Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Chanticleer Author Conference

The CAC25 and the CIBA Awards— An Incredible Weekend with Authors from Around the World!

Whew! It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but so, so wonderful!

The 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25) and International Book Awards’ (CIBA) banquet and ceremony was a great success, with authors from around the world joining us
to network, learn, and celebrate the best books of the year!

CAC25 brings together writers at all levels in their careers to Bellingham, WA each year for four days of Masterclasses, workshops, sessions, and panel discussions. Writers from as far away as Cape Town, South Africa, Sydney, Australia, Mumbai, India, NYC, London, and across North America along locals from our fair city and the PNW who joined us for a beautiful weekend at the Bellingham Yacht Club on Bellingham Bay. We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend—cool sea breezes and warm sunshine made the perfect backdrop to this amazing annual event that culminated with special Chanticleer author events at Village Books, Fairhaven on Sunday.

J.D. Barker, J.W. Donaley, Paul Hanson at a panel discussions called “Changes in the World of Publishing and Content”

A Steller Lineup of Presenters at this Sold Out Event!

The event started with Book Doctor, Senior Editor, and Dialog Expert Christine Fairchild teaching her masterclass on craft, and international bestselling author J.D. Barker and Chanticleer’s own tech guru Andy Brown sharing their knowledge on the ever-changing book marketing landscape in their masterclass “Digital Marketing & Alphabet Soup.”

The next two days were filled with more learning opportunities where CAC authors had the opportunity to learn from experts and specialists such as Damian Fozard, Diane Garland, Tim Facciola, Glen Dahlgren, and Reenita Hora, who generously shared their knowledge and the stories that inspire all weekend. Twenty publishing professionals presented in forty different workshops, panels, and sessions, covering topics as diverse as writing craft, marketing, legal issues, and technology, with a special classes on AI and its effects on the publishing industry.

Award-winning author and screenwriter Kim Hornsby was our Friday keynote speaker, providing us with stories from her path to success on bookshelves and in Hollywood. It was a speech filled with twist, turns, and an abundance of inspiration!

Bestselling International author J.D. Barker is interviewed by Sr. Editor John DeDakis at the Chanticleer Authors Conference 2025.

J.D. Barker delivered the keynote address on Saturday to a packed house of aspiring authors. As the author of an ever-growing list of spine-tingling thrillers, including several co-authored books with James Patterson and praise from the master of horror Stephen King, he kept all of us on the edge of our seats as he explained the innovative, out-of-the-box thinking that has helped him become one of the most successful Indie authors publishing today!

This year we enjoyed a special treat when J.D. Barker sat down for an interview with John DeDakis, former Sr. Editor for the Emmy and Peabody award-winning CNN news program The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Questions ranged from exploring his background writing for a pop culture magazine in the 90s where he received advice from none other than the artist Madonna, to his inventive approach to promote his latest release, Something I Keep Upstairs.

2024 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Grand Prize Winners

The Chanticleer International Book Awards

The annual CIBA banquet and awards ceremony was a highlight of the conference! Authors from around the world came together to celebrate this year’s best books, with many of the attendees taking home First Place and Grand Prize ribbons. This year’s overall Grand Prize winner was Reenita Malhotra Hora for her novel Vermilion Harvest.

This year was especially fun because we added two new categories to our list of, now, twenty-eight award divisions!

The Fiction and Non-fiction Cover Design awards were a real treat for our judges. The covers represented a broad range of the best cover art we’ve seen throughout the year. It was stiff competition, as so many represented their novels with intriguing images that proved a picture can paint a thousand words.

Looking forward to another year of great books!

Now we all have another year of writing to look forward to, now smarter and recharged by the inspiration and knowledge gained at the Chanticleer Authors Conference. We also have new friendships to grow. That is one of the best things that I take away from the conference. The encouragement, support, and friendship of fellow authors who so generously give their time to help others and value the shared experience of this crazy, sometimes difficult, always inspired world of writing and publishing!

Now it’s time to turn our attention to the 2026 CAC and CIBA Awards!

Thank You to Everyone Who Helped
Make CAC25 an Amazing Success!

April 17, 2025
From the Newsroom to the Bestseller List – John DeDakis path from editor to author

Breaking News!

Writing coach, editor, and award-winning author John DeDakis brings his storytelling and editing know-how to CAC2025!

While telling a story is a feat that belongs to the creative mind, an editor relies on both his creative mind and his logical mind to shape a story. Finding strong and vulnerable points in a story isn’t always an easy job, especially when a deadline looms over your head, but when your career has taken you into a busy newsroom like Sr. Editor John DeDakis, you’ll find your story elevated to its highest level in no time at all!

The Path to Network Newsrooms

John DeDakis knows a lot about shaping a story into its finest form. He began his writing career in 1969 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, covering the 1970 anti-Vietnam war riot as a journalist for his campus radio station. He went on to receive his Bachelors of Arts in Journalism, then joined the U.S. Army as a Special Events Reporter at The American Forces Network in Europe where, from 1972-74, he had the opportunity to interview many notable people, including legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock.

DeDakis’s career in news reporting continued after his service when he became a reporter for a local NBC affiliate station in Madison, Wisconsin. That move led to the position of General Assignment Correspondent with CBN News in Virginia, and, eventually to his role as CBN’s White House Correspondent during the last three years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency from 1983 to 1988. Through that position he interviewed two Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Into the Editing Room and Onto the Bookshelves

In 1988, DeDakis took his skills to CNN for a 25-year stint as first a writer, then as the writing supervisor of CNN’s “Daybreak.” He also provided copy edits for the network’s major anchors and became the Senior Copy Editor for the Emmy and Peabody-Award winning news program “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

DeDakis hasn’t slowed down since leaving the business of broadcast news. Instead, he transitioned into a career as a novelist and turned his attention full time to creating high-intensity thrillers with his indomitable character Lark Chadwick. Introduced in his debut novel, Fast Track, she is the title character in the Lark Chadwick Mystery series that includes six books and counting.

A Beacon of the Writing Community

With a desire to share his knowledge and experience with other writers, DeDakis has become an invaluable asset to the greater writing community. His writing coach and editing services, his journalism and creative writing workshops, and his podcast offer advice for authors and journalists as they strive to elevate their own writing with the skills DeDakis learned over the course of his career.

DeDakis has racked up a long list of achievements since becoming a published author. He served as the Writer in Residence at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, taught university level writing courses, and was a guest lecturer at American University in Washington, D.C., joining an illustrious list of guest speakers that includes legendary White House Correspondent Helen Thomas and Bob Schieffer of CBS News.

Whether he is editing a news story or he’s making news with his growing list of thrillers, John DeDakis is dedicated to bringing clear and concise writing to his fans. Through his training at the news desk, he’s honed his editing skills to a fine point and gained an intuitive sense of how to tell a story that’s as compelling as any news flash you’ll find on the nightly news.

Chanticleer is excited that the accomplished novelist, journalist and editor, John DeDakis, will be joining us this year at CAC2025!

Chanticleer is thrilled to host John DeDakis at 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, coach, editor, and podcaster John DeDakis!

Register now! Space is limited!

Follow this link to reserve your spot at this special event!

March 24, 2025
Building Worlds and Inspiring Writers – Tim Facciola’s Rise to CIBA Grand Prize Winner

Like the Colossus of Rhodes, Tim Facciola has his feet solidly set in two different lands.

In one, he is the creator of heroes. In the other, he is the 2024 CIBA Overall Grand Prize winner for his novel, Scales of Balance, the first in the Vengeful Realm trilogy.

Facciola doesn’t come unarmed to this dual role. In his fantasy series, his hero, Zephyrus, exhibits the same determination Facciola has shown on his journey to becoming an award-winning author, putting skills that are both innate and earned into his epic tale based on Roman gladiators.

Creating Real and Fictional Worlds

Writing wasn’t always Facciola’s calling, but his story has always been waiting to be told, in both his ability to write and in his interest in ancient worlds. His varied background includes being a lyricist in a punk rock band, and an expert in the art of hand-to-hand combat and ancient weaponry. In The Scales of Balance, Book One of the Vengeful Realm trilogy, Facciola brings all the grit and raw emotion of punk to a fight where his hero relies on the author’s real-world experience with weapons to win his freedom.

Creating worlds seems like something of magic, but an immense amount of work goes into such a complex world. Facciola, an admitted “heavy, heavy plotter,” spent years developing his story and understanding his characters. He starts with the places, things, and social systems that make up his imaginary world. Next, he makes decisions about the magical rules and historic context. After that, he moves onto conjuring up the cast of characters, always very conscious that to give them life, the reader must experience a fulfilling arc. As he approaches the end of his plotting exercise, Facciola chooses archetypes of the story. This involves considering the motivations and psychological characteristics for each character, and how they will interact with their fellow creatures within the story. Finally, he ponders the thematic thread he wishes to weave through his story and the intense emotional load that an epic based on Roman history should receive.

This rich storytelling is on full display, not only in the entire Vengeful Realm series, but in the dark prequel, Ghosts of Rheynia, a Shelly Finalist!

The Award-Winner Emerges

But Facciola’s business talent has also created a world of his own in the publishing arena. Last year at the 2023 CIBA awards, Facciola’s Scales of Balance won the Grand Prize award in the Ozma Division and received the prize for Overall Grand Prize for “Best Book of the Year.” When he took the stage that night, he told of his journey to becoming a published author. As many of our authors know, that story is one of highs and lows, victories and setbacks. Ultimately, it’s a tale of a literary endurance; a warrior reaching a goal that had at one time seemed distant.

A Champion Returns

This year at CAC25, Facciola returns in another role—one of mentor. The wise person who has traveled the same road before others and now shares his knowledge with those coming behind him. He has become a writing coach, helping other writers hone their stories to get them ready for publishing. He also continues to feed his passion for training with maces, clubs, staves, and swords, and when he isn’t writing he’s out in the wild where he hikes, paddleboards, and spends time daydreaming of other worlds.

Chanticleer is very excited to have Timothy Facciola join us again at the Chanticleer Authors Conference!

Chanticleer is thrilled to bring Tim Facciola 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
award-winning author Tim Facciola!

Register now! Space is limited!

Follow this link to reserve your spot at this special event!

March 20, 2025
Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25) is Almost Sold Out!
There’s still time to Register for the Chanticleer Authors Conference!

First, we want to take a moment to congratulate all our Finalists again! You can find the full lists of Finalists in each division below!
- Finalists for Fiction
- Finalists for Non-Fiction
- Finalists for Shorts and Series
- CCDA Finalists for Fiction and for Non-Fiction
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!

What to Expect at CAC25!

Publishing as the Hub of Technology

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.

Register today!

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.

www.KimHornsby.info

See the full list of faculty here!

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.

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!

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
March 19, 2025
Authenticity Reigns Supreme – Reenita Malhotra Hora’s Dedication to Telling South Asian Stories

When Reenita Malhotra Hora taps that first keystroke at the start of her next book she’s not looking to soften the truth to match what the public believes.

Her mission is to bust stereotypes and celebrate authenticity.

Telling the South Asian Story

Born in India, a country whose motto is “Truth Alone Triumphs,” Malhotra Hora is dedicated to the idea that authenticity is key when it comes to telling the stories of the South Asian people. Her writing doesn’t rely on tales of flashy Bollywood-style weddings and great food to lure readers in. Instead, her stories reflect the lives of everyday people living in a land that is as colorful and varied as the beautiful saris worn by its women.

Throughout her childhood Malhotra Hora heard the stories of India’s past from her grandfather and discussed the writings of Plato and Aristotle with her father, an avid follower of Greek philosophy. This informal education in history and ethics informed her writing when she eventually moved to the United States where she achieved career success in the world of business and journalism. She has since produced content for Bloomberg and other corporate entities and her writing has been published by major media companies like The Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, The New York Times, South China Morning Post, CNN, among others.

Breaking Out on a New Path

In 2021, during the height of the COVID pandemic, Malhotra Hora took a leap of faith with her writing and left her very successful career in business to turn her full attention to telling stories that represented her upbringing, her place of birth, and the people who influenced her throughout her life. It was a frighteningly big step to take, leaving a well-cultivated and prosperous career to lean into the creative world of fiction, but that did not deter Malhotra Hora. Her commitment to portraying her culture, with all its beautiful complexity, drove her onward. Today, she has authored nine books, comprising both non-fiction and fiction works.

Malhotra Hora’s first book, Operation Mom, is a young adult tale about a teen girl’s quest to simultaneously find the super star she has a crush on and a new romance for her overly-attentive mother. It’s a delightfully, humorous story with lovable characters and laugh-out-loud situations. It proved to be a great start to a literary career that has earned her well-deserved praise and eventually the reputation of being the South Asian ‘Nora Ephron.’

With a style that sizzles with great characters and scenarios, Malhotra Hora’s fiction is funny and compelling. She continues to unapologetically pursue her conviction to portray her characters with unbridled authenticity, and her stories beat with the heart of a vibrant culture. She strives to represent truth as she captures the essence of the South Asian spirit in children’s stories (When Ayra Fell Through the Fault), young adult tales (Operation Mom), novels (Vermilion Harvest), and nonfiction books (Ayurveda: A Holistic Approach to Health) where she shares wellness advice focused on the Hindu traditions of the Ayurveda philosophy.

An Ambassador of Truth

Regardless of being thousands of miles from India, its spirit continues to live on through Malhotra Hora’s writing. It’s taken her around the world and won multiple awards and accolades, including the Chanticleer International Book Award in the Chatelaine division for romance.

To Reenita Malhotra Hora it is clear that representing her South Asian culture in its truest form connects with people around the world. It’s a natural extension of the commitment she continues to carry that always puts authenticity first in her writing.

Chanticleer is thrilled to bring Reenita Malhotra Hora 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 podcaster Reenita Malhotra Hora!

Register now! Space is limited!

Follow this link to reserve your spot at this special event!

March 14, 2025
Diving Into New Adventures in Writing – Kim Hornsby’s path to becoming an award-winning screenwriter

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.

Sharing Her Specialized Knowledge with Authors

After years of focusing on her own work, Kim Hornsby is now sharing the knowledge she’s gained with other authors through two writing advice books, Book to Screenplay – Writing the Adaptation: A Guide for Beginner Screenwriters and Christmas in Whistler/Slippery Slope Christmas – Novel and Script: The Adaptation of Book to Screenplay. Both provide valuable information, with the former offering a comparison of her novella with the screenplay that was based on the book, along with explanations of how the story evolved to be more cinematic.

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!

Register now! Space is limited!

Follow this link to reserve your spot at this special event!

March 7, 2025
The Doctor Is In – Christine Fairchild’s Craft Skills are coming to CAC25

Most authors know that editing means getting out your literary scalpel and finding those things that drag a story down. For a former journalist and current book doctor like Christine Fairchild, the search for what works and what doesn’t is just the kind of operation she loves.

Christine Fairchild always had a love of storytelling. As a young reader, she gravitated toward stories about animals—Black Beauty and Where the Red Fern Grows were favorites. When she saw the fascination and rapt attention of her fellow 3rd grade classmates when reading her own essays, she knew she had a gift. Innately, she understood story structure, how to build invisible worlds, what makes a character compelling (especially animal characters), and the power of the imagination.

The moniker of “storyteller” followed her through her school years and into a journalism program, earning a B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley—the top English department in the US at that time. After graduating, she worked as a professional copyeditor, speechwriter and freelance reporter, honing her skills at dissecting a written work to make the story pop and the information clear. Fairchild has served as writer and editor for publications like XFiles and SciFiMall.com, and has provided executive communications, marketing, branding, and press releases for corporate giants, like Microsoft, AT&T, and DHL. This professional environment gave her an understanding of the psychology of language and communications design with a focus on women consumer behavior and trends, adding more specialized tools to use when operating on her next writing assignment.

The Doctor is Calling

Fairchild’s various roles with high-profile clients informed her writing style and her tactical editing approach, giving her the sharp edge to refine a story and elevate it for her readers. With the skill of a surgeon, she looks for those problems that can muddy the text and slow down the reader when she puts a novel under the microscope to find those areas that need to be cured or cut from a story to get it to its most healthy state.

With these skills, Fairchild has grown her reputation as a bona fide “Book Doctor” and claimed her place in the literary world helping authors fine-tune their work to prepare it for publication. Her The Editor Devil’s Guide to CHARACTERS and The Editor Devil’s Guide to DIALOGUE gives writers a look inside her medicine bag where they learn the lessons she learned over the entirety of her professional writing career so they can become their own literary surgeons. Today, you can find Christine Fairchild sharing her knowledge with other writers by teaching classes and leading workshops on how they can become better editors of their own work and giving them an inside peak at the surgical equipment that has shaped her multifaceted career.

Chanticleer is proud to host Christine Fairchild at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC) and the International Book Awards (CIBA) on April 3-6, 2025, where she will be giving a Masterclass that will guide authors in their quest to elevate their novels.

Don’t miss out on this chance to learn from Christine Fairchild, the “Book Doctor!”

Registration for Christine’s Master Class only on Thursday is available – Limited Seating

Discounted Seats available for those who have registered for CAC 25.

Register now! Space is limited!

Follow this link to reserve your spot at this special event!

March 3, 2025
Monsters in the Closet, Thrills on the Page – Bestselling Author J.D. Barker is coming to CAC25!

As a boy, J.D. Barker was drawn to the shadows. He imagined monsters in his closet and wrote stories about the witches and ghosts he was certain lived in the woods outside his home. His active imagination kept him awake at night—it also turned him into a New York Times and international best-selling author.

Today, the award-winning author has an ever-growing list of spine-tingling thrillers, including several co-authored books with James Patterson and praise from the master of horror, Stephen King.

Barker’s work encompasses elements from several genres, presenting them in what has been broadly described as suspense thrillers. Horror, crime, mystery, science fiction, and the supernatural all have a role to play in his books, bringing the same level of intensity his mentors incorporate into their novels. The monsters that scared him as a child are now captured in the pages of his stories.

A Young Author Drawn to the Shadows

Mysteries were the first to grab Barker’s attention, reading the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series as a child, but eventually he moved onto the classics and found his home in the works of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and Edgar Allen Poe. Soon, he was writing his own stories, exploring the depths of his fear and producing tales of the monsters he imagined were living under his bed.

The literary life continued to call for Barker, even after receiving a business degree. When an article he wrote for a college assignment ended up in the hands of Paul Gallotta from the pop culture magazine, The Circus, he was invited to join the staff of 25th Parallel Magazine, an American lifestyle periodical. This unexpected path led him to interview celebrities for popular magazines, such as Seventeen, TeenBeat, and other national and local publications, and it wasn’t long before he had his own syndicated newspaper column called Revealed which centered around the investigation of haunted places and supernatural occurrences.

These early endeavors served as a crash course in writing, and he began working as a book doctor and ghostwriter, helping others fine tune their writing and readying it for publication. The experience proved invaluable. It taught him what works and what doesn’t in today’s popular fiction, and it led to his first venture into writing a novel of his own.

Tapping Into the Mind of the Masters of Horror

Forsaken, Barker’s first novel, was independently published in late 2014. Incorporating horror master Stephen King’s character Leland Gaunt from Needful Things offered Barker the opportunity to get his novel in front of King who granted Barker permission to utilize the character in the novel. The book went on to hit several major milestones. It landed the #2 spot on Audible (Harper Lee with Go Set a Watchman held #1), #44 on Amazon U.S., #2 on Amazon Canada, and #22 on Amazon UK. Forsaken was also nominated for a Bram Stoker Award (Best Debut Novel) and won a handful of other awards, including a New Apple Medalist Award. Soon Bram Stoker’s family reached out to Barker and asked him to co-author a prequel to Dracula utilizing the original notes and journals from Stoker’s own archives, much of which has never been made public. The novel, titled Dracul, sold at auction to G.P. Putnam & Sons, with film rights going to Paramount.

The success of his first novels drew the attention of traditional agents and publishers and in early 2016 his debut thriller, The Fourth Monkey, sold in a series of pre-empts and auctions worldwide, with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt set to publish it in the U.S. and HarperCollins in the UK. The book has also sold for both film and television. Barker has since gone on to write numerous titles which have appeared on bestseller lists around the world and is a frequent collaborator 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.

From a child afraid of monsters, to an author who creates them, J.D. Barker has thrived on writing stories that thrill, excite, and scare people who love those mysterious bumps in the night. It’s a full circle journey that has given him a career that continues to thrill his international fanbase.

Chanticleer is proud to present J.D. Barker at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC) and the International Book Awards (CIBA) on April 3-6, 2025,

where he will be sharing his expertise in book promotion, digital marketing, and the upcoming changes in the publishing industry!

Don’t miss out on this chance to learn from one of the literary world’s bestselling authors!

Register now! Space is limited!

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February 27, 2025
Spotlight on Jayne Entwistle – Award-winning Audiobook Narrator and Actress

JAYNE ENTWISTLE – Award-winning Audiobook Narrator and Actress

Jayne Entwistle is an award-winning audiobook narrator known most notably for her narration of the Flavia De Luce series by Alan Bradley. She has received the Odyssey Award, Odyssey Honor Award and Voice Arts Award for narration. In addition to several Earphones Awards, AudioFile Magazine has included her narration on their list of Best Audiobooks of the Year. When not immersed in books, Jayne can be found on-screen in television programs such as: The Good Place, Grey’s Anatomy, Winning Time, and You’re the Worst. Originally from the north of England, Jayne currently lives in the PNW.

Jayne will present: How a Narrator Brings Your Words to Life

Behind the mic with award-winning audiobook narrator Jayne Entwistle. What goes into recording an audiobook? From receiving the manuscript to uploading finished audio files, Jayne will outline the process of creating an audiobook and how instrumental authors can be in that process. From hours of pain-staking research to decisions about accents and character’s vocal traits to the myriad ways a line can be read, get a glimpse into how a narrator brings your words to life. Q&A will be included.

She will also participate in panels.

Still thinking about Registering for the Chanticleer Authors Conference?

Register Today!

We have a stellar line up of speakers for CAC24, with multiple options to attend.

Find out why The 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.

April 6, 2024
Spotlight on Nicole Persun – Award Winning and Bestselling Author and Creative Writing Instructor

NICOLE J. PERSUN – Award Winning and Bestselling Author and Creative Writing Instructor

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. Her most recent novel, Halfway to You, was an Amazon First Reads selection in March 2023. Learn more at nicolejpersun.com. Discover her recent novels at jennifergoldauthor.com.

Still thinking about Registering for the Chanticleer Authors Conference?

Register Today!

We have a stellar line up of speakers for CAC24, with multiple options to attend.

Find out why The 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.

April 6, 2024