You’re good at deadlines… cutting the right wire under pressure is nothing. You can take down dozens of bad guys with just your wit and some duct tape.
You can certainly make this deadline!
Our new deadline for the 2020 (only) in the CIBA GLOBAL THRILLER Awards is October 31, 2020, at 11:59 p.m.
(*Beware, my friends, for the Global Thriller Awards deadline next year will be one month earlier ~ September 30, 2021! …tick, tick, tick!)
Avanti Centrae pulled the trigger just in time and brought home the CIBA 2019 GRAND PRIZE in GLOBAL THRILLERS Book Awards for SOLSTICE SHADOWS – A VanOps Thriller!
The First in Category Winners for The 2019 Global Thrillers are:
We also had Cybertech Thrillers and Political Thrillers such as John Trudel’sRaven’s Resurrectionand the Raven’s Series.
Here’s your assignment, if you choose to accept it…
Submit your Thrillers in the following categories by October 31, 2020, for a chance to bring home a First in Category WIN the 2020 CIBAs in Global Thrillers – or a Grand Prize – or maybe even the Overall Grand Prize!
October is for OZMA, but of course, it also stands for Ooooooo-Oooooo!
Ghosts and goblins and haunted places. Oh, my!
Welcome to the PARANORMAL Book Awards!
We’re ready. Are you?
Every year during the month of October, we carve faces into our pumpkins, turning them into Jack O’Lanterns and set them burning on our porches to light the way for trick or treaters. We decorate our homes in spider webs and skeletons and all sorts of creepy crawlies. Now is the time of year we binge on all things haunted, possessed, inexplicable, unseen.
Why?
Because we are thrilled by the experience of riding high on candied apples and candy corn and relish being frightened – just a little – especially when we know the thing we’re frightened of is just a story, some tale we tell over and over at this time of year. Because this is the season when it’s perfectly acceptable to scream.
Last year, Joy Ross Davis won the Grand Prize for her manuscript, The Mad Woman of Preacher’s Cove! The story was just that good. We are waiting for the release!
Joy Ross Davis!
Send us your stories of dark places, alien abductions, magic and magical beings, the supernatural, vampires & werewolves, angels & demons, fairies & mythological beings, weird otherworldly tales… and gothic horror stories. We will put them to the test and discover the best among them for the 2019 Paranormal Book Awards, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.
The deadline for the Paranormal Awards is October 31, 2019.
Travel with us through the Paranormal Book Awards Hall of Fame…
The 2018 PARANORMAL Book Awards Grad Prize for Supernatural Fiction is awarded to:
Joy Ross Davis for her manuscript, The Madwoman of Preacher’s Cove.
“Joy Ross Davis is more than an eloquent storyteller! A college professor, mother, daughter of Irish descent whose family settled in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, Joy loves all things Irish, including the Green Isle itself. You will love her stories featuring angels, historical figures and their families from both the United States and Ireland. Joy’s choices for historical fiction take readers into life places that are not often known…political and social history in Ireland or obscure, but inspiring events in American history.”
She was awarded the Paranormal Grand Prize award at the CIBA ceremony by nonother than J.D. Barker himself—the master of suspense.
Joy Ross Davis, Paranormal Grand Prize Book Award Winner
The First in Category Winners are:
Path of the Half Moonby Vince Bailey
Anthesteria byK.A. Banks
Suburban Vampire Ragnarokby Franklin Posner
Storm Island: A Kate Pomeroy Mystery by Linda Watkins
Peaches and Laceby Joy Ross Davis
The Balance and the Bladeby Olivia Bernard
The Sea Archer –Jeny Heckman
The 2017 PARANORMAL Book Awards Grand Prize for Supernatural Fiction is awarded to:
Van Ops – The Lost Poweris a story in which “Alexander the Great’s obscure Egyptian weapon has been lost for eons. Can Maddy Marshall and covert agent Bear Thorenson find the ancient weapon in time to stop fragile post-Cold War peace from being forever shattered?”
Avanti Centrae is the author of the international award-winning VanOps thriller series. Her work has been compared to that of James Rollins, Steve Berry, Dan Brown, and Preston/Child’s Pendergast series.
2017 Paranormal Book Awards First Place Winners for Supernatural Fiction Novels are:
A Pocketful of Lodestones, Time Traveler Professor Book 2 by Elizabeth Crowens
Dark Waterby Chynna Laird
The 2016 PARANORMAL Book Awards Grand Prize:
Almost Mortal “Blending the high-octane thrust of a contemporary legal thriller with the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Almost Mortal” cleaves a new, inventive niche in the legal thriller genre. This fast-paced legal thriller will leave the reader hungering for more. A terrific read!”
Christopher Leibig is a novelist and a criminal defense attorney. He thinks about Fiction like this…”Fiction, while by its definition invented, need not tell that lie. In fiction, the devil is everywhere. And everyone has their story.”
2016 Paranormal Book Awards First Place Winners for Supernatural Fiction Novels are:
The Aurora Affair(retitled asMobius) “… is a story about a skeptical heroine who discovers that her love affairs
are the key to harnessing her own power to influence the world—for better if she does it right, or for worse if she fails.”
Carolyn Haley “… is a freelance writer and editor who lives in rural Vermont. I write a mix of commercial copy, articles for regional and national publications, and edits diverse projects in fiction and nonfiction.” She writes award-winning novels in her spare time.
2015 Paranormal Book Awards First Place Winners for Supernatural Fiction Novels are:
An Ex to Grind in Deadwoodis a wickedly funny paranormal mystery romance series that takes place in its namesake city in South Dakota.
Ann Charles, USA Bestselling Author
Ann Charles“…lives in the beautiful Northern Arizona mountains with her clever husband, charming kids, and an incredibly sassy cat. After many years and several colleges, she managed to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree in English with an emphasis on creative writing from the University of Washington.”
2014 Paranormal Book Awards First Place Winners for Supernatural Fiction Novels are:
The Watcher is a story where “…ancient history is only the beginning.”
Lisa Voisin “… spent her childhood daydreaming and making up stories, but it was my love of reading and writing in her teens that drew her to Young Adult fiction.”
2013 Paranormal Book Awards First Place Winners for Supernatural Fiction Novels are:
Sacred Firesis a well written and crafted romantic paranormal novel with elements of intrigue and suspense along with a story set in a lush locale with mystic Aztec undercurrents. Greenfeder has succeeded in writing a fast-paced romantic suspense novel that is refreshingly different.
Catherine Greenfeder “… continues to pursue her dream of getting her work published. To date, she has had five novels including a western historical, two adult paranormal novels, and two young adult paranormal novels published. She anticipates a few short stories and another young adult novel published in the near future.”
Who will win the PARANORMAL Book Awards Blue Ribbons for 2019?
Submit your works today!
The last day for submissions into the 2019 Paranormal Book Awards is August 31, 2019.
“Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” – George Orwell
The much-anticipated sequel to Raven’s Redemption is finally here! The story is set just a few weeks after we left Josie and Raven saving the President of the United States from certain death and thwarting the attempts on their own lives using some rather creative methods. The President is a true believer in Josie’s “remote viewing” talents and has her designated a national treasure, worth saving at all costs. Josie’s information can be trusted but never proven. Raven’s job is to do whatever it takes to keep her alive.
Josie’s paranormal talent makes her a target, and the safe house she and Raven occupy is compromised. Their would-be attackers leave behind clues that open links to a possible Quds base in California, and to a character from Soft Target and Privacy Wars whose mysterious kidnapping over a decade ago will challenge the team to redefine the events that took place at that time.
The story is set a couple of presidencies in the future and progresses by a series of conversations that require close attention to get the most from this novel. Characters discuss past events and perspectives as examples of ideologies, methods, and motivations dating back to the earlier administrations.
Raven’s Resurrection plunges the reader into strategic meetings for covert operations. While involving high levels of government, the team operates in the shadows: no cell phones, no recordings, not even written notes for the most part. They do, however, utilize technology created by Cybertech, because of its advanced security features. Targeted individuals need to be taken out without the threads of blame leading back to anyone on the team—especially not to the President.
Our hero is working less “rogue” now and more as a team member. Raven also realizes that he is stronger when he and Josie work together. Their relationship is maturing, and while the more intimate moments between them are off screen, readers will witness the couple’s deep tenderness toward one another, and thrill as the more strategic aspects of their lives together develop as they work on the logistics of just how best to protect one another.
Meanwhile, attempts on the President’s life are continuing. Raven’s supporters are pushing the Joint Chiefs to abide a secret committee with the curious name of “Covfefe.” This group operates off the books, deep black, to remove – not arrest – targeted individuals on the premise their elimination would weaken the enemy faster than an all-out war, with the added benefit of fewer casualties.
Meanwhile, Josie has valuable INTEL regarding an individual with whom the Russians have an interest in, in exchange for something the Americans want; a meeting ensues, but can the Russians be trusted?
Staging scenes that would be fitting for James Bond, Trudel shines in skill and talent as he gives us wildly entertaining action sequences. Smoke bombs, zappers, lethal weaponry abound! The team has irrefutably graduated from an under-funded, often fumbling, renegade cluster to a sophisticated outfit with souped-up cars, choice weapons, and a decent backup at their disposal.
This book departs from the familiar third-person narrative. The “I” voice changes from scene to scene, bringing the reader into a “point-of-view” that is as fun to imagine as it is hard, shifting readers from hero to villain. Of course, the first-person point-of-view also invites the opportunity for the unreliable narrator, which adds another layer of intrigue to this story.
Trudel provides a list of acronyms and their meanings at the beginning of the book. At the end of the book, readers will find his familiar “Factoids and Fantasies” that provide his framework of events and references (from his perspective) on which much of his work centers around. If you’ve enjoyed any of the Cybertech series, you won’t want to miss this latest installment.
Raven’s Redemption begins where Raven’s Run left off: Josie is recovering in a hospital in Oregon, and Raven, recuperating at a coastal estate in rugged Northern California. He feels responsible for putting her life in jeopardy. Josie is a sensitive paranormal who can do ‘remote viewings’ – but viewings involving violence, remote or otherwise, weaken her to the point of death.
Raven is an undercover operative who tries to protect her. He receives his next mission from Goldfarb, his boss: Josie’s untraceable extraction from the medical facility. What none of them know is that sinister forces are at work to make sure Josie never gets out alive.
Her services are desperately needed again, and this mission cannot fail: she is a non-expendable government asset. It’s a simple grab-the-girl and run – or should be – but when animal activists become involved, chaos reigns, and not everyone makes it out intact.
The story shifts to another hospital – this time the President of the United States is hospitalized in a secret facility after being irreparably poisoned. After a brief period of rest and recuperation for Josie and Raven, Josie is tasked to work her viewings around the condition of the president. While in her viewing state, she encounters a dark force so powerful and evil she cannot penetrate it – and is afraid it would swallow her very life force if she got too close.
Should the president die, this force, aptly named “The Abyss”, will be unleashed on the world, and with no stopping it. Unfortunately, all envisioned paths to the future lead to his death!
Goldfarb’s team is able to use Josie’s information to track down those who want the president dead, but the real problem is knowing who is directing their actions, and why. Some familiar villains appear in this book – we get to be entertained with Vogel’s thick German accent and lack of empathy – and some new ones, who seem familiar enough that we might have read about them in the newspaper or seen a report on television.
In between the heart-stopping, rag-tag, under-funded operations to rescue damsels and flush out the bad guys, Trudel gives us past examples of breaches of security in history to make plausible actions taken in his story. He relates the legend of General Blackjack Pershing’s pig-blood solution to jihad, though the historical authenticity of this event has been challenged where criticism of Islam is politically incorrect. Occurring over a century ago, the incident – which has been neither proven nor disproved – provides a richer backdrop to the actions of an unanticipated (and unwitting) ally during a chilling nighttime raid.
In light of recent terrorist events that leave us wondering “how could this have happened?” Trudel offers up examples of enemies hiding in plain sight, of churches that aren’t the peaceful sanctuaries one might expect, and of plans for evil that are much better funded than their defensive counterparts.
Raven’s character is becoming less rogue. He is listening more to Josie rather than acting brashly every time. She desperately wants out of the business they’re in – “one more mission and we’ll retire” – how many times have you heard that one? This reader doesn’t remotely foresee a true retirement happening any time soon!
Those who read Raven’s Run will be satisfied with this riveting sequel, but those who are new to Trudel’s work will enjoy it on its own if they are a fan of political intrigue, firearms technology – both new and old, espionage and a bit of other-worldliness to make this a true paranormal thriller.
A covert CIA mission gone sideways, a harrowing post-WWI transatlantic flight, and a research facility with “remote viewing” capabilities: three seemingly separate stories woven across time and locations bring us to the brink of an attack that would annihilate North America in this entertaining and suspenseful novel titled Raven’s Run.
John D. Trudel researched actual historical archives to tell the escapades of his uncle, George O. Noville, a Navy officer who made historical flights, explored Antarctica, became an oil executive, and eventually settled in Mexico to retire. It is through his voice that the reader ‘hears’ the story of forgotten U.S. history.
Josie is a gentle soul with an incredible psychic ability (as well as a penchant for marijuana and going braless). All she has to do is have physical contact with an item to see its history, location, and actions occurring around it. The government, needless to say, sees her as a valuable asset and has her working in secrecy. Her viewings have sometimes left her comatose – she is especially sensitive to violence, and sees her own future in a mental institution if she doesn’t change the path she’s on.
Wayne, who has been given the boot from the CIA, is given a second chance along with a new identity as Raven. He is tasked to protect Josie. While on his failed yet explosive mission in Iran, Raven had uncovered a diary belonging to Noville, with the title “Operation High Jump,” a major Antarctic expedition that occurred right after World War II.
All evidence from the mission was destroyed, but the significance of the notebook is unclear. Josie is tasked with viewing the events surrounding the notebook, but the vastness of the great white ice continent makes finding any worthwhile data a huge challenge. While her talents are great, they are not unlimited.
Meanwhile, Islamic extremists are racing toward a mission of their own in Antarctica, allowing nothing to stop their quest to rid the world of the “Great Satan” and infidels. With ties to oil executives, high level U.S. government officials, and a nuclear-powered icebreaking vessel, not much can stop them, not even one of their own. The suspense builds at a breakneck pace.
Josie and Raven form an unlikely bond, breaking down the walls that he has had to build around himself out of necessity. Raven gains Josie’s trust, and she his. They start envisioning their own future together, but first they must complete this last, dangerous mission: solving the mysteries surrounding Noville, his death, and his diary. Will their love give them the strength to survive the ordeal, or add to their vulnerability?
Mechanical techies will enjoy Raven’s Run’s detailing of weaponry and engine mechanics on airplanes and ships, in both military and private use. Trudel challenges some widely held positions on climate change, Islam, the JFK assassination, Vietnam, international incidents occurring between WWII and today.
While this reviewer didn’t do any fact checking, Trudel offers a “Factoids and Fantasies” section to help the reader sort through historical fact and what is inspired in this work. A post on Trudel’s blog sums it up nicely: “There is a lot of truth in fiction these days, and we live in interesting times.”
Reviewer’s Note: All in all, I give Raven’s Run five stars. The ending is awesome! I tried not to give too much away in the review because the unfolding and braiding of events adds to the reader’s pleasure of discovery. This reviewer is looking forward to reading Trudel’s sequel, Raven’s Redemption which will be out in 2015.
It’s come down to this…
invented, need not tell that lie. In fiction, the devil is everywhere. And everyone has their story
The Watcher is a story where “…ancient history is only the beginning.”
Catherine Greenfeder
