Author: zach-fortier

  • The 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (#CIBAs) Overall Grand Prize and Division Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners | Part One

    The 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (#CIBAs) Overall Grand Prize and Division Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners | Part One

    We are deeply honored and excited to announce the 2020 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). The Finalists were recognized at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Ceremonies, and the First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners were announced June 5th, 2021 by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.

     

    The 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2020  Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony was originally scheduled for April 21 – 25, 2021. Each year, Chanticleerians from around the globe come together to celebrate and cheer each other on at the annual CIBA banquet and awards evening at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether that is situated on beautiful Bellingham Bay, Washington State.

    However, in order to celebrate being  able to meet  in person in even a limited capacity (due to the fact that we all able to be vacinated in time), we postponed the First Place Winner and Grand Prize Ceremonies to June 5th, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether with local Chanticleerians attending cheering each other on along with cheering on the virtual attendees. Champagne was poured and shared as the 2020 CIBA Grand Prize Division Award Winners were announced. After the event the small gathering of Chanticleerians were able to dine together immediately after in the Admiral Room of the Hotel Bellwether.

    CIBA Grand Prize Winners in Before Covid Times

    We’ve now hosted two virtual events and are pivoting to yet another new normal where events will now be expected to be in person and virtual! We were glad to still host VCAC21 on schedule with inimitable presenters like Cathy Ace, J.D. Barker, Bradley Metrock, Dr. Janice Ellis, Jessica Morrell, Paul Hanson, and more! Many of our presenters have already contacted us about the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference currently scheduled for April 7-10, 2022, and we are optimistic that we will be able to host that one in person as vaccinations continue to sweep the US.

    At the June 5th, 2021 Ceremonies, we are excited to recognize the 18 Fiction and 6 Non-Fiction CIBA Divisions for the First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners!

    First of all, we want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 23 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!

    We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increases exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division.

    The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division. You can order promotional stickers and such here

    A Recap of the CIBA Selection Process

    • The 2020 CIBAs have 18 Fiction Divisions and 6 Non-fiction Divisions.
    • First Place Category award winners were selected for each one of the 24 divisions from an overall field of  titles that progressed to the Premier FINALIST Division Level from the Division Semi-Finalists positions from the Shortlists, the Long List, and the infamous beginning slush pile rounds.
    • One Grand Prize award winner was selected from the First Place Category Award Winners for the 23 CIBA divisions.
    • One Overall Grand Prize award winner was selected from the 24 divisions of Grand Prize Award Winners

    All 2020 CIBA FINALISTS  were recognized with their respective division at the CIBA awards ceremony that was held each evening of VCAC21.

    This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for Cygnus, Ozma, Paranormal, Global Thrillers, M&M, Clue, Little Peeps, Gertrude Warner, and Dante Rossetti Book Awards.

    THANK YOU to VCAC21 SPONSORS and FRIENDS

     

    CIBA Grand Prize Ribbons!

    We are honored to present the

    2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards

    Grand Prize Winners 

    The 2020 CIBA Winners! 


    The CYGNUS Book Awards

    for Science Fiction Novels

    Grand Prize Winner is 

    Blue and gold Grand Prize Winner Badge for Cygnus Science Fiction The Luna Missile Crisis by Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle

    THE LUNA MISSILE CRISIS by Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle

    Cover of The Luna Missile Crisis by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle

    • Mark T. Sneed – Bully Nation
    • JL Morin – Loveoid
    • Timothy S. Johnston – The Savage Deeps
    • PA Vasey – Trinity’s Fall
    • Russ Colson – The Arasmith Certainty Principle  
    • Zach Fortier – Volk: Book one of The Overseer series        

     


    The OZMA Book Awards

    for Fantasy Fiction

    Grand Prize Winner is 

    Blue and gold Grand Prize Winner Badge for Ozma Fantasy for Divinity's Twilight: Rebirth by Christopher Russell

    DIVINITY’S TWILIGHT: REBIRTH BY Christopher Russell

    • T. Cook – Shin
    • Michelle Rene – The Canyon Cathedral: The Witches of Tanglewood, Book Two ( YA)
    • Gordon Preston – Zendragon   
    • H.J. Ramsay – Ever Alice    
    • Alison Levy – Gatekeeper: Book One in the Daemon Collecting Series
    • Jeny Heckman –The Warrior’s Progeny          
    • Glenn Searfoss – Cycles of Norse Mythology: Tales of the AEsir Gods   
    • KC Cowan & Sara Cole – Everfire                                

    The Paranormal Book Awards

    for Supernatural Fiction

    Grand Prize Winner is

    Blue and gold Grand Prize Winner Badge for Paranormal Supernatural Fiction Soul Seeker by Kaylin McFarren

    SOUL SEEKER by Kaylin McFarren

    • T. K. Thorne – House of Rose
    • R.B. Woodstone – Chains of Time   
    • Ryan Young – The Shepherd’s Burden    
    • Lydia Staggs – Azrael
    • Franklin Posner – Boston Betty      
    • Meg Evans – Enthrallment
    • Neil Chase – Iron Dogs
    • E. Alan Fleischauer – Just Die

    The GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards

    for High Stakes Thrillers, Lab Lit, and Suspense Novels

    Grand Prize Winner is

    THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER by William Maz

    Cover of William Maz's The Bucharest Dossier, Chanticleer Grand Prize Global Thrillers Winner 2020
    Pub Date: March 15, 2022

    • Randall Krzak –Colombian Betrayal   
    • Matt Andrus – UFO
    • Lynn Yvonne Moon – The Agency – Tablet of Destinies  
    • Avanti Centrae – Kiss of the Cobra – An M2 Action Thriller
    • Rafael Amadeus Hines –Bishop’s Law
    • Erik Foge – One Way Roads     

    Clue Awards for Suspense Thriller Novels

    The CLUE Book Awards

    for Thrillers, Suspense, Legal, Detective, and Procedural Crime Novels

    Grand Prize Winner is 

    Blue and gold Grand Prize Winner Badge for Clue Suspense Thriller A Venomous Love by Chris Karlson

    A VENOMOUS LOVE by Chris Karlsen

    • Toni Bird Jones –The Measure of Ella    
    • Kari Bovee – Folly at the Fair   
    • Ken Farmer – Three Creeks  
    • Shanessa Gluhm – Enemies of Doves    
    • Martin Roy Hill –The Fourth Rising  
    • J.J.  Clarke – Dared to Run     
    • Corey Lynn Fayman – Ballast Point Breakdown    
    • Chuck Morgan – Crime Denied, A Buck Taylor Novel  
    • Theo Czuk – The Black Bottom

    Cozy Mystery Fiction Award

    The M & M Book Awards for Mystery & Mayhem

    for Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries

    Grand Prize Winner is

    Blue and gold Grand Prize Winner Badge for M & M Mystery and Mayhem The Discovery by Patrick M. Garry

    THE DISCOVERY by Patrick M. Garry

    Cover of The Discovery by Patrick M. Garry

    • Lori Roberts Herbst – Suitable for Framing
    • Michelle Cox – A Child Lost
    • Ana T. Drew – The Murderous Macaron
    • Lina Hansen –In My Attic – A Magical Misfits Mystery        
    • Perry Miller – Lethal Injection
    • Tina Sloan – Chasing Cleopatra 

    Early Readers and Picture books

    LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards for

    Early Readers and Picture Books

    Grand Prize Winner is 

    A blue and gold badge for the 2020 Grand Prize Winner for Little Peeps Children’s Books Great as a Button by Masoud Malekyari

    GREAT AS A BUTTON by Masoud Malekyari and Illustrated by Sebastião Peixoto

    Cover for Great as a Button by Masoud Malekyari

    • Ellie Smith – Tex the Explorer Journey Through the Alphabet
    • D.K. Brantley – Every Mummy Has a Mommy             
    • Dr. Justine Green – Completely Me
    • Courtney Shannon Strand – Ella’s Umbrella
    • Lindy Ryan – Trick or Treat, Alistair Gray
    • Johnny Ray Moore –ANTHILL FOR SALE
    • Raven Howell – So You Want a Puppy?
    • PJ McIlvaine – Little Lena and The Big Table 

    Gertrude Warner Children's Chapter Books

    GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards

    for Middle-Grade Books 

    Grand Prize is

    A blue and gold badge for the 2020 Grand Prize Winner for Gertrude Warner Middle Grade Readers Kassy O’Roarke, Cub Reporter by Kelly OliverKASSY O’ROARKE, CUB REPORTER by Kelly Oliver

    Cover of Kassy O'Roarke Cub Reporter by Kelly Oliver

    • Robert C. Feol – A Journey to Mouseling Hollow
    • Catherine Grangaard –A Fairy’s Tails    
    • Poem Schway – The Infinity Pendant
    • Ruthy Ballard – Frankie and the Gift of Fantasy
    • Ben Gartner – The Eye of Ra
    • Jay Spenser – The Barn Owl Mystery
    • Carmela Dutra – Little Katie Goes to the Moon   

    Dante Rossetti Awards for YA Fiction

    The DANTE ROSSETTI Book Awards

    for Young Adult Fiction

    Grand Prize Winner is

    THE BEST WEEK THAT NEVER HAPPENED by Dallas Woodburn

    Cover of The Best Week That Never Happened by Dallas Woodburn

    • Michelle Rene – The Canyon Cathedral: The Witches of Tanglewood,Book Two
    • Sara Hosey –Iphigenia Murphy     
    • Felicia Farber – Ice Queen      
    • Susanne Dunlap – The Paris Affair   
    • Chynna Laird – Just Shut Up and Drive     
    • L.L. Eadie – Yearning for the Unattainable
    • Jodi Lea Stewart – Blackberry Road      
    • Strider S. R. Klusman – Within Reach      
    • Ivy Cayden – Everything All At Once (Book 1, Chorduroys and Too Many Boys™)     

    Congratulations to ALL!

    We will email each winner with more information about their prize packages and more information.

    Be sure to FOLLOW and LIKE us Facebook and on Twitter @ChantiReviews

    Please standby for our next posts that will honor:

    Click here to visit the Second Posting out of Three Official Announcements of the 2020 CIBA Winners.

    Click here to visit the Third Posting out of Three Official Announcements of the 2020 CIBA Winners.

    • Laramie Book Award Winners
    • Chaucer Book Award Winners
    • Goethe Book Award Winners
    • Hemingway Book Award Winners
    • Chatelaine Book Award Winners
    • Mark Twain Book Award Winners
    • Somerset Book Award Winners
    • Journey Book Award Winners
    • Hearten Book Award Winners
    • Harvey Chute Book Award Winners
    • Mind and Spirit Book Award Winners
    • Nellie Bly Book Award Winners
    • Instructional and Insight Book Award Winners
    • Short Story Book Award Winners
    • Book Series Book Award Winners

    And the OVERALL GRAND PRIZE for the 2020 CIBAs!

    We are now accepting entries into the 2021Chanticleer International Book Awards.

    Click here for more information and submission deadlines: https://www.chantireviews.com/contests/

    As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com   We will try to respond within 3 business days.

    Thank you for joining us in celebrating the 2020 CIBA Winners! – The Chanticleer Team

     

  • CYGNUS Book Awards for Science & Speculative Fiction 2020 CIBA Award Winners

    CYGNUS Book Awards for Science & Speculative Fiction 2020 CIBA Award Winners

    Cygnus Award for Science FictionThe Cygnus Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Alternative History, and Speculative Fiction. The Cygnus Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

    Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring space, time travel, life on other planets, parallel universes, alternate reality, and all the science, technology, major social or environmental changes of the future that author imaginations can dream up for the CYGNUS Book Awards division. Hard Science Fiction, Soft Science Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Cyberpunk, Time Travel, Genetic Modification, Aliens, Super Humans, Interplanetary Travel, and Settlers on the Galactic Frontier, Dystopian. These books have advanced to the Premier Level of Achievement in the 2020 CIBAs.

    The 2020 CYGNUS Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the CYGNUS Grand Prize Winner were announced by David Beaumier on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar and Facebook Live.

    It is our privilege and profound honor to announce the 1st in Category winners of the 2020 CYGNUS Awards, a division of the 2020 CIBAs.

    This is the OFFICIAL 2020 LIST of the CYGNUS BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the CYGNUS Grand Prize Winner.

    Congratulations to all!

    • Mark T. Sneed – Bully Nation
    • JL Morin – Loveoid
    • Timothy S. Johnston – The Savage Deeps
    • PA Vasey – Trinity’s Fall
    • Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle – The Luna Missile Crisis  
    • Russ Colson – The Arasmith Certainty Principle      
    • Zach Fortier – Volk: Book one of The Overseer series

    The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2020 CYGNUS Awards is:

    Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle for

    The Luna Missile Crisis

    Cover of The Luna Missile Crisis by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle

    The 2021 CYGNUS Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC22 on April 10, 2022. Save the date for CAC22, scheduled April 7-10, 2022, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

    Submissions for the 2022 CYGNUS Book Awards are open until the end of April. Enter here!

    Don’t delay! Enter today! 

    A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in July. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

    • CLUE AWARDS – Police Procedurals, Hard-Boiled Detectives, Thriller/Suspense/Mystery – in the SPOTLIGHT – CIBAS

      CLUE AWARDS – Police Procedurals, Hard-Boiled Detectives, Thriller/Suspense/Mystery – in the SPOTLIGHT – CIBAS

      So, how do you get a clue? 

      A hard-boiled detective pulls his overcoat a little closer, leans against the northern wall at Village Books in downtown Bellingham. Washington. The state.

      It’s late. It’s raining. It’s a typical Autumn night in the Pacific Northwest. So, what makes this night different than any other night?

      Glad you asked.

      Our gumshoe is hot on the trail of those killer stories that make you turn the page. You know the kind, police procedurals, good-man-gone-wrong tales, the who-dun-its and the why-didn’t-I-see-that-coming books that leave you breathless, reaching for the Alka-Seltzer or the next book in the series.

      Our gumshoe is nervous, see? He knows there’s more to discover out there, winners, maybe, that are just waiting to be discovered. That’s why he’s standing there, waiting. Oh, just a second… he’s gone now… Guess he got tired of waiting in the rain.

      But he left a message…

      “Get your manuscripts and novels ready, because the deadline to the 2019 CLUE Awards is coming before you know it. Submit your books and manuscripts to the best book awards on the planet by September 30, 2019, if you know what’s good for you.” 

      That was short and sweet. What are you waiting for?

      Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the very best books dealing with Detectives, P.I.s, Noir – stories that build suspense
      and pay off in spades. 

      The deadline for the 2019 CIBA CLUE Awards is September 30, 2019.

      Submit your work today right here.

       


      We thought you might enjoy some of our past winners…

      2018 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Timothy Burgess for California Son

      2018 1st Place Category Winners:  (Book reviews are slated for the ones without links). 

      • The Only One Left by Pamela Beason
      • Facing The Dragon by Philip Derrick
      • Forgotten Rage by Melodie Hernandez
      • Do Not Ask by Elaine Williams Crockett
      • Scare Away the Dark: A Stone Suspense by Karen Dodd
      • The Blind Pool by Paul McHugh
      • Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew

      2017 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Kaylin McFarren for Twisted Threads

      2017 1st Place Category Winners: (Book reviews are slated for the ones without links). 


      2016 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Keith Tittle for A Matter of Justice

      2016 1st Place Category Winners:


      2015 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Lonna Enox for Blood Relations

      Blood Relations by Lonna Enox

      2015 1st Place Category Winners:


      2014 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Rachel B. Ledge for The Red Ribbon

      The Red Ribbon by Rachel B. Ledge

      2014 1st Place Category Winners:


      Who is going to take home the Grand Prize for the 2019 CLUE Awards? It could be you! 

       

      The deadline is fast approaching!

      Submit your work today right here.

    • CURBCHEK RELOAD by Zach Fortier – True Crime/Police Memoir

      CURBCHEK RELOAD by Zach Fortier – True Crime/Police Memoir

      Interspersed with surprising moments of dark humor, fervent police pranks, and told with unchecked language, CurbChek-Reload by Zach Fortier is an expose’ of the challenging and graphically violent situations that are reflections of his day-to-day experiences of his thirty-year career as a city police officer.

      Fortier’s CurbChek-Reload is the third installment of his true-crime trilogy, The Curbchek Collection and takes readers on another ride through the arduous physical and emotional tribulations he experienced as a veteran police officer.

      Fortier does not temper his prose when he describes the depth of indifference, cruelty, malice, and depravity people inflict upon themselves, their loved ones, or someone in the wrong place at the wrong time without regard to the consequences of all involved.

      From the first sentence, the reader is positioned as a civilian who desires to witness the real underbelly of the mean streets and rides along in the patrol car. Fortier, who professes he hates ride along’s, recounts each story to you without emotion and in straightforward, curt exposition as if you’re watching over his shoulder. He articulates the benefits, downsides, and hazards of working the night shift, day shift, and with a four-legged partner armed with razor sharp teeth and a nasty independent streak.

      The stories take place in an undefined location called Central City and do not have a time sequence. The book is somewhat of a hybrid as it does not follow the usual conventions of true crime or memoir and contains some minor craft issues. However, it shines in its representation of the hazardous and complex challenges faced by the police. Fortier admits that if the public actually knew how thinly spread the police department was at times (six officers for an entire city), there would have been absolute panic.

      Fortier’s attitudes concerning some members of an apathetic society, duplicitous city leaders, inept police department management, and other officers are quite telling. He calls the people who drive into the city each morning to work Daywalkers.

      Conversely, Fortier provides examples where he relied upon his ability to communicate to de-escalate dangerous situations such as domestic disturbances, suicidal gestures or attempts, a potential melee, insatiable drug abusers, and so on.

      There is no overall plot or chronological framework to this story; rather, it’s a collection of episodic scenes without a story arc that occurred during the author’s law enforcement career. The writing style contains gives the impression this book is a transcription of the author’s recorded recollections of some of his intense situations that he experienced in his thirty-year career as a policeman.

      Nevertheless, as written, this collection contains some indomitable, funny, freakish, sad, outlandish, and bizarre accounts that vividly reflects one police officer’s complex experiences that occur all in his line of duty to protect and to serve.