Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: CAC

The 2024 Hemingway Hall of Fame for 20th and 21st Century Wartime Fiction

The Past Always Impacts the Present

Enter by October 31 to be considered for the 2024 Hemingway Book Awards for Wartime Fiction!

Wartime Fiction set in the twentieth century asks us to reflect most keenly on the most difficult times in our recent history. At Chanticleer, we are here to face war time history with the Hemingway Awards in Historical Fiction; Romance and Romantic Fiction; Mysteries, Thrillers, and Suspense Fiction of the time; Literary works and Satire and anything else that author imaginations can dream up.

To read more about Ernest Hemingway, please click here.

Please note that fictional accounts of the United States Civil War should be submitted to the Laramie Book Awards for Americana Fiction. It is sobering to note that more human life was lost in the Civil War than in ALL of the wars, battles, and skirmishes that the U.S. has participated in added together. Civil wars are considered to be the most deadly of all wars.

Historical Book Awards here at Chanticleer Reviews and the CIBAS.

The CIBAs started with one historical fiction division, The Chaucer Book Awards, which split off the Goethe Book Awards for post-1750s historical fiction. Then the Goethe Book Awards split off a new division, the Hemingway Book Awards for Wartime Fiction.

The Hemingway Awards might be young, but we already have Four Amazing Grand Prize Winners to share with you!

The Silver Waterfall: A Novel of the Battle of Midway
By Kevin Miller

In The Silver Waterfall, author retired U.S. Navy Captain Kevin Miller reveals the intricate and deadly turns of the Battle of Midway, a combat shaped by transforming warfare, and one that would in turn shape the rest of WWII’s Pacific Theater.

After their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy seeks to draw American aircraft carriers into an ambush, to secure Japanese power over the Pacific. In a time of great upheaval for warfare technology, aircraft carriers dominated both sea and sky. So, to destroy the USS Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet, Chūichi Nagumo— commander of the Japanese First Air Fleet— brings to bear his own four carriers, HIJMS Akagi, Hiryū, Kaga, and Soryu.

But the Americans had cracked the Japanese communication codes, so as the First Air Fleet launches their provoking attack against the Midway Islands, the American carriers are already steaming into position. From June 4^th to June 6^th of 1942, planes filled the skies above the remote Pacific waters, both American and Japanese pilots dashing back and forth, knowing that either they sink the enemy’s carriers, or they’ll have none of their own to return to.

Read More Here

RUNNING WITH CANNIBALS
By Robert W. Smith

Robert W. Smith tells the story of a forgotten war and the fractured peace that follows in his powerful historical fiction novel, Running with Cannibals.

It has been said that “War is hell.” It has also been opined that “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” Running with Cannibals is a no-holds-barred, candid portrayal of a war that is glossed over in U.S. history, the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902. It was the first war fought overseas by the U.S.

Running with Cannibals begins with an unnamed man on the run from an unjust accusation bought with blood and money.

Read more here!

EO-N
By Dave Mason

A young boy in Norway makes a discovery while playing with his dog, opening the mystery of EO-N by Dave Mason, a detective story spanning multiple decades and both sides of the Atlantic, a deep dive into the horrors of Nazi Germany, and a heartfelt love story.

A small metal fragment leads to the discovery of a downed WWII twin-engine Mosquito fighter-bomber hidden in snow and glacial ice for nearly 75 years. The crash site yields an initial set of clues, one of which finds its way across the world to Alison Wiley, a biotech CEO in Seattle. Having recently lost her mother, and, a few years earlier, her brother in Afghanistan, she finds her days full of despair, but the discovery makes a distant connection to her long-lost grandfather, and she flies to Norway. There, she meets Scott Wilcox, a Canadian researcher assigned to investigate the discovery after his government learned that the crashed aircraft belonged to the Royal Canadian Air Force. Their attraction is both intellectual and emotional, but the quest to uncover the plane’s mysteries and the fate of Alison’s grandfather place any romance to the side.

At first, the crash doesn’t appear exceptional, until certain contradictory and confusing clues emerge that make it clear that the circumstances that led to the plane’s fate were anything but simple.

Read more here!

THE QUISLING FACTOR
By J. L. Oakley

During World War II “quisling” became a byword for a particular type of traitor, one who not only betrays their own country but also actively collaborates with the invaders. The origin of the term was taken from an actual person, a Norwegian named Vidkun Quisling, who didn’t merely cooperate with the Nazis but actually headed a collaborationist regime in his own country.

The Quisling Factor takes place in the immediate post-war period, as the Nuremberg Trials are gearing up in Germany. Norway is conducting its own post-war legal purge of collaborators at all levels of government.

The story is a direct follow-up to the author’s award-winning World War II novel, The Jøssing Affair. This second novel focuses on the physical and emotional toll of war, and its precarious weight of peace on the survivors.

Read more here!

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Hemingway Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

You know you want it…

Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Reach out with your news to info@ChantiReviews.com

October 29, 2024
Building Frankenstein’s Monster: Creating Characters That Move Your Readers

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Writers of every genre all face the challenge of creating meaningful, memorable characters that are fully fleshed out and believable. It’s a feat of magic that, if done right, creates the kind of characters that readers connect with and may even glance something they recognize within themselves.

Get out your scalpels my writing friends, because today we’re going to dissect how to create a great character!

When a writer sets out to create a memorable character they assume the role of a mad scientist, taking pieces of a person’s physical, intellectual, and emotional self and mixing them together to create their version of the type of person they need for their plot. It’s a delicate procedure of hitting the right mark, without going over the top or leaving them flat and uninteresting. If done right, a writer can create an unbreakable link between their characters and the reader, regardless of whether it’s a human, animal, or even a monster!

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a great example of this. The plot’s profound exploration of human nature, ethics, and the consequences of scientific ambition makes for fertile ground for showing the complexities of her realistic and fantastical characters. The sympathy Shelley is able to elicit from the reader for her “Monster” makes the novel resonate with readers across all boundaries and offers rich lessons for writers looking to craft their own unforgettable personas.

Here’s a deep dive into how Shelley developed her characters and what we can learn from her approach.

1. Complex Protagonists

One of the most striking features of Frankenstein is its dual protagonists: Victor Frankenstein and his creation, often referred to as “the Monster.” Both characters are distinctly different, multi-dimensional, and able to elicit empathy despite their flaws.

Lesson: Embrace Complexity

When creating characters, avoid the temptation to make them purely good or evil. Victor is ambitious and passionate, but his hubris leads to tragedy. The Monster, on the other hand, starts as a blank slate, driven by a desire for companionship and understanding but ultimately succumbs to despair and violence. By portraying your characters with a mix of virtues and vices, you invite readers to explore the complexities that are ingrained inside each character.

2. Strong Drive

Shelley provides compelling motivations for her characters, which drive the narrative forward. Victor’s desire to have dominion over life and death through his creation stems from a blend of intellectual curiosity and personal loss. The Monster’s longing to find his humanity in the love and acceptance he expects to receive from others illustrates the fundamental human need for connection.

Lesson: Define Clear Motivations

When crafting your characters, think deeply about what drives them. Their goals should be relatable, allowing readers to understand their choices, even when those choices lead to tragic outcomes. Clear motivations can create a strong emotional bond between the reader and the character, which makes each individual journey more impactful.

3. Relationships that Shape Identity

The relationships between characters in Frankenstein are critical in shaping their identities and trajectories. Victor’s relationships with his family, friends, and the Monster highlight themes of isolation, responsibility, and the consequences of neglect. The Monster, a blank slate at his incarnation, responds to Victor’s mishandling of his care with a combination of confusion and sadness until he eventually becomes a dark force who turns to self-imposed isolation to save himself.

Lesson: Develop Interconnected Relationships

As you build your characters, consider how their relationships influence their development. Interactions with others can reveal vulnerabilities and strengths, adding depth to your characters. Show how relationships can uplift or destroy, creating a dynamic that enriches the narrative.

4. Thematic Depth

Shelley’s characters are not just vehicles for the plot; they embody the novel’s themes of ambition, isolation, and the quest for understanding. The struggles of both Victor and the Monster reflect broader questions about humanity’s place in the world.

Lesson: Infuse Characters with Thematic Significance

Think about how your characters can serve as representations of the themes you want to explore. Their experiences should resonate with the central ideas of your story, prompting readers to reflect on larger questions. When characters embody your themes, their journeys become more profound and thought-provoking.

5. Evolution Through Conflict

Both Victor and the Monster undergo significant transformations throughout the novel. Their encounters with conflict force them to confront their values, desires, and the repercussions of their actions.

Lesson: Allow Characters to Grow and Change

Conflict is essential for character development. Whether it’s internal struggles or external challenges, ensure your characters face obstacles that force them to grow. By the end of their journey, they should reflect on their experiences and provide a satisfying arc that resonates with the reader.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein offers a masterclass in character creation. By embracing complexity, defining clear motivations, developing meaningful relationships, infusing thematic depth, and allowing for character evolution through conflict, you can craft characters that leave a lasting impression on your readers.

As you write, remember that characters are not just components of your story; they are the heart and soul that breathe life into your narrative. Take a page from Shelley’s playbook, and let your characters inspire, challenge, and engage your audience in a dialogue that transcends time and space.

Thank you for joining us in celebrating a literary icon, Mary Shelley!

Do you have a book that deserves to be discovered? You can always submit your book for an Editorial Review with Chanticleer!Chanticleer Editorial Review Packages are optimized to maximize your digital footprint. Reviews are one of the most powerful tools available to authors to help sell and market their books. Find out what all the buzz is about here.

Is your book an Award Winner?

Submitting to Book Awards is a great way to get your book discovered! Anytime you advance in the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards, your name and book are promoted right here on our website, through our newsletter, and across social media. One of the best ways to engage in long tail marketing!

The Shelley Awards for Paranormal & Supernatural Fiction are open through Oct 31st!

Don’t miss out on your chance to introduce your characters to new readers!

Chanticleer Editorial Services – when you are ready

Did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Tools of the Editing Trade

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or David at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or DBeaumier@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service. Here are some handy links about this tried and true service: https://test.chantireviews.com/manuscript-reviews/

And we do editorial consultations. for $75. https://test.chantireviews.com/services/Editorial-Services-p85337185

Writer’s Toolbox

Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.

Writers Toolbox a few more Helpful Links:

The INCITING INCIDENT: STORY, SETBACKS and SURPRISES for the PROTAGONIST – A Writer’s Toolbox Series from Jessica Morrell’s Editor’s Desk

ESSENCE of CHARACTERS – Part One – From the Jessica Morrell’s Editor’s Desk – Writer’s Toolbox Series

October 28, 2024
The 2023 Somerset First Place Winner Roundup for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

The Somerset Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Contemporary and Literary Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Judy Keeslar Santamaria’s book, You Can’t Fool a Mermaid, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Somerset 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 Somerset 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 Somerset Winners!

David Fitz-Gerald – If Its the Last Thing I Do

It’s 1975, and Misty Menard unexpectedly inherits her father’s business in Lake Placid, New York. It never occurred to her that she could wind up as the CEO of a good old-fashioned manufacturing company.

After years of working for lawyers, Misty knows a few things about the law. Her favorite young attorney is making a name for himself, helping traditionally owned companies become employee owned, using a little-known, newly-passed law. When he offers to help Misty convert Adirondack Dowel into an ESOP, pro bono, Misty jumps at the chance.

The employees are stunned, the management team becomes hostile, and the Board of Directors is concerned. Misfortune quickly follows the business transformation. A big customer files for bankruptcy. A catastrophic ice jam floods the business. Stagflation freezes the economy. A mysterious shrouded foe plots revenge. Misty’s family faces a crisis. The Trustee is convinced something fishy is going on, the appraiser keeps lowering the company’s value, and the banker demands additional capital infusions. Misty thought she had left her smoking addiction and alcoholism in the past, but when a worker’s finger is severed in an industrial accident, Misty relapses.

Disasters threaten to doom the troubled company. After surviving two world wars and the Great Depression, it breaks Misty’s heart to think that she has destroyed her father’s company. All she wants is to cement her father’s legacy and take care of the people who built the iconic local business. Can a quirky CEO and her loyal band of dedicated employee owners save an heirloom company from foreclosure, repossession, and bankruptcy?

From Chanticleer:

If It’s The Last Thing I Do by David Fitz-Gerald tells the story of Misty Menard, a 69-year-old woman who in 1975 returns to her upstate New York hometown to attend the funeral of her beloved father. She is dumbfounded to find she has inherited his business, making wooden dowels and buttons.

A receptionist for most of her adult life, with no business experience, she is at best ill-suited to the job. Personal problems hang over her as well, as a divorcee determined to keep sober and cigarette-free while in weekly therapy. But to keep her father’s memory alive, she is determined to keep the business afloat while she decides what to do with it in the long term. The last thing she imagined she would be doing on the cusp of 70 was running a business.

She turns the business into an employee-owned enterprise, an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan.) This gives her employees a shot at owning part or all of the business. The skill with which If It’s the Last Thing I Do integrates ESOP into its story, making it digestible, is among its many pleasures.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas

Thirteen-year-old Evan Hanson is always the last in her family to know what’s going on—at least, that’s how it feels. Her father, Gene, who’s been meaner since he began serving in Vietnam, isn’t around much, and she likes it better that way. But then her brother, Adam, gets drafted and her anti-war mother, Endura, takes him across the border to Canada, leaving Evan alone with Gene and her younger, special needs brother, Teddy.

When he realizes Endura isn’t returning, Gene takes Evan and Teddy to Eat and Get Gas, his mother’s café and gas station in Hoquiam, Washington. There, as well as her no-nonsense but loving grandma, Evan encounters Aunt Vivian, a teasing but caring know-it-all; Uncle Frankie, injured in Vietnam and suffering from PTSD; Paco, the draft dodger Frankie is hiding; Hal and Hubert, the strange but gentle next-door neighbors who play the piano like virtuosos and help out when they’re needed; and Louanne, Frankie’s reserved, sensitive sister. She is drawn in particular to Louanne, who was disfigured by a car accident that killed the rest of her and Frankie’s family.

At Eat and Get Gas, Evan finds a new freedom, and she starts to carve out a place for herself by helping in the café and sorting mail for Uncle Frankie, who runs a postal route in addition to running the gas station. She eventually, too, learns some of the family secrets she’s been kept in the dark about—and comes to understand that her mother isn’t coming back any time soon.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe

It started the day she heard Daddy slur, “She ain’t mine. You had the nerve to name her Dawn. Look at her! You shudda named her Midnight!” Then Daddy left… for good. And the loving music that had filled Dawn’s life went silent.

That was the day that a “Midnight” Duckling appeared in the mirror, took up residence in her chest, and controlled her ability to breathe. That was the day she learned to recognize “leaving time” . . . her superpower.

Couched in speculation, Jus Breathe is the tale of a young Black woman’s struggle to defy her inner “Duckling” and embrace her true self. Set in New York City during the turbulent sixties, it’s an improbable love story with precarious impulses, secret pasts, and inner demons.

Dawn, a survivor, flees her stepfather’s violent home. While struggling to go to college, she perfects sofa-surfing and hones her ability to leave situations in an instant. But in the mist of the chaotic uprising that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, serendipity spins Dawn into Danny’s world.

Toxically in love, no longer a “leaver,” Dawn realizes that in order to survive, she must break free of Danny’s dominance. But that Duckling, who’s allied with Danny, threatens to squeeze the life-breath from her if she dares to leave . . . that ugly, midnight-black Duckling, she has to kill.

From Chanticleer:

A young woman strives to survive without a home, even as she must fight herself and her instincts, in Jus Breathe by B. Lynn Carter.

“It’s more like I walked away,” I said, fractured memories of the day I left surging into my mind. “My mother married herself a husband. It’s like the tale of the evil stepfather, I guess.” The words were spilling out. “On the first day that we moved in with him, he almost broke my jaw. So I left. She had to let me; you know – the survival thing. She knew. We both knew.”

In New York City during the tempestuous 1960s, Dawn flees an abusive family situation after her father leaves the family and her mother remarries. Determined to stay in education, she couch-surfs with friends and explores her contacts through school. Dawn manages to live and even graduate. With the help of sympathetic teachers and a social worker who believes in her, she goes to college. Dawn finds friends and boyfriends and makes her own way toward adulthood.

And then her life goes awry again, though this time, she has a harder time choosing whether to run.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake

Adam Craig still has nightmares about the last summer he spent on the shores of northern Wisconsin’s Black Bear Lake.

The Chicago stock trader thinks he has it under control – until fallout from an explosive August in 1983 threatens his marriage. So Adam returns to remember that month-long family reunion, where he was busy wrestling with developing adolescence, a parent’s failing health, and watching his cousin Dannie’s desperate cries for help. At 14, Adam’s fear and anger were constantly threatening to pull him under while the current running through his family flowed, inevitably, toward tragedy.

It was too much to bear back then. But will reliving those painful memories hurt or help Adam as his adult life teeters on the edge of collapse?

Find it Locally and on Amazon

James Gish Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream

Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You

An ambitious podcaster and her reclusive interviewee embark on a life-altering journey to uncover long-lost truths in this immersive story about love, travel, and family secrets.

Forty years ago, aspiring writer Ann Fawkes left the United States for a Mediterranean adventure that opened her heart to travel and love. After a chance encounter propelled her into the publishing world, she released her first novel, an instant bestseller―and the last book she ever wrote.

Now, Ann lives a reclusive life in the San Juan Islands, hiding from the public and its probing questions. But when podcaster Maggie Whitaker convinces Ann to sit for an interview, Ann agrees on one condition: Maggie must keep her story off the record.

Determined to change Ann’s mind before she loses her job, Maggie agrees. But as she learns about Ann’s life―particularly the love affair that inspired her novel and the decisions she made in its wake―Maggie realizes Ann’s story intersects with her own in shocking, life-changing ways.

A sweeping, heart-wrenching novel that spans decades and continents, Halfway to You explores the distances we create between ourselves and the ones we love most and what it takes to finally bridge them.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Donna Norman-Carbone – All That Is Sacred

When Lynn and her husband set out for a weekend retreat to repair their rocky marriage, icy roads lead to a fatal collision that ends Lynn’s life. Stranded between the physical world and the afterlife, Lynn experiences the grief of her loved ones as they process her death.

Lynn’s life-long friends are tortured by not only loss but also unspoken wounds in their friendship. With clever influences from above, Lynn coaxes them to reunite at a beachside cottage on the one-year anniversary of her death. Determined to prompt their healing so they can help her family move on, Lynn reminds them of a sacred promise, hoping it will lead to truths they can’t face on their own. Will it be enough to remind them of the power of their bond?

As Lynn struggles to repair the relationships she left behind, she soon realizes the greatest challenge will be letting them go.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl

Julia Navarro, a plucky newspaper call center manager, juggles like a pro—not tennis balls but quirky employees, cranky customers, and a sleazy boss. Pregnant and short on time to complete her “get ready for baby checklist,” Julia rushes to fill a job vacancy by hiring Carmen Cooper, a shy, inexperienced college student.

When Julia finds out Carmen never made it to work, she and a newsroom pal go undercover to find out why. Their shocking discovery leads them to cook up a half-baked plan to save Carmen from a Hollywood legend turned hermit, a man she calls “Papa.”

Will the gamble pay off or pave a path of twists, turns, and tragedy?

Find it Locally and on Amazon

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

You can see our Spotlight on the Somerset Awards here!

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

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

Submit to the Somerset Awards Today!

October 27, 2024
The 2023 Shelley Book Awards First Place Roundup for Paranormal Fiction!

The Shelley Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Supernatural Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Lydia M Hawke’s book, Becoming Crone will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Shelley 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 Shelley/Paranormal 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 Shelley (formerly Paranormal) First Place Paranormal Winners!

Joe Lyon – The Molossus of Old Man Moyer

Former convict Jimmy Myer finds himself in a precarious situation, transporting the corpse of a well-known psychic, when an unexpected detour brings him face-to-face with the Molossus. This mythical creature is rumored to grant its keeper immense wealth, albeit at a harrowing price—the inevitable violent demise of its host. Currently, the beast is in the possession of Old Man Moyer, a billionaire with a sinister reputation, who is hell-bent on escaping this fatal fate.

As Jimmy becomes entangled in this eerie narrative, he navigates a world filled with mysterious mediums, determined detectives, and ghostly onlookers. The journey is fraught with danger and intrigue, leading to a gripping climax that forces readers to ponder a disturbing question: Can any treasure justify the cost of one’s life?
The Molossus of Old Man Moyer unfolds as a mesmerizing tale of greed, destiny, and the supernatural, challenging the boundaries between the material and the mystical.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Jo Deniau – Hologram

Ever since holographer David Leone turned forty, he’s feasted on spicy memories of his lost love, “Lu,” who’s now a famous movie star. When the ghost image of a child appears in a holographic portrait of a bride and groom, David’s determined to capture clues to Lu’s traumatic childhood. But he must first invent a device to pre-screen space for holographic traces. Funded by the bride’s millionaire father, David goes back to Lu’s old home. But he’s ill-prepared to survive the hazards of this staging ground, including the home’s mercenary owners, a lapse in his tree-climbing prowess, and Lu’s return to Circleville.

A threat less obvious to David is that his discoveries might make him famous-for all the wrong reasons.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Nola Nash – House of Mirrors

Sometimes the only ones who see us for who we truly are, are the mirrors.

The small historic town of Franklin, Tennessee, hides a grisly past behind its pristine Hallmark movie façade. While the glories of the town’s history and its architecture are meticulously preserved, the hauntings left behind by the darker side of that history are kept tucked away in the local ghost tours. When a new couple moves into the Bennett House, the town is brought face-to-face with the spirits of their past that have been trapped for a century and a half in mirror prisons that now reside on the Bennett House walls. Can Ruby Baxter, local tour guide, historian, and reluctant medium help the lost souls find the homes they belong in and peace with their own pasts so they can finally rest? Or will town prejudices against the spirits hold them hostage? Will the mirrors help Ruby find her purpose and finally see herself as others do?

Woven through the modern quest for helping the souls of the past find their voices and peace, are the Five Bloodiest Hours of the American Civil War – The Battle of Franklin. Mirroring events in the modern tale, the story of humanity, fear, and sacrifice of the soldiers and citizens whose experiences and names were left out of the history books is finally told so that they, too, can be seen for who they truly were.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Claire Fraise – They Stay

There’s no way she’s going to believe in ghosts. But when her sibling is kidnapped, the only clues she has come from the other side…

Shiloh Oleson loves her six-year-old brother more than life. So the headstrong teen’s world shatters when he goes missing after tee-ball practice and her abusive father gives up the search. But the devastated girl doesn’t know what to think when a weirdo classmate claims a dead spirit told her his location.

Outright rejecting any paranormal garbage, Shiloh and her friends frantically investigate a similar disappearance in the hope of uncovering the truth. But all the desperate teenager unearths are disturbing secrets about her family, the school… and a sinister force on her tail.

Can the determined young woman bring the little boy home before all hell breaks loose?

They Stay is the first book in the bone-chilling They Stay YA supernatural thriller series. If you like relatable characters, unearthly mayhem, and endings that leave you wanting more, then you’ll love Claire Fraise’s spine-tingling story.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Fionn Mac Meldrum – The Shadow of Banshee Hill

In 1818, Cillian Valour, an Irish rebel’s son with limited prospects, is determined to marry his longtime love, Martha Ashworth, daughter of a local landlord. When her father forbids their engagement, Cillian turns to the heavens for help in an act of desperation-but it is a mysterious stranger that answers his call. After accepting an offer too good to refuse, Cillian and Martha are forever changed. Together, the star-crossed lovers turn away from the light and cut a swath of horror and misery across the land-until one night in Rome, the unthinkable happens.

Emily Corvo’s life in modern-day Boston is upended by the murder of her mother and the disappearance of her father. Learning that her mother was callously slaughtered by something not of this world, Emily vows to rescue her father and avenge her mother by hunting down those responsible. But she may find that only by trusting the enemy can she quench her thirst for vengeance.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

James McKenna- An October’s Journey: Poe’s Final Gift

In this elegant work of literary fantasy, a young, 19th century attorney receives a strange birthday gift from his friend, Edgar Allan Poe, who convinces him to defend a woman and her two grown children who have been arrested for practicing witchcraft. The trial is to be held in an old Puritan town that has somehow “fallen out of time,” and the verdict of the case will determine the fate of many more than just the three souls on trial. Navigating as a stranger in an even stranger land, he must piece together the truth of the most bizarre case of his career.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

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

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

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

Submit to the Shelley Awards Today!

October 22, 2024
Ten Days Remain! The Somerset Awards and the Humor and Satire Awards!
The Final Fiction Divisions of this years Award cycle close in less than 2 weeks!

10 days left to submit!

Don’t let your book miss out!
- The Humor & Satire Award for Allegorical Fiction
- The Somerset Award for Contemporary and Literary Fiction
Only 10 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!

The Humor and Satire Award for Allegorical Fiction , The Somerset Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction and are still open!

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Humor & Satire Awards for Allegorical Fiction!
- Eileen O’Finlan – All the Furs and Feathers
- Allyson Rice – The Key to Circus-Mom Highway
- Marco Ocram – The Awful Truth About The Herbert Quarry Affair
- Lou Dischler – The Rising
- Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions
- Tom Strelich – Water Memory
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Humor & Satire Awards Grand Prize Winner:

Quantum Consequence

by Mike Murphey

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Somerset Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction!
- David Fitz-Gerald – If It’s the Last Thing I Do
- J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas
- B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe
- Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake
- James Gish, Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream
- Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You
- Donna Norman-Carbone – All That is Sacred
- Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Somerset Awards Grand Prize Winner:

You Can’t Fool A Mermaid

By Judy Keeslar Santamaria

The CIBAs offer more than just recognition — they provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.

We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.

Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 3-6, 2025) where Winners from all 25 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.

In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.

Let’s celebrate exceptional storytelling together!

Your book deserves to be discovered

Don’t Delay! Enter Today!

The Humor and Satire Awards and The Somerset Awards
October 21, 2024
The 2023 Humor and Satire First Place Winners Roundup!

The Humor and Satire Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Humorous, Satirical and Allegorical Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Mike Murphey’s book, Quantum Consequence, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article to come, as well as be featured on the Humor and Satire 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!

The 2023 Humor and Satire 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 Humor and Satire Winners!

Eileen O’Finlan – All the Furs and Feathers

Smokey, an architect employed by Fluffington ArCATecture, lands the account of her dreams — designing the first ever cat park in Faunaburg. Her boss, Abigail Fluffington, says that if Smokey is successful, she’ll become a partner and inherit the business.

A dream come true? There’s one problem. The proposed park is adjacent to Rodent Way. Activist Jerome J. Ratley, quickly forms R.A.T. (Rodent Action Taskforce) and stages a protest.

Meanwhile, Smokey’s lovable but quirky sister and cooking savant, Autumn Amelia, is busy dishing up meals too delicious for any fur or feather to resist. And wandering uninvited into the kitchens of local restaurants to improve their recipes.

Together with their furred and feathered friends, Smokey and Autumn Amelia must find a way to make the proposed park a reality. But how to abolish the long-standing animosity between felines and rodents?

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Allyson Rice – The Key to Circus-Mom Highway

In an attempt to secure an unexpected inheritance–and hopefully find a few answers–two estranged sisters and their newly discovered brother embark on a comically surreal trip through the Deep South to retrace the life of the mother who abandoned them.

On a Tuesday afternoon, sisters Jesse Chasen and Jennifer McMahon receive a phone call notifying them that the birth mother they had no knowledge of has died, leaving behind a significant inheritance. But in order to obtain it, they must follow a detailed road trip she designed for them to get to know her–and that includes finding a brother they never knew existed.

For the next week, this ill-assorted trio treks across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia to meet their mother’s old friends, from circus-performers to a juke joint owner, each of whom delivers a shocking vignette into the life of a young mother traumatized by loss and abuse. Along the way, these three siblings–Jesse, whose fiery exterior disguises a drifting musician stuck in a rut; Jennifer, whose carefully curated family life is threatened by her husband’s infidelity; and Jack, whose enigmatic Jackie, Oh! persona in the New Orleans drag queen scene helps him escape the nightmares of Afghanistan that haunt him–must confront their own demons (and at least one alligator). But in chasing the truth about their real mother, they may all just find their second chance.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Marco Ocram – The Awful Truth About the Herbert Quarry Affair

TV personality Marco Ocram is the world’s only self-penned character, writing his life in real time as you read it. Marco’s celebrity mentor, Herbert Quarry, grooms him to be the Jackson Pollock of literature, teaching him to splatter words on a page without thought or revision.

Quarry’s plan backfires when imbecilic Marco begins to type his first thought-free book: it’s a murder mystery-and Herbert’s caught red-handed by the butchered body of his lover.

Now Marco must write himself into a crusade to clear his friend’s name. Typing the first words that come into his head, Marco unleashes a phantasmagorical catalogue of twists in his pursuit of justice, writing the world’s fastest-selling book to reveal the awful truth about the Herbert Quarry affair.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Lou Dischler – The Rising

While The Rising is a Manuscript, we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing his book My Only Sunshine, and we’ll include that here in celebration of his writing.

Lou Dischler delivers an intricately woven story about one well-meaning boy who tries to make sense of the crazy he’s been born into. Get ready for one belly laugh of an adventure in My Only Sunshine.

Welcome to the Louisiana low country, home of 9-year-old Charlie Boone, a kid growing up in 1962. Charlie, a most unreliable narrator, concerns himself with giant wingless wasps and biting red velvet ants. Combine his critter-concerns with the legend of the giant slugs, the story of his mother taken up by a hurricane, and the episode of the puddle he and his brother dug that grew into a pond, then turned into a lake, and we have one wildly imaginative ride well-worth taking.

Dischler delivers an epic tale that shifts from Charlie’s first-person point-of-view with his youthful ignorance coloring his observations to his Uncle Dan’s and “Aunt” Lola’s in third-person point-of-view. While Charlie ages and grows in wisdom as the story progresses, his uncle never seems to gain a lick of sense. Dischler skillfully applies the laws of magic realism to Charlie’s wonderful way of viewing his world. Uncle Dan’s story, on the other hand, derives from an inept conman’s rap-sheet – from failed grifts to bank robbery bungles that succeed only by accident. Dischler guides us, normalizing the ridiculous to the point that the characters jump off the page and set up camp in your living room.

Read more here!

Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions

With the Spanish flu pandemic on the rise, a former gold rush town— once the largest city in the Pacific Northwest— is threatened with extinction via eminent domain should their population fall below 125 citizens. To save their homes, former madam Maude Dollarhyde, her mixed-race grand-daughter, Bountiful, and their fellow council members agree to sell four abandoned mansions for a penny apiece if the buyers will stay in town long enough to be counted in the 1920 census. Soon, an eclectic cast of newcomers arrives, including a New York actor and his questionably-familial family; a lawyer with an agoraphobic wife, mute son, and austere nanny; six excommunicated Mormons; and the great-nephew of the town’ s hated former boss. As real estate developer and politician Gerald Dredd plots to foil the council’ s plan, the new families move in and knock over the first domino in a row that includes three romances, twelve sticks of dynamite, an unintentionally hilarious community theater production, an investigation by a Chicago insurance detective, and last of all, murder!

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Tom Strelich – Water Memory

The earth’s magnetic poles have reversed and civilization has just had its clock reset to the great cosmic flashing 12:00am from almost a million years ago, and humanity, and everybody in it, is pretty much forgetting everything it learned since the last time.

Everybody except Hertell Daggett, who remembers pretty much everything because he’d once been shot in the head — the doctors got the bullet out, but missed a few tiny specks of copper that remained, floating inside his brain, connecting him to the things everybody else on earth is slowly forgetting. Hertell sees an opportunity to start civilization all over again, and maybe even get it right this time. What could possibly go wrong?

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Humor and Satire First Place Winners!

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

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2024 Humor and Satire Book Awards are open through the end of October!

Submit to the Humor and Satire Awards Today!

October 21, 2024
The 2023 Hemingway Book Awards First Place Roundup for 20th and 21st c. Wartime Fiction

The Hemingway Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of 20th Century Wartime Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Kevin Miller’s book, The Silver Waterfall, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Hemingway 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 Hemingway 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 Hemingway Winners!

J.L. Oakley – The Brisling Code

An experienced intelligence agent at 22, Tore Haugland faces certain danger when he accepts an assignment in occupied Norway knowing that his predecessor was killed by the Gestapo only a week before. The dying agent left a mysterious message in his interruption code that London calls the “Brisling Code.” London wants Haugland to find out what it means as well as to gather information on the expansion of the U boat base in Bergen. Haugland is sent to work at a drafting office in a shipyard. His mission is jeopardized when a ruthless SS officer, Hans Becker, with his own secrets, is alerted to his presence by a traitor at the Verks. Becker will do anything to find him. If Haugland can’t discover the meaning of the Brisling Code in time, it could cost him his life and expose the members of the local resistance he works with. If he does, it could hurt the people he has grown to care about. But what if the message was written down wrong?

From Chanticleer:

In The Brisling Code, a fast-paced first installment of her historical thriller series, Oakley weaves a brilliant portrayal of the perils met by the Norwegian Resistance during WWII.

Layered perspectives—from resistance workers, traitors, and even an SS Officer—create a rich world through which readers can understand the sacrifices that were made to free our world from the tyranny of Nazi Germany.

Immersed in volatile Nazi-occupied Bergen, Norway, fearless young intelligence agent Tore Haugland and his team of organizers work tirelessly to protect the essential work of the Norwegian resistance.

Haugland’s task is to uncover the plans for the expansion of the German Uboat base with inside help at a shipyard. Also charged in unveiling the meaning behind a mysterious message sent by his murdered predecessor, Haugland navigates the treacherous waters of Norway—a mere haunting of the beautiful city it once was before Nazi occupation. Readers can “almost taste the danger” as our hero moves from one treacherous predicament to the next. Haugland’s mission risks not only his own life, but the lives of every friend and connection he makes.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Kathryn Gauci – In the Shadow of the Pyrenees

When France declares war on Germany, the villagers of the sleepy village of Mont-Saint-Jean have no idea how much their lives will be impacted. At first they find themselves helping a trickle of British soldiers and airmen heading into Spain, but within months, that trickle has turned into a never-ending flow. Desperate French and foreign Jews, together with ordinary men and women evading Vichy’s harsh laws in search of freedom, either attempt to flee and join de Gaulle’s Secret Army in North Africa, or hide and regroup in readiness for D-Day. Before they know it, they are drawn into the shadowy world of escape networks in one of France’s harshest and most dangerous mountainous terrains, where at every turn they face deportation or death if caught.

Rich in detail and based on true events in Occupied France, In the Shadow of the Pyrenees weaves together a powerful and vivid tableau of characters, a tortured love affair, and the heroism of countless helpers. It is a story that conjures up the voices of the past and will take you on a journey in which the ensuing upheavals continue to resonate in the villagers’ lives long after the war has ended.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Michael J Cooper – Crossroads of Empire

This work is not yet released, but the previous book in the series was the 2022 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner.

In the summer of 1914, sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair leaves home to join the Great War for Civilization. Little does he know that, despite the war raging in Europe, the true source of conflict will emerge in Ottoman Palestine, since it’s from Jerusalem where the German Kaiser dreams to rule as Holy Roman Emperor.

Filled with such historical figures as Gertrude Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, Faisal bin Hussein and Chaim Weizmann, Wages of Empire follows Evan through the killing fields of the Western Front where he will help turn the tide of a war that is just beginning, and become part of a story that never ends.

From Chanticleer:

Michael J. Cooper’s latest historical fiction novel, Wages of Empire, draws readers into the perilous journey of sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair and his father into WW1. On this path, their lives will intersect with such historical figures as TE Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, the Arab nationalist Faisal ibn Hussein, the proto-Nazi and advisor to the German kaiser Guido von List, and Kaiser Wilhelm II himself.

Set in the summer of 1914 we find Evan living in the American southwest where his father moved the family from England for his Oxford sabbatical. Evan struggles to cope with his mother’s death in childbirth and yearns to escape his father’s controlling grip. As war breaks out in Europe, Evan decides to leave home and join the fight, without telling his father.

By the time Clive realizes Evan is missing, the war is in full swing. Clive returns to England to search for Evan and reactivates his commission at the War Office in London. There, Clive uses every means available to find Evan. Meanwhile, Evan has made his way across the Atlantic and into France with the hope of joining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), but instead he is arrested by the Paris police as a possible German collaborator. He escapes, but by mistake, crosses into occupied Belgium where he barely survives a German artillery barrage with poison gas. Joining the Flemish resistance, he is badly wounded after helping to flood the lowlands, a deciding factor in stopping the German army. After recovering in a BEF hospital in France, Evan begins a romance with a beautiful young nurse just before he is discharged to return to England by hospital ship.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Ivan Luis Hernandez – Isla Vulnerable

In late 1950’s Cuba, the island’s allure as an elite global paradise was cloaked by a revolution that brought down its rich and powerful.

When a poor native farm boy named Victor Gomez is suddenly orphaned and adopted by one of the most influential families in his hometown, he meets and falls for Sarita Rodriguez—a supermodel and media empire heiress—just before Fidel Castro overthrows President Fulgencio Batista and takes control of the island. After Castro raids Victor’s new family’s estate and imprisons his father, Victor narrowly escapes and flees to the US where he accepts an unconventional, deadly deal as a spy to save his country. Still just a teen, Victor finds himself in a cycle of betrayal—struggling to find truth and purpose, while torn between protecting his now powerless parents, finding his disbanded biological siblings, and secretly pursuing Sarita as she rises to international fame from New York.

Based on the true story of the author’s family, Isla Vulnerable weaves a captivating tale of love, sacrifice, and human resilience in the face of extraordinary historical events—including the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, the CIA’s covert operations in foreign affairs, Operation Mongoose, and the assassination of JFK. A dynamic cast of real-life-inspired characters, meticulous attention to historical detail, edge-of-your-seat spy scenes, and a love story that transcends social classes compose an ideologically-unbiased, heartwarming, and cinematic journey in this author’s first published book.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Linda Stewart Henley – Kate’s War

Twenty-year-old Kate is poised to launch into a long-anticipated life of independence when Britain declares war in 1939. After that announcement, her dream of escaping the London suburb she grew up in and pursuing a singing career is quashed: she must stay put with her family and prepare for bombing and possible invasion by Germany.

Living in these anxious times, Kate strives to achieve balance in her life, though a speech disability interferes with her singing and a failed romance adds to her distress. But when a young Jewish girl whose parents have been deported comes to her for help, Kate’s goals change. Taking on a responsibility she never could have imagined, she learns that freedom and survival cannot be taken for granted—and as new responsibilities outweigh earlier goals, she learns that assisting others to escape unspeakable evil requires new perspective, as well as courage she didn’t know she had.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Jerena Tobiasen – Tsarina’s Crown

In 1915, Simon Temple, a young naval officer from northeast England, finds himself aboard RMS Guardian, patrolling the North Sea as part of the Germany blockade. By midyear, he’s in Petrograd, Russia on a private assignment for King George. The three-month task turns into three years, embroiling him in the intrigues of two royal families, Russian politics and British espionage. As the Russian revolution consumes the country, Simon’s cover is threatened, and his safety compromised. He must escape the chaos before he’s captured, but his scheme becomes complicated when two others unexpectedly join him in a hasty departure.

High seas adventures. Russian vistas. Royal exposé. Political conspiracy. The stuff of which spies are made. Tsarina’s Crown is a fast-paced, historical drama that leads the reader from World War I at sea to the desperation of the Russian revolution. Full of action and intrigue. And just a little romance.

From Chanticleer:

Jerena Tobiasen delivers a sharp, first-rate novel in Tsarina’s Crown, first installment in The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles, capturing a precise panorama of Russian politics and British espionage during a delicate period in time.

The year is 1915 and Simon Temple, a young naval officer aboard the RMS Guardian— a British Royal Navy Ship— patrols the North Sea for questionable communications and marine activity. Months later, he is entrusted by the British crown to serve as a liaison on a covert mission in Petrograd, Russia. Simon is careful not to blow his cover as a young aristocrat while he is thrust into the world of international politics, the ruthless Russian Revolution, and becomes caught right in the middle of two powerful royal families.

The mission turns out to be longer than Simon anticipated, and his life quickly becomes threatened as he tries to navigate a dangerous political labyrinth, all the while hoping to unearth the spy information that his King requires of him. But as the precarious wheel of mayhem and chaos churns in Russia, Simon’s only way to survive is to escape, realizing that his wit and intelligence might not save him from the tense political atmosphere. Things become even more complicated when he is joined by two other people who hope to flee.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

William McClain – Alice’s War

Weymouth, England 1939. War changes everything. For grandson Martin, coming of age under the backdrop of World War II. For Sonja, the Jewish refugee he’s drawn to, who left her family in Germany only to face new dangers in England. And for Martin’s friend, Ellis, confronting a war similar to the one that drove his father to alcoholism.

Recently widowed, Alice must set aside her long-awaited chance to recreate her life on her own terms when the war places her two grandchildren in her care. She finds herself revisiting the tragedies she faced as a mother, as she navigates personal aspiration, loss, and the importance of family.

Alice’s War is not a story of decorated air pilots or daring resistance fighters. It is instead a story of ordinary people facing fear and loss. As outside forces tear Alice’s family and community apart, she quietly gathers and reforms their sustaining bonds.

Set in the town of Weymouth against the grand backdrop of England’s Jurassic Coast and with a front-seat view of the unfolding drama, Alice’s War immerses the reader in a time unlike any in modern history.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

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

You can see our Spotlight on the recently reviewed books that fit the Hemingway division here.

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

Got a great Historical Fiction Book that looks at times of war?

The 2024 Hemingway Book Awards are open through the end of October!

Submit to the Hemingway Awards Today!

October 18, 2024
The 2024 Somerset Book Awards Spotlight for Literary & Contemporary Fiction
Get Lit!

The Somerset Awards is our Division for Mainstream, Contemporary and Literary Fiction. Named for author and playwright W. Somerset Maugham.

William Somerset Maugham (pronounced MAWm), born January 25 1875 and died December 16, 1965, was one of the most popular and highly paid authors of the 1930s. During the WWI he served in the ambulance corps and then was recruited into the British Secret Service. He traveled widely, most notably to India, Southeast Asia, and Russia before the 1917 revolution, which influenced his writing. He was a contemporary of Hemingway, E. E. Cummings, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Evelyn Waugh.

Maugham is known for his writing’s diversity that consists of plays, short stories, and distinctive novel genres that have been adapted to film. He is well known for The Razor’s Edge, Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale, The Magician, Rain, The Painted Veil, and his first work: Liza of Lambeth. He has twenty novels to his credit, twenty-five plays, and sixteen collections of short stories.

The categories for the Somerset Awards are:
- Contemporary Themes
- Adventure/Suspense
- Literary
- Women’s Fiction and Family Themes
- Magic Realism
- Action/Adventure
- Connections
- Social/Psychological themes
Enter Your Work Today!

We are delighted to Celebrate the 2023 Winners of The Somerset Awards!
- David Fitz-Gerald – If It’s the Last Thing I Do
- J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas
- B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe
- Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake
- James Gish, Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream
- Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You
- Donna Norman-Carbone – All That is Sacred
- Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 SOMERSET Awards is:

You Can’t Fool A Mermaid

by Judy Keeslar Santamaria

We will celebrate those incredible Somerset Winners in due time. Right now, we’re going to focus on some of the best literary work we’ve received recently!

WHEN WALLS TALK
By Geralyn Hesslau Magrady

Toni has the chance to start her own business in the building of her family’s old bakery. But history waits within those walls. In Geralyn Hesslau Magrady’s novella, When Walls Talk, Toni and her father uncover secrets they could never have expected.

The Russo Bakery, with its 1920s architecture had been the family business since the four Russo brothers first opened its doors. Decades later, Toni and her widowed father plan a complete redesign of what their ancestors made to fulfill her dream of owning a bookstore. As the walls fall around the Russo family business, a long-hidden truth brings about profound personal changes for Toni.

Toni takes this giant leap into the unknown, unsure if she’s even prepared to own a business. But the bookstore is the key to her hope for a better future, her only path to escaping a past tragedy.

Read more here!

UNPAVED
By Anthony Horton

Unpaved by Anthony Horton is a pensive novel of how returning to one’s roots can reveal hints on how to move forward after a lifetime of grief.

Russell Nowak-McCreary is a man whose life has been proudly shaped by formidable women. His mother, Judith, was a prominent cardiac surgeon at the reputable St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. His wife, Anna, thrived as a student of Judith’s and has risen to the top of Boston’s best medical campus. And Russell’s work partner Sarah Westroes joined his company, Datatel, as its CEO with a relentless drive to expand its footprint in the tech industry. His childhood was spent without a father figure, only excepting the fond memories of a single summer at his grandfather’s cabin in the Canadian wilderness.

As he returns to the remote cabin of his youth to set his mother’s affairs in order, Russell takes this time alone to finally process all that he lost.

Read more here!

ROSES In DECEMBER: Hamilton Place, Book 2
By Mark A. Gibson

Roses in December is the epic conclusion to Mark A. Gibson’s compelling two-part family saga, Hamilton Place. Now focusing on the family’s next generation, James Hamilton Jr.—Jimmy—follows in the footsteps of the father he never met, a Vietnam War hero who died in battle, and ultimately finds his own path in life.

Pressured by a conning mother-in-law only out for monetary gain, the elder Jimmy’s widow, Becca, is pushed to marry Mack Lee, her deceased husband’s older brother who proves to be a cheating and abusive husband. Trapped in this loveless marriage, Becca hopes that attending church will remove her son from the toxic influence of her new husband and set him on the right path to a good life. But it’s the discovery of young Jimmy’s superior photographic memory that opens the door to a brighter future, and he sets a course to an outstanding medical career, coupled with military service in Afghanistan.

Gibson delivers the recent past with a great sense of immediacy, showing events that ripple into our contemporary world using pop references that are relevant in today’s world.

Read more here!

SPLINTERED DREAMS: The Dare to Love Series Book 1
By Diana Lynn

After decades spent in a loveless, broken marriage, Crisa wants another chance at love. In Splintered Dreams, a romance novella by Diana Lynn, she must first stumble through her own insecurities to find it.

When Crisa’s husband, Alan, dies unexpectedly she is left with a stark emptiness inside her heart. Her marriage had been a sham. Her husband’s infidelity and lies crushed her idea of love and left her with questions about who she is, what she wants, and will she ever trust someone with her heart again. Casual sexual relationships can’t fill the void. She needs true love.

Physical intimacy is only part of what Crisa desires. She yearns for the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.

Read more here!

These thoughtful books from Contemporary to Literary to Magical Realism are the kind of books you’ll talk about for years to come. Should yours be here?

The Somerset Book Awards are open through the end of the month!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!

Your book deserves to be discovered
October 18, 2024
14 Days Left: Shelley, Global Thriller, and Hemingway Book Awards close soon!
The final 11 Divisions of this years Award cycle close in 2 weeks!

14 days left to submit!

Don’t let your book miss out!
Only 14 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!

The Shelley Award for Supernatural Fiction , The Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Thrillers and Hemingway Awards for 20th Century Wartime Fiction are still open!

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Paranormal Awards for Supernatural Fiction!
- Joe Lyon – The Molossus of Old Man Moyer: An Original Horror Novel
- Jo Deniau – Hologram
- Nola Nash – House of Mirrors
- Claire Fraise – They Stay
- Fionn Mac Meldrum – The Shadow of Banshee Hill
- James McKenna – An October’s Journey: Poe’s Final Gift
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Paranormal Awards Grand Prize Winner:

Becoming Crone

by Lydia M Hawke

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Thrillers!
- D. L. Wilburn Jr. – The God Protocol: Dragon
- Glenn Dyer – Trust No One
- Mark James – Friendship Games
- Randall Krzak – Ultimate Escalation
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Cobra Pose
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Global Thriller Awards Grand Prize Winner:

Jake Fortina and The Roman Conspiracy

By Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Hemingway Awards for 20th Century Wartime Fiction!
- J.L. Oakley – The Brisling Code
- Kathryn Gauci – In the Shadow of the Pyrenees
- Michael J Cooper – Crossroads of Empire
- Ivan Luiz Hernandez – Isla Vulnerable
- Linda Stewart Henley – Kate’s War
- Jerena Tobiasen – Tsarina’s Crown
- William McClain – Alice’s War
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Hemingway Awards Grand Prize Winner:

The Silver Waterfall

A Novel of The Battle of Midway

by Kevin Miller

The CIBAs offer more than just recognition — they provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.

We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.

Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 3-6, 2025) where Winners from all 25 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.

In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.

Let’s celebrate exceptional storytelling together!

Your book deserves to be discovered

Don’t Delay! Enter Today!

The Shelley Awards, and The Global Thriller Awards and The Hemingway Awards
October 17, 2024
The 2024 Short Story Awards Long List for Short Stories and Essays
The Shorts Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Short Form Fiction. The Shorts Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Shorts in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2024 SHORTS entries to the 2024 Shorts Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2024 Shorts Award Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC25.

Please Note: There are 2 Shorts Awards Lists. This is for Short Form Content, singular short stories, essays and shorter Collections. The Long form Shorts (over 100 pages) Long List will be posted separately.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2024 Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Short Stories!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Sophia M. – Synthetica The Dystopian Future of Digital Existence
- Ron Singerton – Whispers in Time
- Betty Codd – The King’s Wife
- Susannah Dawn – To Label or Not to Label the Box… That is the Question
- Susannah Dawn – It’s in the Grey Zone We Find The Colors
- Susannah Dawn – On The Run With Meagan Wise
- Gail Noble-Sanderson – The Soldier Jacob
- Trudy Wells-Meyer – Regifting with a Twist
- Burl Harmon – Being 100 Years Old
- Jessica Russell – Worthy of Tears
- KD Sherrinford – Meet Me in Milan
- KD Sherrinford – Christmas at The Saporis
- Mike Murphey – The Claunch Ness Monster
- Brian Feutz – Take a Peek Into the Minds, Lives, and Fears… of Queers
- Lisa G. Spicer – Letters From Tacoma
- Catherine Brown – Finding Namaste
- Deborah L. King – Attention Accepted
- Barbara Rein – The Wrenbows
- Tessa Floreano – Shadows of the Adriatic
- J.J. Clarke – Deadly Ambition
- Susan Lynn Solomon – A Circle of Sabbaths
- Glen Dahlgren – The Dice of Chaos
- PJ Devlin – Sleeping Out
- PJ Devlin – Running
- TK Sheffield – The Infinity Thieves
- Tyrone Burnett – The Believer within You
- Glendall C. Jackson III – Naked Came the Detective
- Carol L. Wright – Apple, Table, Penny… Murder
- Hannah Stone – The Weight of Bone and Feather
- L. Burton Brender – Stories from the War
- Don Jacobson – The Gamekeeper’s Cabin
- Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro – Dream Rut: Navigating Your Path Forward
- Tosca Lee – The Cancun Game
Congratulations once more to the 2023 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for Short Prose

The Heart of Kublai Khan’s Menagerie Keeper

By Catherine Brown

A Manuscript

Click here to see the full list of 2023 Shorts Book Award Winners for Short Stories and Essays.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Shorts Book Awards for Short Stories, Collections, Essays, and Novellas.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2024 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 3 – 6, 2025! Save the Date for Registration!

Seating is Limited. 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!
October 17, 2024