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CLUE Book Awards 2016 SHORT LIST for Suspense and Thriller Fiction (Semi-Finalists)
These titles are in the running for the 5 First Place Book Awards for the 2016 CLUE Book Awards novel competition!The CLUE Book Awards Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Suspense, Thrillers, and Mysteries. The CLUE Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Writing Competitions.
Congratulations to these authors for their works moving up from the 2016 CLUE Finalists to the Short List (Semi-Finalists). These novels will now compete for the First Place Category Positions!
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from SLUSH pile to FINALISTS LIST and now has moved forward to the SHORT LIST of the 2016 CLUE Book Awards. They are now 2016 CLUE Semi-Finalists as they compete for the limited First in Category Positions of the 2016 CLUE Book Awards in the last rounds of judging.
More than $30,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 writing competition winners!
The CLUE Book Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are: Detective/Crime, Suspense/Thriller, Private Eye/Noir, Legal/Medical/Police Procedural, and
Spy/Espionage.The following titles will compete for the FIRST IN CATEGORY Positions and Book Awards Packages. Each of the titles below have earned the CLUE AWARDS SHORT LIST Semi-Finalists bragging rights!
NOTE: This is the Official CLUE 2016 SHORT LIST (Semi-Finalists):
- Lonna Enox – Striking Blind
- Ken Baysinger – El Camino
- A.B. Michaels – Sinner’s Grove
- A.B. Michaels – The Lair
- James Marshall Smith – Silent Source
- E.V. Stephens – Accountable
- Don Daglow – The Fog Seller
- Timothy Burgess – The Never-Ending Swell
- Gregg Dunnett – The Wave at Hanging Rock
- Wolfe – Dollar Signs: Texas Lady Lawyer vs Boots King
- Verigin – Seed of Control
- Matt Kilby – The Road Cain Walks
- Janet K. Shawgo – Archidamus
- Ben A. Sharpton – 2nd Sight
- Dana Ridenour – Behind The Mask
- Jack and Sue Drafahl – D.N.A.
- Jim Weber – Jehovah: A Novel
- Elaine Williams Crockett – Do Not Assume
- Susan Strecker – Nowhere Girl
- Christopher Leibig – Almost Mortal
- Michael Byars Lewis – Veil of Deception
- Kaylin McFarren – Banished Threads
- Zach Fortier – Baroota: The Hunting Ground
- Toby Neal – Wired In
- Timothy Vincent – Prince of the Blue Castles
- Lee Strauss – Gingerbread Man (A Marlow & Sage Mystery)
- LS Cahn – The Trust Game
- Keith Tittle – A Matter of Justice
- Bjarne Rostaing – Epstein’s Pancake
- Clint Hollingsworth – The Sage Wind Blows Cold
- Phillip Buchanon – Sexual Departure
- DM Wolfenden – Carly
- Keith Dixon – The Innocent Dead
The CLUE Semi-Finalists will compete for the CLUE First In Category Positions, which consists of Seven Judging Rounds. First Place Category Award winners will automatically be entered into the CLUE GRAND PRIZE AWARD competition, which has a cash prize purse of $200. The CBR Grand Prize Genre Winners will compete for the CBR Overall Grand Prize for Best Book and its $1,000 purse.
All Short Listers in attendance to CAC17 will receive high visibility along with special badges to wear during the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala.
Good Luck to all of the CLUE Semi-Finalists as they compete for the coveted First Place Category positions.
The CLUE Grand Prize Winner and First Place Category Winners will be announced at the April 1st, 2017 Chanticleer Writing Contests Annual Awards Gala, which takes place on the last evening of the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will be held in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 CLUE Awards Book Awards writing competition. Please click here for more information.
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Spotlight on: Chris Humphreys, Best Selling Author and CAC17 speaker
If you want to know what professional success looks like for an author, look no further that Chris (C.C.) Humphreys – Author, Actor, Swordsman. And try not to look with too much green in your eyes! Chris exudes confidence after having published over ten books, enjoyed best seller status, and won multiple awards. He continues to enjoy high demand for his stories. Yet, amidst all this success he remains very genuine and down to earth. His writing craft presentations are the eye-opening kind that will inspire you to great feats of writing, and we were very excited that he agreed to be a presenter at the conference this year.
Don’t miss out, register now for the Chanticleer Author Conference—CAC17—March 31st to April 2nd where he will be teaching: Write the Good Fight, and The Sex Scene: how much is too much? A Male novelist’s perspective.
As part of our spotlight series, we asked Chris our five questions to get her perspective on professional success.
1. When did you know what you really wanted to be?
Still trying to decide. Is it too late to become a spy? (It’s the second family trade, aside from acting). I have two more answers with my two careers. I decided I wanted to be an actor when I was about 17. I’d been steered away from that path by my concerned mother who’d been the daughter of one and the wife of another. Was all set to read law at uni but then got cast as the lead in the school play. When I won the Best Actor award at a schools drama festival I was hooked.
As a writer – well, I’d always known I wanted to write. Like everyone, I lacked the confidence and courage to pursue it. But I wrote lots and buried the results. Then I entered and won a 24 hour playwriting competition. They paid me $500 and I thought: I am a professional writer! My true love, historical fiction, took me another 6 years to get to. Never looked back.
2. What was the biggest challenge you faced?
Overcoming the self doubt. I’ve figured out that’s really to do with not understanding the process. It’s what I teach now: each stage is about something different and if you break it down into steps, you just have to take one after the other. It takes away a lot of the fear.
3. How do you define success?
That I’ve earned a living largely from my quill for 16 years.
4. How long did it take to achieve your success?
A lifetime apprenticeship in storytelling (Actor). Then, once I’d summoned the courage to begin my first novel… a little over a year from first sentence to contract.
5. What is the best advice you have ever received?
‘You can always have more. You can never have less.’ (Amazing how many things this applies to!)
If you have not registered for CAC17 yet, what are you waiting for? Chris Humphreys and more fantastic speakers (including yourself, possibly, if you register before the schedule is full) will be sharing their experience and knowledge about writing books, selling books, and everything to do with being a successful author.
About Chris
As an actor Chris (C.C.) Humphreys has performed on stages from London’s West End to Hollywood. A playwright, fight choreographer and novelist, he has written ten adult novels including ‘The French Executioner’, runner up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers; The Jack Absolute Trilogy; ‘Vlad – The Last Confession’; ‘A Place Called Armageddon’ and ‘Shakespeare’s Rebel’ – which he adapted for the stage and which premiered at Bard on the Beach, Vancouver, in 2015. He also writes for young adults, with a trilogy called The Runestone Saga and ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’. The sequel, ‘The Hunt of the Dragon’, is published in Fall 2016. His recent novel ‘Plague’ won Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2015. The sequel, ‘Fire’ is a thriller set during the Great Fire, published Summer 2016. He is translated into thirteen languages. Last year he earned his Masters in Fine Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of British Columbia.
The Hunt of the Dragon, is his most recently published book. The second in a YA fantasy series about a girl who travels to a magical world behind unicorn tapestries.“What is it you think I can do?” she whispered. “I’m no one.”
The dragon’s thought came carefully, painfully. “No one? The maid who was given the gift of tongues? The girl who tamed a unicorn? Who saved then destroyed a world? Oh, Alice-Elayne, you are someone. And you are about to learn that your story is only half told.”
His historical fiction of the real Dracula, Vlad, the Jack Absolute series and Shakespeare’s Rebel, among others, are also not to be missed!
Chris’ classes:
Write the Good Fight – In this hands-on, blades-drawn workshop, fight choreographer, actor and novelist C.C. (Chris) Humphreys will take you through the dangerous art of fight writing. Unashamedly admitting that he got into acting so he could ‘leap around with bladed weaponry’. He will demonstrate how to turn research, from walking the battlefields to wielding the weapons, into pages of exciting storytelling. Join Chris as he shares ways to get your characters into the hottest action – and out the other side.
The Sex Scene: how much is too much? A Male novelist’s perspective – What is the objective of any scene? To arouse? To inform? To offend? For novelist C.C. (Chris) Humphreys a scene only works if it makes the reader want to read more! So in this workshop, he will explore the hot topic of sex while seeking an answer to the burning question: how much is too much? Chris will look at limits – the author’s and the reader’s. How sex can be funny as well as serious. How sensuality- engaging the six senses – is so important. A fun, engaging, hands-on workshop with an opportunity for play – with or without devices!
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Age of Order by Julian North – YA Dystopian SciFi
In the not too distant future, one girl races to save the ones she loves in Julian North’s Age of Order.
Daniela Machado, a young Latina from Bronx City, is smart and successfully athletic – especially on the track – but she has more than a few secrets. She’s learned to be very protective of herself and those she cares about, her blood, in an environment where others frequently die. Aba, her grandmother, and her older brother Mateo, along with her sister of choice, Kortilla, are the only ones she fully trusts.
Daniela knows something must be behind the sudden offer she receives to attend a very prestigious and selective school in another part of the Five Cities, and she’s reluctant to accept. Attending the new school and leaving Kortilla behind, however, may be the only chance Daniela has to save Mateo’s life.
In this school environment, North skillfully weaves in multiple references to other dystopian works frequently taught in high school. The reader will be reminded of Orwell, Huxley, and William Golding, as Daniela reads them for class. Something else becomes abundantly clear: Daniela and most of her classmates don’t get along.
It’s more than just a question of money and social standing, though. It’s genetics.
Set in the near future of the United States, the action is often thrilling, complete with high-tech rivalries, partisan politics, chase scenes, and class conflicts. While most of the major characters are teens, North’s insights into their thoughts and feelings can apply to any age, lending an ageless quality to this otherwise clear morality tale. Their conflicts, confusions, and pain are more than any child should have to encounter. But in this world, those lucky enough to survive must grow-up quickly.
Daniela finds her one solace in running, and she fights her way onto the school track team. No one, not even the school star, can easily beat her when she runs. Daniela, it becomes apparent, has a gift which, after being honed throughout childhood, is now formidable.
It’s on the track when she feels completely free, even when the competition seems unfairly rigged against her. North does a fine job of writing these athletic scenes and the reader will feel their feet pounding and gasping for breath as Daniela runs against others – and her hidden past.
As that past comes into conflict with what she is experiencing at school, Daniela and her allies (the other misfits at school) begin to see the true shape of the reality around them. Only through courage and steely resolve will they be able to do what must be done to prevent the genocide those in power have already begun. It’s up to Daniela to find her true self, when she needs it most, to save the people she loves.
Age of Order is powerfully charged with rich characters and a dynamic storyline. One of the BEST new YA books we’ve reviewed!
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Little Peeps 2016 Short List for Early Readers
The LITTLE PEEPS Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works for Early Readers and Children’s Picture Books.The Little Peeps Book Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Writing Competitions.
More than $30,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 writing competition winners!
The Little Peeps Book Awards for FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are: Early Reader Chapter Books, Story Books, Picture Books, Activity Books, Educational Books.
The following titles will compete for the FIRST IN CATEGORY Positions and Book Awards Packages.
The Semi-Finalists Authors and Titles of Works that have made it to the Short-list of the Little Peeps Early Reader Book Awards 2016 Writing Contest are:
- Simon Calcavecchia – The Adventures of Frank and Mustard: Stuck in the Mud
- Kneko Burney – Rikki & the Rocket Twins Adventure 1: Discovering the Solar System
- Denise Ditto – The Tooth Collector Fairies, Batina’s Best First Day
- Donna Washington – The Mouse, The Mole, and the Magnificient, Moss-Covered House
- Sara Dahmen – The Blue Beetle
- Phillip Buchanon – Little Phil’s New Money Friends #2
- Phillip Buchanon – Jenny Meets Penny #9
The Little Peeps 2016 Semi-Finalists will compete for the Little Peeps First In Category Positions. First Place Category Award winners will automatically be entered into the Little Peeps Early Readers and Children’s Picture Books GRAND PRIZE AWARD competition, which has a cash prize purse of $100.
All Short Listers will receive high visibility along with special badges to wear during the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala.
Good Luck to all of the 2016 Little Peeps Short Listers as they compete for the coveted First Place Category positions.
The Little Peeps Grand Prize Winner and First Place Category winners will be announced at the April 1st, 2017 Chanticleer Writing Contests Annual Awards Gala, which takes place on the last evening of the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will be held in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 Little Peeps Book Awards writing competition. The deadline for 2016 submissions was May 31st, 2016. We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 Little Peeps writing competition. Please click here for more information.
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FINALISTS for the 2016 SOMERSET Awards for Literary, Mainstream, and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary, Contemporary, and Mainstream Fiction. The SOMERSET Book Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Novel Writing Competitions.More than $30,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 writing competition winners at the Chanticleer Authors Conference April 1, 2017!
The SOMERSET Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are:
- Contemporary Theme
- Adventure/Suspense
- Literary
- Women’s Fiction
- Satire
- Magic Realism
OFFICIAL LISTING of the 2016 Somerset Writing Competition’s Finalists:
The following titles will compete for the Semi-Finalists SHORT LIST:
- Bernard Mansheim – Do No Harm: Everydoctor
- Michael Hume – The 95th Christmas
- Patrick Garry – The Illusion
- A. Beharry – Samson: A Tale of Strength, Struggle & Survival
- Tony Bradshaw – A Good Boy
- Alexander Boldizar – The Ugly
- Debu Majumdar – Sacred River
- Annette Harper – The Female Defender
- Conon Parks – Empty Bottle of Smoke
- Karen Fitzpatrick – After the Rain
- Boo Walker – Red Mountain
- Richard Fellinger – Made To Break Your Heart
- Ann DeFee – Lucy’s Got a Lot of ‘Splaining to Do
- Gail Cleare – The Taste of Air
- Andrea McKenzie Raine – A Crowded Heart
- Andrea McKenzie Raine – Turnstiles
- Cricket Rohman – Saving Madelaine
- Laurie St. Marie – Baby Mamie
- Matt Kilby – The Road Cain Walks
- Judith Kirscht – The Camera’s Eye
- Steve Coleman – The Navigator II: Irish Revenge
- Joao Cerqueira – Jesus and Magdalene
- Janet K Shawgo – Archidamus
- Kathleen M. Rodgers – Johnnie Come Lately
- Kevin G. Chapman – A Legacy of One
- Megan A. Clancy – chhori
- Michael D. Durkota – Once in a Blue Year
- Annaliese Darr – Believe
- Chief John J. Mandeville – The Admiral of Bolivia
- Chief John J. Mandeville – The Fox, Mike, Hilda, and the Green Emerald Cafe Inferno
- Priscilla Audette – Court Appointed
- Diana Forbes – Mistress Suffragette
- Alberto Ambard – Columbus Day
- Michael Aloysius O’Reilly – Proud Patrick
- D.M. Hamblin – Once Broken
- Ronald E. Yates – The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles (Book 2, Finding Billy Battles Trilogy)
- Jamie Zerndt – The Roadrunner Cafe
- Marie Louise Joyce – In My Mother’s Time
- Joseph Newcomer – El Camino Blue
- Pete Westmoreland – Shiloh
- James G. Skinner – The Galician Parallax
- Victoria Carruthers/Zoe Zuber – Going To Bea
- Justin Bog – Wake Me Up
- Susan Lee Walberg – Finding Maslow
- Phillip Buchanon – The Equipment Guys #8
- Alma H. Bond, Ph.D. – Hillary Clinton: On the Couch
- Patrick Garry – Blind Spots
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at Info@ChantiReviews.com.
Congratulations to the Finalists!
Good Luck to all of the Somerset Finalists as they compete for the coveted SHORT LIST positions.
The Someret Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category winners, and Short Listers in attendance will be announced and recognized at the April 1, 2017 Chanticleer Writing Contests Annual Awards Gala, which takes place on the last evening of the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will be held in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 Somerset Awards writing competitions for Paranormal Fiction. Please click here for more information or to enter the contests.
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SHORT LIST for the GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards for Middle Grade Fiction
The GERTRUDE WARNER Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Middle Grade Chapter Books. The GERTRUDE WARNER Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Writing Competitions.More than $30,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 writing competition winners!
The Gertrude Warner Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are: Contemporary Middle Grade, Science Fiction and/or Fantasy, Mysteries, Historical, and Adventure.
The following titles will compete for the FIRST IN CATEGORY Positions and Book Awards Packages.
NOTE: This is the Official SHORT LIST of the Gertrude Warner 2016 Semi -Finalists.
The The Semi-Finalists Authors and Titles of Works that have made it to the Short-list of the Gertrude Warner Middle Grade Chapter Book 2016 Writing Contest are:
- Mike Hartner – I, Mary
- Tom & Nancy Wise – Life On Base: Quantico Cave
- Heather Gardam – Life on the Farm
- Beth Bacon – Almost Impossible
- Robert Karr – Zoe and the Cat from Mars
- Donna Patton and Emily Chase Smith – Saddle Up!
- Kimberly Clair – Amelia Moss and the Secret Islands Agency
- Geoff Griffin – Brooklyn Bat Boy
- Lizzi Wolf – Ice-Bear Island
- Jennifer Voigt Kaplan – Crushing The Red Flowers
- Suzanne de Montigny –The Shadow of the Unicorn II: The Deception
- Mary Follin – ETHYR
- Tara Ellis – The Mystery of Hollow Inn
- Alan Sproles and Lizanne Southgate – The Train from Outer Space
The Gertrude Warner 2016 Semi-Finalists will compete for the Gertrude Warner First-in-Category Positions.
All Semi-Finalists in attendance will receive high visibility along with special badges to wear during the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala and will be recognized at the awards ceremony.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at Info@ChantiReviews.com.
Good Luck to all of the 2016 Gertrude Warner Semi- Finalists as they compete for the coveted First Place Category positions.
The Gertrude Warner Grand Prize Winner and First Place Category Winners will be announced along with recognition of the Short Listed authors in attendance at the April 1st, 2017 Chanticleer Annual Awards Gala, which takes place on the last evening of the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will be held in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 Gertrude Warner Awards writing competition. The deadline for 2016 submissions was May 31st, 2016. We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 Gertrude Warner Children’s Chapter Book writing competition. Please click here for more information.
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Love, Loss, and Awakening: (Mis)adventures on the Way Back to Joy by Dennis Freed – Non-Fiction/Memoir
A heartfelt and profound account of confronting the death of a beloved spouse, Love, Loss, and Awakening combines pathos, humor, and gutsy truth from a survivor’s direct vantage point.
When Dennis Freed married Hope, they were young. They had two sons, lived in the same house for years, and weathered many crises—until Hope contracted cancer and after several years of struggle, passed away. This is Freed’s frank, heart-rending tale of bereavement and recovery, and as such, it is also a paean to his devotion to Hope.
As can be seen, even the names are charged with significance. Hope was a person with a positive nature who enjoyed helping others; who was determined to avoid discouragement even as her body was ravaged by disease, and who after her passing seemed able to advise and comfort her grieving spouse. But Dennis knew that in order to be truly “freed” he must, somehow, move on.
At first, he battled with suicidal ideations, bouncing from despair and loneliness to anger–why did his wife “leave” him? Tormented by memories of Hope, he seized, perhaps prematurely, perhaps to excess, on the notion that other women could save him from his hellish grief state. This wasn’t easy for him because he’d met Hope at age 21 and married her soon after; he had to relearn the art of dating. He took on the search for women like a job. He visited dating websites, studied how to create a profile, and took pictures of himself in various poses and outfits. He had problems with his sexual apparatus and sometimes turned to a certain kind of female to relieve his aches and longings. He experimented with hair removal products to re-image himself for dating.
Yet, as he remembered Hope, he knew what he wanted: not just a date – but a real partner. He went through all the recommended rituals: writing a letter of apology to Hope and burning it, scattering her ashes, connecting with his old memories and new aspirations through music and meditation, attending focus groups.
In an especially poignant segment, he describes in vivid detail his wife’s one last tear. At times he even believed he had “seen” Hope, or “heard” her counseling him. But widower Freed finally realized that he had to take life as it came at him, not try to orchestrate the next moves; it was then that he found a new companion, someone he could accept and love fully, without guilt or regret.
Freed, a developer, construction executive, and part-time university lecturer displays a remarkable gift for creating rich, emotionally tinged prose. Anyone who’s been through, or envisions ever having to go through, even a small part of what Freed experienced, will be moved because his story elicits vividly painful and, ultimately, a broad redemptive spectrum of emotions.
Too personal to be a how-to manual, Love, Loss, and Awakening is more akin to a vivid portrayal of someone desperately stumbling in the dark desperately fumbling for a light switch, a flashlight, even a match to show the way out despair and hopelessness, and, then after a lot of bumps and scrapes, finally finding what he was seeking–happiness.
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The Breast is History: An Intimate Memoir of Breast Cancer by Bronwyn Hope – Inspirational Non-Fiction
A realistic, up-close look at life as a cancer patient and survivor. The Breast Is History is a strong tool of hope and humor in the darkest days of any woman’s life.
In September 2011, Bronwyn Hope received her initial diagnosis of breast cancer; by March 2013 she had had both breasts removed, had gone through numerous chemo and radiation treatments, taken thousands of pills, and come out of it with a gritty, positive philosophy.
When she was first diagnosed, a close friend advised her to start a blog, something very far from her mind at that moment. But, her friend reasoned, she could inspire others with her story. This was not a fanciful idea, given that Bronwyn was and is a powerhouse—an avid athlete, media maven, entrepreneur, activist, mother, and writer. She took her friend’s advice and this book is the result, a sometimes day-by-day journal of her battle with a disease she admits we often think of as a death sentence.
Through the blog and, one suspects, because of her generally extroverted nature, Bronwyn discovered a very positive aspect of her illness: the immediate outpouring of warmth, good wishes, gifts and visits from a host of friends and family members. But as time passed, and her treatments, especially chemo, took their toll, she records many days of lonely suffering, struggling with nausea, pain in every part of her body, the loss of all body hair, and feelings of profound weakness and despair. Yet she constantly, remarkably, tries to recoup her pre-cancer strength and endurance.
A visit to a Catholic church and a later whirlwind trip to India provide spiritual insights. During her own cancer challenge, Bronwyn’s sister Fiona was also diagnosed with cancer. Helping Fiona through what she had already experienced became a sustaining factor for Bronwyn.
The author does not shy away from tough issues, or from the occasional use of profanity when appropriate. She displays a secure knowledge of many complex medications and their effects and side effects. By detailing how her illness progressed, she provides a guideline for others. Her account is not without humor: she had been a large-breasted woman and had named her breasts Nicky and Paris. Nicky was the first to go, early on, and Paris about two years later. Photographs show the author with her once-straight hair, then hairless (with husband and dog getting a shave in sympathy) and then with the incongruously curly hair that grew in later.
There will be no doubt as one reads this honest account, that Hope has walked the walk and is also very capable of talking the talk. Her wisdom, based on a long, harrowing experience, is anything but saccharine. She concludes, “I am not angry or depressed or saddened by what cancer has taken away from me. I am instead, empowered and strengthened by what it has given me: lessons that are priceless.”
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Gateways by Jessica Schaub – Y/A Fantasy
Mind bending is one thing, but when teenager Victoria Nike paints her landscapes – and then falls through them into another dimension – you know you’re in for a treat in this charming and intelligent fantasy, Gateways.
There are many similarities between Victoria’s story and that of Dorothy Gale: the emerging of special powers, real or imagined; companions both human and beast; an ultimate confrontation with a wicked witch.
That said, in Gateways, Jessica Schaub has created a wonderful fantasy that takes readers on a journey into parallel worlds, where mages – beings who can invoke the elements and use their energy – coexist with sphinxes and other fantastic beasts. It’s also a tale of self-discovery, of innocence lost and wisdom gained. Schaub succeeds in placing teenagers into a story of mystic powers and magical without her characters losing their modern savvy and their wisecracker-y. This refined skill in storytelling keeps the elements of this story believable.
When Victoria sees her mother’s growing distress, she notices her world changing in subtle ways as well. She retreats into the art room at school, where she paints. When she abruptly finds herself inside of her painting, she has no idea of how to climb out. Her art teacher, Anna Witherspoon, comes to her rescue. Anna is a Painter of gateways, and so, apparently, is Victoria.
When she returns home, Victoria and her twin best friends, Tucker and Bobby Martin, are told by their parents to flee. “No matter what,” Mr. Martin tells his boys, “keep her safe.” Victoria takes Tucker to hide with her inside a painting of a forest.
But that particular painting holds a prisoner, Lucian – a fallen mage accused of murder. Lucian wastes no time in escaping with the painting – the portal leading back to Victoria’s world – and so she, Tucker, Bobby, and Anna have no choice but to set off to recapture him in order to stop him from perpetrating further harm.
This is a coming-of-age novel, and much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Victoria learns that things aren’t always as they seem. Bad people turn good, and good turn bad. Family history enlightens and relationships shift. But that is life and Victoria realizes that though her world has suddenly opened into ever-expanding opportunities, there truly is no place like home.
A great read with a magical – air-bending quality that will draw the reader in and not allow them to leave until the very last page.
All my best, Lis
Lis Anna-Langston
Writer-Director-Producer