Charlie Suisman returns to the unique fictional town of Arnold Falls in his humorous novel, Hot Air.
Arnold Falls bristles with zany events, quirky locals, and colorful newbies. Above all, this memorable enclave buoys its people through heart, soul, wit, and a true sense of collective spirit.
Jeebie Walker returns as the story’s central narrator.
The successful voice-over artist stands as a solid fixture in the town, now in a loving relationship with his partner Will. A volunteer fireman, illustrator, and candidate for an MA in Conservation Biology, Will jokingly claims that Jeebie makes “bossing others around” a superpower.
In the midst of a mid-life crisis, Jeebie takes on a project of implementing little library cabinets throughout the town. Due to some unscrupulous financial administrators, he also worries about the sudden lack of funding for arts programs at the local hospital.
Meanwhile, the friend he helped elect as the town’s first female mayor has her own hands full.
She bonds with her adoptive Haitian son while reluctantly considering a temporary Arnold Falls name change to bring in money and tourists. Her newfound attraction to the local record store/weed emporium aficionado complicates her life further. A sudden string of thefts involving odd but meaningful town memorabilia certainly also needs the mayor’s attention.
Coincidentally, a new TV series – based on several New Yorker stories about a hapless, Hudson Valley hamlet resembling Arnold Falls – starts using the town for filming. Here an indie film actress heads up the cast and brings about a whole other set of calamities.
Hot Air calls back to characters and incidents from the original, award-winning novel, Arnold Falls, bringing unfamiliar readers up to speed.
Comical references like the amorous adventures of a town turkey saved from the chopping block and the former mayor accidentally sending bomb-making supplies to a sister city in Romania will draw new readers to Suisman’s previous novel.
Suisman continues to shine in his ability to drive a well-crafted narrative through creative characters, action, and detail.
Many small storylines intertwine. An old-time resident nearing his final days receives a toast of Clagger – the local hooch. The recordings from a former Arnold Falls Chamber Ensemble reappear. A jazzy chanteuse uses her talents to draw wandering cows home. A high-tech museum installation honors the life of a flatulent nonagenarian’s mother, a popular black madam.
In this unforgettable world, Suisman conjures unique and lively scenes.
A Martha Washington mannequin sits on a porch, complete with a “may have belonged to MW” mobcap. Drag queens teach hot yoga. A “Witness Protection” face cream hawked at the farmer’s market will leave users speechless. And a mayoral assistant/fashionista dresses to honor “National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day.” Once again, this hideaway proves itself as a charmingly lyrical landscape, where the spark of levity is never far behind.
Like the first Arnold Falls novel, here the final fun-filled, open-air wind-up exudes the caring and commitment of these multi-faceted characters woven into the richly textured fabric of their community. Wrapped in its inspiring and imaginative literary warmth, fans will be happy to learn the epilogue suggestively hints at more ventures to come.
It might seem odd, but Franz Kafka and his friends reportedly sat around at bars reading excerpts of The Metamorphosis with tears of laughter streaming down their faces.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
While he might not seem like a natural pairing with Mark Twain, Kafka certainly had a sense of humor. We may not quite understand his early 1900s thought process that would cause him to need to stop in the middle of reading “The Trial” due to laughing so hard (read more from The Guardian here), but we definitely can still appreciate a healthy dose of humor.
Fun Fact: Franz Kafka’s writing was known to deal with modernism, existentialism, Surrealism, and is considered a precursor to magical realism. Despite his fame, he never finished a single novel (unless you count The Metamorphosis as a short novel).
The Mark Twain Awards, named after the famous satirist, are still a fairly new division of The Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards. You can see a full write up on Mark Twain’s relationship with Bellingham, WA here.
Do you have a book that features Humor, Satire, or Allegory? Submit it here before the end of November to be entered into the 2021 Mark Twain Book Awards!
Let’s do a quick breakdown on the three main categories of Mark Twain books.
Satire: The Dangerous Tool
Probably one of the most difficult genres to write in, Satire can have trouble with rubbing people the wrong way. One of the most commonly known pieces of satire is “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, made ubiquitous by English courses teaching it for decades. You can read the full essay here.
Jonathan Swift is best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels. Above, Gulliver is restrained by the Lilliputians
The essence of it is that Swift proposes eating Irish children instead of feeding them, as it will save more money for England in the long run, and cause less suffering for the kiddos in the long run. This obvious, garish suggestion highlights the ways in which England may as well be eating the children in a way that both shames those who have acted poorly, and serves as a call to action to offer better care to the poor.
Satire in literature is a type of social commentary. Writers use exaggeration, irony, and other devices to poke fun of a particular leader, a social custom or tradition, or any other prevalent social figure or practice that they want to comment on and call into question.
Contemporary writers have used satire to comment on everything from capitalism (like Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, which uses extreme exaggerations of consumption, concern with social status, and masculine anger and violence to skewer American capitalism) to race (Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, for example, features a young black male protagonist in Southern California who ends up before the Supreme Court for trying to reinstate slavery).
As you can see, satire is a sharp tool that must be wielded carefully to avoid cutting yourself on accident. A good rule of thumb when writing satire to always aim at those who are in power. Trying to poke fun or ridicule people who are already disadvantaged or targeted in some way will often leave a bad taste in your audience’s mouth, and that’s the fastest way to have your book closed.
Here are some classic examples of Satire:
Matt Groening – The Simpsons, Futurama
David Sedaris – Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club
Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five
Evelyn Waugh – Brideshead Revisited
“Get outta my sky!”
Now let’s talk allegory.
Allegory: Not Just for Kids!
When you want to talk around something or use a stand in to describe it you might try allegory.
The word “allegory” comes from the Latin “allegoria,” meaning speaking to imply something else. An allegory is a simple story that represents a larger point about society or human nature, whose different characters may represent real-life figures. Sometimes, situations in the story may echo stories from history or modern-day life, without ever explicitly stating this connection.
Allegories are similar to metaphors in that both illustrate an idea by making a comparison to something else. However, allegories are complete stories with characters, while metaphors are brief figures of speech.
Note: We are not affiliated with MasterClass in any way, we simply believe in sharing our sources, and they do great work with genre definitions.
One popular example of allegory is Aesop’s Fables. As you may know, the fables tend to follow animals as they make decisions regarding moral dilemmas, and then face the consequences – whatever those may be. Of course, those moralistic fables directed at children always run the risk of sounding paternalistic. Here are some great examples of allegory:
Allegory examples
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
George Orwell – Animal Farm, 1984
Frank Baum’s – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Arthur Miller – The Crucible
C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia
Finally, we have Humor.
Humor Writing
The key to humor writing is simple: it should make you laugh! There are countless different takes on what makes something funny – just try watching someone explain humor to the android Data in Star Trek.
Data experiencing laughter for the first time as a gift from the omnipotent being Q
So rather than go on too long, we’ll share our Editorial Reviews of books that make us laugh!
Arnold Falls By Charlie Suisman Grand Prize Winner in Mark Twain Awards
Charlie Suisman’s debut novel is a wonderful escape to a small fictional community in upstate New York. Here a melting pot of quirky residents brings Arnold Falls to life, a town with a unique history and charming inhabitants whose lives are intimately intertwined.
Settled in 1803 by the unscrupulous Hezekiah Hesper, the town for unknown reasons was named after Benedict Arnold. Adding to the oddities, the closest waterfall is twenty miles away. The area is known for sudden bursts of crab apple-size hail pelting the landscape without any scientific explanation. Hence the incentive for “Hail Pail Day,” a neighborly tradition surrounding the distribution of galvanized bucket head-coverings.
Lou Dischler delivers an intricately woven story about one well-meaning boy who tries to make sense of the crazy he’s been born into. Get ready for one belly laugh of an adventure in My Only Sunshine.
Welcome to the Louisiana low country, home of 9-year-old Charlie Boone, a kid growing up in 1962. Charlie, a most unreliable narrator, concerns himself with giant wingless wasps and biting red velvet ants. Combine his critter-concerns with the legend of the giant slugs, the story of his mother taken up by a hurricane, and the episode of the puddle he and his brother dug that grew into a pond, then turned into a lake, and we have one wildly imaginative ride well-worth taking.
A bitingly funny collection of life-stories from Christie Nicholls – stand-up comedian, actor, and writer – made all the more piquant by her repeated insistence that she has no short-term memory. Fortunately for us, her long-term reminiscences more than make up the deficit.
Nicholls has divided the book into four parts. In the first, “A Broad Abroad,” she recalls her experiences of traveling to far-flung places, beginning with a summer in Belém, Brazil as a child. She and her brother, for some reason nicknamed Beluga, slept in hammocks and played in a swimming pool, but much of her cherished time involved a German Shepherd named Ferdinand, from whom she learned dog talk. Raucous family bowling in Bologna, Italy, is contrasted with attendance at a staid English wedding. At a later period, Nicholls and her mother went to Sweden, where the budding comic tried her hand at stand-up in newly acquired Swedish, leading to an amusing mix-up of jargon.
Honey Beaulieu is going to get her man–no matter how many tries it takes. Determined to capture the elusive Boyce McNitt, Honey is off to Deadwood Gulch despite the warnings that the dangerous road is plagued by thieves and natives. But before she can pursue the $500 bounty, she needs to take care of issues at home, including finding a shop for a pregnant seamstress, sixteen-year-old Emma, a home for eight-year-old Myles Cavanaugh, his two younger sisters, and their pregnant mother. Between her do-gooding, denying her blossoming feelings for Deputy US Marshal Sam Lancaster, and a run-in with a herd of escaped pigs determined to destroy Fry Pan Gulch, Honey barely has time to get out of town before she gets trapped by winter. Once on the road, she comes face-to-face with Sean Chaney, the Badger Claw Kid, a bounty worth $400, and is intent on capturing him, as well. With a little otherworldly, albeit not entirely helpful, advice from her ghost guide Roscoe, Honey will have to take down two dangerous fugitives. But, when she runs into a fireball-throwing ghost bent on revenge, her real adventure begins.
Kiffer loves the undercurrent of a Shakespearean slant to Jacquie Rogers’ works. Sublime.
When a banged-up old bus pulls into his family’s driveway, Charlie has no idea that the rattling junker would be his ride to freedom. For years he’d been suffering under the thumb of a cold-hearted mother and a vindictive twin sister, while his father languished behind bars for tax fraud. The only family member with whom the young man held a loving bond was his grandfather, Opa Bill. Since Bill’s recent death, Charlie has been holding it together by listening to the music he and his grandfather loved. That musical thread weaves its way throughout the story as a sort of narrative jukebox.
Now Charlie’s respectable Oma Ruth has careened back into his life in a shocking new incarnation: a freewheeling hippie in kaftan and beads, unafraid to swap barbed words with her appalled daughter, nor to insist that Charlie accompany her on her road trip. He’s dead-set against it – he’d just found his dream job at a record store – and is disgusted when his mother dumps him on her mother without hesitation.
When you’re ready,did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.
We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information availablehere.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn morehere.
If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Reviewhereor to one of our Chanticleer International Awardshere.
Also remember! Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
Featuring Cathy Ace and Robert Dugoni!
Writer’s Toolbox
Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.
We are deeply honored and excited to continue to announce the 2020 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) with our second of three official postings.
The winners were recognized at a special CIBAs ceremony held on June 5th, 2021 in-person and by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
The CIBA announcements were made LIVE with Chanticleerians participating and interacting from around the globe and North America.
We cheered on the CIBA Premier Finalists with our bubbly of choice from wherever we were Zooming!
Btw, Kiffer’s favorite Champagne!
We want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 24 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!
We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2020 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 2020—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division. The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.
This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for the Laramie, Chaucer, Goethe, Hemingway, Chatelaine, Mark Twain, and Somerset Awards.
Coveted Chanticleer Blue Ribbons!
We are honored to present the
2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards
Grand Prize Winners
The 2020 CIBA Winners!
The LARAMIE Book Awards for
American, Western, Pioneer, Civil War, and First Nation Novels
The Grand Prize Winner is
TROUBLE THE WATER, A NOVEL by Rebecca Dwight Bruff
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com We will try our best to respond within 3 business days.
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the 2020 CIBA Winners! – The Chanticleer Team
The MARK TWAIN Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Humor and Satire Fiction. The Mark Twain Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The 2020 Mark Twain Book Awards for Satire Fiction, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards is the first year that this division is offered as a book awards competition division in the CIBAs. Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring satire, humor, political ideology, parody, fantasy, and allegory or fable. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. These books have advanced to the Premier Level of Achievement in the 2020 CIBAs. (For contemporary and literary fiction see our Somerset Book Awards.)
The 2020 MARK TWAIN Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the MARK TWAIN Grand Prize Winner were announced by Sarah Stamey on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar and Facebook Live.
It is our privilege and profound honor to announce the 1st in Category winners of the 2020 MARK TWAIN Awards, a division of the 2020 CIBAs.
This is the OFFICIAL 2020 LIST of the MARK TWAIN BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the MARK TWAIN Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to all!
Congratulations to the 2020 1st Place Winners in the MARK TWAIN Book Awards!
Charlie Suisman – Arnold Falls
Lenore Rowntree –Cluck
Wayne Edmiston –UNfatally Dead: to thaw or not to thaw?
Haris Orkin –You Only Live Once
Elizabeth Crowens –Dear Bernie, I’m Glad You’re Dead
Alex J. Tremari –Dragoncast
Matt Tompkins –Odsburg
J.P. Kenna –Toward A Terrible Freedom
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2020 Mark Twain Awards is: Charlie Suisman for Arnold Falls
This is the first awarding for a Grand Prize in the MARK TWAIN Division
The 2021 MARK TWAIN Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC22 on April 10, 2022. Save the date for CAC22, scheduled April 7-10, 2022, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!
Submissions for the 2021 MARK TWAIN Book Awards are open until the end of November. Enter here!
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in July. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Charlie Suisman’s debut novel is a wonderful escape to a small fictional community in upstate New York. Here a melting pot of quirky residents brings Arnold Falls to life, a town with a unique history and charming inhabitants whose lives are intimately intertwined.
Settled in 1803 by the unscrupulous Hezekiah Hesper, the town for unknown reasons was named after Benedict Arnold. Adding to the oddities, the closest waterfall is twenty miles away. The area is known for sudden bursts of crab apple-size hail pelting the landscape without any scientific explanation. Hence the incentive for “Hail Pail Day,” a neighborly tradition surrounding the distribution of galvanized bucket head-coverings.
Suisman engagingly presents Jeebie Walker as the story’s primary narrator. A gay man in his early 40s, he moved north of the city in the hopes of a quieter life with his partner, Miles. Though things didn’t work out, Jeebie has settled into his fixer-upper, Queen Anne-style abode, and now seems a positive fixture in this hamlet.
The creative narrative quickly draws us into multiple storylines. First, there’s Jenny Jagoda’s mayoral campaign against a clueless incumbent who has inadvertently shipped bomb-making supplies to a city in Romania. There’s an all-out effort to save a beloved and amorous turkey from the chopping block of a local celebrity chef looking to up her ratings. Of course, there must be a fight to thwart the construction of an environmentally destructive tire factory proposed by a shady developer. Readers will quickly realize that Arnold Falls is a kaleidoscope of hilarity, one that we may like to visit over and over.
As a character-driven piece, Arnold Falls thrives as a friendly place filled with eccentrics, old guard, hipsters, artists, drug dealers, and reclusives. Among the eclectic menagerie a talented henna-headed pickpocket/talent agent, a knowledgeable record store owner whose legendary music and weed pairings have brought “harmonic convergence” to the community, a Motown chanteuse determined to steer her friends to newfound love, and the flatulent plagued, 93-year old daughter of a successful madam, likened to “a walking piece of history.” Suisman shines in his delivery of these characters. Here details offer a colorful array of ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, and sexual orientations, all just trying to make the best of their given circumstances and situations. Amidst snappy dialogue and genuine heartfelt conversations, members of this tight-knit community openly reveal their human foibles and frailties. Above all, there is a commonality of compassion and caring that feels authentic.
As town residents continuously interact, whether in casual run-ins, hopeful dating, town meetings, or planned gatherings, Suisman makes it easy to get to know those finding refuge in this town. While each new scene takes on a vignette-like quality, the overall thread of human connection eases them into the continuous storyline.
Some unexpected revelations in the latter chapters of the book brightly showcase the true depth of these individuals and their lifelong hold to the community. In this rare enclave, the story’s feel-good wrap-up proves the perfect celebratory testament to an all welcoming sanctuary filled with food, wine, music, merriment, and love. In short, a place we’d like to visit!
