Randall Krzak opens Pandora’s box on the world of Columbian cartels and Islamic terrorists in his latest thriller, Colombia Betrayal: A Bruce and Smith Thriller, Book 1.
On the first page of Krzak’s thriller, we are thrust into the dangerous world of a wealthy family, straddling the legitimate world of hotels and sugar cane fields and the illegitimate world of drugs and violence. Krzak places us in Medellin, Columbia, with the patriarch of the Zapata family, Jesus Pedro Zapata, on his way to a luncheon at his country club. With his eldest son by his side, he is ambushed and killed in a fiery explosion.
With her father and older brother murdered, Olivia Perfecta Moreno’s life is turned upside down, as she becomes the heir to the family fortune and businesses. She is determined to take charge, but she has large shoes to fill and a target on her back. With her son, Alonzo, her useless husband, Pedro, and her bodyguard Ramon on her side, she begins the change of power. But Krzak shows us the cracks in her armor, and we soon realize that Olivia shouldn’t be trusting any of the people she trusts most.
In a CIA office in Langley, Virginia, Agent AJ Bruce receives her next assignment.
Robert Lintstone, head of the counter-terrorism division, introduces Colonel Javier Smith, the advisor for the mission. A loner, she finds Smith attractive, but she refuses to be impressed by his Silver Eagles.
Lintstone informs them:
“There are indications the Islamic State is attempting to gain a foothold in our territory. They’ve already infiltrated a number of countries around the world. We’re trying to ascertain the validity of the intel before we make a move.”
This intel takes AJ and Javier to Columbia, where their search for the terrorists becomes embroiled with the Zapata families’ drug operations.
AJ and Javier dodge bullets and try to stop the terrorists before crossing the Mexican border into the US.
In a surprising twist of fate, Olivia ends up in the hands of Lintstone. Alonzo tries to rescue his kidnapped sisters as AJ and Javier unravel the whereabouts of the terrorists, saving Olivia’s daughters in the process. Olivia tries to escape captivity in Gitmo, and Krzak keeps us enthralled as we turn page after page to find out what will happen next.
Fans of Jack Slater and Barry Eisler will love this first installment of the Bruce and Smith series.
Krzak’s deft world-building skills and masterful orchestration of terrorists, CIA operatives, and the Columbia drug cartel will have readers panting for more. Since 2017, Krzak has cranked out six award-winning military and political thrillers, and this latest contribution sparkles as well. Uniquely qualified to build the worlds we find in Columbia Betrayal, Krzak’s experience as an Army veteran and a civil servant living abroad inform his rich, detailed description of the terrain and the architecture – right down to the weaponry used in the covert operations he describes in detail. Readers can’t help but be sucked into his page-turning stories.
Readers can follow AJ and Javier as they embark on their next assignment and thrilling adventure in book two, Revenge.
Captain William Coke lives as a thief with a conscience, in C.C. Humphrey’s historical thriller, Plague. Never loading his pistol with anything more than powder, he carefully selects his victims from the wealthy and the pompous. But he soon walks into crimes far more horrific than robbery.
Captain Coke and Dickon, a rescued street urchin, never expected to find their marks slaughtered on the road to London. Coke has never seen a killing like this, not even on the battlefield fighting to restore his king to the throne in the English Civil War. Pitman, a thief-taker, is likewise shocked by the brutality of the murders supposedly committed by the highwayman he has come to see as a gentleman bandit. Now, Pitman will stop at nothing to find Coke, who has become known as the Monstrous Coke after the notorious murder.
As the murders continue, the victims piling up, Pitman and Coke begin to realize that this criminal doesn’t just kill, but kills with religious symbolism. The two eventually team up to find the murderer. When the killer brutalizes and murders an actor, his wife and fellow actress, Sarah, becomes an ally of the men who are chasing him.
The would-be detectives face yet another obstacle when the Black Plague breaks out across the poverty-stricken parts of London. These unlikely heroes must now dodge not only the law, but a serial killer, a deadly illness, and a heretical cult who search for that which will take them from the gutters to the palace.
Coke, Sarah, and Pitman contrast one another, each with a well-developed character. Captain Coke first meets Sarah when he is fulfilling a pledge to visit and check on Lucy, the sister of his closest friend Quentin, a fellow soldier who was killed nearly twenty years prior. When Lucy finds herself unmarried and pregnant, Coke doesn’t hesitate to help her even though it means putting himself in harm’s way.
He has also taken in Dickon, a boy with both physical and mental disabilities, and will kill if need be to protect him. Coke is a criminal, but also a kind and gentle man. Pitman uses his remarkable abilities to stay ahead of his time with his crime scene investigations, and no one catches more thieves than him. As a constable, he must shut up the homes of plague victims with their families inside – infected or not – causing great distress to the big-hearted Pitman. In his kindness, he can see the impossibility of Coke committing the terrible murders, and though the two fought on opposing sides in the war and now live on either side of the law, they develop an easy friendship, trusting each other with their very lives.
Sarah Chalker owes much of her success as an actress to the protection of her husband, John. As childhood sweethearts, she and John have fought their way from the gutters of St. Giles to a place in the Duke’s Company, a theatre group frequented by Charles II himself. When John is killed, the sheer brutality of his murder drives Sarah on to find the vicious killer. She doesn’t hesitate to join with Coke and Pitman even though the search will put her in grave danger without the advantage of her male counterparts.
Religion plays a huge role in the novel.
On the heels of the English Civil War and the Restoration, London in 1665 is full of unrest. With the Act of Uniformity and the Act of Conventicles keeping dissenters from practicing anything other than the “accepted” Church of England within the city, all who choose to worship differently must do so in secret. This need for secrecy provokes many to violence, including the Fifth Monarchists, who seek to bring about the Apocalypse and the coming of Jesus.
With the year 1666 fast approaching, the Fifth Monarchists find the end times in every facet of the city. From its sprawling corruption to its massive poverty, London yearns for its brand of justice and a crescendo to the devil’s time. Among these “Saints” the serial killer hides, committing his atrocities in the name of his religion. The religious symbolism connected to verses in Revelation truly takes this thriller into the realm of the sinister. Chapters from the murderer’s point of view show this obsession for Apocalyptic cleansing of the sinful falseness of London. This obsession contrasts sharply with Pitman’s own faith. Pitman, a Quaker and therefore a dissenter himself, uses his religion and beliefs to practice strength and kindness. The near-complete lack of religion in the other characters keenly expresses the duality of the novel.
Plague takes the reader on a thrilling ride through the gritty parts of seventeenth-century London, and readers of history and mystery alike will enjoy its shocking twist ending.
The M&M Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mystery & Mayhem fiction genre. The M&M Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, not-so-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, and for international intrigue see our Global Thriller Awards)
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2021 M&M Cozy and Not-So-Cozy entries to the 2021 M&M Book Awards SHORT LIST. These entries are now in competition for 2021 M&M Semi-Finalists. The Semi-Finalists will compete for the Finalists positions.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–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALS of the 2021 M&M Book Awards novel competition for Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries!
Congratulations to the Mystery & Mayhem 2021 Short Listers!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
Andrew Hunkins –Evil Alive
Michael Scott Garvin –Ophelia’s Room
J.W. Zarek –The Devil Pulls the Strings
Codi Schneider– Cold Snap: A Viking Cat Mystery
Vicki Batman –Temporarily Out of Luck
Lori Roberts Herbst –Double Exposure
Mally Becker –The Turncoat’s Widow
Tina deBellegarde –Winter Witness
Alexander Mukte –The Recruiter
Traci Andrighetti –Marsala Maroon
B.L. Smith –Bert Mintenko and the Serious Business
B.L. Smith –The Irritating Misadventures of Bert Mintenko
Patricia Catacalos –Lurking in the Darkness (1832 Regency Book 4)
Arlene McFarlane –Murder, Curlers & Kilts
Eileen Charbonneau –Death at Little Mound
Elizabeth Crowens –Babs and Basil, and the Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
Debbie De Louise –No Gravestone Unturned
Mary Gehlen Seifert –Titanic Trial
Charlotte Stuart –Who Me? Fog Bows, Fraud and Aphrodite
Jolie Tunnell –Loveda Brown Sings the Blues
Patrick M. Garry –Through the Waves a Steady Path
Lori Robbins –Murder In First Position
Tony Kelsey –Once A Man Indulges
Patricia C. Lee –First Gear : a Sadie Hawkins Mystery
Cam Lang –The Concrete Vineyard
Chuck Morgan –Crime Unknown, A Buck Taylor Novel
Susan McCormick –The Fog Ladies: Family Matters
Diane Weiner –An Ear for Murder
Darryl Wimberley –A Star in her Crown
Kelly Miller –Accusing Mr. Darcy
Phil Bayly –Loving Lucy
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
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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.
A good thriller should be like the best-boxed chocolate sampler: the ones that not only offer you a great variety of tastes but allow you to sample and resample the chocolates you’ve discovered.
C.C. Humphreys’ noir thriller One London Day resembles that box of chocolates. The story takes you from delicious to delicious bits, round and round, until you have sampled everything and everyone once, twice, or even three times until you understand the full impact of this brilliantly dark – based on a true story thriller.
It begins, deceptively, with Mr. Phipps, who has a taste for the dark side of life. He’s a handsomely compensated and frequently used assassin. The first victim on this day will be Joseph Severin, a well-heeled real estate manager, married, and prominent member of London’s Jewish community. Severin keeps a double set of books in handwritten form—no computers, please—for a financial group which calls itself the Shadows, a name picked from comic books. The Shadows, a well-to-do collection of white-collar men, fund various illegal enterprises, the details of which Severin cleverly encodes in his books. When the Shadows discover Severin dabbling in their investments, it becomes clear; the bookkeeper knows too much. The Shadows move Severin from the credit side of the ledger to the debit side, so to speak. Goodbye, Mr. Severin.
Meanwhile, Severin meets a stunning woman named Lottie.
She’s a beautiful, sexy, for-hire pianist, and Severin impulsively offers a month’s free rent in one of his unoccupied flats. Of course, the offer comes with fringe benefits if only Severin can get over the fact that he’s about to break his marriage vows.
Lottie, of course, has her own story. She’s been dating a rising young black actor, Patrick, whom she loves. But Patrick loves kinky sex and arranges for a Russian hooker, Sonya, to join him and Lottie for a delicious threesome. Despite the pleasures of the moment, Lottie can’t stop thinking about Severin.
Sonya’s a highly paid hooker in London who needs to raise enough money for her daughter’s much-needed operation back in Moscow. She’s almost raised enough money to leave the escort business altogether and take care of her daughter.
Enter Bernard, who lost his wife and hires Sonja to hold and comfort him, not for sex. There’s somewhat of a complication here because Bernard is a member of the Shadows. Sebastien, another one of the Shadows, also craves an evening with Sonya.
The Shadows want Mr. Severin removed, but they need to recover Severin’s incriminating accounting books. Enter Mr. Phipps, who must collect the books that seem to have wound up with Lottie. However, recovering the books may not be as easy as he thinks.
C.C. Humphreys develops his story like a game of Mousetrap, requiring readers to pay close attention to every detail.
Characters and plot points circle, again and again, each time adding to a fuller picture of what happened on this one day. Greed and comeuppance play out in today’s London from someone who knows it well. Humphreys’ craftsmanship is unmistakable.
Read One London Day if you enjoy present-day noir thrillers. Read it if you enjoy well-crafted writing. Read it if you want a few hours of fun entertainment. But above all, just read it. You won’t be disappointed.
Time is running out! The 2021 Global Thriller Awards are due in October!
You’re working the puzzle, the patterns you see that no one else pays attention to. You’ve been at it for days, your eyes are burning, your throat dry, when a message notification beeps on your smartphone. You tap to open:
“We know who you are and your time is running out.”
The smartphone beeps again. This time, the message reads:
Turn in your High-Stakes Thriller, your Chillers, your multiple Killers for a chance at the prize! But one thing is certain, if you don’t enter, you won’t have a chance of winning!
The Global Thriller Awards Spotlight
The clock is ticking… you’re working on a deadline while your spouse is across town, picking up the kids. You’ve taken the day off and gone to the cabin. You have to write that last chapter… the one that will get your work noticed, like J.D. Barker or Stephen King kind of noticed.
The Chanticleer Global Thriller Awards recognizes High Stake Thrillers on an International Scale, including Lab Lit. While Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series might be the first thing that comes to mind, there is a wide variety of espionage and mystery that can fit into the Global Thriller genre. One thing is for sure, it will keep you up late, and, if you can sleep, it’ll be with one eye open.
The only certainty is that the competition for this CIBA Division Awards is steep. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.
The Bucharest Dossier, a Novel by William Maz
Chanticleer Review is forth coming.
Doubt and Debt
By John Feist
Pipelines—large industrial pipelines through which pour oil, gas, and other natural elements—are not the usual stuff that writers tackle for intelligent, sophisticated international high-stakes spy novels. But then again, most writers aren’t John Feist, whose lawyering background in, yes, global pipelines and related industries such as steel, coal, and shipping companies make him the perfect choice to turn these typically pedestrian subjects into absorbing books. His work introduces us to complex issues involving international trade at the highest level, greed, murder, and above all, the intricacies and rewards of multinational, prominent, and sometimes multiracial families.
The Kurdish Connection (Book 1 in the Bedlam Series)
By Randall Krzak
Semi-Finalist in Global Thrillers
International writer Randall Krzak addresses one of the world’s saddest ongoing tragedies in The Kurdish Connection, a thriller about the plight of the Kurdish people and a desperate plan to free them from their fate.
In a world awash with refugees, perhaps no greater tragedy exists than the ongoing fate of the Kurds of the Middle East, roughly 30 million sect members spread between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Connected by language, religion, and history, this group has no country to call their own. The Kurds have been the subject of several attempts by international agreements to help them create a haven, the most recent in northern Iraq’s no-fly zone. Meanwhile, all four host countries have ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish hopes and dreams politically and especially militarily.
Execute Order
By Jett Ward
First Place Winner in Global Thrillers
On a military base outside Las Vegas, Lieutenant Brent Parker sits in a bunker in a darkened room looking to an outsider to be playing a sophisticated aerial combat video game. But this is no game. People live and die with Parker in control of a lethal drone nicknamed the Reaper flying over forbidden Syrian air space in 2011, striking American enemies on the ground with killer missiles from several miles in the air.
Enemies are one issue, but collateral damage—men, women, children, whole families who die in a missile attack as a side effect of bringing down a terrorist—weighs heavily on Parker’s conscience. It doesn’t help when his ultra-sensitive cameras see the face of a woman who his missile will obliterate as a side effect of bringing down a military-mandated target, a face that haunts him as he leaves the bunker for the clean, and safe, American desert air of Nevada.
The Kafir Project
By Lee Burvine
First Place Winner in Global Thriller Awards
From page one, things are not going as planned on The Kafir Project, and author Lee Burvine has many more surprises in store before this undertaking ends. The action leaps off the page from beginning to the grand finale in this thought-provoking thriller. The villains are well-organized and highly motivated to stop the Project dead, as well as anyone who gets in their way.
Gevin Rees is a television science communicator, a celebrity who explains complex scientific discoveries and theories to television audiences. He interviews guests on specific topics and is surprised the world’s most celebrated and reclusive physicist, Edward Fischer, wants to meet with him. It’s even more curious because Fischer’s death in an explosion had been broadly reported. However, he stands before Gevin Rees and begins to tell a story of intrigue about a secret project on a pier along San Francisco Bay. The story is interrupted with gunfire. This time there is no doubt that Fischer is dead. Now on the run, Gevin Rees is a new target.
Former CIA agent and all around badass, Lee Carruthers, returns for the thrilling third book in the series, Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew.
Lee is looking forward to some well-earned downtime, so when her ex-boss and mentor, Sidney Worthington calls with another job, Lee is not amused. During her previous mission, people tried to kill her—multiple times. All she really wants right now is some serious R&R. However, she is the gal who will never say “no” to a job. And besides, Worthington swears it’s an easy gig.
Bishop’s Law
By Rafael Amadeus Hines
First Place Winner in Global Thriller Awards
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. This is the code that John Bishop, one of America’s most decorated military heroes, teaches his men to follow whether they’re on a mission in the heat of the Middle East or in the jungle that is New York’s Lower East Side in Rafael Amadeus Hines’ novel, Bishop’s Law.
To say his life is complicated is putting it mildly. In this second volume of the John Bishop series, several high-level assassins are hell-bent on killing him for his actions as a soldier. At the same time, he’s deep in his crime family’s military-style battles against various opponents’ groups. All these forces are closing in on him simultaneously, even as the United States government had hired him and his family to protect the country from bad guys using whatever means necessary.
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.
Also remember! Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 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!
If you haven’t heard the news, Kiffer was interviewed on DIY MFA where she and Gabriela Pereira discuss
Why now is the best time to be an author
The difference between a write-up and a review
The Four Types of Reviews
How advance reviews help to promote your book
When you should start sending your book out for reviews
Plus, Kiffer’s #1 Tip for Writers
You can listen to the full interview on Chanticleer’s under the hood technology that gets increases the digital footprint of each book review published on Chanticleer’s website here or wherever you get your podcasts. Kiffer also gives quick and easy tips about how to get more “Amazon Love” to your book’s Amazon selling page. Below is a quick synopsis of the interview, but tune in to get the full scoop!
So what does all this mean? We have the inside scoop!
The Best Time to be an Author
With millions of books being published every year, it’s harder for an author to be noticed than ever! So why is now the best time to be an author?
Simply put, the number of resources available to authors now are greater than ever before. Not only can Chanticleer help you navigate this vast ocean of publishing, but we provide many of the tools directly. A brief list of our formidable resources are:
Overwhelmed? You can always email us at info@ChantiReviews.com for assistance, or message us directly on Facebook. Of course, one of our primary services is the Editorial Review.
A Write-Up vs A Review
The proof is in the pudding for write-ups vs reviews. A write-up, as said on Merriam-Webster is a review that is intended to be “flattering.” While there’s nothing wrong with one of these, readers will wisely be wary of them as they have a biased tone. By contrast, Editorial Reviews are unbiased and objective, referring to what a text specifically does or does not do – it focuses on the quality of the work. Editorial Reviews are an excellent way for readers to gauge their actual interest in a book, instead of having to read between the lines to see if it’s actually something they’ll enjoy. Both happen and can help with book sales, but an Editorial Review will be more versatile. Let’s dig into that!
The Four Types of Review
Editorial Reviews
These reviews are unbiased and objective, the standard by which readers measure if they’ll want to read a book or not. Chanticleer Editorial Reviews are a professional avenue for your book to be fairly assessed and get people talking about it! We keep up with the latest in Search Engine Optimization technology to maximize the digital footprint of our clients, including cross-posting across social media.
Chanticleer’s Marketing Kits are given to authors whose books receive a 4 or 5-star CBR review.Our kits include personalized Shelf Talkers you can use wherever your print book is sold, as well as samples of our silver-foil Book Review stickers designed to catch readers’ attention.
Typically, the best time to begin submitting your work for an Editorial Review is when you reach the proofing stage. Your reviewer will understand that the book is approaching its final form, and that minor changes will still be made. Your book will be evaluated, not on minor typographical errors, but on how well you’ve realized your story.
Reader Reviews
Close kin of the write-up, these are the kinds of reviews you’ll find everyone on Amazon and Goodreads letting you know how someone who read the book liked it. While some are helpful and provide real insight on the book, many are just a rating from 1-5, and the information relating to your book varies. You can’t be sure this reader is in your audience, even if they read your book! There’s no denying that reader reviews help your book do well, and it’s more of a question of quantity over quality, but they’re tricky to maneuver and guarantee.
Peer Review
One of the most difficult reviews to obtain is that of the peer review, or, as it’s commonly known, the book blurb. This describes an author or someone else in your circle of influence who readers will listen to. J.D. Barker, a regular presenter at The Chanticleer Authors Conference, has networked to have Stephen King blurb his thriller novels, and you can believe that King’s readers sit up an pay attention to that!
Circle of Influence is how Kiffer describes those who surround you that can directly contribute to your success as an author. If you aren’t sure who your circle includes, try writing down ten people who you know you can turn to for advice or support. Each year, you’ll want to grow this circle by another ten people. Kiffer and Sharon Anderson wrote an excellent article about this that you can read here.
JD Barker presented at CAC19 and VCAC21!
While you will, of course, reach out to authors on your level, it’s always good to have a few authors who are doing better than you blurb your book. Obviously, writers at the top of their game will be inundated with blurb requests, so be gentle and patient when asking, even if you never hear back.
The Manuscript Overview
This one is always unexpected, because a review of your manuscript doesn’t come after your book is done (or close to it). However, Kiffer recommends that you do a Manuscript overview around the second of third draft of your book. It’s before you’ve paid someone to painstakingly line edit and proofread your book, but after you feel comfortable with knowing the core of the story, and you know the ideas you want to convey are on the paper. That’s when you’re ready for your overview.
A manuscript overview (MOV) is a broad overview of your manuscript – what’s working and what isn’t from all aspects of your story: structure, plot, pacing, character development, dialogue, etc. Chanticleer can offer guidance on what you need next. Using a manuscript overview before you begin the editorial process will not only save you money in terms of editorial services down the road, but it also will save you time by clarifying where you are in writing your story right now.
Now that we’ve covered the four types of reviews, let’s continue to dig deeper into how you can use your Editorial Reviews
How Advance Reviews Can Support Your Book
So often when authors receive their Editorial Review, instead of inspiration lighting up the night sky telling them what to do next, there’s a strange buzzing sound that surely isn’t dread and uncertainty.
It’s okay! Of course, you’ll want to test bits of your Editorial Review as blurb material for you book. Feel free to be selective and grab multiple sound bites that you like to describe your book. Workshop them with friends and fellow writers in your circle of influence. For the other potential blurbs, you can use those on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes Noble, and Kobo. Each one of those places has a special location for Editorial Reviews that the author can upload. The reason you use different quotes from you review for these is so that readers who come across your book on multiple platforms have something new to read in each spot. Editorial Reviews used in this way can really help drive presales.
If your book hasn’t been published yet, but is a manuscript that you are sending to agents and publishers, then the Editorial Review can still be used in the same way to market it to those you query regarding your book.
The other big thing is link to your review! Adding links on blog posts and websites increase your SEO rating, and having your digital footprints over a wide path with help readers come across your book online.
When Should you Solicit Reviews?
At least six months in advance. In times where shipping is not being impacted by a global pandemic, it takes about two weeks to receive a shipment of books. And that’s in the best case scenario. Remember, even if all you have left to do is proofreading, your book will still have the following to go through before it can go to print:
Interior Formatting
Cover Design
Proof Copies
The interior formatting and cover design time varies greatly, and the time it takes to receive a galley or proof of your book will be another two weeks for shipping. Six moths will be the minimum amount of time you’ll want to make sure the blurb can appear somewhere on your book and then will be sent out in marketing packages. Bestselling books are often sent out a year or more in advance to receive reviews.
The book is a wonderful tool for someone interested in an MFA, but sitting on the fence. It walks you through the essentials of what an MFA program provides, and the dives into how to create a similar situation, while providing craft tips on par with the latest advice from top-tier editors. Highly Recommended!
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 10th annual conference and discover why!
Odel Bernini wades deeper and deeper into treacherous political intrigue, in Richard C. Brusca’s Historical Adventure novel, In the Land of the Feathered Serpent.
This story, like the feathered serpent itself, moves time and space to visit an era remembered by many Americans as one where the U.S. government worked to destabilize several Central American regimes who were at odds with its politics.
A young Odel works as chief curator of a world-renowned natural history museum in Seattle, an occasional teacher at a college in nearby Tacoma, and an archaeology hobbyist. His marine biology fieldwork in support of his specialty – the documentation of crustaceans in Central America – brings him time and again to nations long under the political sway of the United States, especially Nicaragua and Guatemala.
Revolutions and counterrevolutions create governments and insurgents that brutalize the local populations, especially the indigenous people. Prodded by his wife, the daughter of an American cultural attaché, Bernini approaches the CIA to ask whether it might fund his continued research in the region in exchange for “some silly things” he could do for them.
Those “silly things” lead to funding from a foundation to cover his travel, but with strings attached.
He collects crustaceans and intel. Having sold his soul, he gradually undertakes more dangerous tasks on the CIA’s behalf. Like a frog placed into room-temperature water, it is almost too late before he realizes that the burner has been lit. In addition to the growing peril to his life, Bernini falls for a devastatingly gorgeous woman he meets in a hotel bar, on the eve of his first assignment.
As things grow more complicated, the malicious Guatemalan army tears through the jungle looking for Bernini. He must contend with the wildlife buzzing and slithering around him in the dark and hopes he can escape – right up until he meets a venomous fer-de-lance snake.
Author Brusca delivers modern man’s Odyssey, both in scale and complexity.
We are riveted to this man’s journey of self-discovery through challenging times as he navigates the siren calls of the CIA and impossibly beautiful and sexually adept women while his mundane life as an academic and museum curator disintegrates. The lead character’s descent into calamitous Central American politics and American foreign policy plays foil to erotic scenes with his wife back home in Seattle, a darkly fascinating and even more beautiful seductress in Central America, and a final twist coupling with a yet more mysterious and enigmatically enthralling woman.
Author Brusca has an effortless style that draws the reader in and manages to convey needed facts of science, political history, and geography that quickly absorb the reader. Brusca delivers a mega-novel that will resonate with readers drawn to sensually charged, clandestine storylines that run through dangerous political landscapes and treacherous jungles. In the end, much like the heroes he echoes, Odel Bernini, is a super-heroic Indiana Jones archetype with a whole bunch of sexy Bond on the side.
The Gertrude Warner Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Middle Grade Fiction. The Gertrude Warner Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Contemporary Middle Grade, SFF & Paranormal Middle Grade, Mystery Middle Grade, Historical Middle Grade, Adventure Middle Grade, and Graphic Novels. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. For Young Adult Fiction see our Dante Rossetti Awards here and for Children’s Literature see our Little Peeps Awards here.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2021 Gertrude Warner Middle Grade Fiction entries to the 2021 Gertrude Warner Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2021 Gertrude Warner Shortlist. The Short Listers will compete for the FINALIST positions. Finalists will be selected from the Short List. 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–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2021 Gertrude Warner Book Awards novel competition for Middle Grade Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Didem Saracel – Story of Carbon
Didem Saracel – Story of Oxygen
Ryan O’Connor – Ting Ting, the Girl Who Saved China
Clayton Marshall Adams – The Mask
Mary K. Savarese – The Girl in the Toile Wallpaper
Sean March – Little Wade and Watchtower: Abigail and the Great Gang Trap
McKemie Huston – Return of the Last Prism
M.L. Smith – Serious Business on Albatross Lane
B.L. Smith – Irritating Adventures on Albatross Lane
K.P. Boardman – The Falling Sisters
Murray Richter – Fishing for Luck
J. B. Spector – The Sunlit Curse, Book 1 of The Mer-Prince Adventures
J. B. Spector – The Amethyst Tower, Book 2 of The Mer-Prince Adventures
Sean March – Little Wade and Watchtower: Abigail and the Great Gang Trap
Ronnie Swire Siegel – Displaced: A Story About Climate Change and How Displaced Animals Ring the Alarm
James Love – Max Voltage: Multiverse Mayhem
Ben Gartner – Sol Invictus
Esta Lemon – The Loser Blog
KS Mitchell – The Mystery of the Golden Ball: Pen & Quin International Agents of Intrigue
D. H. Timpko – The Firma Twins and the Flute of Enchantment
Susan McCormick – The Antidote
Raea Gragg – Mup
Gloria Two-Feathers – Buck Keeper of the Meadow
Barbara Glazier-Robinson – Grace from Space: A Race to Save Earth(Dream Catcher Series, Book One)
Jay Spencer – The Phantom Airplane Mystery
Laura Gerhardt Schonberg – Joker
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 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle Grade 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.
And for those who know me know that it is rare when I’m at a loss for words. Hey! No comments from the peanut gallery.
If you want to know where the term Peanut Gallery comes from scroll down to the end of this article. Love the Muppets!
I have a lot of good news to share with you!
As the 2020 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Blue Ribbon Winners are aware of, the shipping of the coveted blue ribbons was delayed due to our supplier’s shortage of labor and materials because of the Covid effects on businesses. The owner contacted us to tell us that they are running behind. As with many small companies, they have found themselves short-handed and the staff they have are working longer days and weekends and are working around the clock to fill their custom ribbon orders.
We, like the Blue Ribbon Winners, were anxiously awaiting the beautiful handmade custom Chanticleer Blue Ribbons to be ready for pickup from our local pacific northwest supplier. It is a woman-owned company and they have created our beautiful ribbons since we began awarding them more than a decade ago. It is a great local company in a very niche market!
Hand made here in the PNW!
FINALLY, we got the call! The handmade ribbons (all 206 of them from the Shorts winners to the Overall Grand Prize winner for Best Book) were ready to pickup last Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 5th. We got into Sharon’s mini-van and made the drive to Blaine, Wash. to pick them up. The ribbons were counted, sorted, and inspected back at our office in Bellingham by David and Hayley. By the end of the business week, the packing process had begun. Each and every CIBA ribbon is mailed, tracked, and insured by U.S. Post Priority Mail. It is quite the process.
So, YAY! Because we are busy with judging rounds for the 2021 CIBAs that will be awarded at CAC 22! And now finally get to award the 2020 CIBAs. It is about time! Right? Right! All we can do is just keep moving forward.
I want to thank each and everyone on the 2020 CIBA winners for their patience and understanding in these continuing challenging times. It is appreciated and valued more than you know by Team Chanticleer as we head into the 20th month of of the Covid pandemic. Here at Chanticleer, we learned new technologies while working remotely, learned how to use new computer applications, and are trying to work in a very deadline oriented industry. Heck, we are even receiving entries now into the 2022 CIBAs that will be awarded in 2023. It is great to be busier than ever especially in these crazy unprecedented times.
Moving on. But, I am not complaining Universe, but it is my experience is that things tend to clump.
The same day that we got the anxiously awaited call to pick up the ribbons, I, of course, also received the email from our local printer that the sixth issue of the Chanticleer Reviews magazine copies were ready to pickup. The magazine was delayed because of the printer’s mechanism for stitching the pages together was broken. The owner said he had no idea when they would receive the parts needed to fix it. However, he could have it printed if we switched to a “perfect bound” magazine. I said, “Sure!” But, of course, (yes, using that term again!), it wasn’t that simple. The gutters, margins, spine design, and spacing had to be reworked in InDesign. So, we pivoted and reworked the layout. Our printer printed the pages but had to have another printer do the binding. Seven weeks later than scheduled, we have the magazine in hand.
The silver lining is that we really do like the perfect bound look even if it costs more. We love the new look! However, it does mean that we need to add twenty more pages to future issues. Below is a screen shot of the cover featuring the awesome author Ann Charles! I’ll do another post on the magazine and how you can get your copy—print or e-zine.
Next, there is the new perch for the Roost, a community for Chanticleer Authors to connect with each other. This one is much more interactive and way easier to use than the previous perch (ahem, application). We so appreciate each and every Chanticleer that supported us during the trial run and helped to get the new Roost up and running (two weeks ago). Did I mention clumping?
The new Roost can be accessed on your mobile phone, on tablets, laptops, and desk computers. AND all the videos from the VCAC 20 and VCAC 21 recordings of the live sessions are available at the new perch. We started the BETA Roost the summer of 2019. Trying out different things. Seeing how things work. Kicking the tires, so to speak. Argus Brown (the rooster who makes all the tech stuff happen at Chanticleer) was researching systems, writing code, and doing all of the other mysterious digital stuff that he does so that we could have an online community. Many Chanticleerians had requested the need for one. They want to keep the conversations going after gathering at conferences and book events.
The plan was to debut the Roost at CAC 20, but then Covid struck and the world changed. We were all trying to adjust, trying to pivot, trying to figure what we needed to do. Sharon and I are were hoping that by July 2020, we could host the Chanticleer Authors Conference in real life (IRL). Then, we thought perhaps Labor Day weekend in September. Alas, this was not to be with the rising Covid numbers.
In late July, we decided that we would need to have the conference virtually and award the 2019 CIBA winners. September 8th, 2020 was determined to be the starting date since we knew no one would want to spend Labor Day weekend zooming. The learning of Zooming, Audio, recording, coordinating with presenters across multiple time zones commenced. VCAC 20 was deemed a great success with Robert Dugoni, Scott Steindorff, J.D. Barker, Paul Cutsinger, head of ALEXA (yes, that Alexa), and other stellar presenters and the wonderful interactive Chanticleerians participating and connecting. It was even written up in The WRITERmagazine as one of the best virtual conferences to have attended in 2020.
Back to the Roost. So, we moved the debut of the Roost to CAC 21. Certainly, we could have CAC 21 in April IRL (In Real Life). Alas, alas, it wasn’t to be. So, we pivoted again. Cathy Ace, international bestselling crime writer, was our featured presenter for VCAC 21. And she was outstanding! We have all the recordings of VCAC21 available to view on The Roost.
Back to the Roost! Our Roost Team kept trying to find a new and easier platform that will facilitate connection and interaction between members so that we all can learn from each other. And we did! It took a while and a lot of testing, but we all agreed on the new platform that is now hosting The Roost! We have Topics, Events, Interests, Groups, and Workshops on Writing Craft, Marketing Tips, Author Events, and Happy Hours and Coffee Klatches. There are even Write-Ins! Because every writer needs a place to perch!
We will post another article on The Roost soon! We’ve got Chanticleer Blue Ribbons to package and mail!
By the way, October 31st CIBA Submission Deadlines are for the OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction, the Paranormal Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction, and the Global Thriller Book Awards for High Stakes Thrillers.
More news to come. There is a lot more to share! Save the Dates for CAC 22 – our 10th conference! April 7 – 10, 2022.
Keep on Creating! Kiffer
As promised – the origins of the term Peanut Gallery – from Wikipedia –
A peanut gallery was, in the days of vaudeville, a nickname for the cheapest and ostensibly rowdiest seats in the theater, the occupants of which were often known to heckle the performers.[1] The least expensive snack served at the theatre would often be peanuts, which the patrons would sometimes throw at the performers on stage to convey their disapproval. Phrases such as “no comments from the peanut gallery” or “quiet in the peanut gallery” are extensions of the name.
Randall Krzak opens Pandora’s box on the world of Columbian cartels and Islamic terrorists in his latest thriller, Colombia Betrayal: A Bruce and Smith Thriller, Book 1. 
I wanted you to know how much I appreciated what you wrote – especially concerning the notion of 
