Japan reeled in mayhem as the central hereditary dictatorship collapsed, and tyrannical powers fought to control the empire. TARO: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan is the story of how one man revolutionized a nation by taking its reigns and forging a new destiny through his depths of compassion and determination.

The story begins with Taro as a young boy. As an heir to the Takeda family, Taro enjoyed reading, much to his father’s disapproval, as he wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a skilled Samurai. Tragedy changes Taro’s presumed destiny when his parents are murdered in a fierce power struggle, leaving him an orphan. Shortly after, a witch saves him from drowning and begins Taro’s new life of adventure, introducing him to a world of mythical creatures. On this new journey, Taro discovers shocking secrets about his lineage, and with them, his ultimate purpose in medieval Japan.

Read More Here

The Best Week That Never Happened
By Dallas Woodburn

Dallas Woodburn’s debut novel The Best Week that Never Happened is a roller-coaster ride through Hawaii and the mysterious depths of its briny deep, sparkling with unreal magic, a poignant romance, and incessant hope.

Tegan Rossi, a freshly graduated eighteen-year-old, awakens in the secretive hideout she discovered with Kai Kapule as two eight-year-old children on her first trip to Hawaii Island. She needs to make amends with Kai as they had a major squabble over something very important that she now oddly forgets. When Tegan catches up with Kai in Hawaii, she enters her best week yet – the Best Week That Never Happened.

The first-person narrative is a fusion of Tegan’s past three years ago and ten years ago, as well as a mystified chronicling of her present with Kai on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Read More Here

You know you want it…

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

September 5, 2025
Chanticleerians in the News: Award Winners Take Center Stage at LA Kids Book Festival

When your mission is to Discover Today’s Best Books, you come across good news regarding authors!

Five Chanticleer International Book Award winners are headed to the LA Kids Book Festival, showcasing the caliber of children’s literature our awards recognize.

LA Children’s Book Fest is coming up!

Find Chanticleer Award winning authors Norah Lally, Ruth Amanda, M.C. Dingman, Julie Lomax, and our 2024 Overall Grand Prize Winner Reenita Malhotra Hora!

LA’s first and largest event celebrating early education, bilingualism, and multiculturalism will feature an impressive lineup of Chanticleer talent.

Norah Lally, Gertrude Warner Grand Prize Winner for middle grade fiction, will be representing #1 Amazon bestselling novel Back to Bainbridge about fourteen-year-old Vicki navigating life on Bainbridge Avenue as she searches for her place in the world while discovering that her imperfect family and friends might just be the treasures she’s been looking for all along.

M.C. Dingman, First Place Gertrude Warner Winner, Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, tells the story of Mr. Smee’s daughter who grows up disguised on Captain Hook’s pirate ship, embarking on hilarious adventures that celebrate inclusivity and girl power as she discovers her true self in Neverland.

Julie Lomax, First Place Little Peeps Winner, will showcase Melissa Moo Moo’s Special Lesson from The JuJu Series. When little cow Melissa Moo Moo overhears other cows gossiping about her lack of milk, she learns an important lesson about self-confidence and being herself after a magical encounter with some fallen berries.

Reenita Malhotra Hora, our 2024 Overall Grand Prize Winner for the incredible literary romance Vermilion Harvest, will be there with the much different tale of Sundri and Mundri’s Lohri Adventure. When Badi Ma wraps the sisters in her magical Lohri shawl, they’re whisked away to a bustling village from the past where they invent gadgets, dodge a grumpy king, and call on the famous bandit hero Dulla Bhatti for help—all while celebrating the joyous festival of Lohri.

While Ruth Amanda won’t be attending the festival herself, her award-winning books Geckos in the Garden and Little Peeps Grand Prize Winner Island Moon will be represented. Geckos in the Garden takes young readers on a delightful counting adventure through hidden geckos in a garden, while Island Moon captures the magical tranquility of nighttime on the island of Barbados, following a narrator who witnesses fairies dancing in the moonlight and a sea turtle coming ashore to lay eggs.

We are honored to have so many Award-Winning Authors and Books that we have had the chance to promote and recognize at the LA Children’s Book Fest! If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by and say hello to them!

Our Little Peeps Awards celebrate the artistry and educational value of picture books

The Gertrude Warner Awards honor outstanding middle grade fiction that engages young readers during crucial developmental years

Ready to join the ranks of these celebrated authors?

Whether you’re crafting picture books for our Little Peeps Awards or middle grade fiction for the Gertrude Warner Awards, Chanticleer recognition opens doors to major festivals, bookstore partnerships, and reader communities nationwide. We are proud to be a part of the extraordinary literary careers of these five wonderful authors!

You know you want it…

Discover which division is right for your children’s book today!

September 4, 2025
The 2025 Global Thriller Awards Long List for High Stakes Suspense!
The Global Thriller Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of High Stakes Thriller and Lab Lit Fiction. The Global Thriller Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring suspense, thrilling stories that put the balance of world power or that will end the world as we know it. We include with Global Thrillers the Lab Lit genre. Lab Lit is when Fiction Meets Real Science and Research or stories that are based on real science and research up to a certain “what if” point.

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 GLOBAL THRILLER High Stakes Thriller Fiction entries to the 2025 Global Thriller Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 Global Thriller Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Global Thriller Book Awards novel competition for High Stakes Thriller Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Alexandra Pugachevsky – I Rodion
- Angela Greenman – The Child Riddler
- Anne Louise Girodet – Plan A
- Avanti Centrae – The Picasso Job a Phoenix Thriller
- Brad M Meslin – The Moldavian Gambit
- C.W. James – Mission Red Scythe a James Vagus Teen Espionage Thriller
- Dave Mckeon – Sabotage
- David R Leng – Echoes of Fortune the Search for Braddock’s Lost Gold
- Dheepa R. Maturi – 108 an Eco-Thriller
- Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
- Ernesto H Lee – Action This Day
- Gerard Shirar – The China Paradox
- J.L. Spears – Daemon Protocol
- James Alan Mcgettigan – The Altered Moon Dust Cosmos Book 1 the Second Edition
- JH Gruger – Gravity of Sol-3
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- Kevin Hwang – The Regression Strain
- Kevin Miller – High End
- L.M. Weeks – Bottled Lightning
- M. E. Schuman – The Catalyst
- M. E. Schuman – Where the Sleeping Lady Lies
- Michael Maloof – Relentless
- Nick Hoy – Hollow Men
- Ralph R. Rick Steinke – Vital Mission a Jake Fortina Series Love Story
- Randall Krzak – Mission Yemen Xavier Sear Thriller Book 2
- RK Jack – Devourer From Beyond
- Stephanie Bretherton – The Fire in Their Eyes
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Warrior Pose
- T. D. Severin – Deadly Vision
- T.O. Paine – The Crisis
- Thomas Lapham – Beyond the Signal
- Thomas M. Wing – Against All Enemies
- Tom Dolan – Boba Wars Zero
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

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

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2024 Global Thriller Grand Prize Winner

A Blanket of Steel

By Timothy S. Johnston

Click here to see the full list of 2024 Global Thriller Book Award Winners for High Stakes Thriller Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards for High Stakes Thriller Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! 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!
September 4, 2025
The 2025 M&M Mystery and Mayhem Long List for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mysteries!
The Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Light-Hearted and Cozy Mysteries. The M&M Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards.)

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 M&M entries to the 2025 M&M Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 M&M Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards novel competition for Cozy Mysteries!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Beth Riner – Odd Job Annie
- Bill Cusano – The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club the Ghost and the Key
- BL Smith – The Unpleasantness on Orchard
- B.T. Polcari – Lucky Secrets
- C.B. Wilson – Puppied To Death
- Carolyn Summer Quinn – The Mystery From Way Back When
- Charlotte Stuart – In$urance Blues: A John Smith Mystery Book 3
- Christine Knapp – Murder at First Light
- Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
- Connie Berry – A Collection of Lies
- Connie Berry – A Grave Deception
- D. J. Adamson – Cookin Up Murder
- D. J. Adamson – Without a Doubt
- D. W. Thompson – The Mystery at Love’s Manor
- Diane Weiner – The Deadly Reveal
- Elizabeth Crowens – Round Up the Unusual Suspects
- Ellis Elliott – A Witch Awakens a Fire Circle Mystery
- George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
- Jane Bitomsky – An Inquest of Eels
- John W. Feist – Ship of Perils
- Jolie Tunnell – Shadows in Chinatown
- Joy Ann Ribar – Shake-Speared in the Park
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- Kate Damon – Jury Duty Is Murder
- Kathleen Donnelly – Killer Secrets
- Kathleen Kaska – Murder at the Faust
- Kathryn Gauci- Murder in the Garden of Enchantment: The Constantinople Diaries a Madame Theodosia Mystery
- Kathryn Lane – Murder in Monte Carlo
- KD Straus – To Be True
- Keith Steinbaum – You Say Goodbye
- L. J. Aldon – Riddle of the Jeweled Cipher
- Laurel Martin – Her Last Few Days
- Laurel Martin – The Lowlands a Missing Couple a Family Desperate To Find Them
- Leta Serafim – The Nameless Dead
- Lisa M. Lane – Bummer at Luna Beach
- Louisa West – Baby Got Ghost
- Lyn Squire – Fatally Inferior
- Lynn Slaughter – Missing Mom
- M. K. Dean – A Nose for Death
- M. S. Spencer – Railroad Ties the Marmion Grove Murders
- Maggie Parks – Knocked Off in Nederland
- Marshall Highet and Bird Jones – The Washashore
- Mary Seifert – Airplanes, Atlanta & an Assassin
- Mary Seifert – Juleps, Jockeys & Justice
- MJ Mac – Betrayed on the Promenade
- ML Barrs – Parallel Secrets
- Patrick E. Craig – 3 X 3
- Peter Gooch – Seren
- Sandy Zelka – Blood Red Poppy
- Shannon Bennett Riester – The Lottery Aspect
- Sharon Lynn – The Romantic
- The Sisters Spurlock – The Faceless Ghost
- TJ Stecker – Redacted
- Tracy Carter – Sick As a Dog
- Virginia Ann – The Potter’s Final Piece: A Pooka Women’s Club Mystery
- Wanda Brunstetter and Martha Bolton – The Rise and Fall of Miss Fannie’s Biscuits
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

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

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2024 M&M Grand Prize Winner

If Two Are Dead

By Jeanne Matthews

Click here to see the full list of 2024 M&M Book Award Winners for Cozy Mysteries.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 M&M Book Awards for Suspense and Thriller Mysteries.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! 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!
September 4, 2025
The 2024 Dante Rossetti First Place Round Up for YA Fiction

The Dante Rossetti Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Young Adult Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Glen Dahlgren’s book, The Realm of Gods will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Dante Rossetti contest page year ’round!

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

The 2024 Dante Rossetti Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Dante Rossetti Winners!

A note from Chanticleer:

This year’s Dante Rossetti Winners is special, in the way that half of our First Place Winners for this year are manuscripts. We are very excited to help these authors celebrate their work, and hopefully see them come out someday!

Mark Kraver – The Willow

Mark Kraver reveals a swashbuckling side of American history in his latest young adult historical fiction novel The Willow. Heroine Abigail Spragg uses her pirate fortune to fund a school for girls, which teaches its students, including Abigail’s teenage daughter Hannah, to fight like their seafaring ancestors.

When Abigail receives a letter from one of her many pirate connections requesting that she use his fortune to help a mysterious acquaintance open this school, she finds the idea preposterous. After all, education for women is rare in 1700s New England. The East Coast is bathed in a strict status quo and still recovering from the witch trials that had taken so many lives. Many people go out of their way to avoid straying from societal norms.

Nevertheless, Abigail sets out, reconnecting with her widowed sister Eunice and bringing her oldest daughter along as they seek the enigmatic Hope Terwilliger and open “The Willow Finishing School”.

The full review will be released upon publication!

C.H. Brown – The Appearance of Power

According to the authors blog, Book 1 is out of the editing stage, and she is going to be releasing all 3 books in the trilogy together once they are finished. We are very excited to see those when they come out!

Eileen Charbonneau and Jude Pittman- Spectral Evidence: Newfoundland (Canadian Historical Mysteries)

Seventeen-year-old Newfoundlander Charlotte Jaddore loves nothing more than learning sacred healing arts from the elders of her Mi’kmaq and Beothuk grandmothers. But the year is 1692 and her father needs her help. Their American cousins in Salem, Massachusetts have been accused of witchcraft. Will Charlotte help her father fight for the lives of Philip and Mary English?

When father and daughter arrive in Salem, their cousins have already been imprisoned. How can the couple survive against spectral evidence— harming their victims from afar as invisible projections? The motives of their accusing neighbors are anything but spiritual. They are after the English family’s wealth.

And the sights of those accusers are now fixed on the heirs. Can Charlotte get young Mary, Philip and William to Newfoundland, without infecting her own beloved island with spectral evidence fever?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

J.A. Neilsen – The Winter Heir

Spense might have saved his country of Telridge and won the heart of the faerie princess. But he doesn’t feel like a hero—not while Dewy is stuck in the Winter lands, all because of a bargain she made on his behalf.

After months of fruitless research, Spense abandons the libraries of Telridge and turns to the Faerie Oracles to seek a solution. Meanwhile, Dewy is no damsel in distress. She is on a journey of her own, diving deeper into her magic, and finding alliances in the most unexpected of places.

As they each seek the Winter Heir, they face unsettling truths about themselves, their world, and the steep costs of magic.

From Chanticleer:

The Winter Heir, the second book in J.A. Nielsen’s Fractured Kingdoms series, picks up where the first book, The Claiming, leaves off—with its protagonists struggling under the weight of a vital bargain.

Lady Dew Drop, Dewy to her friends—and her frenemies—is languishing in the court of the Winter Fae, a summer princess nearly frozen in both heart and spirit as she does her best to fulfill the pact she made with the Winter King. Meanwhile, the man who got her into this mess, the human mage and illegitimate princeling of Telridge—Spence Ferrous—tries to fulfill the deal for her.

But the story is much bigger than these two young lovers. The Winter King is dying without a legitimate heir. And it’s his own proud, arrogant fault. As much as both the humans and the Summer Fae would be willing to let him suffer the consequences of his own actions—he’s not the only one who will.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

John Middleton – The Pool of Initiation

We’re currently working with Middleton on his entire series! We can’t wait for it to wrap up so he can share it with our community!

EL Werbitsky – The Marsh Keeper

Some secrets aren’t meant to be shared…

Sixteen-year-old Calvin Hughes can see human energy and in that revealing light learns the best and worst of the people around him.

He tells no one what he sees, until a young girl vanishes beneath the marsh and the truth behind her tragedy is too disturbing to hide.

But when enchantments lure Cal toward the haunted waters and his sole confidante betrays him, Cal discovers the danger of knowing too much and the price for sharing secrets, especially one that could change the world.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Dante Rossetti First Place Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2025 Dante Rossetti Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submissions don’t officially close until the date on the website changes!

Submit to the Dante Rossetti Awards Today!

September 3, 2025
A BLANKET Of STEEL: The Rise of Oceania Book 6 by Timothy S. Johnston – Techno Thriller, Global Thriller, Sci-fi

In the year 2131, some people are now living in large underwater cities. They are free from the surface world’s rapidly deteriorating climate, overpopulation, rebellion, and dictatorships—but not its violent powers. In Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel, the fledgling marine union Oceania might be crushed from above, if it isn’t torn apart from within.

Most of the great upper world countries want to maintain a tight yoke on the water world, hungry for their mining resources and advanced technology. Massive warships from the world’s top terrestrial nations—China, Russia, and others—are assembling on the surface.

Truman McClusky, mayor of Trieste City off the Florida coast, declares the formation of Oceania to bring the 14 underwater cities together. Defense is their top priority. But within minutes of the announcement, a massive power blackout strikes Trieste. Is it an accident or an opening salvo?

A war with the upper world is only one of McClusky’s problems, as subtler enemies circle him in the water.

His chief of security, Cliff Sim, undertook a top-secret mission to a mysterious stretch of Oceania, and is murdered in a brutal fight. His murderer may be one of the world’s most ruthless killers, known as Steel Shiv—but why? Answering the questions of Cliff’s death might take dredging up the true nature of his mission.

Speculation about the murder turns to Ivan Arkady Ventinov, the captain of a Russian dreadnaught, one of the largest undersea subs in existence. He has vowed to reap vengeance on McClusky at any cost for the destruction of his former vessel.

Closer to home, three representatives from other undersea cities join McClusky in his upcoming fight with the land-based powers. But with Cliff’s death, and the dawning realization that information from inside Trieste is being leaked to the city’s enemies, McClusky suspects that one of the three city representatives is a spy. They could even be the Steel Shiv himself.

The tension builds when Cliff’s mission is uncovered—he was searching for a substance called “graphene.” As a coating for the exterior of undersea vessels, this super-substance could allow them to brave further into the ocean’s depths than ever before.

Warring nations, rogue international forces, would-be assassins; McClusky must battle with all of these forces at once.

Fast paced and fully imagined, Timothy S. Johnston’s tale of underwater cities illustrates political dynamics only a few small steps from our own. But it’s also a personal story of trust, friendship and betrayal. A Blanket of Steel marries its science fiction setting and human conflicts to create a complex and rapidly changing world.

A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston won Grand Prize in the 2024 CIBA Global Thriller Awards.

September 3, 2025

Chanticleer Book Reviews