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The Chanticleer International Book Awards Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners 2018 (CIBAs)
We are deeply honored to announce the 2018 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). The winners were recognized at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Banquet Ceremony on Saturday, April 27, 2019, at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.

We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increasing exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2018—the SemiFinalists. The CIBA judges wanted to add Semi-Finalists as a way to recognize and validate the entries that were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.

PublishDrive, a global distribution platform, and Hindenburg Systems, audiobooks and podcasts software, awarded more than $30,000 (cash value) in additional prizes to the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Award winners. Thank you!

A Recap of the CIBA Selection Process
- There are 16 divisions of the CIBAs: 14 fiction genre divisions and 2 non-fiction divisions.
- First Place Category award winners were selected for each one of the 16 divisions from an overall field of titles that progressed to the Semi-Finalists positions from the Shortlists, the Long List, and the infamous beginning slush pile rounds.
- One Grand Prize award winner was selected from the First Place Category Award Winners for each of the 16 CIBA divisions.
- One Overall Grand Prize award winner was selected from the 16 divisions of Grand Prize Award Winners
All CIBA Semi-Finalists in attendance at the CIBA awards ceremony were recognized with their respective division at the CIBA awards ceremony along with receiving a Semi-Finalist ribbon and digital badge and a significant discount to attend the Chanticleer Authors Conference.

Additional Prize from the DONALD MAASS LITERARY AGENCY

An additional prize was awarded to the 2018 CIBA Grand Prize Award Winners by the Donald Maass Literary Agency (that represents more than 150 novelists and sell more 100 novels each year to leading publishers in the U.S. and overseas). Donald Maass has offered “a high priority submission” process opportunity to the 2018 Grand Prize CIBA winners and a “priority submission” process opportunity to the 2018 CIBA 1st Place Category winning titles for consideration by his agency.

An email will go out to all 2018 CIBA grand prize award winners prior to June 10, 2019 with instructions, links, and more information about the awards packages. We appreciate your patience. As stated in the Semi-Finalist notification email, “One does not need to be present at the CIBA ceremony and banquet to win. But it sure is a lot more fun!”

And now to present the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards Grand winning titles and their authors who were announced on April 27, 2019, at the CIBA ceremony and banquet.

You read testimonials from the 2019 Chanticleer Authors Conference and the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony at  https://www.chantireviews.com/chanticleer-conference/conference-testimonials/

The CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction Grand Prize Winner

The Korpes File by J.I Rogers took home the 2018 CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction Grand Prize Ribbon.

View the 2018 CYGNUS 1st Place Category Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/04/29/cygnus-book-awards-for-science-fiction-novels-the-grand-prize-winner-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The JOURNEY Book Awards for Narrative Non-Fiction

From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream by Janice S. Ellis took home the 2018 JOURNEY Book Awards for Narrative Non-Fiction Grand Prize Ribbon!

View the 2018 JOURNEY First Place Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/04/30/journey-book-awards-for-narrative-non-fiction-the-grand-prize-winner-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The M & M Book Awards for Mystery and Mayhem

A PROMISE GIVEN by Michelle Cox took home the M&M Book Awards for Mystery & Mayhem Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 M&M First Place Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/01/the-mm-book-awards-for-mystery-and-mayhem-grand-prize-division-winner-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers

A manuscript titled The PORTALS of PERIL by Jules Luther took home the Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers

View the 2018 Gertrude Warner First Place Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/04/the-gertrude-warner-book-awards-for-middle-grade-readers-grand-prize-and-first-place-catergory-winners-2018-cibas/

The DANTE ROSSETTI Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction

WHISPERS by Lynn Yvonne Moon took home the Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction

View the 2018 Dante Rossetti First Place Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/05/the-dante-rossetti-book-awards-for-young-adult-fiction-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The CHAUCER Book Awards for pre-1750s Historic Fiction

The SERPENT and The EAGLE  by Edward Rickford took home the CHAUCER Book Awards Grand Prize Blue Ribbon

View the 2018 Chaucer First Place Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/05/the-chaucer-book-awards-for-pre-1750s-historical-fiction-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The GOETHE Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Post-1750s Historical Fiction

The Lost Years of Billy Battles by Ronald E. Yates took home the Goethe Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 Goethe First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/07/the-goethe-book-awards-for-post-1750s-for-historical-fiction-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The LARAMIE Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Western Fiction

Blood Moon: A Captive’s Tale by Ruth Hull Chatlien took home the Laramie Grand Prize Ribbon.

View the 2018 Laramie First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/06/the-laramie-book-awards-for-western-fiction-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The CHATELAINE Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Romantic Fiction

The House at Ladywell by Nicola Slade took home the 2018 Chatelaine Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 CHATELAINE First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/07/the-chatelaine-book-awards-for-romantic-fiction-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-2018-cibas/

The LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Early Readers

The Tooth Collector Fairies: Home from Decay Valley by Denise Ditto took home the Little Peeps Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 LITTLE PEEPS First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/08/the-little-peeps-book-awards-for-early-readers-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

The Clue Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Mystery Suspense & Thriller Novels

California Son by Timothy Burgess  took home the Clue Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 CLUE First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/08/the-clue-book-awards-for-mystery-suspense-thriller-novels-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

The OZMA Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Fantasy Fiction Novels

Dragon Speaker by Elana A. Mugdan took home the OZMA Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 OZMA First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/09/the-ozma-book-awards-for-fantasy-fiction-novels-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

The PARANORMAL Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Supernatural & Paranormal Novels

The Madwoman of Preacher’s Cove, a manuscript by Joy Ross Davis took home the Paranormal Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 PARANORMAL First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/09/the-paranormal-book-awards-for-supernatural-paranormal-novels-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

The Global Thriller Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Lab Lit & High Stakes Thriller Novels

The Moving Blade by Michael Pronko
took home the Global Thrillers Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 Global Thriller First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/09/the-global-thriller-book-awards-for-lab-lit-high-stakes-thriller-novels-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

The SOMERSET Book Awards for Contemporary, Literary, Satire Novels

Hard Cider – a novel by Barbara A. Stark-Nemon
took home the Somerset Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 SOMERSET First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/10/the-somerset-book-awards-for-contemporary-literary-satire-novels-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

The Instruction & Insight Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Non-Fiction, Non-Narrative

Explore Europe on Foot by Cassandra Overby took home the Instruction & Insight Grand Prize Ribbon

View the 2018 I & I First Place Category Award Winners at https://www.chantireviews.com/2019/05/10/the-instruction-insight-book-awards-for-non-fiction-non-narrative-grand-prize-and-first-place-category-winners-cibas-2018/

CONGRATULATIONS to Ronald E. YATES for The LOST YEARS of BILLY BATTLES (Book 3 of the Finding Billy Battles Trilogy) taking home the CHANTICLEER OVERALL Grand Prize for BEST BOOK in the 2018 CIBAS

“…the reader experiences that all too rare sense of complete transport to another world, one fully realized in these pages because the storytelling is so skillful and thoroughly captivating.”

The photo below is of Ronald E. Yates with his GOETHE Grand Prize Ribbon and his Chanticleer Overall Best Book Ribbon

“Reading a Book is Like Life: You Live it One Page at a Time.” (Ron Yates) Ron is a former foreign correspondent and Professor Emeritus of Journalism, Dean of the College of Media and is an award-winning historical novelist. Read more about this Pulitzer nominated journalist and Chanticleerian by clicking on this link.

Twelve of the Sixteen Grand Prize Division Winners were present to receive their ribbons on stage at the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony.

We will post more photographs and information. Do check back and subscribe to the Chanticleer Reviews e-news letter.

We have exciting news for the Chanticleer Community on the horizon so do stay tuned!

You know you want a coveted Chanticleer Reviews Blue Ribbon!

Submit your works (manuscripts or novels published after or on January 1, 2017, are accepted) to the prestigious Chanticleer International Book Awards today! Entries are being accepted into the 2019 CIBAs in all 16 divisions.

Be sure to register early for the 2020 Chanticleer Authors Conference that will take place on April 16, 17, 18, & 19, 2020 with the 2019 CIBA banquet and ceremony scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 18th, 2020 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.

An email will go out to all 2018 CIBA award winners prior to June 10, 2019, with instructions, links, and more information about the awards packages. We appreciate your patience. As stated in the Semi-Finalist notification email, “One does not need to be present at the CIBA ceremony and banquet to win. But it sure is a lot more fun!”

As always, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

We have begun planning for the 2020 Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 16, 17, & 18, 2020) and the 2019 CIBA Banquet and Ceremony that will take place on April 17, 2020, at the Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
May 12, 2019
In Celebration of Mother’s Day – Interesting Tidbits, Some History, and a Few of Our Favorite Books
Photo by George Dolgikh of Giftpundits

While mothers are as varied and diverse as the many varieties of flowers in the world, none of us would be here without them! When I think of the word “mother,” there is no possible way I can disassociate the word from my mother. She is strong-willed, strong-minded, and strong-opinioned. And her love rivals the strength of the greatest army the world has ever known. She is my mother. She is the one person who loves me enough to tell me when I am wrong and, yet, loves me anyway.

How and When was “Mother’s Day” Started

As all things of Western Civilisation seem to have started in ancient Greece it seems (reference: My Big Fat Greek Wedding), so did Mother’s Day. Well, sort of, honoring the goddess, Cybele/Rhea (depending on time and region). The early Christian Church co-opted the day, calling it “Mothering Sunday,” a festival day in which the faithful would return to the church of their birth.

When is Mother’s Day Celebrated Around the World?
- Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, in the USA, Canada, most European countries, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, the Philippines, and South Africa.
- The UK and Ireland celebrate Mother’s Day on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
- Most Arab countries celebrate Mother’s Day on March 21st (vernal equinox).
- Most East European countries celebrate Mother’s Day on March 8th. For a complete overview of the dates of Mother’s Day around the world see Mother’s Day on Wikipedia.
The Rise of Mother’s Day in America

Before the Civil War, Ann Jarvis and her friend, Julia Ward Howe decided to set up regional clubs, “Mothers Day Work Clubs” designed to teach young mothers how to care for their infants. Their involvement and the clubs continued throughout the Civil War and once the war ended, they held a Mothers’ Friendship Day and invited both Union and Confederate soldiers and their mothers to attend. Big strides toward reconciliation were made through the efforts of these women.

The women who inspired Mother’s Day were social activists, abolitionists, suffragettes, and educators who wanted to make their world – and their children’s world a much better place. And that is something to celebrate!

It was all made a legal holiday when Anna Jarvis, inspired by her social activist mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, decided to memorialize a day in which to celebrate her mother. In 1907, three years after her mother’s death, she did just that. She chose a white carnation to inspire people to remember their mothers and what they sacrificed for them.

“Its whiteness is to symbolize the truth, purity and broad-charity of mother love; its fragrance, her memory, and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying. When I selected this flower, I was remembering my mother’s bed of white pinks (flowers)…” – Anna Jarvis (quote)

It wasn’t until 1914 that Woodrow Wilson signed a decree that designated the second Sunday in May as the United States official day to celebrate Mother’s Day. Of course, Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world (in at least 49 countries) on different days.

It should be noted that Anna Jarvis wasn’t very happy with the commercialization of Mother’s Day and she fought long and hard to try and get it withdrawn as a national holiday, but we all know how that ended. And if you don’t, well, let’s just say it is a most intriguing mystery…

Suggested Reads

Because mothers are incredibly diverse in their habits and reading lists, we invite you to dive into our reviews and choose what’s you think your mother would like to read most and to perhaps enjoy the books yourself.

Chanticleer Mother’s Day Reading List!

Jaimie Ford‘s Love and Other Consolation Prizes is powerful storytelling from a master storyteller! Jaimie Ford breathes to life a little-known piece of Seattle history spanning the early to the mid 21st century. And a truly unique story of the many ways a mother’s love can manifest itself.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate is a disturbing look into what those who should know better, choose to do to society’s most vulnerable during the 30-years between 1920 and 1950 at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society.

Dian a F orbes‘ Mistress Suffragette examines the facts of life, the challenges of social restrictions, and the woes of youthful love through the eyes of a sharp-minded, sharp-shooting young woman. Mistress Suffragette is now available on Audible!

Nicole Evelina‘s Madame Presidentess is a fascinating story of a woman’s meteoric rise from rags to riches, from subservience to achievement – based on a true story that was instrumental in propelling the Suffragette Movement.

A Theory of Expanded Love by Caitlin Hicks is a bold, authentic, & captivating –a young teen in the 1960s confronts doctrine when it threatens to outweigh compassion.

Caregiving Our Loved Ones by Nanette Davis, Ph.D. Dr. Davis passes on her knowledge to caregivers for dealing with the ongoing emotional, financial and health toll of taking care of someone who will never get better.

Nick Adams‘ Away at War: A Civil War Story of the Family Left Behind is a rich and fascinating account of day-to-day life in rural America in the mid-19th century set against the backdrop of the Civil War. Taken from primary sources, this narrative brings to life all that was loved and all that was lost.

This is just the beginning of our list! To find more amazing reads in every genre, please click here to discover our favorites!

We would like to wish all mothers, mothers-to-be, stand-in mothers, and those who possess the mothering instinct, a very Happy Mother’s Day!

Electronic Bibliography:

Mother’s Day Photo Attribution: https://giftpundits.com/our-free-photos/

History.com

Wikipedia

http://www.calendarpedia.com/when-is/mothers-day.html
May 12, 2019
LOVE and OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES: A Novel by Jamie Ford – Family Saga, Asian American Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction

In 1902, the year of the Boxer Rebellion in China, five-year-old Yung Kun-ai watches as his mother buries his newborn sister in a tiny grave that she has dug with her fingers. The starving mother hadn’t been able to feed her. She kisses her son and gives him her only possession, a filigreed hairpin, then tells him he must remain in the cemetery until his “uncle” comes to take him to America, to a new life in a new world. “This is my gift to you,” she says as she shuffles away.

These words, and the poignant story that follows, bring to mind two words from the title of author Jamie Ford’s New York Times bestseller first novel—‘bitter’ and ‘sweet’. This is his third…worthy of equal praise.

Yung spends that chilly night shivering, in fear of the nearby fighting between rebels and soldiers, and in doubt of his future. But his mother’s gift does indeed come to pass. A voyage of many weeks in the hold of a freighter takes him to Seattle. His early years there are not easy, however. Fathered by a white missionary, he is a half-breed and the brunt of taunting and worse by both his peers and his elders. Nonetheless, he ably gains an education, takes the name of Ernest Young, and begins to earn a living as the twelve-year-old houseboy and driver at a high-class brothel called The Tenderloin in Seattle’s Garment District. The other occupants—servants as well as the ‘working girls’—become the family he has yearned for. Some years later, he has his own family with Gracie, a Japanese immigrant known as Fahn when he met her (for the second time) at The Tenderloin.

The story hops back and forth between the first and seventh decades of the century, centering on Seattle’s Alaska-Yukon-Pacific (AYP) Expo in 1909 and the city’s World Fair in 1962. A raffle at the former is what brings Ernest to The Tenderloin. During the latter, Ernest and Gracie’s daughter Juju, a journalist, has been asked by her editor to write a then-and-now story of the two fairs, based on interviews with old-timers who have been to both. Her primary interviewee is to be her father, she thinks, but he stalls her, offering only tidbits—nothing that would put her story on the front page. Why is he so reluctant? Is there a tale he doesn’t want to share, not only with the newspaper’s readers but even with his daughter?

This historical novel is brought to a literary level not only by the author’s expertise with language but also by the extent of his research into the facts around which the story is woven. In an Author’s Note, Ford explains that his inspiration for writing is a “never-ending appetite for lost history—the need to constantly turn over rocks and look at the squishy things underneath.”

For this novel, one of those rocks was the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. From yellowing newspaper articles relating to the Expo, he learned that both the suffrage movement and “social evils” such as brothels (not only the moral evil but the spread of syphilis) were at their height in Seattle at that time. One article told of a child (named Ernest), who was donated by the Washington Children’s Home Society as a raffle prize at the AYP. Another described a climb up Mount Rainier by Washington suffragettes. Much was written about the plight of East Asian immigrants, economically forced into servitude and prostitution. Jamie Ford drew on these articles and other historical documentation to create this touching story and to bring to life its colorful and accurately drawn characters.

May 11, 2019
The Instruction & Insight Book Awards for Non-Fiction, Non-Narrative – Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners – CIBAs 2018
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2018 INSTRUCTION & INSIGHT Book Awards at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 27th, 2019 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2018 Instruction & Insight Book Awards for Non-Fiction, Non-Narrative, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs).

Jessica Stone, the author of the 2014 SOMERSET award-winning The Last Outrageous Woman announced the 2018 Instruction & Insight Award Winners at the Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

PublishDrive and Hindenburg Systems awarded additional prizes to the 2018 Instruction & Insight Book Award winners. Thank you!

Congratulations to the 2018 Instruction & Insight Book Awards for Non-Fiction, Non-Narrative First in Category Winners!
- Explore Europe on Foot by Cassandra Overby
- The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People by Amy Stross
- God Answers Science by Gary W. Driver
- Retire Securely: Insights on Money Management from an Award-Winning Financial Columnist by Julie Jason
- Physician: How Science Transformed the Art of Medicine by Rajeev Kurapati
- Do You Have a Catharsis Handy? Five-Minute Writing Tips by Kathleen Kaska
- Klee wyck Journal by Lou McKee . .
And now for the 2018 Instruction & Insight Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Non-Fiction, Non-Narrative:

Explore Europe on Foot by Cassandra Overby

took home the Instruction & Insight Grand Prize Ribbon

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more before May 31st, 2019 (approximately four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it in your email inbox.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC19 professional photographer, Dwayne Rogge of Photo Treehouse, we will post the photographs of Instruction & Insight award winners on this page.

Click here for the link to the Instruction & Insight Semi-Finalists.

This post will be updated with photos and more information. Please do visit it again!

The deadline for submissions into the 2019 Instruction & Insight Book Awards is December 31, 2019 Midnight (PST).

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 18th, 2020, for the 2019 CIBA winners.

Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
May 10, 2019
The SOMERSET Book Awards for Contemporary, Literary, Satire Novels – Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners – CIBAs 2018
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2018 SOMERSET Book Awards at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 27th, 2019 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2018 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary, Literary, Satire Novels, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs).

Judith Kirscht, the author of the 2014 SOMERSET award-winning Home Fires announced the 2018 Somerset Award Winners at the Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

PublishDrive and Hindenburg Systems awarded additional prizes to the 2018 Somerset Book Award winners. Thank you!

Congratulations to the 2018 SOMERSET Book Awards for Contemporary, Literary, Satire Novels First in Category Winners!
- Night Jasmine Tree by Debu Majumdar
- Secrets of Innocence by V. & D. POVALL
- Cowboy by Bob Holt
- Wishes, Sins and the Wissahickon Creek by PJ Devlin
- Silent Echo by Beth Burgmeyer
- Some Kind of Ending by Conon Parks
- Summer Girl, A Novel by Linda Watkins
- Hard Cider – a novel by Barbara A. Stark-Nemon
- Disowned by Tikiri
- Mourning Dove by Claire Fullerton
And now for the 2018 SOMERSET Book Awards for Contemporary, Literary, Satire Novels:

Hard Cider – a novel by Barbara A. Stark-Nemon

took home the Somerset Grand Prize Ribbon

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more before May 31st, 2019 (approximately four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it in your email inbox.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC19 professional photographer, Dwayne Rogge of Photo Treehouse, we will post the photographs of Somerset award winners on this page.

Click here for the link to the Somerset Semi-Finalists.

This post will be updated with photos and more information. Please do visit it again!

The deadline for submissions into the 2019 Somerset Book Awards is November 30, 2019 Midnight (PST).

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 18th, 2020, for the 2019 CIBA winners.

Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
May 10, 2019
HIGH FLYING by Kaylin McFarren – Time Travel, Action/Adventure, Psychological Fiction

Stunt-pilot, 21-year-old Skylar Haines, honed by a childhood of adversity and trauma, is ambivalent about flying eight new maneuvers for which she’s had little preparation and no in-air practice. A lot could go wrong.

Her father, a pilot, was killed in a plane crash before she was born, triggering her mother’s downward spiral into a life of booze, drugs, and prostitution. When Skylar was seven, her mother died. As an orphan, Skylar fell into the system until her grandfather stepped in — no bed of roses there. Although she emerged an independent, savvy, and street-smart survivor who’d learned to fly along the way, those painful memories of her youth are always fresh in her mind.

Why had she agreed to fly in tandem with her mentor, Jake Brennen, for this performance? She might have said it was a lifelong dream. Or, that she did it out of love. Both would be true, but, of course, there is more…

Before she realizes it, she’s flown into the bowels of a storm, loses radio contact with Jake, and struggles to keep her plane aloft. After a near miss with another aircraft, she regains radio contact. A stranger talks her down into a world before her time.

Skylar uses everything she knows, and everything she’s learned to survive. Dylan Haines, who’s not yet her father, saves her, and she becomes entangled in his life in ways that stretch the imagination. He is caught in a web of danger and deceit destined to kill him. Skylar is tempted to intervene, but she knows his fate is set. Her father has to die, in order for her to live.

Like a modern-day H.G. Wells, Kaylin McFarren’s High Flying, ventures boldly into the fourth dimension, where history is reimagined, and epiphanies come in three-dimensional, real time. This gritty, emotionally penetrating story, set in Nevada, that not only touches upon social concerns with roots in the past but reaches into the future. The characters have depth, and the dialogue is sparkling authenticity. Here’s a story where everyone has an agenda, there are more crooks than cops, and bullets fly with abandon. In other words, a deliciously twisted sci-fi mystery with plenty of danger and romance!

May 10, 2019
The GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards for Lab Lit & High Stakes Thriller Novels – Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners – CIBAs 2018
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 27th, 2019 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards for Lab Lit & High Stakes Thriller Novels, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs).

Sara Stamey, the author of the 2017 GLOBAL THRILLER award-winning The Ariadne Connection announced the 2018 Global Thriller Award Winners at the Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

PublishDrive and Hindenburg Systems awarded additional prizes to the 2018 Global Thriller Book Award winners. Thank you!

Congratulations to the 2018 Global Thriller Book Awards for Lab Lit & High Stakes Thriller Novels First in Category Winners!
- Magenta is Missing by Richard Garis
- Dangerous Alliance by Randall Krzak
- The War Beneath by Timothy S. Johnston
- The Sunken Forest by R. Barber Anderson
- The Moving Blade by Michael Pronko
- Never Again by Harvey A. Schwartz
- Beyond Control by Lawrence Verigin
And now for the 2018 Global Thriller Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Lab Lit & High Stakes Thriller Novels:

The Moving Blade by Michael Pronko

took home the Global Thrillers Grand Prize Ribbon

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more before May 31st, 2019 (approximately four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it in your email inbox.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC19 professional photographer, Dwayne Rogge of Photo Treehouse, we will post the photographs of Global Thriller award winners on this page.

Click here for the link to the Global Thriller Semi-Finalists.

This post will be updated with photos and more information. Please do visit it again!

The deadline for submissions into the 2019 Global Thriller Book Awards is November 30, 2019 Midnight (PST).

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 18th, 2020, for the 2019 CIBA winners.

Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
May 9, 2019
The PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural & Paranormal Novels – Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners – CIBAs 2018
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2018 Paranormal Book Awards at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 27th, 2019 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2018 PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural & Paranormal Novels, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs).

Avanti Centrae, the author of the 2017 PARANORMAL Grand Prize award-winning Vanops: The Lost Crown announced the 2018 Paranormal Award Winners at the Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

PublishDrive and Hindenburg Systems awarded additional prizes to the 2018 Paranormal Book Award winners. Thank you!

Congratulations to the 2018 Paranormal Book Awards for Supernatural & Paranormal Novels First in Category Winners!
- Path of the Half Moon by Vince Bailey
- Anthesteria by K.A. Banks
- Suburban Vampire Ragnarok by Franklin Posner
- Storm Island: A Kate Pomeroy Mystery by Linda Watkins
- Peaches and Lace by Joy Ross Davis
- The Madwoman of Preacher’s Cove by Joy Ross Davis
- The Balance and the Blade by Olivia Bernard
- The Sea Archer – Jeny Heckman
And now for the 2018 Paranormal Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Supernatural & Paranormal Novels:

The Madwoman of Preacher’s Cove, a manuscript by Joy Ross Davis

took home the Paranormal Grand Prize Ribbon

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more before May 31st, 2019 (approximately four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it in your email inbox.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC19 professional photographer, Dwayne Rogge of Photo Treehouse, we will post the photographs of Paranormal award winners on this page.

Click here for the link to the Paranormal Semi-Finalists.

This post will be updated with photos and more information. Please do visit it again!

The deadline for submissions into the 2019 Paranormal Book Awards is October 31, 2019 Midnight (PST).

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 18th, 2020, for the 2019 CIBA winners.

Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
May 9, 2019
The OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction Novels – Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners – CIBAs 2018
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2018 OZMA Book Awards at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 27th, 2019 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2018 OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction Novels, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs).

J.D.Barker, the international best-selling author of Dracul, announced the 2018 OZMA Award Winners at the Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

PublishDrive and Hindenburg Systems awarded additional prizes to the 2018 OZMA Book Award winners. Thank you!

Congratulations to the 2018 OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction Novels First in Category Winners!
- Virtuous Souls by Pamela LePage
- RAGNAROK: Demon Seed by Ea Bishop
- Money Jane by T.K. Riggins
- Heart Of Shadra by Susan Faw
- Dragon Speaker by Elana A. Mugdan
- Into the North: A Keltin Moore Adventure by Lindsay Schopfer
- Antler Jinny and the Raven by Chris Dews
- Luminess Legends: Dragon Ascendants by Paul E. Vaughn
And now for the 2018 OZMA Book Awards GRAND PRIZE WINNER for Fantasy Fiction Novels:

Dragon Speaker by Elana A. Mugdan

took home the OZMA Grand Prize Ribbon

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more before May 31st, 2019 (approximately four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it in your email inbox.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC19 professional photographer, Dwayne Rogge of Photo Treehouse, we will post the photographs of Ozma award winners on this page.

Click here for the link to the Ozma Semi-Finalists.

This post will be updated with photos and more information. Please do visit it again!

The deadline for submissions into the 2019 OZMA Book Awards is October 31, 2019 Midnight (PST).

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 18th, 2020, for the 2019 CIBA winners.

Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
May 9, 2019
MY CHRISTMAS ATTIC by Dennis Clausen – Heartwarming, Seasonal Literature, Family Saga

A lonely child’s fantasy life intersects with reality in this Korean War-era tale of separation and reunion.

At almost nine, Jake often escapes into his imagination, blotting out a couple of situations developing around him. He and his mother are hoping against hope that his father might someday return from the Korean War, and Jake cannot read. Words just seem to jumble up before his eyes, the other kids make fun of him, and worse – bullying has become routine. These days, Jake tries every ruse to skip school until he is referred to a reading counselor who figures it out. Jake is dyslexic, as is the counselor, and this may mean he is, in fact, more intelligent than average, as well as unusually intuitive.

Intuition begins to seep into Jake’s life as he spends time in the attic arranging the Christmas ornaments, wishing it could be “Christmas forever” for himself, and for everyone. One of the decorations is a porcelain figure of an old bearded man, Ebenezer, who holds a mysterious, unreadable scroll. Deciphering the scroll’s message will lead Jake into a world of psychic visions, ultimately leading to his conviction that his father is alive. Jake’s mother, who has built a sentiment-laden shrine to her lost love, holds on to the last shreds of hope even as her soldier husband is officially presumed dead. Together, she and Jake will learn the surprising truth.

Author Clausen (Prairie Son) has an excellent grasp of the emotive power of the past to awaken the reader to timeless influences. In this story, the Ebenezer ornament said to be 100 years old, links old customs with a child’s search for peace and reassurance in the present. As the boy travels through time with the ancient sage, he becomes stronger, better able to face his current struggles.

Clausen writes with authority about these two subjects, dyslexia and its effects on the mind, and “The Forgotten War” in Korea, where thousands of American soldiers remain unaccounted for to this day. He also links the earnest, childlike wishes of Jake to find solace and create solutions to the pervasive sadness of a mother mourning her husband while doing her best to support and encourage their only child.

The novel begins and ends in a present-day framework in which we learn that Jake has incorporated his childhood adventures into an adult striving to expand the “forever Christmas” concept to a broader spectrum.

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.

May 9, 2019

Chanticleer Book Reviews