Author: murray-richter

  • The GERTRUDE WARNER 2021 CIBA WINNERS for Middle Grade Fiction

    The GERTRUDE WARNER 2021 CIBA WINNERS for Middle Grade Fiction

    The Boxcar Children from the famed series by Gertrude Warner

    The Gertrude Warner Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Middle Grade Fiction. The Gertrude Warner Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

    The Gertrude Warner Book Awards competition is named for Gertrude Chandler Warner, the wonderful author of The Boxcar Children.

    Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Contemporary Middle Grade, SFF & Paranormal Middle Grade, Mystery Middle Grade, Historical Middle Grade, Adventure Middle Grade, and Graphic Novels. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. For Young Adult Fiction see our Dante Rossetti Awards here and for Children’s Literature see our Little Peeps Awards here.

    The 2021 GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the GERTRUDE WARNER Grand Prize Winner were announced by Denise Ditto Satterfield on Saturday, June 25, 2022 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar.

    This is the OFFICIAL 2021 LIST of the GERTRUDE WARNER BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the GERTRUDE WARNER Grand Prize Winner.

    Congratulations to all!

    • Didem Saracel – Story of Carbon
    • Murray Richter – Fishing for Luck
    • J. B. Spector – The Sunlit Curse, Book 1 of The Mer-Prince Adventures
    • Sean March – Little Wade and Watchtower: Abigail and the Great Gang Trap
    • Ben Gartner – Sol Invictus
    • Jay Spenser – The Phantom Airplane Mystery
    • Gloria Two-Feathers – Buck: Keeper of the Meadow

    The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 GERTRUDE WARNER Awards is:

    Fishing for Luck

    by Murray Richter

    Fishing for Luck Cover

    Fishing for Luck Grand Prize Badge

    PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS! 

    Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

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    The 2022 GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

    Submissions for the 2022 GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards are open until the end of August. Enter here!

    Don’t delay! Enter today! 

    A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in August. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for participating in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards!

  • LUCKY ROCKS by Murray Richter – Coming of Age, Children’s Action/Adventure, Children’s Historical Fiction

    LUCKY ROCKS by Murray Richter – Coming of Age, Children’s Action/Adventure, Children’s Historical Fiction

    Lucky Rocks by Murray Richter is the stuff boys’ dreams are made of: escaping chores, ditching little sisters, playing pranks on each other, heading out to Uncle Oliver’s (the General), and sticking up for each other on the football field. Did I leave anything out? Oh, yes, there’s a hunt for sunken treasure, too.

    This action-packed romp set in 1979 takes us on summer vacation we will never forget. We meet sixth-graders Kevin (Kev man), our hero; Preech, the brains of the group; and Rudy, the quarterback, and football star. They raise some dust as they race their bikes down the back roads of their small Texas town as they head out for adventure every day; whether it be to a fishing hole, a rough neighborhood where they lose Rudy, or to Uncle Oliver’s where they learn about life the fun way, though “The General’s” stories.

    When Rudy shows up with a black eye, Kev man and Preech know there’s trouble at home, but Rudy won’t talk about it, not to anyone, not even Uncle Oliver. Rudy’s stepdad, a rough and gruff oil rigger, seems the likely culprit behind Rudy’s black eye, and Kevin and Preech are determined to help their friend. But first and foremost is an adventure, and Uncle Oliver has invited them on a treasure hunt.

    With their parents’ permission, the boys go on the hunt, but on their dive to a sunken ship, they find more than they are looking for. Richter develops a plot filled with action and fun with spine-tingling elements of danger and tension that pulls us along as we witness Kevin, Preech, and Rudy conquer their fears and help each other out of danger, time and time again.

    As summer ends, Richter takes us back to school and the football field where Rudy and Preech display their skills on the field. Kevin lags behind, but his friends aren’t about to let him down. They stick up for Kevin on the field and with the coach, but does that kind of friendship help win big games or make touchdowns?

    Richter creates a world where Kev man, Preech, and Rudy conquer all the odds. They even find ways to help Uncle Oliver solve his “lady” problems. Here’s a solid middle-grade read, especially for boys, that shows how the power of friendship can become a super-power, a power we should all be so lucky to have.

    Lucky Rocks by Murray Richter won 1st Prize in the CIBA 2017 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Fiction.