Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Historical Fiction

10 Questions Interview with author J.R. COLLINS – Author Interview, Creativity, Writing

I first met Joe Collins at CAC18 this last April. He’s a tall, quiet man who carries himself with a certain nuance, a particular look in his eyes that lets a person know he’s looking for fun. He writes from the heart and although he won 1st Place in the Goethe Awards for 2017, his book could have done just as well in the Laramie Awards.

I am honored that Joe took the time to participate in our 10 Questions Interview Series. He has a lot to say and I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do.

Let me introduce you to J.R. (Joe) Collins:

Chanticleer: Tell us a little about yourself: How did you start writing?

Collins: I was raised in the Southern Appalachian town of Blairsville, GA. Our whole county had a population of around eight thousand at the time of my birth, 1962. I spent my growing up years helping my father farm beef cattle and attending the local school for my education. I went to church as a kid. Learned a deep respect for a love that would sacrifice itself for me. I believe I was considered normal by the local folks. You knew everybody in my confined, little world, and their business, too, whether you wanted to know it or not. News traveled fast because of how the telephone worked. Most all the homes were on a “party line,” if you had a telephone at all. You knew folks’ business because you could listen in on your neighbor’s phone conversations over that “party line.” The older generation was judgmental to a point. That mattered to families. You didn’t want folks thinking bad of you or yours.

My trail after high school began by following the same path many of the kids from my area walked. College, job, then family. I couldn’t stay on that trail long, though. I discovered competitive golf after a couple years in college and turned pro after obtaining an Associate degree. Spent many years beatin’ that little ball trying to catch a break while working at different golf courses here, there, and yonder. I loved it. Did okay for a small-town, mountain-born boy. I got no regrets. Won a few good tournaments. Maybe I should’ve been a caddie?

Met my wife at the ripe old age of thirty-five. We have two kids, Alex and Emma, they’re twins. Fortunately, we all get along for the most part with little tension outside of normal weekly stress. We like the outdoors but have regrettably had little time over the years to enjoy vacationing there because of work and the crash of the economy. I do regret that.

I started writing because I wanted to tell a story. A story of my heritage to some degree. A story to enlighten those who read it about a frontier that came and went with little recognition outside a state of confusion about the grave mis-justice done to the native Cherokee. I won’t claim all that is in (or will be in) my books as actual, but I can guarantee you they are based on fact in my imagination. I love that about writing. I’ve always enjoyed a good “yarn” be it a ghost story that will haunt my nights, a mystery that challenges my intuition or an adventure that will take me to someplace I may never see. Introduce me to people I would never meet otherwise. It is a true blessing when I learn someone has enjoyed my work. Somebody give me a hug!

Chanticleer: We do love you, Joe! When did you realize you that you were an author?

Collins: That’s an easy one. It’s when I heard my name called out for First in Category at the Chanticleer Awards Gala. I for sure knew I belonged behind the scenes writing when I broke protocol and absent-mindedly went for the ribbon Kiffer was holding without shaking Gregory’s hand first. “What a stupid I am” — I feel terrible about that. I hope he understood. Accepting that ribbon was extra special to me. That’s the moment I knew I could actually think of myself as a writer. Thank you guys soooo much!

Chanticleer: Those of us who have won awards know what it’s like to be in that is-this-really-happening? moment. I’m sure Gregory Erich Phillips knows exactly what that’s like! What genre best describes your work?

Collins: Historical Fiction for sure. I love learning about history that is based in the lives of those who actually lived it. I respect heritage, so I enjoy creating stories combining the two. Those aspects wound together give me great pleasure when I write. My publisher told me early on in the publishing of my first book, “Write from your heart when you write, Joe. Don’t force it if it doesn’t fit.” I follow that. I want my reader to enjoy their trip back in time to a place they will never see outside of my book, and to be comfortable with the journey. I want them to experience the surroundings of each scene like they are actually standing there watching in person. To taste the smells, feel the air, hear the sounds and to comprehend the emotion I want them to feel. I love taking them back as they read. I’ve heard it said that history repeats itself. I believe history stays with us if we as authors write it, understand it, feel it; then our readers can believe and be transported. I want folks to escape to a world I completely understand. All they need do is be willing to go inside my mind for a while. It’s not such a bad place, really.

Chanticleer: That’s wonderful, Joe. Can you tell us a little more about it?

Collins: I grew up in a part of the Southern Appalachian that holds a rich history of ancestral heritage for those who were founded there. I basically grew up an only child as my siblings are much older than me. Being the only child on a big cattle farm surrounded by mountains and forest is heaven for a boy of my put together. My imagination had unlimited boundaries. I hunted constant when game was in season. I fished when hunting wasn’t allowed or whenever I got a hankerin’ for some fresh, juicy cold-water trout. One stream I would fish regular produced a lot of Brown Trout, another produced more Rainbow Trout. Just depended on which flavor I had a taste for as to where I’d go try and catch fish. Those days are gone. The fish have lost their flavor. The creeks and rivers now polluted with housing and folks. What a shame.

We got little in the way of television reception where I lived growing up, so entertainment had to be something other than watching TV. On some evenings after we’d worked hard on the farm all day, Dad would take Momma and me and we’d go visit the old-timers at their original family homes where they were born, then raised their own kids, and still lived in then. Some were family, others not so much. I loved goin’ with my dad and doing that. Sittin’ out on the porch rocking in a chair made right there in the work shed of whatever elder we were visiting. I’d rock and listen to their tales while they smoked or chewed tobacco. Spitting dark, brown burley tobacco juice out between their fingers while thinking on thoughts about the tale they were spinning. You had to watch where they spit that stuff because it would splatter in all directions when it landed. Get all over your feet and ankles if you were in too close. I heard stories from the days of old that sank into my soul. Are they in my book? Some, maybe. Remnants, mostly. The ideas? – for sure.

Of course, where I grew up was rich in Indian ancestral heritage as well. As a kid, I hunted the plowed bottoms up and down the river Notla whenever I got the chance hoping to find Indian made artifacts. After a good rain was the best time. We found some unbelievable things, too. Seriously, you wouldn’t believe a body could make such as we found on occasion from just the natural resources right where whatever it was you found was laying. I could live like settlers did back in those days. I can relate. I guess that’s why I like historical fiction so much. It takes me back to a time in my life where I had no worries. We all need a little of that from time-to-time. I miss it. #GroupHug.

Joe received this beautiful cake from his work family. #GroupHug

Joe showing off his beautiful cake! Sure looks good!

Chanticleer: Do you find yourself following the rules or do you like to make up your own rules?

Collins: I don’t like rules. I trust myself and my judgment more than I do most folks who make the rules. Politicians and government folk are prime examples of rule makers who care little for the common folk — ask the Native American. Being a person of faith, and knowing what lies ahead, I get confused as to why we have locks? Or why we hire our own to protect us from ourselves? I prefer a time when folks looked after them and theirs. In writing, I follow that same train of thought. Conversation can be lawless!

Chanticleer: You’re giving us a lot to think on, Joe. Thank you! How do you take all of these memories, all of these stories, and come up with a full-length novel?

Collins: If I can live it in my mind, I can make it into a story. I try to pull everyday occurrences and mix those with any corresponding relative history that I know about. That concoction has to settle in my center for me to know it’s something I can focus on. But, the difficulty comes when I try to pinpoint the objective of why I want to write about that particular subject. It has to satisfy my soul. If it ain’t there, it ain’t to write. But, God.

Chanticleer: How structured are you in your writing work?

Collins: Aghhhhhhhhhh! Hahahahahahaha! STRUCTURED? Don’t even know what that means. I write when I can feel the words going on to the paper (screen). I need to work on this area of my “authorshipness” profile. Hahahaha! I love you guys! I know y’all are structured. I saw it first hand in Bellingham back in April.

Chanticleer: [Don’t you just love this guy? #GroupHug] How do you approach your writing day?

Collins: That all depends on where I am in the writing process of the particular thing that I am writing. For a novel, I can spend a lot of time with story content and character development or I can work on the comfort of the read if I’m well enough along. The priority status of either of those two aspects will designate the attempts I will make for any particular day. Stories have to flow to achieve [the desired] effect. A story written poorly does not catch the imagination of the reader even though the topic is of interest. I prioritize where I believe a reader would want to be in the progression of what is taking place at a certain point in the story. Then, of course, you sit down to write and it all comes crashing down. No reason just crashes. Your mind shuts off. That’s when you reach for something other than your pencil (laptop) . . . like bourbon. No more writing that day. Sometimes intention to write and creative juices are way too far apart for my simple mind. I try to plan and prioritize, but it doesn’t always go the way I want. On those kinds of days, we all need a hug.

Chanticleer: [#Group Hug] What are you working on now? What can we look forward to seeing next from you?

Collins: Right now, I’m finishing the final book in the trilogy I call, “Home from Choestoe”, that I’ve been working on for the last few years. Originally, I’d planned on four books but I’m ready to move on. I want to start something else. Being raised in the Southern Appalachian Mountains offers many different opportunities to write about interesting topics. I haven’t fully decided on what my fourth book will be about as of yet, but it will come to me before long. I have some ideas, but nothing has settled with me that would spur me on to write a novel.

Chanticleer: What is the most important thing a reader can do for an author?

Collins: Enjoy what we write, then tell others so they can hopefully enjoy it as well. Give us reviews that we can share. Selling books is important, sure, but most all good stories have an underlying point of concern. If a reader finds that and is moved by it, then that is all we can hope for as authors. That, to me, is the most important consideration for what we do. Is the reader touched by what we write? Do they feel, then understand what we are saying? Let’s hope they get it because that’s why we do what we do. It sure ain’t for the money.

Love you guys! Take care, and God Bless . . . Joe

We certainly love you back, Joe! Thank you for spending some time with us today.

If you liked this interview with author J.R. Collins, please leave a comment below. We love being connected to our amazing author community, don’t you?

Connect with Joe on his website at: http://jrcollinsauthor.com/

Or, on Facebook, at: https://www.facebook.com/Jrcollinsauthor/

July 16, 2018
The LOST YEARS of BILLY BATTLES, Book 3 in the Finding Billy Battles Trilogy by Ronald E. Yates – Historical Fiction, Literary, Action/Adventure

Congratulations to Ronald E. Yates for winning the 2018 CIBAs

OVERALL GRAND PRIZE – BEST BOOK of the YEAR

for The Lost Years of Billy Battles!

Reviewer’s Note: I’ve begun few books as eagerly as I did this one. Having read the first two volumes of Ronald E. Yates’ extraordinary trilogy, Finding Billy Battles, I couldn’t wait to continue his story in the final volume, The Lost Years of Billy Battles. The third installment lived up to the exceedingly high standard set in the first two volumes. Billy Battles is as dear and fascinating a literary friend as I have ever encountered. I learned much about American and international history, and you will too if you read any or all of the books. Each is an independent work, but if read in relation to the others, the reader experiences that all too rare sense of complete transport to another world, one fully realized in these pages because the storytelling is so skillful and thoroughly captivating. Trust me; you’ll want to read all three volumes.

For those not familiar with the series, Yates presents his books as works of “faction,” a story “based in part on fact” but also “augmented by narrative fiction.” The protagonist, William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, born in Kansas in 1860, lives a full 100 years and takes part in some of the most significant events of his time. He encounters key figures of the day (Bat Masterson Wyatt Earp, President Wilson, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, among others), gives us their backstories, and quietly appraises them.

Yates, a journalist with a keen eye for nuance and subtlety, has created a protagonist with superb critical thinking skills. William, a journalist, and occasional soldier examines people and transactions from every angle. Just as at ease in a Kansas saloon as he is at the captain’s table on a grand ocean liner on the Pacific, Billy Battles is also ruthlessly honest about his shortcomings and feels tremendous guilt when he acts impulsively or inadvertently causes harm to others. Yates has crafted a fully human character who is easy to admire, perhaps because he is admirably cognizant of his own flaws.

This installment of the trilogy opens with William enjoying middle age in Chicago with his second wife, his beloved Katharina, a former German baroness, and his daughter, Anna Marie, now a student at Northwestern University. It is 1914 and World War I is raging in Europe. Germany, late to the spoils of colonialism, is seeking to make up for lost time with its policy of Weltpolitik that advocates for imperialist expansion.

When William is contacted by his friend and former military associate, General Freddy Funston, who informs him that a German merchant ship is bound to Mexico to deliver arms and munitions to its dictator, General Victoriano Huerta, William and Katharina travel to Mexico and pose as tourists while trying to find out as much as possible about the shipment. They learn that in addition to weapons, the ship is carrying a fortune in gold and silver bars. Further investigations reveal that Germany hopes to convince Mexico to engage in skirmishes along the U.S. border, creating enough havoc that America will sit out the war in Europe and thus allow Germany expansionist gains there.

Although in Mexico at the behest of the U.S. military, William and Katharina readily understand why Mexicans feel hostile to Americans; a significant portion of the Southwest used to belong to Mexico. However, President Wilson does not recognize Huerta and is all too eager to engage in big stick diplomacy when he chooses. Also, many Mexicans are desperately poor, the Campesinos working as virtual slaves on haciendas for no pay. It’s not surprising that they cheer on Venustiano Carranza, leader of the Northern opposition Constitutionalists charismatic lieutenants, the intense, intelligent Zapata who yearns to bring about land reform for the poor, and the wild but charismatic Pancho Villa who sparks outrage when his men murder 17 Texas mining engineers.

The U.S. military decides to intervene and, once again, William is impressed into service, this time with General Pershing and the General’s aide-de-camp, George S. Patton. While the U.S. Army has the latest in weaponry and travels with motorized vehicles and untrustworthy aircraft, the new technology causes a lot of noise, making it difficult to sneak up on Villa and his light-footed army, one that’s thoroughly familiar with the terrain and beloved by the people. William’s observations and reporting on all of this for his Chicago newspaper are riveting and wryly amusing.

Following this Mexican adventure, William barely has time to catch his breath when his past once again catches up with him. Mason Bledsoe, the son of the man William killed due to complex circumstances when he was just nineteen, abducts Katharina. With the help of his cousin, William determines his wife’s whereabouts and attempts to free her, as well as seek vengeance on those who kidnapped her. The results of his actions necessitate his leaving the country for his safety and, more importantly in his mind, the safety of his family. Over the next decades, he will spend time in the Philippines and Indochina, where he will again grapple with the blatant injustices of colonialism, aggrieved by the plight of native men working 16-hour days on French rubber plantations in intense heat, their flesh bitten and eaten by mosquitoes, oxflies, and army ants.

While abroad, William’s personal life takes some shocking turns that motivates him to return to the U.S. in 1936. His final years in Kansas, his birthplace, are the quietest of his life. Billy often muses on all he has seen and experienced. When he meets his great-grandson, Ted Sayles, he decides to bequeath him his guns, uniforms, journals, and correspondence. In the Epilogue, Ted addresses the reader and shares his thoughts about some shocking surprises he finds amongst William’s papers. It’s a most satisfying conclusion to an extraordinary trilogy.

At his behest, William’s grave includes the simple statement, “He did his best.” The same is undoubtedly true of the author, Ronald E. Yates. The research involved in putting William’s story on the page had to have been immense. In addition to a careful plotting of history, the details he weaves into his prose regarding fashion, food, weather, social class, and technology make this the richest account of a life imaginable.

Ronald E. Yates won 1st Place in the SOMERSET Awards for The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles: Book 2, Finding Billy Battles Trilogy of this extraordinary series.

July 13, 2018
SEIZE the FLAME by Lynda J. Cox – Romantic Western, Historical Fiction, Heartwarming Romance

Drake Adams and Jessie Depre want the same thing: peace. For Drake, peace will only come when he can rid his memory of Jessie’s heart-wrenching betrayal nearly two years earlier, at the altar. What began as a fairytale love between childhood sweethearts ended when Jessie married another man and left the Wyoming territory. Since then, Drake has given up his law career to become a bounty hunter, and when he sees Jessie’s wanted poster, he knows he has only one choice, track her down and return her to the man she ran off with.

Following a life-changing misunderstanding, Jessie married the first man she saw, but it wasn’t long before her would-be hero turned into a real-life monster. She will only find peace when she is far away from her homicidal husband, Robert. However, when Drake captures Jessie, both realize their own peace just might come from rekindling their love for each other.

Lynda J. Cox’s Seize the Flame is a story of reconciling the past. Both characters are emotionally and physically damaged. Jessie’s story will touch home with any woman who’s been the victim of abuse. Her fear, her panic, are so real the reader will instantly identify with her even if he/she has never suffered from that unfortunate malady. The strength she has in not only running from her husband but also in ensuring the safety of another innocent woman celebrates the determined female spirit. Despite the scars on her body and, more importantly, in her mind, Jessie manages to find her own way and create her own destiny.

Drake has a genuinely unique story. Kidnapped at the age of nine and forced to work for a ruthless thief until he’s rescued by Royce, Jessie’s father, Drake loved Jessie from the first moment he saw her. His continued devotion to the woman who shattered his dream of a home and family of his own is touching and endearing. Although the backstory is as winding as a Wyoming mountain trail, the story unravels slowly enough to allow the reader to soak it all in and experience the complexity of these characters, and though the genre is historical romance, the romantic content is limited enough that fans of the western genre will still enjoy the novel without blushing.

Seize the Flame by Lynda J. Cox won First Place in the Laramie Awards for Western Fiction in 2016.

June 30, 2018
HOPE of AGES PAST by Bruce Gardner – Historical Fiction, Thirty Years War, Historical Romance, Family Saga

A saga writ large on the stage of 17^th Century Central Europe, Hope of Ages Past portrays the deeply personal impacts of religious faith and love amidst the brutality of war.

Peter Erhart and Hans Mannheim are teenagers when they first meet in the Bohemian capital city of Prague at the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618. These are two of the three central, fictional, characters in Bruce Gardner’s noteworthy interweaving of fact and reasoned conjecture set during the first half of the war. The boys represent the two religious factions in that conflict: Peter is Protestant; Hans, Catholic. The meeting in Prague, based on a real event including actual historical participants, provides the backdrop for a fictional drama that is set in motion when Peter reaches beyond the sectarian divide to help Hans at a moment of deep disgrace. Hans will never forget that kindness.

As rebellion and conquest fire up across Europe, Peter, in his twenties, becomes a contentedly married Lutheran pastor in Magdeburg, Germany. Opposed by powerful rivals and threatened by the Catholic imperial army now approaching the city, he encounters Anna Ritter – a country peasant girl of uncommon beauty and inner strength who has secretly admired him for years and who is destined to share his trials. Each must fight bravely for the survival of their families and friends when local villains invade countryside cottages and the army, led by an awe-inspiring Black Knight, besieges the city. At the pinnacle of their trial, unthinkable tragedy brings Peter and Anna together and links their fates with Hans, now a grown man with a reputation to prove. Events eventually bring the three together in the siege’s aftermath, and a strange and unexpected reconciliation occurs — one that is put to the ultimate test in a final, horror-filled ordeal.

Gardner, delving deeply into the philosophical issues at the core of the Thirty Years War, very deftly maintains an over-arching theme of religious differences – and similarities – in the midst of a thrilling, continually evolving panorama of warfare, intrigue, and romance. Interlocking the two storylines – interpersonal and international – is the repeated possibility for human compassion to emerge despite deep religious disagreements. Gardner’s skillfully drawn characters, both Catholic and Protestant, are confronted with choices – to kill, to help, or to ignore their fellow human beings in times of terrible suffering. Gardner fairly and intelligently presents the positions of both groups.

Love conquers hate and uplifts two great faiths in Bruce Gardner’s Hope of Ages Past, contrasting romance, religion and family cohesion with the upheaval of battle and blood, all balanced by a thought-provoking, well-considered overview of the western world’s Christian heritage.

Ultimately, Gardner has gifted us with an epic novel of enduring faith and love set amidst the brutality of the Thirty Years War in Europe. A very good read.

June 18, 2018
The IMPROBABLE JOURNEYS of BILLY BATTLES: Book 2, Finding Billy Battles Trilogy by Ronald E. Yates – Action/Adventure, Historical Fiction, War, Literary

Ronald E. Yates continues the robust adventures of a lawman, gunslinger, and journalist in The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles, the second volume in his trilogy about the title character.

As in the first volume of the trilogy, William “Billy” Battles addresses the reader, but Ted Sayles, Billy’s great-grandson, is the one who compiled Billy’s life story through studying his great-grandfather’s journals, letters, newspaper articles, tapes, and other materials. And what an adventurous life it is! Living a full one hundred years, William Fitzroy Raglan Battles was born in Kansas in 1860 but eventually travels the world. Readers familiar with the first volume will no doubt want to continue William’s journey with the second book which begins in 1894. The Improbable Journeys, however, can function as a stand-alone volume because Yates takes great care to bring the reader up to speed with what has already taken place.

The opening chapters of Book 2 find William aboard the SS China, bound for French Indochina although the ship will make stops along the way. He is grieving the loss of his beloved wife and seeks to assuage that grief with travel, leaving behind his mother and young daughter, Anna Marie. However, the Pinkerton Detective Agency is hot on his trail, investigating William’s part in the deaths of members of the Bledsoe family back in Kansas.

His future is also set in play when he meets Baroness Katharina von Schreiber, a brilliant intellectual who, despite her aristocratic German title and surname, was born and raised in Chicago. Like William, her spouse is dead but the circumstances involving Rupert’s death are suspicious, and she takes great pains to avoid questioning by the authorities. William learns that some officials believe she’s in possession of top-secret German documents that she confiscated from her husband. There’s much political intrigue, but Katharina and William delight in each other’s company, and he feels the first stirrings of romance since his wife’s death.

William’s journeys bring him face to face with the realities of late 19th-century colonialism. As an American traveler and journalist, native peoples expect that he will sympathize with their struggles against colonial powers. After all, America set the example for the rest of the world by throwing off the chains of England more than one hundred years earlier. In the Philippines, Katharina’s brother, Manfred, supports a secret organization that seeks to overthrow colonial rule and establish independence for the nation. And while William has great admiration for the Philippine revolutionary leader, Aguinaldo, William is coaxed into military service. He fights alongside American soldiers from Colorado and Kansas – even though he knows all too well that McKinley’s “Proclamation of Benevolent Assimilation” is not truthful; the U.S. ultimately annexes the Philippines not as “friends” but as invaders and conquerors.

These fascinating chapters are narrated with an experienced journalist’s objective and encompassing eye. Yates, also a journalist, does an exemplary job of having William note every angle of the despotic nature of colonialism and the vast and complex difficulties involved in native peoples achieving independence.

The book is not without humor. William is witty and candid, occasionally sliding into cowboy-speak, and he knows a cast of characters, real and fictional, who provide surprising hilarity throughout the book. Bat Masterson is on hand, as is Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith. We leave William anticipating more dangerous exploits, one involving Francisco Villa, better known as “Pancho Villa.” Thank heavens this is a trilogy because it’s clear Billy Battles adventures are far from over.

Ronald E. Yates won first place in the 2016 Chanticleer International Book Awards for Somerset, Literary category.

May 24, 2018
CAMELOT’S QUEEN: GUINEVERE’S TALE BOOK 2 by Nicole Evelina – Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale

Meet Guinevere: a sage military adviser, a priestess of Avalon, and the mother of a dynasty. In Nicole Evelina’s Camelot’s Queen: Guinevere’s Tale (book two), Guinevere must learn to reconcile her past with her future; what she was with what she must become.

No longer a young lover with dreams of a home with her former betrothed, Guinevere must quickly learn how to be a queen and to navigate the rocky waters of marriage to the high king, Arthur Pendragon. Over time, Guinevere proves a great success until she cannot give Arthur the heir he needs.

Kidnapped by a ruthless man bent on revenge, Guinevere must find the strength to hold tight to her sanity while regaining her rightful place. Upon returning from her horrific ordeal, she finds her position as queen in jeopardy and her once-strong relationship crumbling as she struggles to hold her growing restlessness and loneliness at bay.

Book two of this series, which includes a map for easy reference, explores the nature of Guinevere’s struggle with duty: to self and her country. Once a girl with fanciful dreams of a quiet life, Guinevere must learn to put aside what she wants for what her country needs. After swearing to protect her people as Arthur’s queen, she knows that she must always sacrifice desire for obligation, even when the choice breaks her heart.

As a powerful Avalonian priestess capable of manipulating the elements with a literal flick of her finger, she must subjugate herself to a man who seeks her wisdom. And while Arthur respects her as the stronger of the two, Guinevere still suffers for her gender, legally equal as a ruler but never quite enough to command without her husband.

Hemmed in by the historical perimeters of this mythical queen, the author creates a surprisingly unique character. Fans of the original stories will enjoy this reimagined Guinevere with her priestess markings and battle-tested body. She is no damsel in distress. Familiar characters like Tristan, Gawain, and Bors, come to life, but this time, the Combrogi (aka Knights of the Round Table) take a backseat to the fairer sex who dominate the storyline. Lancelot will have readers swooning. And though the reader knows Guinevere seals her fate from the moment she chooses Lancelot as her champion, they will be cheering her on for taking charge of her happiness.

Camelot’s Queen, the second book in Nicole Evelina’s Guinevere’s Tale series, casts Guinevere as a jealous wife, a grieving mother, a capable priestess, and an exemplary military strategist, all as she juggles the ever-changing world she finds herself in.

Lovers of historical fiction, as well as those who enjoy fantasy, will delight in this gem.

The Guinevere’s Tale Trilogy won the 2021 Series Grand Prize Award for Best Fiction Book Series.

May 10, 2018
LOVE OF FINISHED YEARS by Gregory Erich Phillips – Historical Fiction, Literary, WWI

An immigrant’s journey, a forbidden love, a war to end all wars collide on the pages of a beautifully written historical fiction, Love of Finished Years by Gregory Erich Phillips.

At twelve years of age, Elsa Schuller carries no expectations when she reaches Ellis Island in 1905. In fact, she has no idea why her father insists on leaving Germany for this supposed Land of Opportunity. Riddled with nothing less than challenges and hardship working in the sweatshops in lower Manhattan, Elsa’s only ray of hope is learning how to read and write English.

Her studying pays off when she’s hired seven years later to work as a maid and translator for an upper-middle-class family, the Grahams, on Long Island. For the first time, Elsa begins to dream of something more than the ragged gray life she and her family have lived thus far.

Elsa is not quite sure what to make of Dafne, the Grahams’ ebullient yet impulsive seventeen-year-old daughter, who disregards class distinction and is fascinated by Elsa. After a time, the maid and her mistress become good friends. A few years later, Dafne becomes engaged to a close friend to both Dafne and Elsa, Glenn Streppy.

Unfortunately, their engagement is overshadowed by the war that is brewing. And to Dafne’s disappointment, Glenn enlists in the army. It doesn’t help that he unexpectedly catches her with his best friend when he tries to visit her while on leave from his military responsibilities.

Glenn cuts off all contact with Dafne, which saddens Elsa as she misses his friendship. In a daring move, Elsa visits him at his stationing post just before his transfer to Europe. It is during this short visit she realizes that she is in love with him. Moreover, Glenn reciprocates her adoration. While Dafne successfully snubbed the social mores of the day, Elsa cannot. She is still just an immigrant from a poor family—a poor German family—and has no right to fall in love with a man of standing.

While guarding her emotions, Elsa has something even worse to consider: the reality that this encounter may very well mark the last time she’ll ever see her dear friend, Glenn, alive.

Award-winning author Gregory Erich Phillips produces a poignant early 20th-century plot. So much more than your typical love story, Love of Finished Years raises readers’ consciences and invites them to consider the realities of a time not too long ago (and in some ways, still relevant in today’s discourses on immigration) when people were divided not only by language but by the social mores and their class in American society, but also between rich and poor, “citizen” and “immigrant,” male and female.

Incorporating various themes into his absorbing plot, Phillips highlights the importance of workers’ rights (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory) the Women’s Suffrage movement; and the plight of immigrants, especially during The Great War. Some examples include the use of propaganda against the American Germans (via Liberty Bonds); again, the use of propaganda to boost American support, and the immorality of war.

Laced with a well-defined cast, Love of Finished Years opens at a critical moment in Elsa’s life before taking readers back in time to her arrival to America followed by a chronological lead up to her relationship with Glenn and Dafne. Key to Phillips four-part story line is his use of genteel dialogue—typical of that era—to build emotional tension not only between his primary characters but secondary characters as well.

From the riveting opening that takes place in NYC’s Lower East Side’s sweatshops until its gripping conclusion, this enthralling novel vividly portrays the desperate times of German immigrants landing at Ellis Island in 1905 in search of a better life. A timely read, illuminating the issues we are still experiencing a century later, Phillips reminds us that love, light, and perseverance can help us find a way to overcome almost any obstacle.

Love of Finished Years is destined to claim a spot alongside our favorite reads. Love of Finished Years was awarded the Chanticleer Grand Prize while still in manuscript form. It has since been published and is highly recommended!

May 4, 2018
LINCOLN’S HAT and the TEA Movement’s Anger by David Selcer – Historical Fiction, Political, Literary

Set in the chaotic era of the American Civil War, Lincoln’s Hat provides an intelligent look at the many streams of thought that make up our political framework today, and how they may clash in times of upheaval.

Harlan Pomeroy is a young Kentuckian setting off for college in 1855 when he encounters Sally Hairston, a free black girl who will later bear him a child. Pomeroy never forgets her. He will use his education to become a journalist, joining a political movement known as the “Know- Nothings,” a group that despises President Lincoln in part because of his loose immigration policies that draw Germans, Irish, Jews and atheists into the country. When the Know-Nothings attempt to assassinate Lincoln, they end up with his hat, which they give to Pomeroy for examination. Tucked in it he finds a letter of support to Lincoln from the author of the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx. This adds further fodder to Pomeroy’s hatred of the President whom he now sees as a supporter of socialism, an ideology he believes will “rot the country from within.”

Pomeroy has allies who share his views and plot yet another assassination attempt that also fails. Leading a new movement called The Enlightened Americans, or TEA party, Pomeroy joins forces with actor John Wilkes Booth in a scheme to kidnap Lincoln. But after Booth’s bold assassination of Lincoln, Pomeroy will become a target for the Pinkerton agency and flees west to escape their investigations.

Lincoln’s Hat captures the imagination while presenting a character, fully believing in the rightness of his actions, yet unable – or unwilling – to fully contemplate the consequences of them; a problem that always makes for good story-telling. The Know-Nothings anti-immigration stance demonstrates their sense of nationalism, even though some understand their propaganda as racially motivated. Pomeroy and his friends little realize that their “exaltation of the rights of individuals,” as Selcer puts it, will result in endangering the general good.

In driving home these points, Selcer makes use of long, complicated conversations among his central characters and a blend of real and imagined events relevant to the story. His behind-the-scenes depiction of Lincoln as both high-minded and no-nonsense are an engaging addition to his story. Selcer has done extensive research on the historical period during and following Lincoln’s presidency which is admirable.

With a fast-moving plot and political intrigue, Lincoln’s Hat gives us history with a human face.

May 3, 2018
The GOETHE Awards for Post-1750s Historical Fiction – 2017 Official List of Winners
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2017 GOETHE Book Awards for Post-1750s Historical Fiction Novels at the fifth annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Chanticleer Book Awards Ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 21st, 2018 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2017 GOETHE Book Awards, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC18 photographer, we will post them here and on the complete announcement that will list all the genres and the Overall Grand Prize Winner for the 2017 Chanticleer International Book Awards. Please check back!

Click here for the link to the 2017 GOETHE Shortlisters! An email will go out within three weeks to all Shortlisters with links to digital badges and how to order Shortlister stickers.

Congratulations to the 2017 GOETHE SHORTLISTERS!

Gregory Erich Phillips, the author of the 2014 Overall Grand Prize Winner, Love of Finished Years, announced the First Place Award Winners and the Grand Prize Winner for the 2017 GOETHE Book Awards at the Chanticleer Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

Congratulations to the First Place Category Winners of the 2017 GOETHE Book Awards.

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more by May 21st, 2018 (four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it.

2017 GOETHE Book Awards First in Category Winners for post-1750s Historical Fiction Novels are:
- A Cherry Blossom in Winter by Ron Singerton
- The Boy Who Danced With Rabbits by J.R. Collins
- Full Circle: A Refugee’s Tale by Joe Vitovec
- Fenian’s Trace by Sean P. Mahoney
- Paladin’s War by Peter Greene
- The Shape of the Atmosphere by Jessica Dainty
And now for the 2017 GOETHE Grand Prize Book Awards Winner for Post-1750s Historical Fictional Novels is:

Paladin’s War: The Adventures of Jonathan Moore

by Peter Greene

This post will be updated with photos from the awards ceremony. Please do visit it again!

The deadline to submit to the 2018 GOETHE Book Awards is June 30, 2018.

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, April 20th, 2019, for the 2018 winners. Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
April 29, 2018
The CHAUCER Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction – 2017 Official List of Winners
We are excited and honored to officially announce the Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category Winners for the 2017 CHAUCER Book Awards for Pre-1750 Historical Fiction Novels at the fifth annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Chanticleer Book Awards Ceremony. This year’s ceremony and banquet were held on Saturday, April 21st, 2018 at the Hotel Bellwether by beautiful Bellingham Bay, Wash.

We want to thank all of those who entered and participated in the 2017 Chaucer Book Awards, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

When we receive the digital photographs from the Official CAC18 photographer, we will post them here and on the complete announcement that will list all the genres and the Overall Grand Prize Winner for the 2017 Chanticleer International Book Awards. Please check back!

Click here for the link to the 2017 CHAUCER Shortlisters! An email will go out within three weeks to all Shortlisters with links to digital badges and how to order Shortlister stickers.

Congratulations to the 2017 CHAUCER SHORTLISTERS!

Janet Oakley, the author of the 2016 GOETHE Grand Prize Winner, The JØSSING AFFAIR, announced the First Place Award Winners and the Grand Prize Winner for the 2017 Chaucer Book Awards at the Chanticleer Awards Banquet and Ceremony.

Congratulations to the First Place Category Winners of the 2017 CHAUCER Book Awards.

An email will go out to all First Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Winners with more information, the timing of awarded reviews, links to digital badges, and more by May 21st, 2018 (four weeks after the awards ceremony). Please look for it.

2017 CHAUCER Book Awards First in Category Winners for pre-1750s Historical Fiction Novels are:
- The Serpent and the Eagle by Edward Rickford
- Slave to Fortune by DJ Munro
- The Traitor’s Noose by Catherine A Wilson and Catherine T Wilson
- Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Crystal King
- Call to Juno: A Tale of Ancient Rome by Elisabeth Storrs
- The Chatelaine of Montaillou by Susan E Kaberry
- Guillaume: Book Two of The Triptych Chronicle by Prue Batten
And now for the 2017 CHAUCER Grand Prize Book Award Winner for pre-1750 Historical Fiction Novels:

The Traitor’s Noose: Lions and Lilies Book 4

by Catherine A. Wilson and Catherine T. Wilson

This post will be updated with photos from the awards ceremony. Please do visit it again!

The deadline to submit to the 2018 Chaucer Book Awards is June 30, 2018.

Our next Chanticleer International Book Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, April 20th, 2019, for the 2018 winners. Enter your book or manuscript in a contest today!
April 28, 2018