Not many people can capture the emotions that coincide with war, but Vicki Cody joins the ranks of those who do in her wartime memoir, Fly Safe: Letters from the Gulf War and Reflections from Back Home.
This powerful memoir shows us the behind-the-scenes lives of the women, children, and families left at home while their soldiers set off for war, bringing us close to their raw vulnerability. Fly Safe fascinates as it informs readers of what one wife experiences as her commander husband leads his battalion to the middle east.
Cody takes us back in time to the early 1990s when the first President Bush called up troops in an operation called “Desert Shield,” which turned into Desert Storm. She captures the events that led up to our first conflict in the middle east, but far from being strictly pedantic and historical, centers on the warmth, love, and fears that most of the wives were experiencing. Her letters from her husband – and her journal entries read like daily affirmations and blend well in telling this story.
The memoir shines as a first-person account of the ins-and-outs of a military family’s life during war.
Cody succeeds 99% of the time in duties that correspond to her husband’s, and she knows how to help other wives and her community. But in this memoir, we are privy to the times she falters.
We can’t be strong all the time. We can fake it – suppress, deny, and avoid our emotions – for only so long. Eventually, there is a trigger, a tipping point, and it all comes pouring out.
The reader becomes witness to the terror and fear of war, born from the first “real-time” news reporting of such a conflict. She expertly relays her first shock at seeing the footage of skirmishes on TV before her husband’s letters have reached her. It’s difficult for the contemporary reader to imagine a time before cell phones, WiFi, and constant connections. Her experience was marked by waiting for letters to arrive through the mail. Deployment into battle meant weeks of delays in postal delivery, and the not knowing would gnaw at your confidence until your mind almost breaks.
Through all the days and nights without her husband, the love story between them lies at the heart of the memoir.
Difficulties arise for most returning troops: the power struggles, the reconnection after the war, the acclimation to ordinary home life after battle – and the author does not hide these issues. What she shows us most of all is a brave man’s journey to war and a brave woman’s support and love to keep the home fires burning.
Military wives will recognize the feminine side of war shown here. The memoir is not about women going into battle in the literal sense, rather, what it is like for the wives as they navigate the real dangers of losing soulmates and the fathers of their children. Cody never loses sight of her obligations and considers them an honor to bear. In fact, her role in the war effort gives us a glimpse of how deployed troops’ wives coped.
The father’s military tradition continues as their sons grow up to follow in his footsteps.
The boys’ deployments to the middle east provide a glimpse into the role that a mother plays as her children are put in harm’s way to protect their homeland and our freedoms. Cody’s pride is evident in every word and line of this well-crafted memoir. We see it all through the eyes of the wife and mother, who relays her husband’s and son’s exploits with all the love, honor, respect, and pride that she holds in her heart.
This book is a boon to military wives and mothers whose sons go to battle for our country. It is also a boost of patriotism for those readers who do not have that connection to military life. It shows readers the raw emotions that drive the women left behind, and it does so with humor, tact, and most of all, love.
The Goethe Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in post-1750s Historical Fiction. The Goethe Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Goethe Book Awards competition is named for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was born at the dawn of the new era of enlightenment on August 28, 1749.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Late Period Historical Fiction. Regency, Victorian, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, World and other wars before the 20th century, history of non-western cultures, set after the 1750s, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them. For 20th century Wartime Fiction, see our new Hemingway Awards here.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2021 Goethe Late Historical Fiction entries to the 2021 Goethe Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2021 Goethe 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–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2021 Goethe Book Awards novel competition for Post-1750s Historical Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Sandra Vasoli – The Masterpiece Pursuit
J.G. Schwartz – The Curious Spell of Madam Genova
Andrew Schafer, M.D. – Unclean Hands
Leah Angstman – Falcon in the Dive
Margaret Rodenberg – Finding Napoleon: A Novel
Anna Bullock – The Companion
Margaret Porter – The Limits of Limelight
Pamela Nowak – Never Let Go
Michael J. Coffino – Truth Is in the House
Georgia Nicolle – Maiden Scars
Paula Butterfield – The Goddesses of Tenth Street
Adele Holmes, M.D. – Winter’s Reckoning
Tammy Pasterick – Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash
Ron Singerton – The Refused
Alice McVeigh – Susan: A Jane Austen Prequel
Jodi Lea Stewart – Triumph, a Novel of the Human Spirit
S. Lee Fisher – Becoming Olive W. – The Women of Campbell County: Family Saga: Book 1
Victoria Laurienzo – Toolie
Drema Drudge – Victorine
Sophia Alexander – Silk: Caroline’s Story
Lorelei Brush – Chasing the American Dream
Lee Hutch – Molly’s Song
Julie Weary – Skeleton World
Orna Ross – After the Rising & Before the Fall
Alfred Nicols – Lost Love’s Return
Glen Craney – The Cotillion Brigade: A Novel of the Civil War and the Most Famous Female Militia in American History
Bryan Ney – Absaroka War Chief
Emmett J Hall – Runaway
Jenni L. Walsh – A Betting Woman: A Novel of Madame Moustache
Dana Mack – All Things That Deserve to Perish
Pamela Hamilton – Lady Be Good
Adriana Girolami – The Zamindar’s Bride
Lori McMullen – Among the Beautiful Beasts
Mike Jordan – The Freedom Song
Florence Reiss Kraut – How to Make a Life: a novel
Kathleen Williams Renk – Vindicated: A Novel of Mary Shelley
Michelle Rene – Maud’s Circus
J. E. Dyer – Barons
Judith Berlowitz – Home So Far Away
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 Goethe Book Awards for Post-1750s Historical 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.
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romantic Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best new books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, and stories that appeal especially to fans of affairs of the heart to compete in the Chatelaine Book Awards (the CIBAs). 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 Chatelaine Romantic Fiction entries to the 2021 Chatelaine Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2021 Chatelaine Shortlist. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions. 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 Chatelaine Book Awards novel competition for Romantic Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Jayne Castel – Highlander Deceived
Anna Gomez and Kristoffer Polaha – Moments Like This
Valerie Taylor – What’s Not Said — A Novel
Lindy Miller – Aloha With Love
Alex Sirotkin – The Long Desert Road
Evie Alexander – Highland Games
Jared Morrison – Of Dreams and Angels
M. C. Bunn – Where Your Treasure Is
A.D. Brazeau – Love Between the Lines
Chera Thompson & NF Johnson – A Time to Wander
A. L. Cleven – Running Into Mountains
Meredith Pechta – Political Theatre
Brooke Skipstone – Crystal’s House of Queers
Bobbi Groover – Inside the Grey
Pierre G. Porter – 49 So Fine
Liz Whitehurst – Messenger
Elizabeth St. Michel – Surrender the Storm
Susan Faw – Bone Dragon
Kelle Z. Riley – Read My Lips
Kana Wu – No Secrets Allowed
John W. Feist – The Color of Rain
Chris Karlsen – The Ack Ack Girl
Edie Cay – The Boxer and the Blacksmith
Emily A. Myers – The Truth About Unspeakable Things
Frannie James – The Sylvan Hotel, A Seattle Story
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Breath, Book One in the Desert Hills Trilogy
Adriana Girolami – The Zamindar’s Bride
Phillip Vega – Searching for Sarah
Emma Lombard – Discerning Grace
F. E. Greene – In the Sweet Midwinter
HK Jacobs – Wilde Type
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.
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.
Peggy Sullivan’s Midnight and Moonlight: A Children’s Picture Book is a delightful and inspiring book about a friendship that develops between two very different four-footed felines.
Midnight and Moonlight are two well-named cats on opposite sides of the spectrum. Like night and day, Midnight is small, sleek, and black, while Moonlight is big, white, and fluffy. They first meet at a pet store, then they are taken to the same home where they quickly become friends, even though their differences are many.
Moonlight appears the quieter and more passive one; Midnight is a more active and curious type with a sweet tooth and penchant for doughnuts. When the furry pair and their human owners move to a new house, the cats settle in quite nicely, still maintaining their individuality. Midnight does make friends on the outside with an orange Tabby, but Moonlight remains his best friend.
Sullivan’s clear and concise text and whimsical illustrations work in perfect harmony to attract early readers.
While the solid and direct narrative of Midnight and Moonlight flows easily, the charming visual accents like a shared yellow food dish, a bright blue moving van, and a lime green tuna can, add a colorful and complementary touch.
With the story’s relatable message about friendships beyond differences and personal likes and dislikes, the book lends itself well for an ideal read between a parent and child, or perhaps a teacher and young students in a classroom setting. Here a fun and entertaining animal tale offers an opportunity for further discussion about unlikely friendships that can form in all walks of life, whether in the human or animal realm.
The book’s final words prove a true testament to the story’s heartfelt sentiment about friendships.
Ultimately, Sullivan’s well-crafted picture book delivers a positive, thought-provoking, and enlightening message for all ages. A message perfect for today. Midnight and Moonlight: A Children’s Picture Book by Peggy Sullivan won the CIBA Little Peeps Grand Prize for Children’s Literature – and comes highly recommended!
How to Create an Irresistible Narrator – Taught by Steve Almond
Many a short story, essay, novel, and memoir have gone unpublished because the author fails to create a strong narrator, one who can act as a wise and entertaining guide to the reader. In this class, you will examine the work of Sylvia Plath, Jane Austen, Alicia Erian, Joan Didion, and others in an effort to make sure your next narrator isn’t just strong, but irresistible.
Steve will upend what you thought you knew about narrators and make you reconsider how you go about creating characters on the page.
The fiercely amazing writer Steve Almond (Candyfreak, God Bless America) has been teaching writers for a long time, including at Seattle’s Hugo House and Portland’s Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop.
Steve Almond, author of ten books of fiction and non-fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers “Candyfreak” and “Against Football.”
Now he is teaching an online class to support one of our own, Laurel Leigh, to help her cover her medical and other basic expenses.
The class Steve will be offering for this project is: How to Create an Irresistible Narrator
Laurel Leigh has supported her community of friends and writers across the country for decades. She has always had time to give advice, send a cheerful message, share a heartfelt hello. She has mentored new writers and aspiring authors. She has let wordsmiths borrow her confidence until they found their own. Now it’s time for us to step up and support her.
Laurel Leigh – mentor for writers, editor, and builder of writer communities.
Laurel Leigh Needs Our Help
Recently, our wonderful friend and mentor Laurel Leigh got devastating news from her doctors: She has advanced-stage lung cancer.
She’s never smoked. Nobody knows exactly when or why she developed lung cancer, but she did.
Laurel is self-employed and has not been able to work full-time since starting treatment last month. By the time it was discovered, her cancer was inoperable, and part of her right lung is collapsed around the main tumor. She is undergoing simultaneous chemo and radiation therapy. To make matters worse, she cannot tolerate some of the medications used to lessen the treatment side effects. Her health insurance is covering only a part of the treatment costs, and as a freelancer she does not have paid time off or short-term disability coverage.
The only way to get a seat at Steve Almond’s exclusive class on narration is to donate $75 or more, using this link, with “Steve Almond” mentioned in the Comments section on Laurel Leigh’s GoFundMe webpage. The Zoom invitation will be sent via GoFundMe’s Thank You email.
If you are not taking the online class, please consider making a contribution to help Laurel cover her medical and other basic expenses. It doesn’t have to be much. Even a small amount will reduce the pressure on her in this difficult time. You may contribute here.
Note from Kiffer: I first met Laurel Leigh while she was supporting local authors at Village Books in Fairhaven at an event. She is considered to be a founder of the Bellingham writers’ community. Many of us remember her from Open Mic with Laurel Leigh at Whatcom Talks and Village Books where she encouraged published and unpublished authors. She is a gracious and talented word-crafter who is generous with her knowledge and experience.
Please join Sean Dwyer, Cami Ostman, Paul Hanson, and myself along with Sabine Sloley, Dawn Groves, Selah Tay-Song, and others of the writing community who have joined forces to help Laurel fight the good fight. Please feel free to contact any of us if you have any questions or want to know how you can help Laurel.
Here’s to Laurel’s full and speedy recovery! – Kiffer and Andrew Brown
This class on narration is suitable for all levels of writers.
When: Wednesday, September 22, 2021 from 5 – 7 p.m. PDT (8 – 10 p.m. Eastern Time)
Where: Online via Zoom
COST: A donation of $75 or more to the GoFundMe campaign of the amazing Laurel Leigh to help cover illness-associated expenses. Make sure to add the words “Steve Almond” as a comment. Steve has graciously offered to teach this two-hour online class with proceeds going to the Laurel Leigh GoFundMe campaign.
I cannot oversell this opportunity work with my colleague Steve Almond. He is a writer. He teaches writing at a level unequaled. In particular his lectures on the narrator are excellent. You will be grateful to work with him. Claudette Sutherland.
Yom Kippur is coming up soon for our Jewish friends around the world.
As a gentile, I learned a lot in putting this article together, and I understand how much more there is to learn! Links will be included for further reading from all of our sources below!
One particularly useful site was Chabad.org, which says:
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year, when we are closest to G-d and to the essence of our souls. Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement,” as the verse states, “For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins before G-d.”
Many readers may know the events of the first Yom Kippur, but not realize the connection. Tradition states that the first Yom Kippur happened after the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. When Moses came down from the mountain, he found his people worshipping a golden calf, and he broke the tablets in a rage. When the people saw the error of their ways, Moses returned to the mountain and returned with two more tablets and God’s forgiveness.
Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb (1878)
Yom Kippur translates as “the Day of Atonement”
[I]t marks the culmination of the 10 Days of Awe, a period of introspection and repentance that follows Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Read more here.
Many people will fast for 26 hours, and, being a holiday of asking for forgiveness, it’s not very common to hear “Happy Yom Kippur!” This article from USA Today explains that the traditional greeting is “G’mar chatima tova,” which means “may you be sealed in the Book of Life.”
The “ch” sound in “chatima” is not pronounced like the English word “chat.” Instead, it should sound more like guttural utterance from the throat, like a backwards snore, because it comes from the Hebrew letter Chet. “G’mar hatima tov” is also acceptable to say.
You can always also just say “Have an easy fast” or “have a good year” since the Jewish New Year has just started.
Breaking the Fast after Yom Kipper
Yom Kippur is the tenth day of the seventh month according to the Hebrew Calendar. It is also known as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” Yom Kippur has five prayer services that include the public and private confessions of sins and guilt with atonement and repentance. Along with the prayers is asking others for forgiveness, and give to charity and those in need.
This year, Yom Kippur is sunset of September 15th, until nightfall on September 16th, 2021. Food and drink are refrained from during this time for fasting. Fasting for 26 hours begins at sunset for all males over the age of thirteen and females over the age of twelve. It may be waived for certain medical conditions. It is tradition to eat one large meal on the afternoon of Yom Kippur and then to break the fast with a large feast to celebrate in the evening of the day after. After the last Yom Kippur service, most will return home for a joyous meal, which focuses largely on comfort foods often associated with breakfast like blintzes, noodle pudding, and other baked goods.
White is the traditional color worn on Yom Kippur. The Shofar, held above, is sounded at the beginning of Rash Hashanah and the end of Yom Kippur
Now we want to take the time to celebrate some of the books that highlight some aspect of the Jewish experience that we’ve reviewed.
HENRY: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America
By Katrina Shawver
First Place Winner in Journey Awards
Katrina Shawver, a journalist for a Phoenix newspaper, was seeking a story for her weekly column. She had heard from a friend that a Holocaust survivor named Henry Zguda and his American wife, Nancy, lived in Phoenix. She called Zguda and was invited to come to his home, only a few blocks from her own. Shawver quickly bonded with both Henry and Nancy. Then she and Henry decided to have a series of weekly interviews, which she would draw on for her column and, later, for a book—this biography.
The horror story of Henry Zguda, a Catholic Pole born and raised in Krakow, Poland, begins with Henry walking down the street toward the YMCA for swim practice in 1942. A Gestapo car screeches to a stop beside him. Two men leap out, arrest Henry on the spot, throw him into the car, and take him to prison. After several days of torture, a practice used by the Gestapo to obtain information (of which Henry had little), he is taken to the train station and shoved into a cattle car so filled with people that it is impossible to do anything but stand, shoulder to shoulder. The door is slammed shut, and the train pulls out of the station. Henry has no idea what fate awaits him.
DAVID and AVSHALOM: Life and Death in the Forest of Angels
By Bernard Mann
First Place Winner in Chaucer Awards
Debut novelist Bernard Mann has diligently researched a wide-ranging saga centered on the life, loves, songs, and struggles of King David, a central figure in the Old Testament and author of the Book of Psalms.
The tale begins at a crucial stage of David’s life as he is escaping the wrath of King Saul. Once a father-figure to the former shepherd boy, Saul’s view of David sours when the majority of his subjects begin to revere David over him. David flees with a small band of loyal stalwarts. He is still a fast friend to Saul’s son and likely successor, Jonathan, and is married to Saul’s daughter Maacah. Moreover, he still holds fast to his faith in God and continues to compose poems and songs in praise of Him. When both Saul and Jonathan perish in battle, David takes up the struggle, amasses an army, receives the crown, and seizes the city of Jerusalem, making it the seat of Israelite power.
In an ancient world split in three by religion, a conflicted young man seeks the truth about his past and builds his future in this colorful panorama created by author James Hutson-Wiley.
Ibn Thomas, the book’s narrator, taken from his boyhood home In Aegyptus after his father and mother disappeared, lives in a monastery where he is mocked for his name and his knowledge of Arabic. At age 12, the monks send him from England to Salerno, Italy, where he will study medicine, supported, he learns, by considerable wealth to which he is heir from the commercial activities of his father, a trader in Al-Sukkar, or sugar, considered a precious commodity at the time.
A FEMALE DOCTOR in the CIVIL WAR
By Richard Alan
First Place Winner in Laramie Awards
Imagine a fearless, hard-as-nails contract surgeon hired by the Union Army who often works 48-hour shifts in battlefield medical tents amputating limbs, healing previously inoperable gut wounds, sewing up children’s hare lips, and diagnosing what we now call PTSD as critical in military patient care as patching physically wounded bodies.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dr. AbbyKaplan stands six feet tall and exchanges her dresses for breeches, totes a gun on her hip, engages in military defensive maneuvers, and is wounded multiple times for her efforts. Dr. Kaplan takes no guff from anyone and uses the language of soldiers appropriate to the situation. In a time when men are in charge and women are not, she wins the respect of her male colleagues in the most gruesome medical cases, winning over even those who could not fathom a woman examining a man’s most private parts.
WRAPPED in the STARS
By Elena Mikalsen
First Place Winner in Chatelaine Awards
Maya Radelis has spent the last seven months running from herself. After the death of a patient, she abandons her pediatric residency in New York City for the jungles of Guatemala and the Family Health Volunteers Mission. However, after exhausting her six-month leave, she still cannot bring herself to return to New York. Instead, Maya ends up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where fate intervenes.
In a small antique shop, an inscribed ring somehow “calls” to her. Unwilling to part with it, Maya purchases the ring and traces its history. She has seven days before she must return to the university and face the consequences of her absence, as well as the investigation of her patient’s death. Fearing she will no longer be allowed to pursue a medical career and dreading the meeting where her fate will be revealed. Maya wants to make the most of her search for the ring’s previous owner, especially after she begins to have strange dreams and memory-like episodes of the woman she thinks owned the ring. Enlisting the help of Pauline, her French friend, she traces an odd, twisting path through Paris then Bern, Switzerland. The more she discovers, the more she begins to question her destiny.
YISHAR KOACH: FORWARD with STRENGTH
By Susan Lynn Sloan
YisharKoach:ForwardwithStrengthshares the account of a man who was entrusted with inspiring some of these precious few orphans to find strength and hope after experiencing tremendous loss. At Aglasterhausen, a United Nations school for WWII orphans, Fred Fragner took on the mantle of principal and teacher at the school—a daunting responsibility for most, but not for Fragner—a fighter of the Nazi regime who was shot, captured, and interrogated by the Gestapo and then imprisoned for five years in Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
The life of this most remarkable man of integrity and altruism was inspiration for Susan Sloan to write Fragner’s biography—a five year project that she undertook with great passion after being introduced to him at a café in Bellingham, Washington. Sloan researched transcripts of lectures and speeches made by Fragner, she refers to newspaper clippings and documents about him, listened to audio and video tapes, and interviewed many who knew him as mentor, coach, friend, family member, and teacher. Most importantly, Sloan had access to Fragner’s own scrapbook about Aglasterhausen that vividly tells how “the children gave him his life back” as he tried to help restore theirs.
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. CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. See the latest updates here!
Ophelia’s Room by Michael Scott Garvin begins with a bang – and a child’s whimper.
A frantic, distraught father pounds on a bolted chapel door in a small country hospital…. A tiny, two-day-old infant cries in peril…. A deranged grandfather sees demons in every shadowy corner.
The opening scene read like something out of a young parent’s nightmare. Will their child be healthy? Will they grow up to be successful? Will the child be safe in their grandparents’ arms? Questions that any new mother and father ask themselves. In Garvin’s Ophelia’s Room, the answers are terrifying.
An ominous heaviness looms over this atmospheric psychological thriller, pulling readers along until the novel’s storm-wracked climax.
Welcome to 1969, Parsons, Kansas – a conservative backwater middle-American town skeptically views the changes in the outside world – an ongoing Vietnam conflict, a battle for civil rights, and women’s liberation – as the deviant workings of the devil infecting America.
The Mulls’ family tragedy expands well beyond the child’s monstrous murder when the townsfolk come to blame the baby’s death on her young mother, Delia. Rumors spread that the devil is living among them – and the suffering mother invited the evil entity into their town.
Ophelia’s Room burns throughout with suspense and trepidation. Michael Scott Garvin’s psychological thriller depicts the foreboding sense that a similar fate could happen to anyone – in any town, on any day. This in-depth character study slowly peels back the brittle surfaces of the novel’s cast of Parsons locals.
From one perspective, Ophelia’s Room reads like a recital of small-town life with its sense of camaraderie and community and, occasionally, petty, gossiping meanness as people move through the mundane motions of everyday living. Only in Garvin’s Parsons, Kansas, dread creeps through every turn of the page like some suspenseful Hitchcock film.
Two characters dwell in the heart of the story: the infant’s mother, Delia – and her troubled father, Lloyd Hudson – a convicted murderer imprisoned down the highway at the Kansas State Penitentiary.
As the story begins, Delia emerges from a deep trough of grief to discover that her friends and neighbors align with fear and religiosity instead of compassion. She struggles with the knowledge that her life will never be the same.
All the while, her father remains imprisoned. A compliant, God-fearing man, Lloyd preaches the gospel to his fellow inmates. But underneath his calm exterior, demons haunt him. To survive, Lloyd must take murderous steps to exorcise them. The struggle between the man’s better angels and his haunting demons lays the battle lines of this horrific tale. Pity the poor souls caught in his path.
Beware – Read with care and keep the lights on. You’ll need them!
Jessica H. Stone delivers a killer first book in her new murder mystery series, Blood on a Blue Moon: A Sheaffer Blue Mystery.
Somewhere on the line between Kinsey Milhone and Stephanie Plum, sails insurance investigator Sheaffer Blue on her sailboat Ink Spot. Probably sailing a bit closer to Plum’s chaos magnetic style than Milhone’s more professional demeanor as a fellow insurance investigator. But then, it’s the madcap nature of Plum’s investigations that makes her series so much fun – and the same is certainly true for Blue.
Blue’s job as an insurance investigator starts out as temporary as every other job she’s ever held. She’s just there to save up enough money to get her beloved Ink Spot’s back dock fees paid off. Once that happens, she will sail away to Mexico, live on part-time work, and sail as much as she wants.
Can you live on a dime in Seattle?
Even living aboard a boat in a low-rent dock slip, as Blue does, nearly breaks the bank. She needs funds to live her dream, and that’s where her current job comes in – and it very nearly takes her out.
The case starts out small. A fire on a houseboat where an elderly woman dies of smoke inhalation. Open and shut, right? Not so fast. There’s a big fish who’s pressuring Blue’s boss to solve the case pronto. He’s been eyeing the lakeshore property with plans to develop it into a playground for the wealthy. All he needs is a swift settlement and the rest of the houseboat owners gone.
Everyone wants the case solved.
Blue wants to do her job and get the boss off her back. She’s one step closer to sailing away, but the cops – or at least one cop, Detective David Chen, doesn’t believe the case is as straightforward as it appears – or as someone wants it to appear. And there are plenty of clues to make the reader’s detective hackles rise along with the cops, even if it takes Blue a bit to get there.
That’s what makes the story so fascinating, and the mystery so compelling. The more that both Blue and Detective David Chen poke into the life of the victim, and the more that the wealthy developer pokes into Blue’s boss, the more tentacles of the case begin to slither and the more the coincidences pile up.
And the more the reader is on the edge of their seat.
While the police detective brings his professional knowledge and detachment to this investigation, Blue’s style owes a lot to Stephanie Plum’s more chaotic process, or mostly lack thereof. In fact, her amateur detective status gets her into trouble – a lot of trouble. And this is what makes the novel work spectacularly.
Blue’s style of controlled chaos allows her to see things that the detective misses. Through her slapdash methods, readers understand why Shirley, the original victim, was the kind of person who fought great battles, inspired great friendships, and put herself in the crosshairs of a long-ago tragedy that resulted in her murder.
Award-winning author, Jessica H. Stone builds her characters with plenty of spark and mayhem – enough to carry an entire series. Readers looking for a female detective to follow now that Kinsey Milhone has left her alphabet unfinished, or who love the madcap and sometimes maddening methods used by Stephanie Plum and just can’t wait for her next number, will find a lot to bite their nails over in Sheaffer Blue’s first – but hopefully not last – case.
Hello Chanticleerians and we hope you are enjoying your Three Day Weekend for Labor Day!
For many of us who write, it’s a full time job on top of the day job we already have. And, as writing is a full time business, we deserve a little recognition for all the work we put in on top of any other labor we already do. Let’s look at the history of Labor Day and some stories that remind us how far we’ve come, and others that show us possibly how far we may be able to go!
First off, while Grover Cleveland officially signed Labor Day into law in 1894, people aren’t sure if it was Peter McGuire or Matthew Maguire, the cofounder of the American Federation of Labor and a secretary of the Central Labor Union respectively, who actually began the holiday. While there are more Maguires there than in the new Spiderman movie, there is no confusion on why Labor Day started. You can learn more from the Department of Labor here.
While Tobey Maguire was a great Spiderman, that’s not who were talking about here.
Labor Day is a celebration of the achievements, both social and economic, of workers in the United States. The holiday recognizes the contributions these workers make to the nation’s prosperity and well-being. Now, more than ever, it’s clear that our essential workers deserve recognition, celebration, and a thriving wage.
In describing the need for Labor Day, History.com says:
People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks.
Remembering Labor Day is a great way to remind ourselves that conditions can always be better for workers across the board.
The Ferengi Rom facing down his brother Quark and forming a union in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s episode “Bar Association”
When we think of the history of labor in this country, ways people can make a difference right now, and where we might be going, there’s a whole world of books that opens up to us! Here are just a few that we recommend!
Working Fiction
Infants of the Brush By A.M. Watson
A little boy is sold into an apprenticeship as a chimney sweep in eighteenth-century London, and soon learns the horrors of that profession.
Six-year-old Egan lost his father from an accident at sea, and now, may lose his little sister from illness. The only way his penniless mother can save her daughter is to sell Egan into an apprenticeship in order to purchase medicine. As a small boy, he will make an ideal “broomer;” a businessman named Armory gladly takes Egan into the fold. Under Armory’s absolute dictatorship he will sleep with other wretched boys on soot sacks, eat gruel, get bloody beatings for the slightest infraction, and risk his life almost daily.
The Selah Branch By Ted Neill
First Place Winner in Cygnus Awards
The Selah Branchcombines two surprising stories into one enthralling whole.
It begins with a ripped from the headlines feel, diving deeply into issues of race, class, poverty, and hopelessness in Selah Branch, WV. A town whose brighter future of uplift, integration, opportunity, and prosperity was wiped out one summer night in 1953 when a chemical explosion destroyed the promising university town and replaced it with a hazardous waste site. Like Chernobyl, only with a smaller footprint and chemical residue substituting for nuclear waste. But just as deadly.
The story views Selah Branch through the eyes of Kenia Dezy, an African-American public health student on a summer practicum. She’s to determine if a simple app can steer people towards healthier food choices and better health outcomes in a town empty of jobs, filled with poverty and hopelessness, marooned in the middle of a food desert.
Beyond Balancing the Books By George Marino, CPA, CFP
George Marino, a practicing CPA and Mindfulness Coach, explores the possibilities for sustainable positivity in one’s work-life through mindfulness principles and practices in his new book,Beyond Balancing the Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life.
It would be difficult to find a profession more fraught with detail, deadlines, and distress than a typical CPA. Applying to that particular realm the idea of mindful meditation is a challenge that author Marino has taken on because it is a process he has lived. He opens his book by comparing two CPAs and their approaches to life and work-life.
Thomas Wideman, the author of this dynamic self-help manual,Welfare Cheese to Fine Caviar: How to Achieve Your Dreams Despite Your Upbringing, rose from poverty and dismay to a life of security and personal achievement through techniques he shares with readers who can incorporate them into their own life plans.
Wideman came from an impoverished African American family wracked by confusion, chaos, and, at times, criminality. His mother had three sons by three fathers, and he would come to know his own father only peripherally, eventually learning that the man murdered people and subsequently died in prison. The boy grew up in tough neighborhoods and ate “welfare cheese” (a block of pre-sliced heavy American cheese that supposedly melted well). Every month, making ends meet became more and more difficult. In an early chapter of this finely woven chronology, we see him taking food from trains parked along the railroad tracks and running from the authorities. In this, as in each new chapter, he speaks of confronting severe issues and finding ways to resolve them. In the case of the theft and other childhood incidents of fighting, experiencing bullies, and battling racism, he speaks of making up his mind that “my circumstances need not be my limitation.”
A colorful fable resonates with contrasting modalities of mysticism and social action, exploring how culture and religion can separate us or bind us together.
Narada is a traveler and a stranger when he first meets the lovely Hohete and her people in the ancient city of Ja’Usu. Given water, food, and shelter by Hohete’s family, Narada is sharply questioned by village elders who are stymied by his forthright statement that he is a representative of a deity named The Great Mystery. So they conspire to remake him as a storyteller, to reduce his power and profit from his talent for spinning yarns by selling refreshments to his audience.
Have a great story about workers and overcoming adversity?
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. CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. See the latest updates here!
Sylva Fae helps early readers learn their alphabet with another delightful children’s book, Elfabet: An A to Z of Woodland Folk.
Little Eric, king of Ladybirds, also known as ladybugs, needs a way to learn his letters to spell many dazzling words. Little Eric uses the world of the forest folk around him as inspiration for his elfabet. Get ready to meet a whole trove of fantastical creatures from dragons to pixies, to fairies and goblins, and many more for every letter of the elfabet!
Fae’s Elfabet charms readers and fills us with love on every page. Just like in Rainbow Monsters, where readers got to learn about colors by getting to know a rainbow of monsters, Fae makes learning the alphabet fun and engaging. Everyone knows that “A” is for apple and “D” is for dog, but now readers will get to explore a whole new and fantastical world. A world where “A” still stands for apple but is collected by elves, and “D” is for fire-breathing dragons!
Both Sylva Fae and illustrator Katie Weaver dedicate this book to their children, who inspire their work.
In her illustrations, Weaver uses an array of bright colors and draws various subjects to encourage creativity in children. On each page, the drawings are within each corresponding letter, and readers will wonder and daydream about what magic lies beyond the edges of each letter. By the time children reach the end of Elfabet, they will be inspired to write and draw their own stories of the woodland folk.
Ophelia’s Room by Michael Scott Garvin begins with a bang
Jessica H. Stone delivers a killer first book in her new murder mystery series, Blood on a Blue Moon: A Sheaffer Blue Mystery. 
Sylva Fae helps early readers learn their alphabet with another delightful children’s book, Elfabet: An A to Z of Woodland Folk. 