Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: CBR

The 2024 Series Awards Short List for Fiction and Non-Fiction!
The CIBA SERIES Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in any of our 16 Fiction Divisions and 7 Non-Fiction Divisions where the author has written a series. The Series Book Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) is seeking for the best book series in all of the CIBA Divisions. 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 from the 2024 Series Award LONG LIST to the 2024 Series Book Awards 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.

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 Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2024 Series Book Awards competition!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back To One
- John J. Spearman – Mercenary Navy
- Alan B. Gibson – Magic at Myers Beach
- D. L. Wilburn Jr. – The God Protocol
- Jule Selbo – Dee Rommel Mystery Series
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Yoga Mat Mysteries
- Evette Davis – The Council Trilogy
- Taryn R. Hutchison – A Cold War Trilogy
- Laurie Buchanan – Sean Mcpherson Novels
- Kari Bovee – The Pryce of Murder
- April Sebree – Through the Woods
- M.K. Dean – The Ginny Reese Mysteries
- Sandra Wagner-Wright – Salem Stories
- Valerie Green – The McBride Chronicles
- Jeff Nania – Northern Lakes Mystery series
- J.L. Oakley – The Jossing series
- Mike Murphey – Tales of Physics, Lust and Greed
- Rose Prendeville – Brides of Chattan
- TK Sheffield – The Backyard Model Mysteries
- Eve M Riley – The Techboys series
- Steven Joseph – Snoodles Book Series
- Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Jake Fortina Series
- Karen Inglis – Secret Lake Mystery Adventures
- Anika Savoy – Ungilded
- Michael J Bowler – The Lance Chronicles
- D.V. Chernov – Nick Severs Mysteries
- McKendree Long – The Superstition Gun
- E. Alan Fleischauer – Just Die Series
- R.w. Meek – The Dream Collector
- Tim Facciola – A Vengeful Realm
- Glen Dahlgren – The Chronicles of Chaos
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2023 Series Grand Prize Winner

Ghosts Along The Oregon Trail

By David Fitz-Gerald

Click here to see the full list of 2023 Series Book Award Winners.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Series Book Awards for Fiction and Non-Fiction.

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!
January 14, 2025
The 2024 Somerset Awards Short List 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 Cygnus Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 from the 2024 SOMERSET Contemporary Fiction LONG LIST to the 2024 Somerset Book Awards SHORT LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2024 Somerset Semi-Finalists. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC25.

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 Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2024 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Contemporary and Literary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Conon Parks – Down and Out in Omaha
- Samantha Schinder – Loud Voices
- Rachel Valencourt – Twilight’s Brightest Star
- Torres & Firsht – Tell Me Your Plans
- Robert Steven Goldstein – Golda’s Hutch
- Natalie Musgrave Dossett – Sarita
- Robert Gwaltney – Sing Down the Moon
- Christina Boyd – Woman in the Painting
- Lisa Gruwell Spicer – Radio Smokva a Croatian American Story
- Maryann Clarke – Secrets at the Aviary Inn
- Wesley J. Wildman – The Winding Way Home
- Leslie Wibberley – The Unraveling of Emma Hill
- Leslie Kain – What Lies Buried
- Melissa Connelly – What Was Lost
- Abbe Rolnick – The Underpainting
- Alissa Butterworth – To Die Is Different Than Supposed
- Jonna Lyons Johnson – Tapping Light
- Neroli Lacey – The Perfumer’s Secret
- Zelly Ruskin – Not Yours to Keep
- Donna Norman-Carbone – Of Lies and Honey
- Julie Weary – Never, Ever, Always
- D. L. Whipple – The Outcast
- John W. Feist – Edged in Purple
- Graydon Dee Hubbard – Network Apprentice, Behind the Scenes in Talk Television
- William Robert Reeves – The In-House Politician
- Judith Krummeck – The Deceived Ones
- Reenita M. Hora – Vermilion Harvest – Playtime at the Bagh
- Keith McWalter – Lifers
- Ben Gonshor – The Book of Izzy
- J. Drew – On the Surface of the Sun
- Joy Ross Davis – The Goddess of Weaver Street
- Dianne C. Braley – The Summer Before
- Phyllis Gobbell – Prodigal
- Stephanie Alexander – Mean Low Water
- S.M. Stevens – Beautiful and Terrible Things
- Natia Khaduri – A Soldier’s Burden
- Kay Smith-Blum – Tangles
- Rich Miller – It Rhymes With Truth
- Anthony Horton – Unpaved
- Anne Heinrich – God Bless The Child
- Patricia Averbach – Dreams of Drowning
- John David Graham – Running As Fast As I Can
- Meredith Walters – This Animal Body
- Woody Woodburn – The Butterfly Tree: An Extraordinary Saga of Seven Generations
- Cheryl Grey Bostrom – Leaning on Air
- Erika Shepard – Abomination Child
- Leslie DeBrock – The Frog-Eyed Gospel, A Texas Exodus
- Mary Behan – Finding Isobel
- Linda A Lavid – Quigley Tree: A Novel
- Ann Bancroft – Almost Family
- Jeffrey Blount – Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way
- Mary Elizabeth Gillilan – Confluence
- Holly C LaBarbera – All I Know
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2023 Somerset Grand Prize Winner

You Can’t Fool A Mermaid

By Judy Keeslar Santamaria

Click here to see the full list of 2023 SOMERSET Book Award Winners for Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 SOMERSET Book Awards for Contemporary Fiction.

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!
January 11, 2025
DELAWARE From FREEWAYS To E-WAYS by Dave Tabler – American History, Delaware, Vignettes

Dave Tabler’s Delaware from Freeways to E-Ways presents a nonlinear kaleidoscope view of Delaware’s twentieth-century history, braiding together snapshots of the state through a variety of lenses.

By dissecting the history of the state’s education system, economy, politics, war, technology, social dynamics, religion, agriculture, and conservation of the natural world, this book becomes a patchwork quilt of Delaware’s contributions to recent American history.

Tabler strategically places historical images throughout the first half of the book to help paint a vivid picture of what Delaware life has been like across the years. The second half of the book then expounds on every snapshot, allowing the reader to pursue the parts that most interest them. Tabler concludes each of these deeper dives by describing the impacts on present-day Delaware and America. These threads of connection to current events help the reader find meaning within the overall arc of history.

The reader can feel Tabler’s passion for Delaware’s heritage in his storytelling lilt.

Sometimes his tone is delighted, such as when he explains the origin of the Punkin Chunkin competition. Other times, he’s awed, using lyrical language to describe the snow geese migrating over Delaware Bay, “Their soft honks echo across the refuge as they glide over the brackish tidal marsh.” He frequently highlights clashing perspectives between historical figures and organizations with the tone of a racetrack commentator. This energizes his depictions of the growth of the du Pont family or the conflict between suffragettes, politicians, and the community. Even heartbreak shapes Tabler’s words as he tells the story of John T. Hopkins, who lost his farm to eminent domain.

Tabler’s writing style offers an à la carte tour of Delawarean history, clearly supported by thorough research.

Each story can stand on its own as a vignette, and together they reveal myriad perspectives on the state’s character. The engaging storytelling may encourage readers to dig deeper into the subjects on their own, and Tabler’s mix of historical images with several AI renderings give context to the information.

Tabler excavates nuanced twentieth-century stories of Delaware with contagious fascination. Readers curious about the ways in which seemingly small events of the past are connected to lasting traditions in the present will find great interest in Tabler’s well-researched view of the state of Delaware.

January 8, 2025
The 2024 Military and Front Line Awards Short List for Narrative Non-Fiction
The Military and Front line Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir exploring the lives of those who serve their country and others. The Military and Front Line Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2024 Military and Front Line Non-Fiction entries to the 2024 Military and Front Line Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2024 Military and Front Line Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

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 Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2024 Military and Front Line Book Awards novel competition for Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the Short List authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
- Roderick S. Haynes – Unauthorized Disclosures a Navy Memoir of the 1980s
- David Huntley – The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: a WWII Final Honor
- Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, You Say?
- Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
- Max Lauker & Antonio Garcia – Number 788: My Experiences in Swedish Special Operations – Preparing for NATO and the War on Terror
- Kim Sloan – Memoirs from the Frontlines: Four states, Two years, One pandemic
- Ben Powers – Never A Dull Moment: The 80th Airborne Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion in World II
- Bibi LeBlanc – Wings of Freedom – The Story of the Berlin Airlift | Flugel der Freiheit – Die Geschichte der Berliner Luftbrucke
- Josh McConkey – Be the Weight Behind the Spear
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 Military and Front Line Awards is:

Chasing The Daylight

By Joanna Rakowski

See the full list of 2023 First Place Military and Front Line Winners here!

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Military and Front Line Book Awards for Non-Fiction.

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!
January 2, 2025
The 2024 Series Awards Long List for Fiction and Non-Fiction!
The CIBA SERIES Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in any of our 16 Fiction Divisions and 7 Non-Fiction Divisions where the author has written a series. The Series Book Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) is seeking for the best book series in all of the CIBA Divisions. 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 Series Award entries to the 2024 Series Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2024 Series 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.

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 Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2024 Series Book Awards competition!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Samantha Schinder – The Deliverance Series
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back To One
- John J. Spearman – Mercenary Navy
- Elliott Foster – Panic River
- Alan B. Gibson – Magic at Myers Beach
- D. L. Wilburn Jr. – The God Protocol
- Jule Selbo – Dee Rommel Mystery Series
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Yoga Mat Mysteries
- Evette Davis – The Council Trilogy
- Taryn R. Hutchison – A Cold War Trilogy
- Laurie Buchanan – Sean Mcpherson Novels
- Kari Bovee – The Pryce of Murder
- April Sebree – Through the Woods
- M.K. Dean – The Ginny Reese Mysteries
- Sandra Wagner-Wright – Salem Stories
- Melrose McFadden – Major Bummer Murders
- Valerie Green – The McBride Chronicles
- Jeff Nania – Northern Lakes Mystery series
- J.L. Oakley – The Jossing series
- A. Keith Carreiro – The Immortality Wars
- Mike Murphey – Tales of Physics, Lust and Greed
- Rose Prendeville – Brides of Chattan
- Don Stuart – Washington Statehouse Series
- Jomo Jesus Thomas Suriel – Emotional Intelligence Book Series
- TK Sheffield – The Backyard Model Mysteries
- Eve M Riley – The Techboys series
- Steven Joseph – Snoodles Book Series
- Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Jake Fortina Series
- Ron Singerton – Sword of Rome
- Karen Inglis – Secret Lake Mystery Adventures
- Anika Savoy – Ungilded
- Michael J Bowler – The Lance Chronicles
- D.V. Chernov – Nick Severs Mysteries
- McKendree Long – The Superstition Gun
- Tamar Anolic – The Vanguard Warrior Trilogy
- E. Alan Fleischauer – Just Die Series
- R.w. Meek – The Dream Collector
- Tim Facciola – A Vengeful Realm
- Glen Dahlgren – The Chronicles of Chaos
- Bert Entwistle – Leftover Soldiers
- D.F. Kennedy – So Help Me God
- J.C. Ahern – The Strategy series
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2023 Series Grand Prize Winner

Ghosts Along The Oregon Trail

By David Fitz-Gerald

Click here to see the full list of 2023 Series Book Award Winners.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Series Book Awards for Fiction and Non-Fiction.

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!
December 26, 2024
The 2024 Somerset Awards Long List 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 Cygnus Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 SOMERSET Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2024 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2024 Somerset 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.

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 Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2024 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Contemporary and Literary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Conon Parks – Down and Out in Omaha
- Samantha Schinder – Loud Voices
- Rachel Valencourt – Twilight’s Brightest Star
- Deonna Kay – The Measure of Enough
- Torres & Firsht – Tell Me Your Plans
- Robert Steven Goldstein – Golda’s Hutch
- Natalie Musgrave Dossett – Sarita
- Robert Gwaltney – Sing Down the Moon
- Ann Bancroft – Almost Family
- Kat Caldwell – Bended Loyalty
- Christina Boyd – Woman in the Painting
- Lisa Gruwell Spicer – Radio Smokva a Croatian American Story
- David B. Seaburn – Until It Was Gone
- Maryann Clarke – Secrets at the Aviary Inn
- Craig Allen Heath – Killing Buddhas
- Wesley J. Wildman – The Winding Way Home
- Leslie Wibberley – The Unraveling of Emma Hill
- Leslie Kain – What Lies Buried
- Melissa Connelly – What Was Lost
- Abbe Rolnick – The Underpainting
- Alissa Butterworth – To Die Is Different Than Supposed
- Jonna Lyons Johnson – Tapping Light
- Neroli Lacey – The Perfumer’s Secret
- Rupert Taylor – Please Let Me Destroy You
- Zelly Ruskin – Not Yours to Keep
- Donna Norman-Carbone – Of Lies and Honey
- Julie Weary – Never, Ever, Always
- D. L. Whipple – The Outcast
- John W. Feist – Edged in Purple
- Graydon Dee Hubbard – Network Apprentice, Behind the Scenes in Talk Television
- William Robert Reeves – The In-House Politician
- Judith Krummeck – The Deceived Ones
- Leilana Rae – The Meaning Between Us
- Tamara Hart Heiner – Of Life, Love, and Other Noble Pursuits
- Ruth F. Stevens – The Unexpected Guests
- Reenita M. Hora – Vermilion Harvest – Playtime at the Bagh
- Allan Ishac – The Mystic In The Mews
- Keith McWalter – Lifers
- Ben Gonshor – The Book of Izzy
- J. Drew – On the Surface of the Sun
- Joy Ross Davis – The Goddess of Weaver Street
- Dianne C. Braley – The Summer Before
- Phyllis Gobbell – Prodigal
- Stephanie Alexander – Mean Low Water
- S.M. Stevens – Beautiful and Terrible Things
- Natia Khaduri – A Soldier’s Burden
- Kay Smith-Blum – Tangles
- Jeff Hartman – How To Win The Nobel Peace Prize
- Rich Miller – It Rhymes With Truth
- Anthony Horton – Unpaved
- Anne Heinrich – God Bless The Child
- Tamar Anolic – Like Water and Ice
- Patricia Averbach – Dreams of Drowning
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 4 Slating Magic Hour
- John David Graham – Running As Fast As I Can
- Meredith Walters – This Animal Body
- Woody Woodburn – The Butterfly Tree: An Extraordinary Saga of Seven Generations
- Cheryl Grey Bostrom – Leaning on Air
- Erika Shepard – Abomination Child
- Leslie DeBrock – The Frog-Eyed Gospel, A Texas Exodus
- Mary Behan – Finding Isobel
- Linda A Lavid – Quigley Tree: A Novel
- Chris Chan – She Ruined Our Lives
- Ann Bancroft – Almost Family
- Jeffrey Blount – Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way
- R.w. Meek – The Dream Collector: Sabrine & Sigmund Freud
- Mary Elizabeth Gillilan – Confluence
- Holly C LaBarbera – All I Know
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2023 Somerset Grand Prize Winner

You Can’t Fool A Mermaid

By Judy Keeslar Santamaria

Click here to see the full list of 2023 SOMERSET Book Award Winners for Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 SOMERSET Book Awards for Contemporary Fiction.

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!
December 26, 2024
November is for Non-Fiction! Non-Fiction division deadlines extended

November is For Non-Fiction!

We tend to be a little more high tech at Chanticleer

New Deadline for 5 of our Nonfiction Divisions: the Instruction and Insight Awards, Nellie Bly Awards, Harvey Chute Awards, Mind and Spirit Awards and Military and Front Line Awards : November 30, 2024

At the request of both our Authors and our Readers we have moved the closing date of some of our Awards to November 30, 2024!

If you have an Instructional, Journalistic, Business, Enlightening, or Military and Community Service worker Non-Fiction Work, you still have time to submit!

As we settle into this new schedule, we’re hearing great feedback from authors regarding the best times for them to submit their work. This depends on conferences and workshops (many of which are genre specific) where they can regularly receive feedback and writing retreats that allow them to finish their manuscripts.

Thank you to everyone who reaches out and makes our Awards a success every year!

To celebrate the deadline change, lets take a look at some recently reviewed Non-Fiction Works!

A Path To Excellence
By Tony Jeton Selimi
Hearten 1st 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

The Doctor’s Voice
By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli
Harvey Chute 1st Place Winner

Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.

Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.

Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.

Read More Here

Finding The Light
By Kasey J. Claytor

Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.

Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.

Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.

Traditional scene-based paragraphs are offset by poetry, informative sidebars, and even the full text of letters sent throughout Justin’s illness. Claytor deftly shifts between these sections, building a cohesive narrative from which readers can easily learn.

Read More Here

Combat Missions
By Burl Harmon
Military and Front Line 1st Place Winner

Sometimes, a close and personal story can reveal the true weight of major historical events. Combat Missions, a memoir from WWII veteran Burl D. Harmon, achieves this by detailing how Europe’s vicious aerial battles shape a young boy’s entry to manhood.

On December 7, 1941, Harmon is summoned to his high school’s auditorium to hear President Roosevelt proclaim it as, “a day which will live in infamy…” Soon after, his draft notice arrives. Harmon’s junior college studies and work at the local Rexall drug store are put on hold as he joins the vast flood of young American men and women conscripted into military service. Leaving his small Iowa town and a family mostly sheltered from the grim realities of the outside world, he travels to New York City with people from every imaginable background.

With no prior mechanical experience, he works diligently to become a flight engineer, training to master a lexicon of manual tasks and learn the intricacies of air-to-air combat amidst bombing runs. His training takes him even farther from home, to Detroit, Lorado, Texas, Puerto Rico, and even Cuba.

Read More Here

Chasing The Daylight
By Joanna Rakowski
Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner

Chasing The Daylight by Joanna Rakowski is a revealing memoir that captures the rigor, intensity, and ferocity of military training in a salient style.

Ever wondered what it takes to become a soldier in one of the most powerful armies in the world?

Joanna Rakowski was born in Poland and grew up practicing dance from a young age, eventually becoming a professional classical ballet dancer and teacher. Upon her migration to the US in 1995 and the painful fallout with her friend and mentor, Chris, Joanna knew she needed to make a drastic change in her life. Her great awakening came when she decided to transform from a fragile and sensitive ballerina into a steadfast U.S. Army soldier, a goal that many close to her doubted she could accomplish.

With arresting insights, the text builds from Rakowski’s striking introduction as it describes her first day of enlistment, which was filled with uncertainties.

Read More Here

A big thank you to all these authors for sharing their lives and wisdom with us! Your books matter!

Got a great Non-Fiction Book to Share?

Enter the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards today!

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

November 21, 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
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 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