Only 10 days left to submit your books to the prestigious CIBAs and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!
We’re looking for the best of the best for Speculative Fiction! Chanticleer started with a mandate to offer a platform specifically to indie authors and presses, and now every year we receive every type of work, from brilliant manuscripts to Big Five publications. Does your book have what it takes?
We are proud to recognize ALL of these 2024 CIBA Winners in Speculative Fiction Divisions!
Cygnus Award Winners!
Timothy S. Johnston –A Blanket of Steel
Peter Dingus –Deep Time
A. R. Black –No Man’s Land
Thomas R. Weaver –Artificial Wisdom
Shami Stovall –The Half-Life Empire
Ozma Award Winners!
Curt Locklear –Treasure and Murder In Ireland
Glen Dahlgren –The Realm of Gods
Susan Wands –High Priestess and Empress, Book Two, Arcana Oracle Series
Prue Batten –The Red Thread
S.G. Blaise –Meddling Mages
J.A. Nielsen –The Claiming
Shelley Award Winners!
Evette Davis –The Gift
Alexander Fernandez –Above the Ashes
Keith Steinbaum –In Lieu of Flowers
Tim Facciola –Ghosts of Rheynia
AA DaSilva –Periphery
Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle –Vein Pursuits
And the 2024 Grand Prize Champions of Speculative Fiction
Congratulations once more to these powerhouse authors!
From left to right we have The Cygnus Grand Prize Winner Ares, the Ozma Grand Prize Winner Circle of Stars, and the Shelley Grand Prize Winner Time-Marked Warlock
More than just recognition
The CIBAs are your portal to discoverability in a world with millions of books published annually. Whether your book makes it to the first lists or all the way to the coveted Blue Ribbon, the CIBAs signal to readers, booksellers, and industry professionals that you’re serious about your craft.
Join the ranks of celebrated authors who’ve taken this critical step.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable recognition at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 2026) where Winners from all 28 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
If you’ve been looking for a Fantasy to read, try out some of our Award winners!
A Circle of Stars By Erin Lark Maples
If you’re looking for a beach read with supernatural intrigue,A Circle of Starsby Erin Lark Maples will draw you in from page one. Ember “EJ” James, a newly-arrived stranger in the strange land of Prescott, AZ, immediately begins navigating unfamiliar territory, both physically and metaphysically.
Forty-something EJ doesn’t know it yet, but when she agreed to take over her deceased uncle Hollis’s shop in Prescott, she stumbled into a world of magical realism. The plant shop, as it turns out, is more than just that—it hides secret access to other realms, which supernatural beings will go to great lengths to access. Much like the plants in the shop, this tale is dark, tangled, and intriguing beyond belief.
Anyone else may have felt helpless. But EJ remains upbeat, charmingly self-deprecating, and resourceful to the end. There’s a great joy in seeing how she works through her new surroundings, unfazed by (almost) everything they throw her way.
A Vengeful Realm Book 1: The Scales of Balance
By Tim Facciola
The Scales of Balanceopens with an amnesiac gladiator, a queen certain her husband must die for the sake of the kingdom, and a prince who will do anything to save his father. Tim Facciola’s first novel in the high fantasy seriesA Vengeful Realmis threaded through with plots of assassination and political intrigue, all fueled by a divine struggle for dominance.
A Vengeful Realmis a study in richness. Its characters, setting, and world-building, the vital elements for a strong fantasy, pull the reader into the land of New Rheynia where the most valuable currencies are loyalty and power.
Facciola excels at characterization, beginning with an engaging tapestry of backgrounds.
The gladiator Zephyrus’ first memories are in a temple hearing the words of a prophecy that he can’t understand. Depending on the interpretation, he could bring peace or destruction. His only guide is his iron morality, which he hopes is enough to bring him back to who he once was.
Earth is linked in a symbiotic relationship with its spirit twin, a hidden utopia called EonThera. But as the paradise begins to inherit the harsh realities of Earth’s drastic climate change, EonThera urges action – before both realms collapse, in Steven Michael Beck’s Soar a Burning Sky.
What if there was an “earthly paradise,” a mirror of Earth – a terratopia that is an awe-inspiring existential representation of how amazing planet Earth could be? This fantasy fiction presents a synergic relationship between Earth and this soul, as together they sustain the Ticking – a heartbeat that nurtures both. But as Clayton Cramer puts it, “Abandon all thoughts of Utopia – humans are involved.”
As a result of the two realms’ mutual existence, one’s failing health accounts for the fall of the other. The soul of Earth, EonThera, is collapsing. It is plain that the enemy is ignorance, primarily Earth’s, and with this knowledge comes the recruitment of the four unlikely Earthly warriors to aid the two realms before they fall from a burning sky.
Sixteen-year-old Catalina Delgado’s hopes of marrying her love are troubled by strange, unnatural dangers, in Laurel Anne Hill’s novel, Plague of Flies.
Like every dutiful daughter in 1846, Catalina worries about her reputation. However, she must also gain the approval of Ángelo Ortega’s family. Unfortunately, when three strangers ride onto her family’s small ranch in Alta California, she knows that more than her dreams are at risk. Alta California has just been invaded by the men of the Bear Flag, and Catalina fears what will become of her homeland now that it has been claimed by the Yankees. The nearby ranch owned by the valiant General Vallejo has been raided, owners and their servants terrorized and held captive. Plus Bear Flaggers have murdered additional friends of Catalina’s family on a beach.
Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth By Christopher Russell
Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth by Christopher Russell is the opening of a High Fantasy epic about the rise and fall of vast empires.
The story grows from unfinished business between three brothers gifted with magic and power but chose different paths to achieve safety and security for themselves and the people who followed them.
These different paths culminated in a battle where the fate of their world is balanced precariously on a knife’s edge. Darmatus and Rabban are engaged in a war to the death with their oldest brother Sarcon. Sarcon believes the road to that safety lies in power alone, that the only way to be secure is to crush all his enemies, no matter how heinous the deeds required.
Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Ozma Winners is to submit today!
These Hall of Fame winners prove that exceptional fantasy comes from authors brave enough to explore magical realms, whether it’s EJ’s supernatural plant shop in modern Arizona or epic battles between godlike brothers. Each of these stories found their readership through the recognition and promotion that comes with Ozma Award achievement.
You know you want it…
Will your fantasy tale be next to join this prestigious lineup? From urban magic to high fantasy epics, the Ozma Awards celebrate every corner of the fantasy spectrum.
Don’t let your story remain hidden in an enchanted vault—submit to the Ozma Awards and join the ranks of celebrated fantasy authors who’ve found their audience through Chanticleer!
The Ozma Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Fantasy Fiction. The Overall Grand Prize Winner, Erin Lark Maples’ book, A Circle of Stars will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Ozma 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!
Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Ozma Winners!
Curt Locklear – Treasure and Murder in Ireland
As Halloween draws close, Scrooge, Cratchit, and their newly married junior partner Sherlock “Lockie” Holmes, father of the great detective, are pulled into the complex murders of three Irishmen: a nobleman, a town mayor, and a pubkeeper. To Scrooge’s utter dismay, the three sail to Ireland, where they uncover biblical secrets and face a wide range of challenges and assailants. The trio is aided by two sharp female protagonists: one is an accomplished scientist, the other is developing martial arts skills. A crafty lawyer intends to seize the mines belonging to Lucy Holmes and her cousins, Abigail and Samuel Jiggins. An ancient cult is forming, and a young mastermind continues to plot in the shadows. Set during the horrendous Irish Potato Famine, Treasure and Murder in Ireland follows the trio as they struggle their way through dangerous circumstances, gathering clues and discovering magic does not always belong in myths.
In a realm where dreams and reality intertwine, the final battle brews.
The gods of Order have vanished. Despite priests like Dantess and Myra struggling to maintain peace, the Harbingers of Chaos fan the flames of rebellion, bringing the world to the brink of war.
Galen, drawn into the heart of the Dreaming—an ethereal realm where past, present, and future collide—confronts not only his nemesis, the cunning Carnaubas, but a horrifying truth: the exiled gods of Order still hunger for dominion.
Luckily, Galen is not alone. Eve, a young girl gifted with the uncanny ability to see the threads that connect everything, joins him on a desperate quest to find the elusive god of Chaos, their only hope for preventing Order’s return.
The Realm of Gods is more than just a story; it’s a descent into the battle between Order and Chaos, a testament to the enduring power of human connection, and a battle cry for rebellion against tyranny.
Join the heroes you love on their final, climatic dance between despair and hope, the last leg in an extraordinary journey that you’ll never forget.
On her return to London, artist and seer Pamela Colman Smith discovers that her nemesis, Aleister Crowley, has returned—and his sights are set on her. Despite Aleister’s efforts to stop Pamela from further developing her tarot deck and accessing its magic, she carries on casting her High Priestess and Empress muses, Golden Dawn society leader Florence Farr and popular theatre star Ellen Terry. But when Ellen is poisoned and nearly killed, Pamela realizes that Aleister won’t stop coming for her—not until her muses are dead.
When Aleister reveals his plot to assassinate Queen Victoria and all female rulers, war breaks out between the Aleister’s Carlists and the Golden Dawn. With so many lives on the line—that of the queen, and those of her friends—Pamela must access her inner magic to face the battle of her life.
A red silk thread tied around one’s wrist by the God of Fate is immovable.
Destiny is immutable.
For Lien of the First House of Silk and Ming Xao, her Emperor, the woven silk thread on their wrists brings them to the very edge of death as they are hunted by the fey for a secret map they hold in their possession.
Glenna’s heart sinks just as her boots sink in the mud, when she sees how horrid the planet Raghild is.
But there is no turning back now. She must forge onward to meet the despised charlatans, aka, mages—the only ones able to help her get rid of the corruption that’s killing her.
The sooner she finds the mages, the sooner she can rid herself of the deadly corruption, and of the pesky mage who somehow sneaked his way into her heart.
Spense is the unfortunate younger son of Lord Ferrous, with a growing talent for the magical arts and a larger talent for finding trouble, most often in the form of botched spells. Dewy is a Fae princess who tends to disappoint her aunt, the Summer Queen, through her—ahem—carefree life choices.
A chance encounter—and another botched spell—leaves Spense bonded to Dewy and able to control her will. But it’s a violation of magic. Not to mention devastating to Human-Fae relations.
To free Dewy and save Spense’s kingdom, they must journey through faerie territories—facing feral magic, treacherous wilderness, and their own distractible hearts. Unless that’s just the effect of The Claiming…
From Chanticleer:
The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure,The Claiming.As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?
Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.
Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.
The Ozma Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Fantasy Fiction. The Overall Grand Prize Winner, Tim Facciola’s book, A Vengeful Realm will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Ozma 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!
Elwyn is remarkably unremarkable, and she prefers it that way. What more could a thief hope for than to pass through life unseen? Upon fleeing a violent life with her invisible friend-a clever and capricious creature who’s only grown more real with time-she is plunged into an adventure rife with otherworldly beings both beautiful and beastly.
As the Greyscale’ most cutthroat assassin, Brannon has a bone to pick with Elwyn-and several to break. Tasked with hunting down his errant colleague, he soon finds himself in a magic-steeped hamlet where he encounters creatures even more deadly than himself. To survive, he must rely on the very rival he’s been sent to capture.
Little Lydia has a chilling secret, and even she doesn’t know the whole of it. Her unusual appearance has earned her the nickname “monster,” and there may be some truth to the slight. When she caves to the whispers that have slithered through her mind for months, she loses everything she knows and must start anew in the company of criminals.
Bored by his charmed existence, prince Aedyn slips into the lives of these three misfits only to learn of schemes that place both the Mortal and Faerie Realms in peril. If he can help the others work together to thwart the plans of two feuding fiends, they might just manage to save multiple worlds…provided they don’t kill each other first.
Allen is a great world builder and provides complex characters with intricate plots. This story has a little bit of horror, a little fantasy, time travel and heartbreak. Everything had a smooth pace. Now we just need the third book in the series! — Chanticleer
This book is not yet released, but we are very excited to see it come out! It is the sequel to Seagrass Maggie, which also won a First Place Ribbon in the 2022 Ozma Award.
Kullen is the Emperor’s assassin. The sharp hand of justice. The Black Talon.
Gifted a soul-forged bond with his dragon, Umbris, Kullen is tasked with hunting any and all who oppose the Empire.
But when the secretive Crimson Fang murders two noblemen before his very eyes, Kullen must discover the truth of who they are and what they want. What he uncovers is a web of lies and deceit spiraling into the depths of Dimvein.
Natisse, a high-ranking member of the rebellion known as the Crimson Fang, has no greater goal than to rid Dimvein of power-hungry nobles. Haunted by her past, fire, flames, and the death of her parents, she sets out to destroy the dragons and those who wield them as unstoppable weapons of destruction.
Until she too finds herself buried beneath the weight of the revelations her investigations reveal…
A malignant being is hunting Shaun McClanahan and his daughter Molly. When it steals their gold, they are thrust into an epic adventure, hurtling back through time to ancient Rome.
To save themselves, Molly and her father must come to terms with a painful past, heal old wounds, and grapple with the most powerful leprechaun magic ever known to lore gatherers. But even with the help of a poetry-writing fox and a hyper-intelligent chicken, can they save the universe?
Jenesis is a monster. Her odd looks and small stature incite disdain but mask her power — power she must harness to overcome evil, or perish trying.In the year 535 AD, Jenesis, the elfish daughter of a human father and mystical mother, is abandoned under a fairy tree on the west coast of Ireland. Her odd looks earn her the label, monster.
Jenesis has a secret — she’s descended from the magical tribe of Danu. Her destiny to save monsters — children abandoned because of disabilities — leads her to the new world and a hidden chamber along the Wissahickon Creek. Jenesis must protect the chamber from wicked men who want to destroy it, the monsters, and her.
Throughout her interminable life, Jenesis calls on human skills and Danu power to battle evil reincarnated. Will she find a Danu to take her place? Will her journey ever end?This epic tale spans the years 535 AD to 1952, and spins from Ancient Ireland to indigenous America to Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Creek. History and myth, humanity and deity, mundane and magic are masterfully interwoven to create an authentic world populated by mystical and mortal characters. The Chamber is the first Wissahickon Monsters story. This genre-bending tale will appeal to fans of fantasy, historic fiction, and romance who love to enter a story and become part of it. Devlin’s characters seamlessly coexist in the upper world and underworld, all the while protecting the chamber’s secret.
The Ozma and Goethe Awards both close at the end of July! Don’t let your History become a Fantasy!
The Ozma Award for Fantasy Fiction and The Goethe Award for Post-1750 Historical Fiction close submissions on JULY 31st.
You can’t win if you don’t submit!
Submit to the CIBAs Today!
Only 10 days left to submit your books to the prestigious CIBAs 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 Ozma Awards for Fantasy and The Goethe Awards for Late Historical Fiction are still open until JULY 31st!
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Ozma Awards!
Lilla Glass – The Unseen
Charles Allen – The Order of the Red God
Jaime Castle & Andy Peloquin – Black Talon
Jonathan Uffelman – Book of Leprechauns: The Lore Gatherers
PJ Devlin – The Chamber
And a huge round of applause to this years Overall Grand Prize, and Division Grand Prize for OZMA
A Vengeful Realm by Tim Facciola!
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Goethe Awards!
William Maz – Bucharest Legacy: The Rise of the Oligarchs
And a huge round of applause to this years 2023 Goethe Grand Prize Winner- If Someday Comes by David Calloway
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.
Fantasy isn’t just elves and magic. There is so many possibilities for a Fantasy Tale and we love that!
Let’s Dive into the Categories!
Magic, Heroes and Villains is classic High Fantasy like Lord of The Rings.
Coming of age is Fantasy typically looks at someone coming into their own, like Egwene al’Vere in The Wheel of Time, but it can also be aimed at a younger audience. For YA Fantasy see Dante Rossetti and for Middle Grade Fantasy check out the Gertrude Warner Awards!
Steampunk and Dieselpunk are a type of Alternative history and Counterculture, Steampunk being Victorian era sci-fi or fantasy, or both, with an emphasis on steam powered or gaslight technology and historical fashions.
Dieselpunk is a similar category but more like an industrial Art Deco, Film Noir aspects with aesthetics of the World Wars and Early Cold War. The video game series Bioshock, or Bladerunner could be seen as examples of Dieselpunk . There are quite a few different types of ‘punk’. Cyberpunk is one of the more well known, using 1980s futuristic aesthetics.
Historical Fantasy is similar to the previous, but with less of the Science Fiction elements. History with magic instead of History with weird tech.
Modern and Urban Fantasy is exactly what it sounds like. Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files is a good example. Fantasy, but realistic. Magical Realism stands on its own, and can be found as a Category in the Somerset Awards!
Last, but not least is Myths and Legends and Fairy Tales. Classic Fantasy elements, Fairies, King Arthur, folktale type stories.
Fantasy can even have many crossovers with Science Fiction! The cast of Star Trek: Next Generation shows just the same thing.
Looking for your next Fantasy Read? Check out some of these incredible books we’ve reviewed!
THE CLAIMING: Fractured Kingdoms Book 1 By J.A. Nielsen
The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?
Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.
Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.
A CIRCLE Of STARS: Four Crowns Series Book 1 By Erin Lark Maples
If you’re looking for a beach read with supernatural intrigue, A Circle of Stars by Erin Lark Maples will draw you in from page one. Ember “EJ” James, a newly-arrived stranger in the strange land of Prescott, AZ, immediately begins navigating unfamiliar territory, both physically and metaphysically.
Forty-something EJ doesn’t know it yet, but when she agreed to take over her deceased uncle Hollis’s shop in Prescott, she stumbled into a world of magical realism. The plant shop, as it turns out, is more than just that—it hides secret access to other realms, which supernatural beings will go to great lengths to access. Much like the plants in the shop, this tale is dark, tangled, and intriguing beyond belief.
Anyone else may have felt helpless. But EJ remains upbeat, charmingly self-deprecating, and resourceful to the end. There’s a great joy in seeing how she works through her new surroundings, unfazed by (almost) everything they throw her way.
SUMMER THUNDER: Magic at Myers Beach Book 1 By Alan B. Gibson
Lily struggles to keep her business, her son, and her home. But in Summer Thunder, first book of the Magic at Myers Beach series by Alan B. Gibson, Lily’s luck begins to turn as she connects with the enigmatic beach king Theos.
With the help of her friend and fellow business owner Greta “the Witch,” Lily tries to revitalize her fairy-themed decoration and figurine store. Her divorce from her abusive ex-husband Kelly is pending, and she must present a calm and reliable home to ensure full custody of her son Jamie. But when her kindly landlord, Ms. Coffey, passes away, she’s confronted with two options: lose her prime business location and upstairs apartment, or somehow make enough money to buy the building herself.
Enter Theos, a kitesurfing champion with adoring fans. He shows true appreciation for Lily’s fairy figurines, bringing her many more sales. But more importantly, Theos becomes deeply interested in Lily herself. Their romance begins on rocky footing, as Theos has a strange air about him and seems to vanish whenever a storm comes into town. But when he begins modelling for a new fairy figurine – aptly named Theos, the King – the two are drawn inevitably closer.
MISTRESS Of LEGEND: Guinevere’s Tale Book 3 By Nicole Evelina
In Mistress of Legend, the enticing finale of Nicole Evelina’s Guinevere’s Tale trilogy, matters are life-and-death by the second sentence, pulling readers deep into Guinevere’s fate in this retelling of Arthurian legend.
We come upon heroine Guinevere in the midst of an ill-fated romance with Lancelot. It’s far from her first troubled entanglement, but the stakes rise as she’s severely injured and faces even more threats, pursued by possible enemies. The novel’s beginning is woven with backstory, which adds suspense to the drama unfolding in Guinevere’s present. This summarizing might be slow for readers familiar with the series, but makes the story accessible for those who haven’t picked up the first two books.
Many more characters appear, waving the web of intrigue Guinevere finds herself caught in.
Evelina builds this setting through well-researched cultural details, like the holidays and rites of Guinevere’s pagan world, and the symbolism and ideology of the Christianity that threatens to blot her world out.
Plus, check out our 2023 Overall Grand Prize Winner, A Vengeful Realm by Tim Facciola!
A roaring start with a queen planning her husband’s execution while full of regret for what must be done. Magic is forbidden, knights and gladiators are doing their best to make their way through a complex political world, and the prince is just trying to keep his family safe. Excellent for anyone who loves Brandon Sanderson!
Thank you to everyone who submitted to the 2023 Ozma Awards! We can’t believe that the whole adventure starts again when the Ozma Awards close on July 31st, 2024.
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.
If you’ve been looking for a Fantasy to read, try out some of our Award winners!
A Vengeful Realm Book 1: The Scales of Balance
By Tim Facciola
We’re coordinating the review with Tim to go out in October with his next book release! The full series is out now, and you won’t regret reading it! Check out his website here and see it on Amazon here!
Soar a Burning Sky By Steven Michael Beck
Earth is linked in a symbiotic relationship with its spirit twin, a hidden utopia called EonThera. But as the paradise begins to inherit the harsh realities of Earth’s drastic climate change, EonThera urges action – before both realms collapse, in Steven Michael Beck’s Soar a Burning Sky.
What if there was an “earthly paradise,” a mirror of Earth – a terratopia that is an awe-inspiring existential representation of how amazing planet Earth could be? This fantasy fiction presents a synergic relationship between Earth and this soul, as together they sustain the Ticking – a heartbeat that nurtures both. But as Clayton Cramer puts it, “Abandon all thoughts of Utopia – humans are involved.”
As a result of the two realms’ mutual existence, one’s failing health accounts for the fall of the other. The soul of Earth, EonThera, is collapsing. It is plain that the enemy is ignorance, primarily Earth’s, and with this knowledge comes the recruitment of the four unlikely Earthly warriors to aid the two realms before they fall from a burning sky.
Sixteen-year-old Catalina Delgado’s hopes of marrying her love are troubled by strange, unnatural dangers, in Laurel Anne Hill’s novel, Plague of Flies.
Like every dutiful daughter in 1846, Catalina worries about her reputation. However, she must also gain the approval of Ángelo Ortega’s family. Unfortunately, when three strangers ride onto her family’s small ranch in Alta California, she knows that more than her dreams are at risk. Alta California has just been invaded by the men of the Bear Flag, and Catalina fears what will become of her homeland now that it has been claimed by the Yankees. The nearby ranch owned by the valiant General Vallejo has been raided, owners and their servants terrorized and held captive. Plus Bear Flaggers have murdered additional friends of Catalina’s family on a beach.
Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth By Christopher Russell
Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth by Christopher Russell is the opening of a High Fantasy epic about the rise and fall of vast empires.
The story grows from unfinished business between three brothers gifted with magic and power but chose different paths to achieve safety and security for themselves and the people who followed them.
These different paths culminated in a battle where the fate of their world is balanced precariously on a knife’s edge. Darmatus and Rabban are engaged in a war to the death with their oldest brother Sarcon. Sarcon believes the road to that safety lies in power alone, that the only way to be secure is to crush all his enemies, no matter how heinous the deeds required.
Sixteen-year-old Nat is a boxcar kid. It’s the Dust Bowl era, and Nat has lost everything: his grandmother, his family home, and a sense of belonging. He hops trains across Texas in search of a place for himself amid so much loss. Outside of Amarillo, Nat feels a peculiar sensation, a tug from destiny, that pulls him toward the small town of Tanglewood. However, instead of finding a job and some much-needed food, he discovers Polly Jones, a teenager like himself, chained to a post with a sign above her reading, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch.”
Nat can’t bring himself to abandon her to the small-minded, fearful townsfolk and immediately becomes her protector until the arrival of Camille Renoir Lavendou, a local woman who operates Miss Camille’s Home for Wayward Children. No one dares stop Camille from releasing Polly and taking both teens with her because Camille is reputed to be in the “witchin’ business” herself. Nat’s excitement at the prospect of food and a place to stay quickly turns to disbelief and wariness when he steps inside Camille’s sanctuary. What he thought was a ploy on Camille’s part to keep the nosey townsfolk at bay doesn’t seem to be a trick at all when he meets those who are under Camille’s care.
Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Ozma Winners is to submit today!
Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!
Our Chanticleer International Book Awards feature more than $30,000.00 worth of cash and prizes each year!
All First Place Winners Receive a coveted Chanticleer Blue Ribbon and discounts on our Roost Membership and Editorial Reviews.
All Division Grand Prize Winners a covetedChanticleer Book Review Package
The Ozma Grand Prize Winner is namedChanticleer ReviewsBest Fantasy Fiction Book of the Year and goes on to compete for the Chanticleer Overall Grand Prize Best Book of the Year
The Overall Grand Prize Winner is namedChanticleer Reviews Best Book of the Year and awarded the$1000 prize
All winners receive a Chanticleer Prize Packagewhich includes a digital badge, a ribbon and a whole assortment of goodies detailed below (winners outside the US pay a shipping & handling fee)
That’s more than $30,000.00 worth of cash and prizes! The Fine Print.
~$1000 for one lucky Overall Grand Prize Winner
~$30,000+ in reviews, prizes, and promotional opportunities awarded to Category Winners
You know you want it…
Currently accepting entries. Deadline: July 31, 2024
Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Here are some recent achievements from our authors:
Fantasy Fiction presents a reflection of the world as we see it, showing us the undercurrents of power that surround us all. At Chanticleer, we seek to take up the quest and discover the magic in your classic fantasy, steampunk stories, urban tales, and your fairy tales and legends.
Let’s take a look at the Hall of Fame for Grand Prize Winners of the Ozma Awards
SOAR A BURNING SKY By Steven Michael Beck
A Manuscript
Earth is linked in a symbiotic relationship with its spirit twin, a hidden utopia called Eonthera. But as the paradise begins to inherit the harsh realities of Earth’s drastic climate change, Eonthera urges action – before both realms collapse, in Steven Michael Beck’s Soar a Burning Sky.
What if there was an “earthly paradise”, a mirror of Earth – a terratopia that is an awe-inspiring existential representation of how amazing planet Earth could be? This fantasy fiction presents a synergic relationship between Earth and this soul, as together they sustain the Ticking – a heartbeat that nurtures both. But as Clayton Cramer puts it, “Abandon all thoughts of Utopia – humans are involved.”
As a result of the two realms’ mutual existence, one’s failing health accounts for the fall of the other. The soul of Earth, Eonthera, is collapsing. It is plain that the enemy is ignorance, primarily Earth’s, and with this knowledge comes the recruitment of the four unlikely Earthly warriors to aid the two realms before they fall from a burning sky.
This book is still in development and the review is subject to change, but you can learn more about Steven Michael Beck here.
Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846 by Laurel Anne Hill
Sixteen-year-old Catalina Delgado’s hopes of marrying her love are troubled by strange, unnatural dangers, in Laurel Anne Hill’s novel, Plague of Flies.
Like every dutiful daughter in 1846, Catalina worries about her reputation. However, she must also gain the approval of Ángelo Ortega’s family. Unfortunately, when three strangers ride onto her family’s small ranch in Alta California, she knows that more than her dreams are at risk. Alta California has just been invaded by the men of the Bear Flag, and Catalina fears what will become of her homeland now that it has been claimed by the Yankees. The nearby ranch owned by the valiant General Vallejo has been raided, owners and their servants terrorized and held captive. Plus Bear Flaggers have murdered additional friends of Catalina’s family on a beach.
In connection with the recent killings, the three strangers are harbingers of a dire prophecy repeated to Catalina by a dying vaquero. Catalina is destined to be carried off by a spirit man riding a black Andalusian stallion. She will be tasked to do the bidding of Coyote, a trickster spirit who is trying to stop the advancement of the Bear Flaggers. Catalina grapples with her uncertainty and disbelief, but she desperately wants to save her family. When Spirit Man appears to her, she must ask herself how far she is willing to go to keep her loved ones alive.
DIVINITY’S TWILIGHT: Rebirth By Christopher Russell
Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth by Christopher Russell is the opening of a High Fantasy epic about the rise and fall of vast empires.
The story grows from unfinished business between three brothers gifted with magic and power but chose different paths to achieve safety and security for themselves and the people who followed them.
These different paths culminated in a battle where the fate of their world is balanced precariously on a knife’s edge. Darmatus and Rabban are engaged in a war to the death with their oldest brother Sarcon. Sarcon believes the road to that safety lies in power alone, that the only way to be secure is to crush all his enemies, no matter how heinous the deeds required.
Sixteen-year-old Nat is a boxcar kid. It’s the Dust Bowl era, and Nat has lost everything: his grandmother, his family home, and a sense of belonging. He hops trains across Texas in search of a place for himself amid so much loss. Outside of Amarillo, Nat feels a peculiar sensation, a tug from destiny, that pulls him toward the small town of Tanglewood. However, instead of finding a job and some much-needed food, he discovers Polly Jones, a teenager like himself, chained to a post with a sign above her reading, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch.”
Nat can’t bring himself to abandon her to the small-minded, fearful townsfolk and immediately becomes her protector until the arrival of Camille Renoir Lavendou, a local woman who operates Miss Camille’s Home for Wayward Children. No one dares stop Camille from releasing Polly and taking both teens with her because Camille is reputed to be in the “witchin’ business” herself. Nat’s excitement at the prospect of food and a place to stay quickly turns to disbelief and wariness when he steps inside Camille’s sanctuary. What he thought was a ploy on Camille’s part to keep the nosey townsfolk at bay doesn’t seem to be a trick at all when he meets those who are under Camille’s care.
When Polly, too, begins to exhibit extraordinary abilities, Nat begins to feel like an outsider. Despite his limitations, Nat’s intense loyalty quickly leads him into a much more dangerous situation, where his very life may lay in the balance.
Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Ozma Winners is to submit today!
Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!
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Robin Lee Lovelace evokes a world in which the mystical intertwines with the everyday in Savonne, Not Vonny, a coming-of-age story set in rural Louisiana.
Nine-year-old Savonne lives in a small room at the back of Mama Gwen’s whorehouse, in Indianapolis in the ’60s. Her mama is one of the working girls, and her father is Mama Gwen’s own son. Savonne’s daddy dotes on her, and Mama Gwen loves Savonne like the daughter she never had; the two of them together make a loving home for Savonne, in the midst of their raucous brothel.
By contrast, Savonne’s birth mother rarely pays her any mind. A “crazy-ass woman” with a temper “as hot as a Mississippi afternoon,” Coco is not at all opposed to beating the bejesus out of someone. In a fury one night, she does something that cannot be undone, and in her headlong flight out of town, she takes Savonne with her.
And so it is that Savonne is forced from the only home she’s ever known and left in the care of her mysterious and reclusive great-grandfather, Pompey.
With Pompey, Savonne enters another world, one of casual acquaintance with hoodoo and root work, a world where Papa Legba guards the crossroads and serves as an intermediary between the human and the spirit world, a world where an enemy might cast a subtle spell or command the serpents, or shapeshift into another form himself. However, as long as Pompey is there to guard her, Savonne is safe. She takes after her great-grandfather, and he recognizes that she too has the gift, the ability to conjure, “the natural.”
But the day will come when Savonne is left to face the forces that would undo her, with only Leatha, Pompey’s old black dog all gone now to gray and stiff-boned, by her side. Before her journey home is over, Savonne must outwit an enemy far more powerful than she — and rely on help from the most unlikely of allies.
Robin Lee Lovelace has conjured a world in which the seen and the unseen alike direct our days, in which the divine intermingles with the mundane, with characters so rich and fully realized they fairly leap off the page.
Pick this story up for the delicious experience of diving headlong into a landscape reminiscent of those spun by the finest Southern writers in the American canon.
Readers may find themselves racing through this novella to see how it all comes out for Savonne in the end, and likely wanting more of Savonne and her world (and maybe those allies too) in her full short story collection, A Wild Region, is available now!
The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?
Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.
Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.
Spense resolves to break the Claiming, no matter what it takes.
The two of them journey on a diplomatic mission to the Fae, while Dirk and his knights begin to fight against an army of both humans, from the kingdom of Verden, and Winter Fae. Spense seeks both an alliance with Lady Radiant, and the means to free Dewy of the bonds he put on her. But this journey will ask more of him and Dewy than they know.
Nielsen brings her characters to full and vibrant life.
Dewy and Spense both feel that they’re different from those around them, unsure of their place in the world. Though they’re initially brought together by magic, they begin to form a genuine bond and bring out positive change in one another. They find confidence in their abilities and, as they come to understand each other, share their fears and sorrows.
Even antagonistic characters show their complexity. Lady Radiant, though reserved and steely in diplomatic talks, wants desperately to help her niece. Prince Dirk fights courageously and sees past the social standing of Flora, a farm girl, to realize that she could help his knights to save Telridge. The king of winter himself, Lumine, is driven by an understandable need, even if he keeps his secrets closely guarded.
The battles, both emotional and literal, keep a gripping pace.
Faerie magic, fire-tipped arrows, gunpowder, and even failed alchemy experiments clash in the battle for Telridge. Dewy wields phenomenal elemental power, Spense offers his clever inventions, and Dirk and Flora must devise creative strategies to hold back the army arrayed against them. Exciting, tense scenes play out as knights and faeries fight. All the while, the characters try to weather the mental toll of waging war.
Spense bears responsibility for all of his people as he becomes Telridge’s diplomat to the Fae courts.
Throughout Nielsen’s luminous, intricately-described Fey lands, Spense grapples with the guilt of what he’s done to Dewy, while Dewy herself contemplates what she feels for him, how much of her fondness can be true with the Claiming upon her. The two risk life, limb, and even more for each other as a curious, subtle mystery forms around their meetings with the Winter Fae.
The Claiming is a story of courage, connection, and the responsibility of a person to care for those around them. Fans of fantasy and faeries will love this fast-paced adventure.
Robin Lee Lovelace evokes a world in which the mystical intertwines with the everyday in Savonne, Not Vonny, a coming-of-age story set in rural Louisiana. 
The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?