The Ozma Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Fantasy Fiction. The Overall Grand Prize Winner, Erin Lark Maples’ book, A Circle of Stars will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Ozma contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
The 2024 Ozma Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!
Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Ozma Winners!
Curt Locklear – Treasure and Murder in Ireland
As Halloween draws close, Scrooge, Cratchit, and their newly married junior partner Sherlock “Lockie” Holmes, father of the great detective, are pulled into the complex murders of three Irishmen: a nobleman, a town mayor, and a pubkeeper. To Scrooge’s utter dismay, the three sail to Ireland, where they uncover biblical secrets and face a wide range of challenges and assailants. The trio is aided by two sharp female protagonists: one is an accomplished scientist, the other is developing martial arts skills. A crafty lawyer intends to seize the mines belonging to Lucy Holmes and her cousins, Abigail and Samuel Jiggins. An ancient cult is forming, and a young mastermind continues to plot in the shadows. Set during the horrendous Irish Potato Famine, Treasure and Murder in Ireland follows the trio as they struggle their way through dangerous circumstances, gathering clues and discovering magic does not always belong in myths.
Glen Dahlgren – The Realm of Gods
2024’s Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner!
In a realm where dreams and reality intertwine, the final battle brews.
The gods of Order have vanished. Despite priests like Dantess and Myra struggling to maintain peace, the Harbingers of Chaos fan the flames of rebellion, bringing the world to the brink of war.
Galen, drawn into the heart of the Dreaming—an ethereal realm where past, present, and future collide—confronts not only his nemesis, the cunning Carnaubas, but a horrifying truth: the exiled gods of Order still hunger for dominion.
Luckily, Galen is not alone. Eve, a young girl gifted with the uncanny ability to see the threads that connect everything, joins him on a desperate quest to find the elusive god of Chaos, their only hope for preventing Order’s return.
The Realm of Gods is more than just a story; it’s a descent into the battle between Order and Chaos, a testament to the enduring power of human connection, and a battle cry for rebellion against tyranny.
Join the heroes you love on their final, climatic dance between despair and hope, the last leg in an extraordinary journey that you’ll never forget.
Susan Wands – High Priestess and Empress
On her return to London, artist and seer Pamela Colman Smith discovers that her nemesis, Aleister Crowley, has returned—and his sights are set on her. Despite Aleister’s efforts to stop Pamela from further developing her tarot deck and accessing its magic, she carries on casting her High Priestess and Empress muses, Golden Dawn society leader Florence Farr and popular theatre star Ellen Terry. But when Ellen is poisoned and nearly killed, Pamela realizes that Aleister won’t stop coming for her—not until her muses are dead.
When Aleister reveals his plot to assassinate Queen Victoria and all female rulers, war breaks out between the Aleister’s Carlists and the Golden Dawn. With so many lives on the line—that of the queen, and those of her friends—Pamela must access her inner magic to face the battle of her life.
Prue Batten – The Red Thread
A red silk thread tied around one’s wrist by the God of Fate is immovable.
Destiny is immutable.
For Lien of the First House of Silk and Ming Xao, her Emperor, the woven silk thread on their wrists brings them to the very edge of death as they are hunted by the fey for a secret map they hold in their possession.
S.G. Blaise – Meddling Mages
Glenna’s heart sinks just as her boots sink in the mud, when she sees how horrid the planet Raghild is.
But there is no turning back now. She must forge onward to meet the despised charlatans, aka, mages—the only ones able to help her get rid of the corruption that’s killing her.
The sooner she finds the mages, the sooner she can rid herself of the deadly corruption, and of the pesky mage who somehow sneaked his way into her heart.
Find it on Amazon!
J.A. Neilsen – The Claiming
Spense is the unfortunate younger son of Lord Ferrous, with a growing talent for the magical arts and a larger talent for finding trouble, most often in the form of botched spells. Dewy is a Fae princess who tends to disappoint her aunt, the Summer Queen, through her—ahem—carefree life choices.
A chance encounter—and another botched spell—leaves Spense bonded to Dewy and able to control her will. But it’s a violation of magic. Not to mention devastating to Human-Fae relations.
To free Dewy and save Spense’s kingdom, they must journey through faerie territories—facing feral magic, treacherous wilderness, and their own distractible hearts. Unless that’s just the effect of The Claiming…
From Chanticleer:
The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?
Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.
Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.
Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Ozma First Place Winners!
Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Ozma Awards!
Got a great Fantasy?
The 2025 Ozma Book Awards are open through the end of June!
Women’s Fiction:
