Secondary Characters. They can drive their co-stars crazy and they can also drive the plot. They can star in their own subplots and often support the protagonist’s goals. Or thwart the protagonist’s goals.
Benny, the unforgettable secondary character in “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis
Using characters’ eyes to reveal emotion and meaning. If you’re serious about writing, you must notice subtext and how to convey it. And that often begins with the eyes.
Beth Harmon knows she will win several moves out in this scene of Queen’s Gambit
A look at more advanced ways of considering writing from some of the best craft books to come out in the last decade. Consider the narrator in your story, structure, proportion, and, most importantly, the heart of your work.
How-To tips and examples for adding fuel your characters’ fires. Your character should always have a lot to prove and master, so he or she can get off on the wrong foot and things can go downhill from there. Naturally.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy protagonist, the last known Earthling – Arthur Dent
Learn how to edit ruthlessly with these top tips with handy links! Make sure you get the most out of your next round of editing for your work-in-progress.
The Editor – going over the ms with an MOV.
We hope that you have found these encore posts to be useful reminders and prompts for your work-in-progress!
We wish you joy and peace in the New Year from all of us at Chanticleer!
January 1st, 2022, we will post five more of the The Top Ten Writing Posts for 2021 along with Kiffer’s Number One Tip for Writers in 2022!
When you’re ready,did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.
We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top editors on an on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information availablehere.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn morehere.
If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Reviewhereor to one of our Chanticleer International Awardshere.
Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be June 23-26, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
Samara Daemonium tries to break free from her father’s control as the realms of Heaven and Hell prepare for war, in Kaylin McFarren’s erotic supernatural novel, Annihilation.
Lucinda, the daughter of Satan, rules Hell with an iron fist. She sits on the throne thanks in part to the angel/demon hybrid Crighton and his angel soulmate Ariel. However, power changed Lucinda. She no longer stands as a brighter future in Hell, but rather as a demagogue driving her demons to rise up in battle against the hosts of Heaven. Crighton struggles between his loyalty to Lucinda, and his responsibility for his family—especially his pregnant soulmate. He doesn’t yet know the depths of Lucinda’s deception.
Crighton tries to hold his family together by force, as Ariel gives birth to Cassius and a stillborn Caleb. But Samara chafes under her lack of freedom, kept in a secluded cabin to hide her from the forces of Hell. She turns to her uncle Tyrus for help, and when dark forces descend on her family, she steps up to defend them. While Samara can help to save her parents and brother, she doesn’t see the danger to herself until it’s found her. Lucifer, returned to physical form in the body of Samara’s first love, drags her to Hell and the palace of cruelty he prepared for her.
McFarren illuminates the fantastical stretches of Hell in tactile, colorful description.
Torture, sex, and supernatural powers mingle together in an otherworldly display. Witches take vengeance on the demon who killed their sister, Lucinda consumes the souls of magically gifted beings, and Samara learns of a bloodline with incredible abilities. But amongst all the magic and hell spawn, themes of family and identity ground the central characters.
Lucifer fights the political influence of the Knights of Darkness, strengthening his hold on the realm of demons. Meanwhile, a group of cambions calling themselves the Crows try to stop an apocalyptic war from breaking out. And the Daemonium family fall into the sights of them all.
Though Samara yearns for her freedom, she fears that she won’t have a family to return to. Has her brother Cassius taken her place, left her forgotten? When Lucifer abuses and assaults her in Hell, when she’s abandoned by her father Crighton for two months, she can rely on next to nobody. Only Tyrus, now imprisoned and tortured as well, keeps her sane.
From the depths of Hell, Samara will face a destiny laid out since far before her birth.
Can she really save the world—more than one world, in fact—from Lucifer’s power mongering? The great Red War looms on the horizon, and Samara finds that in the end, she can’t even be sure of herself.
Throughout this story, readers will reel at Lucifer’s horrors, cheer for the protection of the bonds of love, and anxiously await their answers as to how the multi-faceted story lines of the series many characters will come together. Annihilation proves a suspenseful read. The characters stand larger than life, their personalities remaining solid from beginning to end.
Tom Sawyer Returns is the second book in The New Adventures series by author E.E. Burke.
Readers join a now grown up and far more independent Becky Thatcher as she maneuvers her complicated life in Civil War era Mississippi. Tom has long since left, and Becky is engaged to Union Captain Alfred Temple, who offers her all the safety and security she needs in such uncertain times. But does she love him? Actually love him?
Becky soon discovers that her heart may have other plans.
When an injured Tom Sawyer bursts through her door and collapses onto the kitchen floor, Becky and her father – Judge Thatcher – take him in, care for him, and find out that he may have stumbled into the house for reasons more than the simple rekindling of a lost flame. With Judge Thatcher caught up in a twisted ploy posed by the rebels, Becky must partner up with Tom in order to save her father. But with Tom’s memories nowhere to be found, and his aptitude for ending up smack dab in the middle of trouble, the two find themselves venturing down a twisting road of discovery, mystery, and uncertainty.
Set in a divided world rife with danger and history, E.E. Burke takes characters so close to the heart of Americana and gives them new life.
Fans of Mark Twain’s original work will appreciate the attention to detail and the care in which the story is crafted, paying homage to the original tales of Tom Sawyer and his wild adventures. But this continuation sees a deeper, more intimate portrait of Becky Thatcher – a girl grown into a woman, who’s come into her own confidence and whose sharp mind sees her through many perilous situations.
While the title of the book may be Tom Sawyer Returns, don’t let that fool you – Becky Thatcher is the heart of this book, the backbone, the brains.
Both her and Tom have grown significantly since their childhood days, and Burke expertly takes two kids written nearly 150 years ago and turns them into adults whose life experiences have been shaped by the Civil War; two individuals who are fiercely independent, yet whose attitudes and opinions have been molded by the world they live in. They jump off the page as not simply characters, but as fully realized people. People with complexities, fears, and failures.
Not only does Tom Sawyer Returns take the reader on an adventurous ride filled with plots and ploys, but it also provides a beautiful romance that blooms amidst the thorns of trouble.
E.E. Burke writes with a balance of delicacy and sharpness, showing the true nature of love – that it is something tangled and complicated. As the reader follows Becky and Tom, they’re never made to doubt the pair’s attraction, but to instead find comfort knowing that while their combined history may complicate their feelings for each other, love will still prevail in end. As it always does, and as it always will continue to do.
In The Moonstone Girls, award-winning author Brooke Skipstone unravels a story about seventeen-year-old Tracy Franks. Tracy has a secret that in 1968 could have deadly consequences. You see, Tracy is gay.
In her hometown of San Antonio, Tracy is forced to hide behind the “girl next door” facade, never allowing her true identity to emerge. Her only confidante is her brother, Spencer. He understands her turmoil exactly because Spencer is also gay.
Neither teenager feels free to talk about their true feelings with their family, especially their father, Art. Art constantly scolds his son for his feminine behavior, his desire to become a pianist instead of joining the military. Though he also shows his displeasure with Tracy, she, unlike her brother, fights back, but only in the privacy of their home.
Tracy keeps her secret from everyone–until the night she is kissed by her friend Ava at a party.
Ava and Tracy decide their relationship is worth exploring, but the two must do so in secrecy, and Tracy decides to pass as a boy whenever she and Ava go out in public. However, their charade is soon discovered, and Tracy’s life becomes a great deal more complicated.
Before long, Tracy will make decisions that will be life-changing and impact her entire family.
The uplifting theme of perseverance in this coming-of-age novel is a treasure. Tracy’s astounding bravery comes from wisdom beyond her seventeen years. She wields immense courage against every challenge, even though she sometimes doubts her abilities.
When Tracy can no longer play on the girls’ basketball team, she immediately plans to join the boys. Despite her frequent and painful injuries, she overcomes and, more importantly, never complains. She refuses to allow the stereotypical beliefs about the mental and physical limitations of her gender stop her dreams and ambitions.
Later, when Tracy plans a solo trip to Alaska, she buckles down and does what she must to reach her destination, a destination that also shapes who she truly is.
This emotional flexibility strengthens her character. Tracy “goes with the flow,” never allowing obstacles to remain obstacles. She chooses instead to make these stumbling blocks into life lessons that pair nicely with her already indestructible self-will.
Tracy and Spencer’s relationship juxtaposes them, in heartwarming and heartbreaking ways.
The two have much in common, but their differences become even more defining. Tracy stays strong under their father’s cruelty. At eighteen, the older of the two, has aspirations of Juilliard. Playing is the only time he feels secure and accomplished.
Their father’s harsh criticism weighs heavily on Spencer in a way only a parent’s disappointment can. To please his father, he must deny his self. Unlike his formidable sister, Spencer cares about his father’s approval. He will go to extreme lengths to chase Art’s blessing. He might even disregard his dreams and give up his chance at real love to please a man who refuses to acknowledge reality.
Though Tracy admits feeling awkward in her own skin, she never allows that to impede her desires. Especially when her father pushes her toward a lifestyle she can never maintain.
The Moonstone Girls reveals the innumerable difficulties faced by young gay people, male and female, in our society today – and in the past. By witnessing these two young people – so diverse in their coping mechanisms – allows readers to understand more deeply the struggles towards authenticity that many in the LGBTQ+ community share.
There is a beautiful Icelander holiday tradition that we are growing quite fond of here at Chanticleer.
The small Nordic island, with a population of only 329,000 people, is extraordinarily literary. They love to read and write. According to Rosie Goldsmith of the BBC, “The country has more writers, more books published and more books read, per head, than anywhere else in the world.”
Many Icelanders give books as Christmas gifts as part of Jolabokaflod, and from Christmas Eve until New Years there is an unspoken reading frenzy.
Iceland’s National Treasures And High Literacy Rate
Icelanders are obsessed with preserving their language. You will find that the bestselling teen novels –Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc. – have all been translated to Icelandic.
Books and literacy are huge in Icelandic culture. To properly understand it, you have to realize that our national treasures are not really beautiful buildings or famous art pieces or collections like so many other countries have. They are manuscripts, preserved on sheepskin, for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Reading is very important for us, both in schools and in society in general. The literacy rate is somewhere around 99%. I don’t believe there is anyone in Iceland that doesn’t know how to read unless there are some specific challenges or disabilities involved. – The Uncorked Librarian .com
And, of course, knitting also goes along with this beloved tradition and so does hot chocolate!
Jolabokaflod or Yule Book Flood happens once a year on Christmas Eve in Iceland. The flood begins with the release of a catalog of new publications from the Icelandic Publishers Association. And it is distributed FREE to each and every Icelandic home. The majority of books sold in Iceland are sold from September to early November. Of course, these books are in print. E-pubs are not given. This tradition started in 1944.
The Icelanders even have a popular TV show,Kiljan,that is entirely devoted to books. Authors appear on prime TV shows.Book readings and author events are treated like rock star events.
“In Iceland book lives matter in every sense of that phrase: The shelf-life of the book, the lives in the book, the life of the writer and the life of the reader. God bless the Jolabokaflod.”~Hallgrimur Helgason
To an Icelander, the very best Christmas present is a book! This tradition hails from WWII when many items and food were rationed. These sentiments may always have existed, in one way or another, since Icelanders have been saga-nerds for thousand of years.
Loved ones gather – perhaps virtually this year – and gift one another books. What happens next? They spend the night reading together. What a delightful holiday tradition!
Jolabokaflod – Christmas is the time where you snuggle up and read your presents.
We thought you might like to see some of our top holiday-themed books – just in case you would like to have your own Jolabokaflod…
So, snuggle in and preview some of our favorite books for the season. Let’s share some book love!
From the riveting opening that takes place in NYC’s Lower East Side’s sweatshops until its gripping conclusion, this enthralling novel vividly portrays the desperate times of German immigrants landing at Ellis Island in 1905 in search of a better life. Love of Finished Years by Gregory Erich Phillips is one of Kiffer Brown’s favorites for the holidays. She cites the novel’s heartwarming WWI Christmas Eve scene that takes place in the trenches in the heat of battle as unforgettable.
Since it’s Christmas time, clever Oscar decides to write a letter to Santa and ask for the spots he so desperately wants. Fearing his request won’t reach the North Pole in time, Oscar decides to take it there himself. He meets many a character en route and learns some new lessons. A beautifully illustrated and wonderfully told children’s Christmas story of the importance of being yourself. Highly recommended.
With the loveliest prose and sharp humor, Slade offers the best Christmas gift for her readers with this gem of a book. Whether it’s 1390, 1543, 1825, or the present day, there’s a mystical sisterhood at Ladywell that bridges time, a linking of strong women who tend home and hearth and pass on the secrets of the land. The past re-emerges into the blissful bustle of Freya’s current life as she learns of a family connection with King Richard III. Is this connection tied to a future event? Will the secrets of the past travel to the future?
An exquisitely written English tale set for Yuletide cheer. A book to curl up with during the holidays. Highly recommended.
For anyone who’s ever fought a battle and held onto the promise of hope, here is a heartfelt story of a boy whose endless desire for Christmas changes not only him but his entire world. This story has the makings to be a seasonal classic! Plausible fantasy with a clear connection to our national past composed by a practiced wordsmith, My Christmas Attic can be appreciated as a classic seasonal saga with a cinematic quality that speaks of broader possibilities.
Cleopatra’s lustful affair with young Jake Regan becomes more complex as she discovers his presence in Hawaii is due to a Christmas holiday vacation with his (Norman Rockwellesque) family. Mother and his two brothers have arrived. Jake’s dad is expected to arrive at any moment from yet another far-flung business trip. But the coup d’état is that Jake’s longtime girlfriend, who also is en route, is expecting wedding bells to be announced at the gathering. It becomes obvious that Cleo and Jake’s unrelenting passion will have an impact on the Regan family.
A steamy, fast-paced suspense novel that will take you on a get-away armchair vacation to Hawai’i!
Combining a romance novel with a thriller is not easy, but Chasing Cleopatradelivers the goods with plotting as intricate as a silver spider’s web.
Merry Christmas and a Happy PTSD by Chris Oelerich is highly recommended for those who suffer from PTSD, for the family members and friends of those who suffer, and for those who are simply interested in having a greater understanding beyond what is reported in the popular press about this debilitating disorder. Oelerich’s methods to overcome PTSD are plain-spoken and practical, with an overall message of optimism for those with PTSD.
This is a very personal, no-holds-barred, yet ultimately, empowering discussion of PTSD and its effects on those who suffer from it. The author hopes thatMerry Christmas and a Happy PTSDwill be used as a tool to reduce PTSD symptoms in others who suffer from it so that they, too, can live healthier and happier lives.
We wish you a very merry and warm Holiday Season!
If you would like to read more book reviews to discern the perfect selections for your own Jolabokaflod click here to read more Chanticleer Book Reviews!
If you think we should include your book (must have been reviewed by Chanticleer Reviews) in this article, please email us with the title, your pen name, and the pages that have the holiday scenes and email us at AuthorOutreach@ChantiReviews.com
Shankar, a recently retired professor of physics, and his wife, Durga, have left Michigan to resettle on Long Island with their son’s family in Debu Majumdar’s award-winning novel, Night Jasmine Tree.
While the migration from the Midwest to the East Coast is a small one, considering both characters moved from India decades before, the move spurs Shankar to ponder the life he left behind and to reassess his relationship with his sisters and parents.
In India, there are many different cultures, the main sprouting from the Hindu faith and political structure, the caste system.
In the West, we may be familiar with this caste system, we mostly are all aware of the ‘untouchables.’ However, what we may not understand, is how rigid the caste systems truly are. Durga and Shankar are not from the same caste. Shankar is Brahmin, his wife is of a lower caste. This difference is enough for Shankar’s family to reject her outright and disown him.
The pain he sustains by their rigid beliefs hurts him deeply, and that pain sustained years of estrangement. Now, however, a letter from his sister causes him to reassess his own role in the dissolution of his family even as he enjoys spending time with his son, daughter-in-law, and young grandchildren.
Carefully organized, the novel is arranged into five parts with the chapters designating a time and place.
Since the plot occurs on two continents, this framework is helpful to the reader. The author adroitly dovetails the past and present by having Shankar share stories of his own childhood with his grandchildren. And what stories they are! Sweet and funny, often involving animals, and the children are riveted by their grandfather’s tales of a childhood spent in India. Shankar was a good student but not above getting into mischief or naively causing trouble. India comes alive for the children as they hear about an encounter with a tiger, the annual celebration involving kite fights, and a haunting but hilarious ghost story. The reader turns the pages as eagerly as the children beg to hear another story.
Consideration of Shankar’s past also involves his having grown up in a household in which the ancient traditions of Hinduism are sacred duties, and any failure to adhere to them is a moral failing.
It is difficult for Shankar to come of age wanting to do what makes him happy but feeling tremendous fear that he won’t live up to his father’s exacting standards. Will he become a “tejya putra,” a son who is rejected by his own father? There’s no worse fate for a Brahmin male. And, yet, shouldn’t his father love him simply because children deserve love, and not because Shankar will one day perform the essential funeral rites for his parents?
Regardless of how affectionate and attentive Shankar’s mother is toward him, he knows that she will always defer to her husband. She will let him dictate the terms of his sisters’ marriages, and she will never allow Shankar to disobey his father. The classic tension between duty and desire is artfully and affectingly rendered. All readers will be able to relate to the hold the past has on us. And like us, until Shankar resolves old animosities with his family, he’ll never indeed be free.
The author is a master craftsman of descriptive writing, especially when contemplating natural settings.
Debu Majumdar deepens characterization by connecting Shankar’s interior and exterior worlds. While contemplating existence through his main character’s eyes, the author gives us a work of lush and searing beauty, wondrously told with compassion, empathy, and truth. Night Jasmine Tree is a highly recommended reading for all.
Like a high wire performer working without a net, Dana Ridenour’s captivating and provocative yarn, Behind the Mask, carefully treads that fine line between fact and fiction and does it with aplomb.
Between the covers of this contemporary, detective thriller, is a well-crafted plot revealing alarming aspects of animal enterprise practices, and militant animal rights advocacy. Set in Los Angeles, it is peopled with believable, engaging characters, and taps into sights, smells, and flavors unique to that area.
When 29-year-old, FBI Special Agent Alexis Montgomery, or Lexie, as she prefers to be called, reaches LA, she has one goal in mind—to make her bones. A fledgling undercover operator, newly trained and on her first assignment, she must infiltrate a militant ALF cell and ensure its terrorist members are brought to justice.
In her assumed identity as a vegan, animal-rights extremist, who drives a battered Volkswagen bug, and lives in a modest Venice Beach apartment, Lexie ingratiates herself with local activists. Over time, an unanticipated friendship with Savannah Riley, whom she meets at a vociferous demonstration, helps her nail it. Just as her FBI mentor predicted, she fits right in with those crazy vegans.
Savannah, raised in a traditional southern family, declined The Citadel, in South Carolina, in favor of SoCal, with one goal in mind— to exchange the same old, dull routine of Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, for the mystery and exhilaration of California life. In school, studying for a career in the film industry, her roommate introduces her to the world of animal rights activism. Meeting Lexie, a kindred spirit from the south is an unexpected plus.
As members of the local, militant cell, Lexie and Savannah learn hard lessons. After a night watchman dies in a liberate and destroy operation at the UCLA animal lab, their lives are changed forever.
During their ensuing months under the California sun, Savannah loses her love, her trust, her innocence, and comes close to losing her freedom; Lexie emerges from the dark side a wiser woman, tempered and honed, with deeper understandings of herself and the human condition.
Ridenour’s realistic portrayal of opposing worldviews, replete with tangible danger, and intense, fanatical emotion, in Behind the Mask challenges the status quo. It is a novel of the here and now. Its well-drawn characters, complex plot, and true-to-life setting will resonate with the reader long after the book is finished.
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 all 2021 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2021 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2021 Somerset Shortlist. 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 (CAC22).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2021 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Ben Sharpton – The Awakening of Jim Bishop: This Changes Things
Adrian Spratt – Caroline
Linda Stewart Henley – Waterbury Winter
Daniel Pare – No Matter The Price
Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One
M. J. Simms-Maddox – The Mysterious Affair at the Met
Anne Pfeffer – Binge
Valerie Taylor – What’s Not Said
C. A. Price – Allison’s Gambit
E. A. Coe – The Other Side Of Good
Margaret Ann Spence – Joyous Lies
Suzanne Kamata – The Baseball Widow
Vicki Volden – All the After
Kent Politsch – Beebe and Bostelmann, a historical novel
Susan Speranza – Ice Out
Gary Lee Miller – Finding Grace
Ruthie Stevens – You Can’t Blame the Flower
V.N. Writer – Who Stole My Hula Hoop?
Mekiya Walters – Ashes, Ashes
Teng Rong – Brilliant White Peaks
Natalie Symons – Lies in Bone
Ruth Hull Chatlien – Katie, Bar the Door
Patrick Garry – Through the Waves a Steady Path
Ariane Torres – We are the Kings
Dan Schorr – Final Table: A Novel
Karen S. Bennett – Beautiful Horseflesh
Dawn Newton – The Remnants of Summer
Douglas Green – A Dog of Many Names
Jeff Richards – Everyone Worth Knowing
Robert Gwaltney – The Cicada Tree
Sarah E Zilkowski – Beasts of War
Vanessa Carlisle – Take Me With You
J.B. Liquorish – The Prophecy
Bob Siqveland – Lines Through a Prism
Richard C. Brusca – In the Land of the Feathered Serpent
Natalie Symons – Lies in Bone
Judy Keeslar Santamaria – Jetty Cat Palace Cafe
Joanne Kukanza Easley – Just One Look
Charlie Suisman – Hot Air
Tom Glenn – Secretocracy
Sandra Vasoli – The Masterpiece Pursuit
Suzanne Simonetti – The Sound of Wings
John Hansen – Old Water
Richard Jespers – Wakedale: A Novel
Robert Steven Goldstein – Cat’s Whisker
Alex Sirotkin – The Long Desert Road
John Hansen – Badger Creek
Eric Lotke – Union Made
Pamela Hamilton – Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale
Sue Phillips – You Oughta Know
Chera Thompson & NF Johnson – A Time to Wander
Cara Sue Achterberg – Blind Turn
K. – Resistance, Revolution and Other Love Stories
Susan Lynn Solomon – Dancing Backwards
Debra Whiting Alexander – A River for Gemma
Anne Moose – House of Fragile Dreams
Jane Ward – In the Aftermath
Linda Rosen – Sisters of the Vine
Drema Drudge – Victorine
Kathy Sechrist – Success Is The Best Revenge
Rick Lenz – Hello, Rest of My Life
Malcolm Spicer – Freedom From Privilege
Cinda K. Swalley – The Golden Hearts Club
Shan Leah – Thieves, Beasts & Men
Gene Helfman – Beyond the Human Realm
Emily A. Myers – The Truth About Unspeakable Things
Sarahlyn Bruck – Daytime Drama
Roberta Seret – Love Odyssey
Barbara Linn Probst – The Sound Between the Notes
Lynn McLaughlin – Jackson
Michael R. Frontani – Dante’s Forge
Jenn Bouchard – First Course
Florence Reiss Kraut – How to Make a Life: a novel
Michelle Lynn – Silver Heels
Susannah Marren – A Palm Beach Scandal
C. Victorya Grace – Julip Lullabies and Silent Cries
Jordan Stanford – My Dream
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.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
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.
I want to talk about the thresholds and milestones that happen in storytelling, including films. These milestones are given different names by various experts. Most commonly they’re called turning points or plot points.
Turning Point or Plot Point Development
Crucial Scenes
I was recently working on a client’s manuscript and an important scene was taking place in an early chapter creating the first major turning point. It features two main characters about to make love for the first time. It’s a crucial scenebecause everything in the story will change after this, the stakes will rise, serious repercussions will shape their futures. It’s an especially important scene because it’s the tale of forbidden love and once they’ve crossed this line they’ve admitted censure and danger into their lives. My job is to help the writer make the scene more momentous and intense, making sure the scenes contain enough emotional clout. Because these essential moments need to create major ramifications.
Turning points are irrevocable changes staged as events or scenes, and are where the story shifts in a new direction. They’re also thresholds so characters pass through into a new situation. These moments, always shown via action, usually have an emotional change that comes with them. –Jessica Morrell
Before this event, things might return back to normal; afterward, it’s a whole new game.
One Way Gates
As I’ve mentioned here before, effective fiction takes your main characters into new physical and emotional territory. Turning points are the thresholds to the other side. They signal the reader that danger and shifting tides lie ahead. I like to think of them as one way gates.
The new territory can also be new spiritual territory, where principles, beliefs, and hearts are tested. Also, they are often tests and reveal what your protagonist is made of.
And while turning points shift the direction of the story, keep in mind is that they’re also emotional turning points. I was thinking about them yesterday and how they snatch a protagonist from his or her comfort zone and thrust him or her into a threatening situation.
Let’s look at The Hunger Games to help identify these crucial moments. It’s the first book in Suzanne Collins dystopian series that takes place in Panem, a country that’s formed after the collapse of North American governments.
Inciting Incidents
The inciting incident or catalyst happens on Reaping Day, an annual lottery where each of Panem’s 12 Districts must send two ‘tributes’ to participate in the state-sponsored, fight-to-the-death Hunger Games while the whole country watches the gruesome contest. Because the underlying brutality of the governing regime is an omnipresent threat. The winning district receives food.
Reaping Day in The Hunger Games – Gale and Prim (Katniss’ little sister).
The story reprises the virgin sacrifices that existed in many cultures along with nods to mythical happenings. But then Collins has borrowed liberally from mythology and gory human history including a mashup of Dust Bowl imagery, a Nazi-like regime including the architecture, symbolism, and vicious stormtroopers, along with a hideous disparity between the classes.
Complications
At the Reaping, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to replace her 12-year-old sister Primrose in the deadly Games.
Central Dramatic Question
This creates the central dramatic question: Will Katniss survive? Then Peeta Mellark is chosen from District 12 too, and wouldn’t you know it, they have some history together because one of the rules of storytelling is Complicate, Complicate, Complicate.
Katniss and Peeta leave home for the Capital (a threshold) and that’s when readers and movie-goers find out just how twisted and corrupt the Panem leadership is.
Katniss and Peeta see just how wealthy the governing body is and how poor they are on the deluxe train ride.
Plot Points Pushing Ahead the Plot’s Trajectory
It turns out that Peeta is secretly in love with Katniss. Because Katniss needs to win to save her family, this is another complication in an already ghastly competition. Does she care about him too? Will she be forced to turn into a soulless killer to survive? The turning points that follow keep changing and pushing ahead the plot’s trajectory, but all affect her goal to survive.
Katniss and Peeta decide to become allies and feign love in order to increase their chances of survival. Because the heartless denizens of the Capital love a love story in the midst of their killing field. Back in District 12 Katniss had learned to hunt to feed her family since her father had died in a mining accident. During the exhibition before the Games she gains notice for her archery skills.
Atmosphere and Landscape
Another turning point happens when the tributes enter the Arena – a nightmarish landscape where the rules keep changing, monsters and walls of flames appear out of nowhere. And can we just reiterate that these are children and teens operating in this whole blood-soaked nightmare?
The children and teens from the 12 districts that must fight to the death until there is one survivor. Then, his or her district will receive food. The Hunger Games.
Secondary Characters: Reflections of the Protagonist and Antagonist
The youngest tribute from District 11 is Rue and she represents innocence and all that’s wrong with the government and Games. Though agile and wily, she seems doomed or at least underestimated.
Once the Games begin in the mad scramble to secure weapons and supplies Peeta and Katniss become separated.
Katniss has been chased up a tree for safety and that’s when she hears a bird-like call. Rue is nearby in a tree. She warns Katniss of a nearby nest of deadly tracker-jackers (genetically-modified bee monsters). Katniss saws off the branch and the tracker jackers swarm on their adversaries. The girls become allies and readers, and viewers recognize that Rue is surrogate for her sister Prim.
Rue warning Katniss about the deadly nest of robot yellowjackets.
As allies they concoct a plan to destroy the Cornucopia, a huge stash of weapons and supplies.
Reversals and Ramifications
Returning to Rue after Katniss succeeds, she witnesses her being murdered by another tribute. It is a major turning point in the story.
The fallout cannot be overstated:
Katniss changes from a hunter to a killer, first taking out Rue’s murderer.
The story slows down briefly so Katniss can process her grief and feelings.
The slave-like conditions the citizens of Pandem live under is emphasized by Rue’s senseless death.
It reinforces Katniss’ desire to survive – she will win for Rue.
Katniss openly defies the Capital when she rings flowers around Rue’s corpse, showing her affection and respect.
Katniss uses her weapon for good when cutting flowers to honor Rue.
Then with the Games’ cameras rolling, and honor and respect has been shown to Rue’s corpse, Katniss stands and salutes (as tribute) the other district’s people who are watching via he Games’ cameras, marking her defiance and the beginning of a rebellion. We’re talking major ramifications.
Katniss’ symbol of defiance and respect is televised to all the districts in the Hunger Games. This simple gesture starts a movement.
Later, Katniss’ compassion toward Rue saves her own life because Rue’s district sends her food – once again breaking the rules of the Games.
Before:Rue and Katniss are allies and sisters in the struggle for survival.
After: Katniss would rather die than let the government regime win or steal her humanity.
Question for Writers: What are the before and after statuses in your turning points for your work-in-progress?
Another excellent example of plot points and turning points is The Toy Story series. It has terrific examples of thresholds that are easily identified because the characters often land in a new setting as they pass through each threshold.
*Still photos copyright Lion’s Gate Entertainment
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart. Jessica
Jessica Morrell is a top-tier developmental editor and a contributor to Chanticleer Reviews Media and to the Writer’s Digest magazine. She teaches Master Writing Craft Classes at the Chanticleer Authors Conference that is held annually along with teaching at Chanticleer writing workshops that are held throughout the year. We suggest visiting her website for more articles on writing and the writing life.
When you’re ready,did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
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Robert Dugoni is one of our most popular speakers at the Chanticleer Author Conference.
Writer’s Toolbox
Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.
Today we wanted to honor and recognize Toni Ann Johnson, actress and novelist, for receiving the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, University of Georgia Press.
“Toni Ann Johnson’s Light Skin Gone to Waste is one of the most engrossing short story collections I’ve read in recent memory. These interconnected stories about a black family living in a predominantly white suburb of New York City are impeccably written, incisive, often infuriating and unforgettable. At the center of many of these stories is Philip Arrington, a psychologist who tries to reshape the world to his liking as he moves through it, regardless of the ways his actions affect the people in his intimate orbit. With a deft eye for detail, crisp writing, and an uncanny understanding of human frailties, Toni Ann Johnson has created an endlessly interesting American family portrait.”
Ms. Johnson recently contacted us (2015) about the nomination and credited Chanticleer’s review for its helpful role in getting the work noticed and nominated. We are proud and honored to play a small part in her nomination for this coveted award.
Here’s what Chanticleer had to say about Johnson’s book:
Remedy for a Broken Angel by Toni Ann Johnson is an intense examination of the troubled personal histories of two beautiful and talented women of color.
Their stories are told in alternating chapters which reveal the mother’s and her daughter’s attempts to reclaim and understand their broken pasts. Each chapter is a revelation into the pain and damage caused by unknown family secrets. Both women struggle with a legacy of shame and self-blame for the price they’re paying for never hearing the truth. Each must learn the lessons found in past years of failure to communicate.
Have a Book that deserves to be discovered? See our 24 Chanticleer Intl’l Book Awards Divisions here and Editorial Book Reviews here!
The 2020 Overall Grand Prize Winner was Rebecca Dwight Bruff for her book Trouble the Water
When you’re ready,did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.
We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information availablehere.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn morehere.
Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be June 23-26, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
Tom Sawyer Returns is the second book in The New Adventures series by author E.E. Burke.
Like a high wire performer working without a net, Dana Ridenour’s captivating and provocative yarn, Behind the Mask, carefully treads that fine line between fact and fiction and does it with aplomb. 
