Author: tk-conklin

  • The 2023 Chatelaine Awards First Place Roundup for Romance Fiction!

    The 2023 Chatelaine Awards First Place Roundup for Romance Fiction!

    Romance Fiction Chatelaine AwardThe Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Romantic Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Gail Avery Halverson’s book, A Sea of Glass will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Chatelaine 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 2023 Chatelaine Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

    Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Chatelaine Winners!

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    T.K. Conklin – Guarded Hearts

    Guarded Hearts Cover

    When a simple touch can hurt or heal, do they dare take a chance on love?

    LaRisa spent her life as the town outcast. Whispered to be a witch, she grew and sold healing herbs to the very people that shunned her. Because of the special ability she was cursed with at birth, she fears touching others. She knew she was destined to be a spinster, until she meets a man that isn’t afraid of her.

    The beautiful auburn haired witch instantly enchanted Strykes, but he knew he shouldn’t fall in love with her. Haunted by his past and of what he could become, makes him leery of love. Though his hands ache to caress her, he is afraid he will hurt her. Or worse.

    When his outlaw past catches up to him and sends them running for their lives, the love between them grows. As well as their fears.

    From Chanticleer:

    Guarded Hearts by T K Conklin is a sensual romance in the Wild West, with all the passion and excitement natural to the setting.

    Sparks fly between a man with an outlaw past and a woman with a terrifying gift to heal or harm. Strykes is a man haunted both by a violent childhood and his time in an outlaw gang. But he has found a place in Rimrock, where he met LaRisa, an auburn-haired woman whom the townspeople have labeled a “witch” due to her healing herbs and rumors of her “powers”.

    Read More Here

    Find it Locally or on Amazon

    Bonnie Rose Ward – Loving Beth

    Loving Beth Cover

     

    Beth McCullough struggles to keep her West Virginia farm and care for two abandoned children, but the bank is threatening foreclosure, someone is threatening her life, and the man she’s falling for has closed his heart to love. But God works in mysterious ways.

    Times were hard after Beth McCullough’s father died in the Civil War, but she and her mother are getting by on their little farm outside Rosewood, West Virginia. The kindly banker holding the loan lets them pay what they can. Then Beth’s mother dies suddenly, and the banker’s arrogant son gives her only thirty days to pay her full debt. Beth is left alone and lonely and fears losing the only home she’s ever known. It would be nice to have someone in her life like Jacob, the handsome man who found her mother. Then to her horror, Beth discovers two small children who’ve been abandoned. It’s one more thing for her to worry about, but Beth has to keep faith in God’s ability to work miracles.

    From Chanticleer:

    In Loving Beth, a Christian historical romance by Bonnie Rose Ward, a young woman finds herself in dire straits when her widowed mother dies unexpectedly.

    Beth’s father had taken out loans to improve their property, but he was killed in the Civil War, leaving his wife and daughter to struggle to keep up with the payments. Now, Beth is alone without any means to keep her home—finding and taking in two young, abandoned children certainly doesn’t help. But even amidst her troubles, Beth’s thoughts keep going back to the mysterious and handsome stranger who found and brought home the body of her mother.

    Life is not easy in her tiny settlement in West Virginia, and young, pretty Beth finds that it is not about to get any easier. The new banker holds a grudge toward her for having rejected his advances, and the man’s snobbish wife is determined to make Beth’s life even more miserable. The loans that Beth and her mother worked to pay each month are suddenly due in full— but the banker’s unwanted and ugly advances are foiled with the appearance of the mysterious stranger.

    Read More Here

    Find it on Amazon

    S.G. Blaise – Proud Pada

    Lilla is on her next mission as a Sybil, when she must travel to the Pada world following the trail of a ruthless murderer.

    Navigating deadly politics turns increasingly difficult, when the Teryn emperor goes missing.

    Now the Teryn empire is heading towards civil war, and Lilla must uncover who is behind the conspiracy before it’s too late.

    Unfortunately her success depends on the Proud Pada.

    Find it Locally and on Amazon

    Jo Morgan Sloan- Stableshoes

    This LGBT+ Retelling of Cinderella isn’t out yet, but has a release date of July 2025, and we are very excited to see this book come out!

    Prince Darian has met all the requirements necessary to claim his father’s throne; at least, he thinks he has, until his sinister cousin Bertram reveals a law that states Darian must marry by his twenty-fifth birthday, or lose the crown.

    With only four weeks to find a bride, Darian turns to his beautiful, irreverent, clever friend Ashley for help before a grand ball is to be thrown in his honor. But there is another who catches the prince’s eye: living in perpetual silence is Eric, the stronghold stableman, whose kindness disrupts Darian’s plans to hide his nature.

    Each day that passes is another day closer to Bertram’s takeover, and he’s counting on Darian to fail. While Eric has the prince’s heart, the stableman also carries a secret mark that could jeopardize Darian’s claim to the throne. To protect the nation he loves from a tyrant, Prince Darian must choose between true love and living a lie.

    For more Information, check out the authors website

    Rose Prendeville – Mistress Mackintosh and the Shaw Wretch

    In 1725, a secret convent has been established on the Aberdeenshire coast.Jory Mackintosh is more excited by healing herbs than husbands or holy prayers. She craves freedom—and a chance to sneak into medical school. Instead, on the eve of her escape, she becomes an unwilling pawn in her family’s schemes with a rival clan.

    Finlay Shaw, the disgraced younger brother of the laird, has spent ten long years atoning for his past failures, but nothing can wash away the stain of fratricide. When the clans order him to escort Jory to her new life as a nun, thus securing an alliance with the freshly formed Black Watch, it’s his last chance for redemption. Too bad for Finn, Jory has no intention of following orders.

    Trapped on the road together, often with only one bed between them, the two butt heads and match wits, forced to acknowledge the dark shadows that have haunted them both for years. Can they learn to trust each other, and themselves, to fly in the face of their families’ wishes, or will they choose the solitary futures they always believed they deserve in this unorthodox runaway bride story?

    Find it Locally or on Amazon


    Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Chatelaine First Place Winners!

    Romance Fiction Chatelaine Award

    You can see our Spotlight on the Chatelaine Grand Prize Winners, including Gail Avery Halverson’s incredible book A Sea of Glass here.

    Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    Got a great Fiction Book? The 2024 Chatelaine Book Awards are open through the end of August!

    Blue button that says Enter a Writing Contest
    Submit to the Chatelaine Awards Today!
  • VALENTINE’S DAY SWEET READS with ALL THE LOVES from CHANTICLEER

    VALENTINE’S DAY SWEET READS with ALL THE LOVES from CHANTICLEER

    Books count as safe social distancing

    As we step toward Valentine’s in quarantine, we might be a little further from our loved ones than normal, but hopefully that doesn’t mean we’re further away from love. Just like we can stay in touch with each other in different ways, we can take a moment to appreciate the different types of love we still have access to.

    Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. Like all young men, you greatly exaggerate the difference between one young woman and another…. And the only way to make sure of that is to keep changing the man; for the same man can never keep it up. – George Bernard Shaw

    Now we like Shaw for his obscure connection to our Chatelaine Awards, which you can read about here (the long and short of it is that Shaw based Eliza Doolittle’s character from My Fair Lady off of Jane Morris, the woman, Jane Morris,  in the Chatelaine portrait by Dante Rossetti).

    Anyway, Shaw’s opinion on the ability of men to offer variety aside, did you know the Greeks have seven different names for love? Let’s dive in!

    The Greeks Seven Names for LOVE with Recommended Book Titles from Chanticleerian Authors whose works we love. 

    1) Eros:

    Eros is what we normally think of when we first hear the word love, the romantic and the passionate. Here are some great titles we recommend for the Eros readers out there.

    Heart of a Few by Jon Duncan: It isn’t distance that makes the heart grow fonder in this novel, but the thrill of trying to save the world from fascism in WWII. Here the aristocratic Livy Ashford falls for pilot Jamie Wallace. Like the couple’s passion for each other, the reader’s own delight will draw them through this book in a flash!

     

     

    The Skeptical Physick by Gail Avery Halverson: Fire, plague? Nothing can keep these Simon McKensie and Catherine Abbott apart! Gail Avery Halverson dives deep into the romance and the historical details that inspired the background setting for this whole novel. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Chatelaine Awards

     

    2) Philia:

    Philia is more of the love for our intimates and friends, those who we choose to keep close to us. Titles for the friendly readers out there.

    Victorian Town by Nancy Throne: A Time Traveling young woman finds friendship and joy in the past. Abby Parker never quite felt she belonged at home, but a magic ring that transports her back in time gives her a chance to make real connections and stand out in a time where outspoken women are often pushed to the side. First Place Category Winner in the Dante Rossetti Awards

    Mischief and Mayhem by L.E. Rico: Jameson O’Halloran might be surrounded by steamy looking men, but don’t be fooled. This story focuses most on the ties of family and the family we choose as we move through this veil of tears to live our best life. First Place Category Winner in the Chatelaine Awards

     

    3) Ludus

    Ludus is a close cousin of Eros, the playful, flirtatious love that is a little harder to make work over a Zoom room. For all you sassy flirts, we recommend the following

    Love’s Misadventures by Cheri Champagne: The title says it all as you jump into Miss Anna Bradley’s hurried search for a husband, being in danger of forever living as a spinster at the ripe old age of 25. Written in the tradition of Jane Austen for the modern reader, this novel features debonair gentlemen who can keep their distance and pack a picnic, while delightful friendships make up a wonderful background cast of characters. First Place Category Winner in the Chatelaine Awards

     

    Secrets Revealed by Kate Vale: Sometimes what’s meant to be fun and easy turns into something more, as happens when Owen Haskins and Faith Russell’s initial tense relationship breaks through to romantic as the casual adversaries turn into casual lovers and then maybe more. First Place Category Winner in the Chatelaine Awards

     

    4) Storge

    Storge is the unconditional love that we hope comes from family, chosen or otherwise. These titles are great reads for those who love family connection.

    Promise of Tomorrow by T.K. Conklin: When Shyfawn Tucker’s adventure with her friend Mabel leads to disaster, the two need to figure out how to survive on their own. Meanwhile, Shyfawn’s sister Jo isn’t the type to sit around while her family is kidnapped. A story rich in romance, but that explores the ties that bind family together and what it means to find the best in everyone while still being true to yourself.

    Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes you Knew by Ellen Notbohm: A beautiful book for parents who are struggling to better understand their children. Probably the highlight of the list is 10. “Love me unconditionally.” Don’t base approval on an “if” along with an emphasis on people with autism being whole and not promoting a harmful narrative of fixing people. A thoughtful look at the ways we can unconditionally accept people regardless of difference. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Nonfiction Instructional & Insight Awards

    5) Philautia

    Philautia is probably the most forgotten love we need to try and remember, which is self-love.

    Hard Cider by Barbara Stark-Nemon: After building up a family and life that she can be proud of, Abbie Rose isn’t one to call it quits. She embarks on a totally new career path to keep living life to the fullest and be the truest version of herself that she can be. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Somerset Awards

     

    The Knock by Carolyn Watkins: Sometimes understanding your family’s love means loving yourself when they can’t be there. Carolyn Watkin’s beautiful look at childhood with a deployed parent will tug on your heartstrings. First Place Category Winner in the Little Peeps Awards

    6) Pragma

    Pragma is another good overlapping love that’s usually connect to other loves. This one encompasses committed, companionate love.

    Seize the Flame by Lynda J. Cox: A story of forgiveness and finding a way to love again. Will Drake Adams and Jessie Depre be able to overcome the traumas of their past and their current betrayals to find love together again?

     

    My Sister’s Super Skills by Lauren Mosbeck: Sometimes commitment and love mean helping our family through tough times. Mosbek does an excellent job laying out fun tools to help kids deal with anxiety and depression, especially with the current state of the world. First Place Category Winner in the Little Peeps Awards

    7) Agápe

    Agápe: The last and biggest love that is empathetic and universal love.

    Blossom – The Wild Ambassador of Tewksbury by Anna Carner: The story of how Carner and her husband took a deer into their family and then try to raise awareness to keep her safe. Balanced with reflection of Carner’s own youth, a beautiful reminder that we are all connected with the tone of a nature thriller. First Place Category Winner in the Journey Awards

    The Last Outrageous Woman by Jessica Stone: Sometimes a past lover’s dream can take you places you never dreamed possible. That’s what happens eighty-six-year-old Mattie decides to embark on a worldwide adventure with her best friend Edna and Edna’s niece. It’s a whirlwind of fun where each woman seeks fulfillment in their own way while jumping into an international stage and connecting with the wider world at large.

    Do you have another type of LOVE to add to the list? We do!

    BIBLIOPHILIA – The LOVE of BOOKS

    Are you a Bibliophile?  We are!

    Here are some of Kiffer’s favorite earworms (aka lyrics) concerning love.

    Because all you need is love. Love is all you need. The Beatles

    Love will bring us together.  Captain and Tennille

    Love lifts us up where we belong.  Joe Cocker and Buffy Sainte-Marie

    What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Hal David

    Happy Valentines Day! From all of us Chanticleer Reviews! 


    Love comes in many forms and so do our contests! Submit here! Want to tell us about some of the favorite loves you’ve read? Talk to us on Twitter, Facebook, or join us here on The Roost.

  • LARAMIE Book Awards – SPOTLIGHT Focus on ALL Works of Western Fiction and Uniquely American Tales

    LARAMIE Book Awards – SPOTLIGHT Focus on ALL Works of Western Fiction and Uniquely American Tales

    Welcome to our SPOTLIGHT on LARAMIE Book Awards, the stories that stick!

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction Award

    The Laramie Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the Americana / Western, Pioneer, Civil War, Frontier, and First Nations Novels. The Laramie Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

    Charles M. Russell painted the cowboy scene on Chanticleer’s very own Laramie Book Awards badge. It is one of many such paintings he did that encompassed the Old American Wild West. He was an advocate for the Northern Plains Indians. Charles M. Russell also helped establish a reservation in Montana for the Chippewa people.

    *More interesting facts about Laramie, Wyoming, and its historical icons are immediately after the Laramie Hall of Fame listing below. A fun read! 

    The Laramie Book Awards for American Western Fiction Hall of Fame First Place and Grand Prize winners!


    The 2018 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize:

    Blood Moon: A Captive’s Tale by Ruth Hull Chatlien

    Laramie Book Awards

     2018 Laramie Book Awards for American Western Fiction First in Category Winners

     

     


    The 2017 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize Winning Book also won the OVERALL Prize! Best book of 2017:

    HOUR GLASS by Michelle Rene

    2017 Laramie Book Awards for American Western Fiction First in Category Winners


    The 2016 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize:

    Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch: Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter #1
    by Jacquie Rogers

    2016 Laramie Book Awards for American Western Fiction First in Category Winners

     


    The 2015 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize:

    Widow (formerly known as Doctor Kinney’s Housekeeper) by Sara Dahmen

    2015 Laramie Book Awards for American Western Fiction First in Category Winners

     


    The 2014 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize:

    Not on My Mountain Jared McVay

    Not On My Mountain by Jared McVay

    2014 Laramie Book Awards for American Western Fiction First in Category Winners


    The 2013 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize:

    Unbroken Horses by Dale B. Jackson

    Unbroke Horses clean

    Congratulations to the Laramie Awards 2013 1st Place Category Winners:

    • Mystery:  Double or Nothing by Meg Mims
    • Action/Adventure:  Haunted Falls by Ken Farmer & Buck Stienke
    • Historical Fiction: Because of the Camels by Brenda Blair
    • Civil War:  Ford at Valverde by Anita Melillo
    • Prairie Pioneer:  They Rode Good Horses by Dale B. Jackson
    • Literary Western:  Unbroke Horses by Dale B. Jackson
    • First Novel:  Confessions of  a Gunfighter by Tell Cotten
    • Best Manuscript: Lick Creek by Deborah Lincoln


    HOW DO YOU HAVE YOUR BOOKS COMPETE? Submit them to the Chanticleer International Book Awards –Click here for more information about The CIBAs! 

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction Award

    Want to be a winner next year? The deadline to submit your book for the 2020 Laramie awards is July 31, 2020. Enter here!

    Grand Prize and First Place Winners for 2019 will be announced during our Virtual Conference in early September 2020.

    Any entries received on or after July 31, 2020, will be entered into the 2021 Laramie Book Awards. The Grand Prize and First Place for 2020 CIBA winners will be held on April 17, 2021.

     As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your American Western readers deserve!  Enter today!

    The LARAMIE Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.

    The 2020 winners will be announced at the CIBA  Awards Ceremony, which will take place during the 2020 Live/Online Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Semi-Finalists and First Place category winners will be recognized, the first place winners will be virtually whisked up on “stage” to receive their custom ribbon and wait to see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. Covid19 has made our celebrations a bit different this year, but we still will celebrate!

    Don’t delay! Enter today!  

    As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with questions, concerns, or suggestions at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com

    [20] McDougall, Walt, “Pictures in the Papers,” American Mercury, 6:21 (September 1925), 72.


    What’s a Laramie?

    We thought you’d never ask!

    We titled the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) division for Western American Fiction and all things that gather around the campfire singing a lonesome tune, the Laramie Awards, after the county and city in Wyoming. You know the one, tucked into the lower right-hand corner of the state between the Snowy Mountain Range and the Laramie Mountain Range.

    Yes, but why Laramie? 

    The small outpost was changed almost overnight when the Union Pacific Railroad moved their “Hell on Wheels” tent town from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Laramie after building the rails over the Sherman Summit at an elevation of 8,200 feet all the way to Laramie on May 4, 1868. Lawlessness and the Wild West ruled in Laramie. Luckily, “Hell on Wheels” moved on West as more track was laid down.

    But where did that name Laramie come from? 

    Laramie was named after Jacque LaRamie, a French or French-Canadian trapper who disappeared in the mountain range that was later named for him in the early 1810s. LaRamie was one of the first Europeans to visit the area. Laramie is a French name much like DuBois, Wyoming. And, yes, it is pronounced Doo – Boys (and NOT Du Bwai).

    There are several reasons we chose Laramie for our iconic Americana Book Awards. For us, and those in the know, Laramie, Wyoming immediately calls to mind the image of a Wild West town filled with rough-and-tumble cowboys. At one point, the only law in Laramie was “lawlessness. Wild Bill Hickok was even known to visit from time to time.

    Here’s a picture of the man, himself, on the left with his friends, Texas Jack Omohundro (center), and Buffalo Bill Cody on the right.

    Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch robbed trains and passengers with the first recorded train robbery taking place on June 2, 1899 in Wyoming. Butch was known to be very polite and dislike violence.

    But that’s not the only reason we chose Laramie.

    And, yes, there is yet one more reason we love Laramie! 

    The WOMEN!

    Calamity Jane hails from Laramie, Wyoming – a skilled sharpshooter who was born to a gambler and a prostitute. She cared for her five younger siblings in Utah before traveling on to Wyoming in search of a better life. There she found work as a dance hall girl and then as a prostitute at Fort Laramie. It was there that she reinvented herself by wearing buckskins and dressing like a man. She was also known for her swearing and hard-drinking ways, but Calamity Jane was also known even more for her kind heart and helping folks out of calamities–thus her nickname.

    Calamity Jane — She was the inspiration for Michelle Rene’s HOURGLASS novel.

    While the men were wrestling in the streets and shooting up the place, it was really the women who brought civilization to Laramie and Wyoming Territory. They established the first school in 1869, served on a formal jury in the Spring of 1870,  and were the first to gain the vote; which is exactly what Louisa Swain and 92 of her friends did on September 6, 1870 –150 years ago!

    Louisa Swain, the first woman to cast a ballot and she did it in Laramie, Wyoming!

    Louisa Swain – she was made of stern stuff!

    Early in the morning on September 6, 1870 in Laramie, Wyoming Louisa Swain became the first woman in the world to cast a ballot under democratically enacted laws granting women equal political rights with men. In the fall of 2008, 138 years later, the U.S. Congress passes a resolution proclaiming September 6th as “Louisa Swain Day” in recognition of this historic event.The Louisa Swain Foundation

    In 1870, Esther Hobart Morris (59 years old) became the first female Justice of the Peace. She served in South Pass City, Wyoming, which is to the northwest of Laramie.

    Esther Morris "to pettifoggers she showed no mercy." Wyoming Tribune
    Esther Morris, first female Justice of the Peace — Wyoming

    Esther Morris “to pettifoggers she showed no mercy.” Wyoming Tribune

    The Union’s first all-female jury was assembled in Wyoming in 1870.

    Later, in 1894, Estelle Reel Meyer became Superintendent of Public Instruction, the country’s first female statewide elected official.

    And the grand coup d’etat was when in 1889 when Wyoming vied for statehood—and refused to join the Union if the laws giving equality to women were not upheld, telling Congress (which wanted the suffrage law rescinded) via telegram,

    “We will remain out of the Union 100 years rather than come in without the women.”

    Wyoming is also the first state in the USA to allow women to own property and sign legal documents.

    In 1910, Mary Godat Bellamy became the first woman to be elected to the Wyoming Legislature. Two other western states, Colorado and Idaho, elected women legislators in 1895 and 1899, respectively. Wyoming was third in the nation.

    Quotes are from the Smithsonian Magazine
    Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/women-voting-wyoming-150-years-here-how-state-celebrating-180971263/#6UKzMfMeCQsmbIIQ.99
    Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
    Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

    {https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-laramie-wyoming}