Tag: CAC24

  • The Laramie First Place Roundup for Americana Fiction!

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction AwardThe Laramie Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Western and American Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Thomas Goodman’s book, The Last Man will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Laramie 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 Laramie 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 Laramie Winners!

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    Barbara Salvatore – The Trail to Niobrara

    1847- Magghie is forced to flee her home after a cholera outbreak ravishes her village. She travels west with her teams of draft horses, and in the company of a Mormon family, but they soon disagree on the best way forward. When her fellow travelers turn on her, tragedy strikes during a flash flood. She must forge ahead on her own to find the place that has been haunting her dreams.

    T.K. Conklin – Promise of Spring

    When Eastern aristocrat True Tucker left her lush way of life in Charlotte to travel to the untamed western town of Rimrock to spend the winter with her sisters, she never imagined where the trip would lead. Events beyond her control force her to find refuge in a small mountain cabin with a devilishly handsome man and his young daughter. She knows her life is about to change forever when her feelings for him make her forget she is promised to another man. After a few nights in his strong arms, True suddenly questions where she belongs.

    Sam Barkley had long ago given up on finding love after the death of his wife and he certainly didn’t expect to find the beautiful blond woman lost in the mountains. After she saves his daughter’s life at the risk of her own, he can no longer fight the growing love he has for her. Just one taste of her untamed passion leaves him craving more and he can’t let her go. Sam has until spring to convince True to stay in Rimrock with him, because he knows that’s exactly where she belongs.

    Find it Locally and on Amazon

    Elizabeth Woolsey – The Travels of Dr. Rebecca Harper: A Matter of Time

    It’s 1981, and Rebecca’s life is going exactly according to plan: a veterinary degree, a husband and daughter, and her first veterinary clinical position. She is set for life. But then the unexpected happens …

    Disoriented and desperate after a freak riding accident, she stumbles into the nearby town, which strongly resembles the set of a beloved Western television show from her childhood … and it’s 1857!

    Injured and alone, she’s afraid to share where and when she’s from. How will she survive in a world where women are second-rate? Now trapped in another world, she embarks on a desperate quest to return to her husband, daughter, and career.

    Rebecca uses her 20th century veterinary skills, knowledge, and modern values to make a new life for herself—and to survive. Her travels across the United States lead to encounters with historical people and events, including the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Jr., Mark Twain, and Clara Barton.

    Find it Locally and on Amazon

    Daniel Greene – Northern Dawn (Northern Wolf Series Book 4)

    War takes guts and luck to survive…but will it be enough?Wolf’s been promoted. He’s helped bring down one of the South’s greatest generals. Yet his country still has more to ask of him and the costliest war in America’s history rages on. Sheridan’s cavalry raids west to destroy Confederate infrastructure and divert attention from Grant’s movement south of the killing fields of Cold Harbor. Yet Wade Hampton and his rebel forces have something else in store for the Union Cavalry Corps. Wolf quickly finds himself in the hot seat of the largest all-cavalry battle of the war near Trevilian Station. Isolated and surrounded can they survive the coming Southern storm? Or will they be overrun and annihilated, a mere footnote in history?

    Find it Locally and on Amazon

    K.S. Jones – Tastefully Texas

    No matter where one travels in Texas, at practically any time of the year in cities large and small, some things remain constant: livestock shows, rodeos, and football—and Chef Mia Ellis rejected them all. With a culinary arts degree as proof that a cosmopolitan lifestyle awaited her, Mia left everything behind in favor of New York City.

    But when an emergency brings her back home, Mia finds herself completely unprepared for the town and the people she’s outgrown. Even with cooking—the only thing that has ever separated her from her hometown roots—and her on-hold job in N.Y.C. anchoring her to salvation, Mia has to find a way to earn money while she’s in town. Unfortunately, a dishwashing gig at an out-of-the-way bar and grill is all that’s available.

    It isn’t until Mia reconnects with Jace, her old high school sweetheart and heir to Texas Century Ranch, that she realizes she may still have a taste for Texas after all.

    Find it Locally and on Amazon


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

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction Award
    Enter Today!

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

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    Got a great Fiction Book? The 2024 Laramie Book Awards are open through the end of September until the date changes online!

    Blue button that says Enter a Writing Contest
    Submit to the Laramie Awards Today!
  • The 2024 M&M Hall of Fame for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mysteries!

    Curl up with a Cozy Mystery Today!

    Agatha Christie in front of the TARDIS, as played by Fenella Woolgar in the Dr Who episode The Unicorn and The Wasp.
    Agatha Christie in front of the TARDIS, as played by Fenella Woolgar in the Dr Who episode The Unicorn and The Wasp.

    Fall is the best time to enter the M&M Book Awards

    You have until September 30th to share your Novel with us and enter the 2024 CIBAs!

    Cozy Mystery Fiction Award

    This Division is dedicated to one of the most Well-known Mystery authors, Dame Agatha Christie. Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and so much more.

    WWI Nurse, Writer, Playwright (and record holder of longest running Stage Play, The Mousetrap which opened in 1952), and Archaeologist, the latter of which contributed greatly to her novels.

    When she wasn’t busy writing, She spent quite a good amount of her life working on excavations in Egypt and Iraq with her 2nd Husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan.

    Agatha Christie (middle) with Max Mallowan and Leonard Woolley at the ruins of Ur in 1931

    But enough about Christie. The Hall of Fame features the Grand Prize Winners of the Mystery and Mayhem Award who we are proud to have in the Chanticleer Family!

    A Haunting at Linley: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
    By Michelle Cox

    In this seventh book of the series, Clive and Henrietta return to England to find Castle Linley in financial ruin. When Clive’s cousin, Wallace, invites an estate agent in to assess the home’s value, the agent is later found poisoned, throwing all of the Castle’s guests into suspicion. Clive and Henrietta are soon drawn into an investigation, which is slowed by an incompetent local inspector and several unexplained phenomena—the cause of which many, especially the frail Lady Linley, believe to be the workings of the ghost of a hanged maid.

    Meanwhile, Gunther and Elsie have begun life on a farm in Omaha. Circumstances are difficult, but they are content—until Oldrich Exely appears, proposing an option Elsie finds difficult to ignore. Melody Merriweather, still masquerading as a nun to aid Elsie’s escape, likewise finds it difficult to ignore a letter with tragic news from home, while Julia, on the other hand, receives a very different sort of letter from Glenn Forbes.

    Back in England, Clive is called away to London on suspicious business, leaving Henrietta to carry on with the investigation alone. When she is mysteriously locked in the study one night, however, things take on a more deadly, supernatural feel, leaving her to fear that Lady Linley’s “ghost” might just be real after all…

    Order it today!

    A Spying Eye Cover

    A Spying Eye: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
    By Michelle Cox

    Brooding Château du Freudeneck, just outside Strasbourg, France has villains in the drawing rooms, stolen art hidden in the cellars, and bats in the belfry – all the best elements for a 19th-century Gothic mystery.

    However, in Michelle Cox’s novel, A Spying Eye it’s the 20th century. The Great War is passed, but the next war already looms on the horizon. The people of Strasbourg feel the growing conflict sharply, at the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, a fertile region that has been contested between France and Germany since time immemorial.

    Which means those bats are in the unfortunate head of the elderly Baron Von Harmon, the current lord and master (as much as he’s still able to be, at least) of the Chateau, while the stolen art is pursued by both the villainous Nazis and the only slightly-less villainous agents of Britain’s MI5.

    Read More Here

    Ophelia's Room Cover

    Ophelia’s Room
    By Michael Scott Garvin

    Ophelia’s Room by Michael Scott Garvin begins with a bang – and a child’s whimper.

    A frantic, distraught father pounds on a bolted chapel door in a small country hospital…. A tiny, two-day-old infant cries in peril….  A deranged grandfather sees demons in every shadowy corner.

    The opening scene read like something out of a young parent’s nightmare. Will their child be healthy? Will they grow up to be successful? Will the child be safe in their grandparents’ arms?  Questions that any new mother and father ask themselves. In Garvin’s Ophelia’s Room, the answers are terrifying.

    Read More Here

    The Discovery Book Cover Image

    The Discovery
    By Patrick M. Garry

    Patrick M. Garry’s The Discovery encompasses a narrative that traverses a family legal case jigsaw puzzle toward a discovery of self by exploring the ghost of ancient regrets, basic human desires, and questions of faith.

    Frank Horgan, a former lawyer at one of Minneapolis’ largest firms, now practices small-case litigation in the little community of Basswood Hills. Frank, a victim of his own follies, has one more chance to restore his career to its former glory. But not before a huge legal matter comes knocking on his door at his father’s diner. This case kicks off the legal drama, bringing in several main and secondary characters to play their parts in the ultimate discovery of buried contentedness and eventually a scandal that breaks into the national newspaper.

    Meanwhile, Frank comes upon the case of the most prominent McCorkle family in Basswood Hills.

    Read More Here

    Dharma, A Rekha Rao Mystery
    By Vee Kumari

    A complex murder mystery always requires a little spice. In Dharma, A Rekha Rao Mystery, that extra seasoning is provided by the casting of an Indian American woman as the amateur sleuth, despite her realistic fears for her personal safety.

    Professor Rekha Rao is no Bollywood Mighty Girl. She’s a whip-smart American-born 32-year-old college instructor who must deal with her own PTSD after the murder of her father and her unstoppable passion for releasing the man wrongly convicted of her father’s slaying. That obsession is the reason Rekha was dismissed from her old teaching position. The scene is set for deep, personal involvement in the murder of a colleague, a fellow professor who is killed. And a rare, centuries-old statue excavated from an archeological dig in India is the murder weapon.

    Read More Here

    A Promise Given
    By Michelle Cox

    With a much-anticipated wedding is in the works, but family complications and entanglements threaten the celebration, when is love A Promise Given, and when is it a compromise taken?

    Amidst tribulations of friends and family, the smart and beautiful Henrietta, and the intense Inspector Clive Howard say, “I do.” Now the loving couple will learn how to be Mr. and Mrs. Howard on their honeymoon in England with his relatives at Castle Linley, where intrigue and mystery await their arrival.

    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 Hearten Winners is to Enter Today!

    The Chanticleer Int'l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize sticker for the CIBAs

    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

  • The 2024 Hearten Book Awards Hall of Fame for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction

    Take a deep breathe and smile

    A book covered in flower petals with the pages formed into a heart

    The Hearten Awards are here to bring you joy, and maybe a few tears with some of these excellent books

    **Your Story is Worth Sharing**

    You have until September 30th to share your uplifting memoir with us and enter the 2024 CIBAs!

    Enter by September 30, 2024

    Uplifting and heartwarming work is a vanishingly rare thing these days, and we love having an Awards Division that can inspire readers and writers alike. The Hearten Awards seeks true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more.

    Join us in celebrating the Hall of Fame for Grand Prize Winners of the Hearten Awards

    Running Away from the Circus Cover

    Running Away From the Circus
    By Nove Meyers

    Debut author Nove Meyers breathes life into the big tent of human aspirations and desperations, from his birth into a raucous circus atmosphere to his diligent study for Catholic priesthood.

    Running Away from the Circus is a vibrant chronicle that opens with a vignette of his grandmother, clad in sequins and flying on a trapeze. She spun like a top to enthusiastic applause under the circus tent, until the fateful day when she included her young child in the act, dropping her thirty feet to the sawdust-covered floor below. But this did not prevent Nove Meyers from being born and having a story to tell.

    The boyhood described was as wild as the circus acts. He was encouraged to smoke cigarettes like his father and watched in astonishment as his mother burned up paper money, possibly to protect his uncle, a counterfeiter. Yet despite his unusual upbringing as one of the family’s third generation of circus owners, Meyers was taken regularly to Catholic church services. There, he discovered God, an entity as mysterious as the traveling circus and carnie crowds he was raised among.

    Read more here!

    Inner Trek Cover

    INNER TREK – a reluctant pilgrim to the Himalayas
    By Mohan Ranga Rao

    A disinclined traveler journeys into the heartland of the revered Mount Kalash Parikarma in Tibet. Inner Trek by Mohan Ranga Rao follows a voyage that culminates in self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment.

    Mohan Ranga Rao, a retired Indian businessman, finds himself between a rock and a hard place when a ruthless Bangalore mob boss threatens him to sell his land at a throwaway price. The situation escalates when he discovers that his trusted lawyer has joined forces with the enemy. He can only turn to his wife for solace.

    With nothing for him to do about his land, Rao vows to trek around Mount Kailash, a holy Tibetan Mountain. This travel memoir traces his and his wife’s journey to the deified Himalayas, the land of Lord Shiva. Rao shares intimate details of his experience, including the spiritual transformation that he went through during his challenging high-altitude trek.

    Read more here!

    DAWGS Cover

    DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids Who Rescued Them
    by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo

    We love our dogs. We love our cats. But what do we do when people no longer want them, use them for cruel purposes, or release them into the streets with no thought for what will happen to them? Diane Trull’s memoir with Meredith Wargo, DAWGS, shines a light on these questions.

    Trull begins the story as a fourth-grade teacher in Dalhart, Texas. One of her young students asks about an article in a local paper showing photos of adorable dogs at a shelter who were up for adoption, wondering what happened to those who weren’t adopted.

    Instead of dodging the question, and with great trepidation, she answered it with the truth: those who weren’t adopted would be put to sleep. Her tiny students were understandably shocked. Then one of them said, “I don’t want any of those dogs to die. Isn’t there something we can do to save them?”

    Read more here!

    Love Life & Lucille Cover

    Love, Life, and Lucille
    By Judy Gaman

    Award-winning author, motivational speaker, and podcast host Judy Gaman befriends a fun-loving and feisty centenarian in her CIBA Grand Prize-winning novel, Love, Life, and Lucille.

    The list of titles and accolades Judy Gaman has accrued begin to pale when she encounters Lucille Fleming for the very first time. The whole reason for the meet-up with the centenarian was specifically to get her opinions on “aging gracefully,” the featured topic of a new book Judy planned to write. What was scheduled as an hour-long interview turned into an absolutely delightful, near three-hour visit. Lucille turned the tables and began asking questions about Judy’s life with compelling earnestness—something Judy rarely experienced. She was unprepared yet exhilarated.

    Judy couldn’t stop thinking about this “dressed to the nines” woman with an ear-to-ear smile and a sturdy, affectionate hug. Her contact with this larger-than-life woman was so infectious, Judy made up an excuse—so that she could see her again. During that second meeting, the two became fast friends as they set Fridays aside as their day to get together. Before their next planned meeting, Judy learned that Lucille had gone into cardiac arrest. She was dead for three minutes before she came back full of vim and vigor as if nothing had happened. Five months later, Lucille was more than ready for TV interviews. With that, Judy made plans to write a second book about Lucille and their relationship.

    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 Hearten Winners is to enter today!

    The Chanticleer Int'l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize sticker for the CIBAs

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

    The Blue and Gold Best Book Awards for the CIBAs
    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

     

  • The Laramie 2024 Hall of Fame for Americana Fiction!

    The Frontier is calling

    Submit your Americana, Western or Civil War Novels to the CIBAs!

    western themed porch with a barrel, bottles, and a hat and banjo on a chair***Tell your story today***

    You have until September 30th to share your Story with us and enter the 2024 Laramie Division of the CIBAs!

    Laramie Awards for Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction Award

    Charles M. Russell painted the cowboy seen on Chanticleer’s very own Laramie contest badge. It is one of many such paintings he did that encompassed the Old American Wild West. An advocate for the Native Americans, Charles M. Russell also helped establish a reservation in Montana for the Chippewa people.

    Our Laramie Hall of Fame Celebrates the Grand Prize Winners of now and past years!

    The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery
    By Thomas Goodman

    In The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery by Thomas Goodman, four men in a small, depression-era Texas town lay in wait to carry out their unique plan for a holiday heist.

    It’s December 23 and a man in a Santa Claus suit walks into a bank. But rather than his bag full of Christmas surprises, he’s brought a gun. With the element of surprise on their side, the robber and his two partners would collect the cash, while another partner waited in the getaway car. It all seemed so simple.

    At the time, Texas bankers—in order to deter crimes such as this—promised a $5,000 reward for any dead bandits, “and not one cent” for the capture of a live one. Should anything go wrong, the possibilities for disaster were clear as a Greek tragedy. but what could go wrong?

    Full review to come! Buy the book here!

    Guarded Hearts Cover

    Guarded Hearts
    By T.K. Conklin

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

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

    LaRisa has kept her distance from people, afraid of her gift of healing touch that can turn dangerous, even deadly. But, when she comes to town to deliver her medicinal herbs, she makes her way to the livery with tasks for Strykes such as shoeing her horse or fixing a spring in her wagon. He is only too happy to oblige the auburn-haired beauty. The attraction between them is instantaneous, yet they both are hesitant to act on it, fearing they would hurt the other– he from his violent past, and she from her “witch” power.

    Read More Here

    Tom Sawyer Returns
    By E.E. Burke

    Tom Sawyer Returns is the second book in The New Adventures series by author E.E. Burke.

    Readers join a now grown up and far more independent Becky Thatcher as she maneuvers her complicated life in Civil War era Mississippi. Tom has long since left, and Becky is engaged to Union Captain Alfred Temple, who offers her all the safety and security she needs in such uncertain times. But does she love him? Actually love him?

    Becky soon discovers that her heart may have other plans.

    Read More Here

    Cover of Trouble The Water by Rebecca Dwight Bruff

    Trouble The Water
    By Rebecca Dwight Bruff
    Overall Grand Prize Winner

    Robert Smalls’ life should have been one for the history books.

    Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. When the first shots of the Civil War were fired upon Fort Sumter, Smalls was an experienced helmsman aboard a small cargo ship plying the coastal waters of South Carolina and the neighboring states. Once the war broke out, he found himself working to support a cause that kept him, his wife, and their children locked in chattel slavery.

    But in a daring escapade that fell somewhere between a raid and a rescue, Smalls planned, with the help of his fellow crew members (also slaves) aboard the CSS Planter, to abscond with the ship, its cargo of munitions taken from Fort Sumter, and bring their families. The plan was to sail the ship as though its white officers were still on board, pretending to be carrying out their orders—at least until the ship was out of the reach of Fort Sumter’s guns.

    Read More Here

    Seven Aprils
    By Eileen Charbonneau

    Disguised gender identities, warfare, and thwarted romance all play a role in this many-layered novel, Seven Aprils, by award-winning fiction author Eileen Charbonneau.

    When Tess Barton, a hardscrabble farm girl, saves the life of a man attacked by a panther, she and he little realize how fated this encounter will prove. Ryder Cole, the man she saved, moves on, pursuing a medical career just as the United States seems destined for war. Intrepid Tess will move on, too, when she learns that her widower father sells her in matrimony to an old, brutish shopkeeper. A wise crone cuts Tess’s hair and garbs her in men’s attire. Reborn as Tom Boyde, who will soon, strangely, meet up with Ryder and become one of his “men,” conscripted into Lincoln’s armies. Tess/Tom shows promise as a medical assistant with some undeniable cooking skills, and together with two other conscripts, they make the team in the Union’s army hospital units.

    Read More Here

    Blood Moon A Captives Tale
    By Ruth Hull Chatlien

    Ruth Hull Chatlien’s historical novel Blood Moon: A Captive’s Tale shines a light on two worlds trying to coexist in the 1860s Minnesota, that of Westward Expansion and white settlers, and that of the complex network of Sioux tribes dealing with starvation and disease. We follow her protagonist, Mrs. Sarah Wakefield, as she is thrust unwillingly into the midst of the Indian Wars.

    Based loosely on the life of real captive, Sarah Wakefield, Chatlien explores both sides of this conflict, through the eyes of our terrified hero, who does what she must to save her life and the lives of her two small children. The first-person narrative in present tense places us in the thick of Wakefield’s narrow escapes, and the presence of the constant threats to her and her children.

    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 Laramie Winners is to submit today!

    The Chanticleer Int'l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize sticker for the CIBAs

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

    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

  • SIX days left to enter the Clue and M&M Book Awards!

    Eight Divisions close at the end of September!

    Don’t let your book miss out!

    Only 6 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 Clue Award for Thriller and Suspense Fiction and The Mystery and Mayhem Awards for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mysteries are still open!

    Best Book Grand Prize for the Chanticleer Int'l Book AwardsCongratulations to the Winners of the 2023 M&M Awards for Cozy and Not-so-cozy Mystery!

    Cozy Mystery Fiction Award

    • Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
    • Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
    • Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
    • Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
    • Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
    • E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
    • Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death

    And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards Grand Prize Winner:

    A Haunting at Linley

    A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel

    by Michelle Cox 

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Clue Awards for Thriller and Suspense!

    Thriller Suspense Fiction Award

    • Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
    • Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
    • Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
    • Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
    • Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
    • Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery

    And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Clue Awards Grand Prize Winner:

    The Other Murder

    By Kevin G. Chapman

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    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.

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs (Chanticleer Int'l Book Awards)

    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!

    Blue button that says Enter a Writing Contest

    Your book deserves to be discovered

    Don’t Delay! Enter Today!

    The Clue Awards, and The M&M Awards

  • 10 Days Left to submit to the Dante Rossetti and Little Peeps Awards!

    Eight Divisions close at the end of September!

    Eight excellent divisions close at the end of September!

    Don’t let your book miss out!

    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 Dante Rossetti Award for Young Adult Fiction and The Little Peeps Awards for Children’s and Early Readers are still open!

    Best Book Grand Prize for the Chanticleer Int'l Book AwardsCongratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Dante Rossetti Awards for YA Fiction!

    Dante Rossetti Awards for YA Fiction

    • Kerry Chaput – Chasing Eleanor
    • Lynn Yvonne Moon – Fish Scales
    • Sophia Krich-Brinton – A Song Like the Wind
    • J.A. Nielsen – The Claiming
    • Trish MacEnulty – Cinnamon Girl
    • S.R. Klusman – Luna: Book 2 of The Adventures of Rhone & Stone

    And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Dante Rossetti Awards Grand Prize Winner:

    Sour Flower

    manuscript

    by Maryanne Melloan Woods

    blue and gold badge recognizing Sour Flower by Maryanne Melloan Woods for winning the 2023 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize

     

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Little Peeps Awards for Children’s and Early Readers!

    Early Readers and Picture books

    • Beth Davis – Lacinda the Lion is a Super Youneek Beast
    • Adalgisa and David Nico – Fish in the Desert: The Untold Story of the Death Valley Pupfish
    • Ruth Amanda – Geckos in the Garden
    • Jonna Laster – Nutshell Regatta
    • Shaziya M. Jaffer, Brad W. Rudover , Jessica Alexanderson – The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans
    • T.K. Sheffield – The Night Icelandic Horses Saved Christmas Eve
    • Raven Howell – Friends Come in all Sizes

    And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Clue Awards Grand Prize Winner:

    The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans
    by
    Shaziya M. Jaffer, Brad W. Rudover, Jessica Alexanderson

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    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.

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs (Chanticleer Int'l Book Awards)

    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!


    The Dante Rossetti Awards and The Little Peeps Awards are waiting for you!

  • The 2024 M&M Mystery and Mayhem Awards Spotlight for Cozy & Not-so-Cozy Fiction

    Got a Marketing Mystery for your Cozy Mystery?

    Cozy Mystery Fiction Award

    Solve it by entering the M&M Book Awards!

    The Mystery and Mayhem Awards is inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, one of the most influential crime writers in history, and along with Arthur Conan Doyle, led to the prevalence of the British Crime genre, in both TV and Books. M&M focuses on Cozy Mysteries, where the violence is often pushed aside, and the Amateur Sleuth reigns supreme. Why have Police and Detectives solve a mystery when meddling old ladies like Miss Marple can do it better.

    In contrast to this we have the Clue Awards. Clue is the more violent, gritty, thriller and suspense type mysteries.

    The Categories for the M&M Awards are:

    • Amateur Sleuth
    • Romantic Mystery
    • Historical Mystery
    • Classic/ British Cozy
    • Mystery Caper/ Adventure
    • Animal Mystery
    • Small Town Cozy Mystery
    • Blended Genre
    You know you want it…

    Enter Today!

    We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of the Mystery & Mayhem Awards who have already started to make their mark on the genre!

    • Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
    • Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
    • Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
    • Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
    • Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
    • E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
    • Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death

    The Grand Prize Winner for the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:

    A Haunting at Linley

    A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel

    By Michelle Cox

    Blue and gold badge recognizing A Haunting at Linley by Michelle Cox for winning the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Grand Prize


    And now it is our pleasure to highlight some of the best Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mystery Books we’ve had the pleasure of reading this summer!

    IF TWO ARE DEAD: A Garnick & Paschal Mystery
    By Jeanne Matthews

    If Two Are Dead Cover

    An enigmatic raven-haired beauty mysteriously murdered and cast into a stranger’s grave, left for scurrilous resurrection men to uncover in the dark of night! In Jeanne Matthews’s historical mystery If Two Are Dead, Detectives Quinn Paschal and Gabriel Garnick take up this case of vicious murder and ignite a mire of secrets and resentment at the pinnacle of 1867 Chicago society.

    After catching the body-snatchers in the act of stealing a freshly buried corpse to sell for medical research, Quinn and Garnick realize the body found in Emmett Buck’s grave is by no means that of a young man, but that of a woman, whose bloody head and clean clothes point to a complex mystery. With only her appearance and some identifying jewelry, Quinn insists they can and will catch the killer of ‘Marietta A.V.’ Enlisting the help of an unscrupulous journalist, they locate her husband, a wealthy and influential doctor.

    The woman’s husband, Dr. Horace E. Vinings, offers them an incredible reward if they can find Marietta’s killer. But Quinn and Garnick suspect he might not like the answer he receives.

    Read more here!

    PARALLEL SECRETS
    By ML Barrs

    Parallel Secrets Cover

    In the small Missouri town of Walkers Corner, it seems everyone has a dark secret. In Parallel Secrets by ML Barrs, a TV journalist comes to town to do a magazine piece on a missing girl and begins uncovering many of those hidden stories.

    Motivated by feelings of guilt for not following up on a previous unsolved case, Vicky Robeson’s joins the search for the missing child. She’s tenacious in her investigation. As a TV station journalist currently between jobs, she has well-honed investigative skills, specifically in her ability to wheedle stories from even the most reluctant people. She’s familiar with Walkers Corner; and  as a reporter for a St. Louis TV station, she covered the case of a never-identified mystery girl. She believes the two cases are connected. The similarities that link these cases to her own experiences as a child make her unable to let this new story go.

    Safe to say, her investigating is not welcomed by most of the locals in this close-knit town.

    Read more here!

    THE GHOST In The GARDEN
    By Alisse Lee Goldenberg

    The Ghost in the Garden Cover

    In Alisse Goldberg’s engaging young adult mystery, The Ghost in the Garden, a curious 11-year-old must face the challenges of moving to a new city, losing old friends, making new ones, and encountering historic specters in her new home.

    Sophie Madison seems none too happy about her recent move from the bustling city of Calgary, Ablerta to the smaller, quieter landscape of Stratford, Ontario. But upon arrival with her parents, she begins noticing the charm of the place, appearing like a step back in time. Their new house in particular catches her interest, with its tall turret topped by stained glass window panes where Sophie’s bedroom will be. In addition, the wild beauty of the backyard garden draws her in.

    Soon, a mysterious blonde-headed girl named Tabitha appears in the garden.

    Read more here!

    THINGS UNSEEN
    By David T. Isaak

    Things Unseen Cover

    After the murder of his sister, Dr. Walker Claybourne journeys to the Yucca Valley to wrap up Claire’s affairs– including the investigation, in David T. Isaak’s mystery novel, Things Unseen.

    As a geology professor at the University of California in San Diego, a leading authority on volcanic landforms of the Southwest, Walker lives a life as solid and routine as the very rocks he studies. He has his tenure, his condo, and his quiet existence. On sabbatical to write a textbook, Walker plans on staying in Claire’s rented house just long enough to pack her things. However, he isn’t there long before guilt sets in as he realizes how little he knew his only sister.

    With his parents both dead and his only other sibling teaching at Cambridge, Walker realizes how very alone he is, and he decides to investigate Claire’s murder.

    Read more here!


    Thank you to these authors for sharing these wonderful mysteries with us!

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    We hope to see your work in the 2024 M&M Awards!

    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

  • The 2024 Clue Spotlight for Thriller/Suspense

    Lock Your Doors and Leave the Lights on!

    Thriller Suspense Fiction Award

    The Clue Awards are the Darker Side of Mysteries!

    The Clue Award is our Division for the more gritty, darker, crime noir type mystery novels. For the light hearted, cozy mysteries see the Mystery & Mayhem Award.

    While most of our categories in this Award are for fictional mysteries, unlike the other Fiction Divisions, Clue also has a Non-Fiction category for True Crime and Investigation books. Instead of putting it into a Non-Fiction Division we took a note from what many bookstores do and put the Non-fiction Mysteries with the Fictional ones.

    Book Riot featured the differences between True Crime and Thrillers:

    True crime aficionados liked the deep dive into the psychology of it all. Jack El-Hai, a true crime writer who recently published The Lost Brothers, wrote, “I’m only an occasional reader of murder mysteries. Many fictional works about murder are about finding out who did it, and the narrative concludes with that discovery or with catching the perpetrator. I’m more interested in why they did it and the aftermath for everyone affected by the crime.”

    True Crime books can also be very important on bringing light to unsolved crimes and helping to solve them. Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, which after the authors death, her husband, actor Patton Oswalt, worked with some other writers to finish the book. It was finally published 2 months before the arrest of The Golden State Killer. While her book did not directly affect finding the perpetrator, it did bring crucial publicity towards a largely forgotten case. It was later turned into an HBO documentary series!

    The Categories of the Clue Awards are:

    • Detective/Crime
    • Suspense/Thriller
    • Private Eye/Noir
    • Legal/Medical/Police Procedural
    • US Political Thriller
    • Spy/Espionage/Undercover
    • True Crime/Investigation
    It would be a crime to miss out!

    Don’t Delay! Enter Today!

    We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of the Clue Awards who have already started to make their mark on the genre!

    • Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
    • Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
    • Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
    • Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
    • Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
    • Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery

    The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 CLUE Awards is:

    The Other Murder

    By Kevin G. Chapman

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    We’re excited to feature Kevin and our other winners, but before we do that, here are some of the best reviewed Thrillers that have come our way recently!

    ECHO From A BAYOU
    By J. Luke Bennecke

    Echo from a Bayou Cover

    John Bastian’s life is falling apart, but after a serious accident, he gains another one. In J. Luke Bennecke’s suspense thriller, Echo from a Bayou, John must tie up the loose ends of a man who died decades ago.

    One misfortune after another beats John down. His wife divorces him, and his California business is going bust. On a ski trip to boost his mood, he fails to save a man from falling to his death out of a slopes-bound cable car. The next day, on the mountain, John slams head-first into a tree.

    He’s not the only one who wakes up in his hospital bed.

    Read more here!

    THE EXCURSION
    By T.O. Paine

    The Excursion Cover

    The Excursion by T.O. Paine is a horror thriller with enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most jaded reader.

    Two people tell this story. Charly, a woman in her 30s, faces her emotionally damaged family. Randall, meanwhile, works as an agent of Zaroff Excursions, a hunting club for the uber-wealthy with an interest in an extreme form of hunting where the prey is much more intelligent than a deer or bear.

    On a cold Thanksgiving weekend, Charly and a few other members of her family travel to an isolated cabin in the mountains above Denver. Her car gets stuck in a snowdrift, leaving her stranded, but that’s only the start of her trouble. She finds that the cabin has been rented by Randall’s company for that same weekend, forcing her family to share the lodge with strangers.

    Read more here!

    REVELATIONS: Ro Delahanty Series Book 6
    By Dave Lager

    Revelations Cover

    Ro Delahanty bears heavy weights on her shoulders—a decades old conspiracy, the complexities of polyamorous love, and troubling family secrets—all of which she will begin to face in Revelations, book 6 of Dave Lager’s Ro Delahanty series.

    The wealthy, powerful Pribyl family is up to something sinister in their new scrap shipment business, Ro is sure of it. But she has to prove it to herself before she can even start to convince anyone else. And as much as she’d like to dive head-first into that mystery, she has many more problems to solve as a Fort Armstrong County Sergeant Deputy.

    An unsanctioned party threatens to become a dangerous mob, setting fire to a half-constructed house. Ro’s bold, decisive nature comes under fire from a rival at the Sheriff’s office. Worse, a major change in that office could upend the foundation of Ro’s life and even rob her of the comradery she and her colleagues rely on.

    Read more here!

    IDENTIFIED: A Hacker Thriller
    By John Wilander

    Identified Cover

    Identified by John Wilander is a dystopian novel about the omniscient power of our potential cyber future.

    West, a young man, spent 15 years in prison for hacking government systems. His mother, a highly visible activist against his imprisonment, is also trying unsuccessfully to get her health insurance to pay for her fight against a deadly medical condition. In Identified West believes the government is responsible for illegally blocking her insurance and vows to find out who’s behind the effort and put his mom back on the insurance rolls.

    This is no easy task. Cybersecurity is now a fully linked global enterprise called the G20S, an expansion of today’s G20 nations. Virtually every form of human activity across the world can be logged by the system. It will take a small crew of talented hackers who call themselves the Survivors to develop unique hacker tools for West to break into the system, find the guilty, and get his mother insured. At every point, success could slip out of their grasp.

    Read more here!


    Thank you to these wonderful authors for sharing their spine-tingling reads with us!

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    We hope to see your work in the 2024 Clue Awards!

    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

  • The 2024 Hearten Award Spotlight for Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction

    Tell Us Your Story!

    The Hearten Awards are here for your Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction!

    The Hearten Awards is one of our 6 Non-Fiction Divisions. Specifically, it covers Uplifting and Inspiring Memoirs. If you have written a book about yours, or someone else’s life story that can inspire others, Submit it to us!

    The Categories for the Hearten Awards are:

    • Humorous
    • Motivational
    • Advice/Inspiration
    • Family and Chosen Family
    • Self Discovery/Coming of Age

    We are happy to Celebrate the 2023 Hearten Award Winners!

    • Lisa Niver – Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
    • Lally Pia – The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor
    • Tony Jeton Selimi – A Path to Excellence
    • Trudy Wells-Meyer – Some Things Are Simply Meant to Be
    • Aurita Maldonado – The Zen of Dancing in the Rain: Becoming One with the Storm

    The Grand Prize Winner of The 2023 Hearten Award is:

    Running Away From the Circus

    by Nove Meyers

    Running Away from the Circus Cover

    blue and gold badge recognizing Running Away From the Circus by Nove Meyers for winning the 2023 Hearten Grand Prize

    Submit today to join this list of winners!

    The Hearten Awards are open until the end of September! We’ll leave you with some of our favorite uplifting reads that have come through lately!

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    DIAMOND: The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan
    By Etsuko Diamond Miyagi

    Diamond Cover

    In a world ravaged by conflict and loss, Etsuko Diamond Miyagi’s memoir, Diamond: The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan is a shining testament to the beauty of love and the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity.

    Etsuko enjoys a peaceful childhood on the Philippine island of Mindanao, where her father owns an abacá plantation. But they are not safe when guerilla forces destroy her village murdering everyone and leaving her as the sole survivor. This deeply personal narrative of grief chronicles Etsuko’s harrowing journey to find solace and joy after the death of her parents.

    At first, passed from house to house, Etsuko is forced to work as a domestic servant until a kind family takes her in. However, her safety and survival is once again in danger when she’s forced to leave her adopted family and take a position at Chief Doming Apostol’s estate in Magpet. It is there Etsuko receives the name ‘Diamond.’

    Read more here!

    A PATH To EXCELLENCE
    By Tony Jeton Selimi

    Hearten First Place Winner

    On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt, A Path to Excellence by Tony Jeton Selimi offers a blueprint—the octagon of excellence—to succeed personally, professionally, and spiritually.

    Transcending the pitfalls and spontaneous stumbling blocks along the path of life can open the door to self-actualization and progression. As someone who experienced bullying, sexual abuse, early disability, and homelessness, Selimi sets on to become a beacon of light to the hopeless and marginalized.

    Within each soul lies a bud of genius waiting to blossom. This book focuses on purpose, vision, and persistence to clear the way to that fullest potential. Affirming challenges as immutable truths of life, Selimi employs Buddhist teaching and personal anecdotes to encourage a head-on confrontation with one’s struggles and promotes a feeling of gratitude. As a blend of philosophical wisdom and practical experience, the initial chapters help readers acknowledge their current life situation, perceiving challenges as epochs of potential.

    Read more here!

    DAWGS
    By Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo
    Hearten Grand Prize Winner

    DAWGS Cover

    We love our dogs. We love our cats. But what do we do when people no longer want them, use them for cruel purposes, or release them into the streets with no thought for what will happen to them? Diane Trull’s memoir with Meredith Wargo, DAWGS, shines a light on these questions.

    Trull begins the story as a fourth-grade teacher in Dalhart, Texas. One of her young students asks about an article in a local paper showing photos of adorable dogs at a shelter who were up for adoption, wondering what happened to those who weren’t adopted.

    Instead of dodging the question, and with great trepidation, she answered it with the truth: those who weren’t adopted would be put to sleep. Her tiny students were understandably shocked. Then one of them said, “I don’t want any of those dogs to die. Isn’t there something we can do to save them?”

    Read more here!

    LOVE, LIFE and LUCILLE
    By Judy Gaman
    Hearten First Place Winner

    Love Life & Lucille Cover

    Award-winning author, motivational speaker, and podcast host Judy Gaman befriends a fun-loving and feisty centenarian in her CIBA Grand Prize-winning novel, Love, Life, and Lucille.

    The list of titles and accolades Judy Gaman has accrued begin to pale when she encounters Lucille Fleming for the very first time. The whole reason for the meet-up with the centenarian was specifically to get her opinions on “aging gracefully,” the featured topic of a new book Judy planned to write. What was scheduled as an hour-long interview turned into an absolutely delightful, near three-hour visit. Lucille turned the tables and began asking questions about Judy’s life with compelling earnestness—something Judy rarely experienced. She was unprepared yet exhilarated.

    Judy couldn’t stop thinking about this “dressed to the nines” woman with an ear-to-ear smile and a sturdy, affectionate hug. Her contact with this larger-than-life woman was so infectious, Judy made up an excuse—so that she could see her again. During that second meeting, the two became fast friends as they set Fridays aside as their day to get together. Before their next planned meeting, Judy learned that Lucille had gone into cardiac arrest. She was dead for three minutes before she came back full of vim and vigor as if nothing had happened. Five months later, Lucille was more than ready for TV interviews. With that, Judy made plans to write a second book about Lucille and their relationship.

    Read more here!


    Thank you for cheering on these Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction Books!

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    We hope to see your work in the 2024 Hearten Awards!

    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.

  • The 2024 Laramie Awards Spotlight for Americana Fiction

    Don’t Spare the Horses!

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction AwardThe Laramie Awards are only open through the end of September!

    Tales of frontier life steeped in historic places and dates have long captivated readers of all ages. From Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series to The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, these stories give readers a glimpse into what was or what may have been. This Americana genre focuses mostly on Western/Pioneer/Civil War stories but can easily contain sub-genres including mystery, romance, and adventure as long as they are dressed with the American West or South as a backdrop. This division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) is meant to celebrate stories that evoke the rough-and-tumble nature of the Wild West, the heartbreaking croon of a lonesome cowboy by his fire, and the overly perfumed air of a small town saloon.

    The Categories for the Laramie Award are:

    • Western Romance
    • Adventure/Caper
    • Classic
    • Civil War/Prairie/Pioneer
    • Contemporary Western
    • Americana
    • First Nations

    If you’re looking to shine a lantern on your work, submit to the Laramie Awards today! If you’re just a fan of some good ol’ fashioned themes coloring your experience, take a look at some of the previous Laramie Award winners.

    We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of the Laramie Awards!

    • Barbara Salvatore – The Trail to Niobrara
    • T.K. Conklin – Promise of Spring
    • Elizabeth Woolsey – The Travels of Dr. Rebecca Harper A Matter of Time
    • Daniel Greene – Northern Dawn (Northern Wolf Series Book 4)
    • K.S. Jones – Tastefully Texas

    The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 LARAMIE Awards is:

    The Last Man

    A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery

    by Thomas Goodman

    Blue and Gold badge recognizing The Last Man by Thomas Goodman for winning the 2023 Laramie Grand Prize

    More articles will come out celebrating those Laramie Awards Winners this month! For now, we’d like you to join us in celebrating these amazing books in the genre we’ve recently received!

    A Gold Ribbon dividing this section from the next

    BED of CONSPIRACY
    By Juliette Douglas
    Laramie First Place Winner

    Bed of Conspiracy Cover

    Growing up alone on the streets of Saint Louis in the mid-1870s, nineteen-year-old Samantha Davis has had to fight for everything.

    When she rescues Colonel Brady from armed attackers, she isn’t trying to be a hero or land a dangerous new job, but the moment Brady sees her deadly aim and unparalleled courage, he knows he’s found his new undercover agent. Brady has been tasked with infiltrating the KGC, the Knights of the Golden Circle, a group of Southern sympathizers hellbent on bringing down the government in a Confederate uprising.

    Brady believes Sam will be the perfect partner for Ross Cooper, a veteran agent who spends his off-time as a trail boss in Kansas. However, Ross is less than thrilled with Brady’s choice of the untrained, bad-tempered girl. Despite his misgivings, Ross agrees to team-up with Sam, and the two go undercover as Jim and Virginia Van Meter, a newlywed couple from South Carolina visiting Washington. After being introduced to Adam Mundy, the leader of this cell of the KGC, Ross (aka Jim) agrees to use his shipping business to help the Confederate cause.

    Read more here!

    TOM SAWYER RETURNS
    By E.E. Burke
    Laramie Grand Prize Winner

    Tom Sawyer Returns is the second book in The New Adventures series by author E.E. Burke.

    Readers join a now grown up and far more independent Becky Thatcher as she maneuvers her complicated life in Civil War era Mississippi. Tom has long since left, and Becky is engaged to Union Captain Alfred Temple, who offers her all the safety and security she needs in such uncertain times. But does she love him? Actually love him?

    Becky soon discovers that her heart may have other plans.

    Read more here!

    MATAMOROS
    By James Kahn
    Laramie First Place Winner

    Matamoros Cover Image

    With the American Civil War as a grisly backdrop, James Kahn shines a light onto the real old West in his latest novel, Matamoros: Civil War Adventure, Romance and Espionage in an Old West Border Town.

    The tiny Mexican town of Matamoros becomes a haven for traders, traitors, ex-slaves, and card sharks. Bring the war into the mix with Northern and Southern agents, both self-appointed and official, and the result is perfect for plenty to go wrong.

    Clayton Wilkes owns the Brave River Gambling Emporium and can smile and shoot almost in the same breath.

    Read more here!

    ROLLING HOME
    By David Fitz-Gerald
    Series Grand Prize Winner

    Rolling Home Cover

    David Fitz-Gerald concludes the Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series with a grand finale for an eclectic cast of characters, as the long wagon train is finally Rolling Home to their new lives in the wild west of Oregon.

    With the end of the trail just out of reach, however, their hopes dwindle and their hunger rages. The rigor of the western environment continues to test their determination and threaten vows of heartfelt romance. These weary people ache and mourn losses, while seeking new ways to survive and pull each other forward in the face of impending winter.

    This wagon train of travelers will also face venomous villains who have been lurking in the shadows, outlaws waiting for their best opportunity to pounce.

    Read more here!

    Note: David Fitz-Gerald’s entire series of Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail is excellent. You can read all our reviews for it here.

    GUARDED HEARTS
    By T.K. Conklin
    Laramie Grand Prize Winner

    Guarded Hearts Cover

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

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

    LaRisa has kept her distance from people, afraid of her gift of healing touch that can turn dangerous, even deadly. But, when she comes to town to deliver her medicinal herbs, she makes her way to the livery with tasks for Strykes such as shoeing her horse or fixing a spring in her wagon. He is only too happy to oblige the auburn-haired beauty. The attraction between them is instantaneous, yet they both are hesitant to act on it, fearing they would hurt the other– he from his violent past, and she from her “witch” power.

    Read more here!


    Give another three cheers for the amazing Westerns and Americana Fiction here!

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    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.

    Submit to the Laramie Awards today!