Masterclass Instructor, USA Today Bestselling Author, and Chanticleer Keynote Kim Hornsby invites you to join her on the next adventure!
Realize your book-to-screen dreams in Greece this fall!
When your mission is to Discover Today’s Best Books, you come across good news regarding authors!
Kim Hornsby came to Chanticleer as a First Place Winner for the Paranormal Awards (now Shelley Awards) almost a decade ago for her book Dream Jumper, which has been optioned for film. She gave the Friday keynote at the last Chanticleer Authors Conference where she shared insights from her journey from bestselling novelist to produced screenwriter—and she’s ready to show authors how to follow in her footsteps.
Hornsby’s family adventure film Braving Rapids launched May 15th across streaming platforms, bringing her rafting screenplay to life with what she describes as “a darling puppy” and a heartwarming story about a grieving family’s healing journey. And the good news keeps coming as her Lifetime Thriller, Secret Life of My Other Wife recently premiered on LMN!
Authors can learn to write a screenplay while staring at the cerulean Aegean Sea, and already one Chanticleer author has signed up for the adventure. For authors dreaming of seeing their stories on screen, this is a rare opportunity to learn from someone who’s actually done it. From her island home off Seattle, Hornsby has transformed her Chanticleer-recognized paranormal fiction into a multimedia success spanning streaming platforms, cable networks, and film options.
Don’t miss out! Several Chanticleer International Book Award divisions have deadlines fast approaching. Kim’s journey from Shelley Award winner to produced screenwriter shows exactly what recognition can launch. Whether you’re crafting paranormal fiction for our Shelley Awards or working in any of our genre divisions, professional recognition opens doors to opportunities you might never have imagined.
These wonderful authors put themselves out there, and we are honored to have been able to promote them throughout the 2024 CIBA year and beyond! Good luck in these final rounds of judging!
The world of publishing continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. Technology has become central to every aspect of the industry, from writing and editing to marketing and distribution. At Chanticleer, we take pride in offering a conference that embraces the latest in publishing technologies. Our event provides a comprehensive look at the best tools and strategies authors can use to build their brands, market their work, and increase sales. We’ll explore everything from AI and metadata management to cutting-edge marketing techniques, ensuring you are well-equipped to thrive in today’s digital landscape.
In addition to offering invaluable business and marketing insights, we are also featuring select advanced writing craft classes to help authors take their writing to the next level. Whether you’re looking to improve your storytelling techniques, explore new narrative structures, or refine your manuscript, CAC25 has something for everyone.
Headliners
J. D. BARKER- Int’l Bestselling Thriller Author
J.D. Barker is the New York Times and international best-selling author of numerous novels, including DRACUL and the wildly popular 4MK series. He is currently collaborating with James Patterson. His books have been translated into two dozen languages, sold in more than 150 countries, and optioned for both film and television. Barker resides in coastal New Hampshire with his wife, Dayna, and their daughter, Ember.
CHRISTINE FAIRCHILD – Author, Book Doctor, and Dialogue Expert
Christine Fairchild offers 35+ years experience as a writer, editor, and book doctor. She’s conducted celebrity interviews (XFiles, SciFiMall.com), edited for technical giants (Microsoft, Hitachi), and served as a marketing/readability specialist for consumer products (DHL, Cingular, AT&T). She now specializes in Suspense fiction and helps authors take their work, and their career, to the next level through her online workshops, classes at conferences and one-on-one book-doctoring of clients’ novels. She also writes suspense and historical fiction, so she understands the challenges authors face in their craft and the publishing industry.
KIM HORNSBY – USA Today Bestselling Author, Producer, and Screenwriter
Kim Hornsby is a USA Today Bestselling Author and Produced Screenwriter known for adapting her novels to screenplays. With 16 novels and as many screenplays Kim is also a movie producer, with Braving Rapids, a Family Adventure and Secret Life of My Other Wife, a Lifetime Thriller slated to release early ’25. Comfort & Joy starts filming for a Christmas ’25 release as well as Christmas in Crystal Creek. She teaches her method of adapting from book to film at conferences nationally including Chanticleer, the RWA and PNWA. Her Christmas Romance novels and Suspense Mystery novels have sold over half a million books and she’s thrilled write happy-ending stories for her readers.
A mother, dog owner, kayaker, painter, and avid adventurer, Kim loves to travel but when home she writes from a desk overlooking her forested acreage on an island off Seattle conjuring up entertainment with gutsy heroines amongst diverse and inclusive characters to represent real life.
Can’t make it on Friday? Saturday-only passes are available! These passes include lunch, the banquet, and participation in the Saturday Book Fair at the Bellingham Yacht Club, followed by the Village Books Book Fair the next day at their flagship store in Fairhaven!
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at info@ChantiReviews.com. We try our best to reply within 3 business days.
The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in the 2024 CIBAs! We wish you all the best of luck during these final rounds of judging and hope to see you at CAC25, April 3 – 6, 2025!
Best regards, Kiffer Brown, David Beaumier, Dena Weigel, Anya Mueller, Scott Taylor, Argus Brown and Team Chanticleer
Fearing the unknown isn’t something that weighs on author Kim Hornsby’s mind. Throughout her adventurous life, she has found herself in the most unusual environments–scuba diving with whales and dolphins, performing in front of an audience as a singer, and writing her first book while overseas to adopt her daughter.
Kim Hornsby is unstoppable!
An Adventurous Spirit
Hornsby’s path to becoming a writer is one many of us are familiar with. A family event—in this case, the adoption of her daughter—created an opportunity for writing that was seen by her group of friends and family through emails sent out as updates on the adoption process. Encouraged by the reception of her missives, she was prompted by friends to write a book about the process. Hornsby did write about their adoption story but chose to write it as a fictionalized version of what they experienced. This led to a career path that has taken her novels to bookshelves all around the world and screenplays that have been made into Hollywood movies!
Diving deep into this new adventure, Hornsby wrote her first novel for publication. The Jumper’s Promise kicked off The Dream Jumper series, and Hornsby hasn’t stopped since! Today, she’s the author of multiple standalone novels as well as several series with themes as diverse as light romantic, police procedural, paranormal, and suspense thriller. Hornsby’s books have been on the USA Today and Amazon bestseller lists, and her award-winning screenplays have been made into movies for television.
Coming Full Circle
Hornsby’s writing career has come full circle with the publication of her screenplay, Braving Rapids (movie released in 2024). It’s a child’s story of her own adoption told through her adoption of an abandoned wolf cub. It’s a beautiful full circle story that illustrates the fact that love doesn’t have to born into the family. Love can be welcomed into the family with all the intense emotion that is needed to claim one’s heart.
The Jumper’s Promise also completes a full circle for Hornsby, with the movie version of her first published book currently under production. The story revolves around her experience as a scuba diving instructor, combining dark supernatural suspense elements with the excitement and adventure she experienced as part of Maui’s scuba diving scene. To be able to adapt this compelling story into a producible screenplay is a monumental achievement for an author’s first published novel, and it perfectly illustrates Hornsby’s ability to create stories that resonate on the page as well as on the screen.
Kim is presenting a workshop on Plotting and Writing a Movie – From First Idea to the Last Page
Are you a storyteller? Have you ever wondered how to write a movie? It’s easier than you think.
It all starts with an idea and a main character. In this romp through storytelling, produced screenwriter Kim Hornsby will teach you the surprisingly simple process of movie storytelling from the opening shot on the big screen to when the credits roll.
Learn the art of crafting your story while comparing movie writing to book writing. By the end of the class, you will have the opening scene to your screenplay with a clear idea of how to continue with the rest of the story using the ten essentials of screenwriting.
Write a screenplay! You know you want to.
Kim Hornsby is a USA Today Bestselling Author and Produced Screenwriter known for adapting her novels to screenplays. With 16 novels and as many screenplays Kim is also a movie producer, with Braving Rapids, a Family Adventure and Secret Life of My Other Wife, a Lifetime Thriller slated to release early ’25. Comfort & Joy starts filming for a Christmas ’25 release as well as Christmas in Crystal Creek. She teaches her method of adapting from book to film at conferences nationally including Chanticleer, the RWA and PNWA. Her Christmas Romance novels and Suspense Mystery novels have sold over half a million books and she’s thrilled write happy-ending stories for her readers.
A mother, dog owner, kayaker, painter, and avid adventurer, Kim loves to travel but when home she writes from a desk overlooking her forested acreage on an island off Seattle conjuring up entertainment with gutsy heroines amongst diverse and inclusive characters to represent real life.
www.KimHornsby.info
As her reputation as a superb author rises, we see Kim Hornsby taking on new adventures at every opportunity. It is the continuation of a sense of adventure that permeates her life, and I feel encouraged in my own writing career to take a leap of faith, too.
Chanticleer is thrilled to bring Kim Hornsby back to the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC2025) and the International Book Awards (CIBA) on April 3-6, 2025, to share her knowledge with Chanticleer authors.
Don’t miss out on this chance to learn from author and screenwriter Kim Hornsby!
🌷 Happy Spring to our Northern Hemisphere Chanticleerians! 🌷
🍂Happy Fall to our Southern Hemisphere Chanticleerians! 🍁
This time of year is the time for the
Annual Chanticleer Authors Conference
CAC24!
and the highly anticipated
Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony!
When we start seeing tulips and daffodils coming up with snow geese and Trumpeter swans flying across the sky, we know that it is time for the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference here in Bellingham, Wash. Did I tell you how much I love this time of year in the Pacific Northwest? These photos were taken about a 15 minute drive south from here.
But I digress.
We are here to discuss Working with Ingram, Selling on Amazon, Pitching, the Art of Subtext, Podcasting, and more for #seriousAuthors!
These are just a few of the sessions that CAC 24 is offering in just a few short weeks!
Please check back often as we continuously update the CAC pages.
Susan V. Meyers – Creative Writing Program Director at Seattle University and Pushcart Prize and Best American Series Nominee. Her novel Failing the Trapeze won the Nilsen Award.
Nicole J. Persun is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author with a master’s degree in Creative Writing & Instruction. Nicole has written and published in multiple genres, most recently book club fiction under the pen name Jennifer Gold.
Kim Hornsby is a USA Today and Amazon Bestselling Author along with being a sold, multi-optioned, and produced screenwriter. Her Chanticleer Paranormal Book Awards winning novel,The Dream Jumper’s Promise, is in development with plans to film in late 2024. We are excited for her Romcom Christmas movie,Christmas in Crystal Creek,that is slated for filming in 24/25.
D.D. Black’s Thomas Austin Crime Thrillers series has garnered more than 30,000 Amazon reviews and have earned the #1 Best Seller in Mystery Series. Ranked #1 in Traditional Detective Mysteries in Books and Kindle Store. Previously, he wrote thrillers under the name A.C. Fuller, including The Alex Vane Media Thrillers, The Ameritocracy Series, and The Crime Beat. Altogether, he’s written and published over thirty books.
Reenita Malhotra Hora is the CEO of Chapter by Episode Productions. She has years of experience growing organizations from startups to medium-sized businesses through storytelling, creative marketing and business strategy. Hora has also written seven books.
She has contributed to Reuters, the South China Morning Post family section, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN, Asian Investor, Times of India, Business Line, Bloomberg on-air news reporter, writer, and producer, Rolling Stone, and the Economic Times.
2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference focusing on Books to Film!
Kim Hornsby is a USA Today and Amazon Bestselling Author along with being a sold, multi-optioned, and produced screenwriter. Her Chanticleer Paranormal Book Awards winning novel, The Dream Jumper’s Promise, is in development with plans to film in late 2024. We are excited for her Romcom Christmas movie, Christmas in Crystal Creek, that is slated for filming in 24/25. She teaches adaptation of books to scripts across North America. Kim has a diverse portfolio of scripts and novels that include Christmas, thrillers, and stalkers, although not in the same story.
Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2024, Kim Hornsby
We are beyond thrilled to have this long-time Chanticleerian join us again at CAC24 where she will present, teach, sit on panels, and participate. Kim will share her Books to Film journey with us along with the Tips and Tricks she has picked up on it. Don’t miss out on her special Kaffeeklatsch session either!
This book to film class is specifically an adaptation guide. Learn how to take your book, extract the scenes needed for a movie and turn it into a script. She concentrates on Plotting and Formatting (for film) with all the tips and tricks.
Thursday, April 18, 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.
Learn the Power of Pitch Decks, Log Lines, and Quick Pitches to Your Own Original Story to make an exec or producer realize they have to have this movie.
From Novel to Production – The Story of Dream Jumper’s Promise
How to Write the “TV movie” (which covers Hallmark Christmas, Lifetime Thrillers, and the 9 Act Script).
Why Write a Series Panel
Multi-Author Anthologies – the Why and How Panel In this session, Kim will touch on how she got her USA Bestseller status through a targeted campaign with other authors.
Life After You Finish Your Screenplay – How to market your work, yourself, be seen by producers, execs, studios. How to get a Lit Manager or Agent and if you need one.
All this and more, at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference and the Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony.
CAC24 Dates: April 18th – April 21st, 2024
Thursday, April 18th – Master Classes
Friday and Saturday, April 19th & 20th – Keynote Luncheons, Conference Sessions, Kaffeeklatsches, Networking “Happy Hours”
Saturday Evening, April 20th – The 2023 CIBA Banquet and Ceremony
Sunday, April 21st – Book Fair by Village Books (more info to come regarding Sunday’s activities). We have a few surprises in mind 🙂
CAC24 and the 2023 CIBA Banquet and Ceremony will be held at the Sheraton Four Points on Lakeway Avenue, Bellingham, Wash. Centered amid popular downtown attractions, the Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham Hotel & Conference Center is a haven of contemporary comfort and conveniently located.
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.
A mysterious murder and vivid, strange dreams are the perfect recipe for an engaging story. Readers who enjoy a good adrenaline rush will find this a brilliant romantic thriller.
Kristina (Tina) Green’s life was perfect. She owned a diving shop on the beautiful island of Maui, spending her days diving along the coasts and her nights with her loving husband.
But when her husband disappeared, Tina’s life was uprooted, and ten months later she finds herself still unable to move on until she discovers what happened. Worse, her dreams relentlessly push her into the eerie depths of the ocean each night, and she is convinced that the ocean is trying to tell her something.
As Tina desperately tries to move on from her husband’s assumed death and her mysterious dreams, someone from her past enters her life unexpectedly. The person has a preposterous offer of help by entering her dreams to determine what happened to her husband. Tina reluctantly accepts his aid, but her family and friends begin to act oddly. She finds herself on the brink of insanity as everyone loses her trust; she can only cling to the hope of resolving her husband’s mysterious disappearance.
Kim Hornsby’s The Dream Jumper’s Promisebegins with a heartbreaking premise and quickly envelops the reader in a cloud of intrigue. At first, the romantic energy of the novel and the developing background of each intriguing character is enough to keep the reader hooked. But soon it becomes clear that the death of Tina’s husband is a larger puzzle begging to be solved. Tina is a strong protagonist worth rooting for. As the mystery develops, Tina begins to lose herself, and the reader must advocate for the resilient woman to push through as she teeters between the waking world and the dream world.
The narrative is further complicated by the strain put on Tina’s relationships with the people around her. The complexity weaves itself around Tina as she copes with her husband’s mysterious death, having someone invade her dreams, and trying to figure out whom she can trust. Readers are thrust into Tina’s mind as they’re left unsure with who and which world is telling the truth.
The Dream Jumper’s Promise, the first in Kim Hornsby’s The Dream Jumper’s series, is a sexy, paranormal thriller that gets the blood pumping and the heart racing.
KIM HORNSBY – USA Today Bestselling Author, Producer, and Screenwriter
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