The SEA Shorts Awards Honor Excellence in Shorter Works
The submissions for the 2025 Awards are underway, and SEA Shorts closes on July 31, 2025!
In a world of sprawling epics and multi-volume series, there’s something uniquely powerful about a story that delivers maximum impact in minimal space. The SEA Shorts Awards celebrate this concentrated artistry. Recognizing novellas, short stories, and essays that prove great literature doesn’t require great length, just great skill.
Whether it’s a novella that captures a lifetime of emotion in 100 pages or a short story that delivers a profound revelation in just a few thousand words, the SEA Shorts Awards honor authors who understand that when space is limited, every sentence must earn its place.
Honoring Sharon E. Anderson: From Winner to Champion
The SEA Shorts Awards carry special meaning as they honor Sharon E. Anderson, whose own literary journey exemplified the transformative power of the Chanticleer community. Sharon first came to our attention as a contest winner herself for her dark fantasy short story “Stone God’s Wife” which won the Grand Prize in an earlier iteration of this award.
As our judges noted: “This short story is an exceptional example of the dark fantasy genre. Desperate to save her sister, Cilla does the unthinkable…and the unforgivable. ‘The Stone God’s Wife’ is compellingly written, well characterized, fast-paced, and engaging.”
But Sharon’s story with Chanticleer was just beginning. She joined our team as Chief Reviews Editor, where for years she created and edited content, wrote reviews, and championed authors with unwavering dedication. An SPU graduate in Clothing Textiles & Design, Sharon brought design principles to every aspect of her work, understanding that presentation and content must work in harmony.
Sharon served on the board of the Skagit Valley Writers League and delighted when authors achieved success. Her core belief that authors deserve support and good books deserve recognition became the foundation of everything she did at Chanticleer. She believed in authors, worked tirelessly to promote their work, and championed literary excellence in all its forms.
When Sharon passed away, we lost not just a dear friend but a true advocate for the writing community. The SEA Shorts Awards, named in her honor, continue her legacy of discovering and celebrating exceptional writing. Every submission, every advancement through our tiers, every celebration of literary achievement carries forward Sharon’s unwavering commitment to supporting authors and promoting the books that deserve to be discovered.
Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!
We’re thrilled to honor Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi, whose novella Something About Lizzy claimed the 2024 SEA Shorts Grand Prize with a masterful adaptation that brings fresh life to beloved classic literature. This Pride and Prejudice spin-off demonstrates the exceptional skill required to honor original characters while creating an entirely new and compelling story.
Set in 1826 Derbyshire, Kobayashi’s work follows sixteen-year-old Sofia-Elisabete as she discovers the complexities of adult relationships and family secrets through her friendship with Elizabeth Darcy. Our judges praised the work’s “lively and meaningful” character dynamics, noting how “the blend of drama and love feels appropriate for a spin-off of Pride and Prejudice” while maintaining “well-done writing” and “consistent tone.”
The novella showcases what makes the short form so powerful—concentrated storytelling that captures the essence of complex relationships and family secrets within a focused narrative. In addition to ongoing promotional features, Something About Lizzy will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview and receive continued recognition across our promotional platforms.
Categories That Embrace Every Genre
The SEA Shorts Awards welcome shorter works across the entire literary spectrum:
Cygnus – SciFi, Speculative, Fantasy
Ozma – Fantasy Fiction
Paranormal – All types of Paranormal Fiction
Global Thriller – High Stakes
Clue – Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Mystery & Mayhem – Cozy and Not So Cozy Mystery
Rossetti – Young Adult & New Adult
Laramie – Americana, Western, Pioneer, & Civil War
From science fiction novellas to historical short stories, from personal essays to satirical pieces, every genre finds its home in the SEA Shorts Awards. With the recent creation of our Collection & Anthology Awards, SEA Shorts now provides focused attention on individual shorter works that stand powerfully on their own.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional shorter works we receive every year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
The SEA Shorts Awards carry forward Sharon Anderson’s legacy of believing in authors and championing exceptional writing. Whether you’ve crafted a novella that captures a lifetime of experience, a short story that delivers a perfect moment of revelation, or an essay that illuminates truth through personal narrative, these awards provide the recognition that Sharon believed every excellent work deserves.
It is our honor to promote short works!
We continue to believe that great writing deserves great recognition, regardless of length. The SEA Shorts Awards honor her commitment to supporting authors and celebrating the books that deserve to be discovered.
The Cover Design Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in every genre. The Grand Prize Winner, Strider Klusman’s book, Luna will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cover Design 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!
Hannah Ballard’s most successful relationship: her career.
Her superpower is an uncanny ability to discover perfect movie settings while avoiding the limelight herself. She’s involved in pre-production for a film based on a bestselling historical novel when a chance meeting with an aristocratic landowner leads her to Somerset and his estate in picturesque Milver Vale—the ideal backdrop for a period drama. Martin Latimer, Marquess of Milverston, believes the release of a high-profile motion picture can increase tourism and bolster the local economy. And he hopes to spend more time with its intriguing location manager.
After Hannah suffers a professional setback, proximity and mutual passion propel the couple into an exhilarating affair. But Martin soon becomes a magnet for the scandal-hungry media, forcing Hannah into a painful and damaging decision.
Powering through heartbreak is hard. Especially when coping with unemployment—and dealing with members of her fractured family. For their protection, she must part from the nobleman asking her to stay with him. Who makes her believe that, at long last, she actually could be falling in love.
From New York Harbor to the battlefields of France, relive World War I through the eyes of an unknown soldier, as told through his diary. See how the 100-year-old diary brings a father and his estranged son back together by retracing his experiences fighting in the battlefields of France in 1917 – 1918 to his final resting place—the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
His diary was found next to his lifeless body by a young French girl who witnessed his death and bravery as he tried to protect his fellow soldiers. How the unknown soldier felt and what he experienced fighting on the Western Front in World War One —his day-to-day struggles and life as a private and then as an NCO. As he led his men into combat. The pride and fear he felt and the overwhelming stress he encountered, sometimes frozen with fear from the sheer brutality of modern warfare from all sides. His bravery in combat and leadership in training and on the battlefield. How he coped as he watched his fellow soldiers, battle buddies, and friends die one after another. Some from battlefield injuries from conventional weapons and gas attacks, but also diseases from the unsanitary conditions of trench warfare and influenza. His only wish was to come out alive, a wish that would never come true.
But return home, he did.
From Chanticleer:
One of Four: World War One Through the Eyes of an Unknown Soldier by Travis Davis is a compassionate and intimate portrait of the tenuous and unforgiving First World War, as shown through the eyes of an American soldier on France’s front lines. Based on real people and events in 1918 France, One of Four begins with a young French girl, Camille, who stumbles upon a diary lying next to an unknown American soldier. He was killed among his comrades in a German ambush near the banks of the Aire River, as he tried to protect his fellow soldiers. When Camille comes of age, she leaves her hometown to seek a better life in Paris. There, she is killed after joining a German resistance group. But before her death, she tucked the soldier’s diary in her Bible and hid it in a local bookstore.
Decades later, a man by the name of Walter travels to France with his son, Alex, to whom he’d become estranged after the painful divorce from Alex’s mother. He hopes this will be a journey of healing and exploration and that their time together will revive their shaky relationship. While there, Alex purchases the Bible left by Camille many years ago. By reading the hidden diary entries of the soldier together, Alex and Walter’s relationships takes an unexpected turn.
Patricia Schuster acquires both independence and furniture polish after inheriting her grandmother’s house and antique business. Her new life in the Northern California town of Lakeville is in jeopardy, however, when she is falsely arrested for stealing a rare 1950’s Cadillac and is blackmailed by Jimmy, a toothpick-wielding used-car salesman. When the real car thief ends up dead, she turns to her grandmother’s friends—four women in their golden years who play fast and loose with the law. But how far over the line will Patricia have to go to find a killer and clear her name?
From Chanticleer:
Grand Theft Death is best read when you need a break from reality. Don’t read it if your two feet are firmly placed in all things serious. In fact, don’t read it if you areeven thinking of going to the serious side of life. This book is as realistic as a Saturday morning cartoon – and twice the fun.
The characters are delightfully quirky, the situation fun and surprising, and the action as snappy as popping corn. The heroine, Patty Schuster, is kind, sincere, wry, and unique, at the same time so easygoing that she can roll with the endless punches the plot throws at her and carry on with a good heart.
Good thing, since the plot treats Patty like a punching bag.
She starts out in jail, falsely arrested for car theft, then gets tangled up with thieves, spies, forgers, smugglers, bad cops, good cops, sleazy hoteliers, double-crossing gangsters, nosy neighbors, felonious grannies, and divorcing parents—not to mention murder of the friend in trouble she tried to help, which led to her arrest.
Colonist Benjamin Waite, a devoted husband, father, and skilled military scout in King Philip’s War, reluctantly obeys orders to guide a brutal attack against a camp of Algonquian Natives.
After the catastrophic event, Benjamin is burdened with guilt and longs for peace. But the Algonquians, led by the revered sachem Ashpelon, retaliate with vengeance upon Ben’s Massachusetts town of Hatfield, capturing over a dozen colonists, including his pregnant wife Martha and their three young daughters.
Hatfield 1677 is a tale of three interwoven yet diverging journeys of strength and survival. Benjamin is driven by love and remorse to rescue his family; Martha is forced into captivity and desperately striving to protect her children; and Ashpelon is willing to risk everything to ensure the safety and freedom of his people.
Based on the lives of the author’s ancestors, this riveting and unforgettable novel gives voice to three vastly different experiences in North America during a time before the creation of the Declaration of Independence. Then, the land was but a wilderness and a battleground; equality was not yet perceived as self-evident; and liberty and happiness were nothing more than dangerous pursuits.
For over three hundred years, that’s what the Hamilton family has called a shrinking swath of farmland in the Appalachian foothills of South Carolina.
Home.
That’s the failing tobacco farm where Walter and Maggie Hamilton choose to raise their three children. Walter has big plans to make the farm more profitable, but his plans are interrupted by World War II and family heartbreak. Walter returns from the war a changed man and finds Maggie, too, has changed, neither of them for the better. But at least their family is together again at…
Home.
More than anything, that’s where their eight-year-old son, Jimmy Hamilton, wants to be. However, after an unspeakable tragedy, he’s sent away from the only life he’s ever known to live with a kindly uncle in North Carolina.
Home.
That’s where Jimmy is finally going to be, unless fate has plans of its own…
A Song that Never Endsis the first installment of the Hamilton Place series, an epic family saga extending from the Great Depression to present day. Through war and peace, love and loss, triumph and tragedy, follow the Hamilton family on their journey from a run-down farm in South Carolina, through the jungles of Vietnam, to the top of the world in New York City, and beyond the gardens of stone at Arlington.
From Chanticleer:
A Song That Never Ends, the first volume of a two-part series by Mark A. Gibson, opens a dramatic fictional saga of the Hamilton family from the late 1930s Depression era, to 1967 and the Vietnam conflict. Here against the backdrop of a South Carolina tobacco farm, we come to witness a family in turmoil.
The calm and reserved Walter Hamilton and his rebellious, impulsive wife Maggie strive to build a life and raise a family. But the couple is tested by a series of misfortunes—miscarriages and stillbirths, and Walter’s enlistment during WWII leaving him with guilt-induced PTSD as he deals with the memory of fallen comrades.
At the center of this heartfelt story is James, the middle child, who at the tender age of eight is forced from his home due to a horrific accident and sent to live with a widower uncle.
Wales, 1946. In the beautiful seaside village of Mumbles, Drew Davies, a young Welsh woman, is determined to pursue a career in a profession that has been historically denied to women. Living with her grandparents in their charming stone cottage, Drew’s quiet life changes course suddenly when murder, espionage, and a cast of scoundrels and saints enter the picture, but not even murder can stop Drew in her tracks. This is the first historical cozy mystery in Gail’s new Drew Davies Railway Mysteries series.
Most bullies are hurting somewhere inside. This magical and heartwarming tale about an old giant sea turtle and a tiny little fish teaches us about BRAVERY, TRUST, FORGIVENESS, and HOPE. And to HELP others in need, no matter how different we are.
This is the story of an old sea turtle with a rusty fish hook stuck in his foot! He is quite crabby about his unfortunate situation, and likes to terrorize the little sea creatures. One day he catches little fishy, and plans to have him for dinner until little fishy tells the old turtle that if he will trust him and let him go, he will come back with his friend Mr. Swordfish, and he can saw that old rusty fish hook off so he will feel better!
A portion of the profits from this book are donated to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation center.
The Dream Collectorimmerses the reader into the exciting milieu of late 19th Century Paris when art and medicine were in the throes of revolution, art turning to Impressionism, medicine turning to psychology. In 1885, Julie Forette, a self-educated woman from Marseilles, finds employment at the infamous Salpêtrière, hospital and asylum to over five thousand disabled, demented and abandoned women, a walled city ruled by the famed neurologist and arrogant director, Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot.
Julie Forette forms a friendship with the young, visiting intern Sigmund Freud who introduces her to the altering-conscious power of cocaine. Together they pursue the hidden potential of hypnotism and dream interpretation. After Freud receives the baffling case of the star hysteric, Sabrine Weiss, he is encouraged by Julie to experiment with different modes of treatment, including “talking sessions.” Their urgent quest is to find a cure for Sabrine, Princess of the Hysterics, before Dr. Charcot resorts to the radical removal of her ovaries.
In Paris, Julie finds a passion for the new art emerging, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and forms friendships with the major artists of the period, including Pissarro, Monet, and Degas. Julie becomes intimately involved with the reclusive Cezanne only to be seduced by the “Peruvian Savage” Paul Gauguin. Julie is the eponymous ‘Dream Collector’ collecting the one unforgettable, soul-defining dream of the major historical figures of the period.
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Breath, Book 1 of the Desert Hills Trilogy
A 2021 Chatelaine First Place Winner!
Emily Sweeney, MD, is a vibrant young trauma physician at a major Seattle medical center who is tragically taken from the comfort of her 21st Century life. Suddenly, dropped into the 1880s unforgiving frontier, she is determined to survive, or die all over again. Using her knowledge and skills as a physician, Emily struggles to save a stranger in the desert hills of the Arizona Territory. In the end, can she return to her previous life and leave behind the man she’s come to love?
Caleb Young, a once-prominent Boston attorney in 1880, is haunted by his past filled with lies and deception. Hoping to outrun his demons, he willingly leaves his privileged life behind. Heading straight into unforeseen trouble, he is shot for revenge and left to die in the desert hills. Now, dependent on a beautiful woman who appears out of nowhere using her hands and heart to save him, will he finally have a reason to live.
Two lives forged out of truth and trust, can their love survive, or will it take its last breath?
For a country kid, the odd styles and new-fangled contraptions of the steam era were beyond Rhone’s comfort zone, but he was here to do a job, if he managed to graduate from the OPR Academy.
Using his front as a nobleman’s son, Rhone and his unique partner, Stone, are sent to an easy first assignment, the little harbor town of Corgy. But he quickly discovers the mayor dislikes him and that pirates are hounding the shipping trade. With one disliking him, and he disliking them both, things weren’t starting off well. Unfortunately, it was his job to fix problems and he was glad he had Stone along to help.
Only when he met Bella, the fiery waitress at The Common House, and Captain Black, of The Backwater Mistress, did he find his answer and an entirely uplifting experience you won’t want to miss.
From Chanticleer:
Luna, the second book in Strider S.R. Klusman’s YA Rhone and Stone Series, follows Rhone and his alien partner Stone as they develop a ship that can sail through the air.
The two train to become agents for the Office of Public Recrimination, urged to join by their friend – and now boss – Aundrea. Rhone struggles through training with the help of his trusty partner, but a much more difficult test remains before them – their first assignment.
Aundrea sends them to Corgy, a port town, without explaining their mission. But it doesn’t take long for Rhone to encounter troubles from shore and sea alike.
He and Stone meet Mayor Dugan, who takes an instant dislike for Rhone, posing as a wealthy merchant’s son. But it’s his front, designed so by the ladies of the OPR, and commands a great deal of respect and authority from the locals, if not Bella. Sometimes it’s difficult not to forget his actual purpose for being at Corgy. As an agent of the OPR, he must solve the town’s greatest problem, a rash of pirate attacks on Corgy’s vital ocean-borne trade; if they continue, Corgy won’t survive.
The Cover Design Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in every genre. The Grand Prize Winner, Genét Simone’s book, Teaching in The Dark will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cover Design 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!
Australians love the sun – our outdoor lifestyle is part our trademark appeal. It’s also the reason that every thirty minutes someone is diagnosed with melanoma. Why skin cancer is called Australia’s National Cancer, and two out of three Australians are likely to be diagnosed with it before turning 70.
After living an average Aussie life playing sport, spending languid days on the beach, and falling in love with ocean swimming, Anne Gately received unwelcome news. She had Stage IV melanoma.
Yet Anne is one of the lucky ones. After a dire prognosis, she dug deep to face the clear and present prospect of death, head-on. In Sunburnt, her revealing memoir, Anne recounts the emotions and challenges of her life-saving immunotherapy treatment under the care of Professor Georgina Long to come through the other side.
Not only has Anne survived, she is issuing a clarion call for a change to the bronzed Aussie culture. In SunburntAnne combines a nostalgic view of a charmed Aussie childhood, a jolting review of Australia’s sun-worshipping norms, and enough scientific research to encourage us all to redefine our relationship with the sun.
Through braided memories that flash against the present day, Portrait of a Feminist depicts the evolution of Marianna Marlowe’s identity as a biracial and multicultural woman—from her childhood in California, Peru, and Ecuador to her adulthood as an academic, a wife, and a mother.
How does the inner life of a feminist develop? How does a writer observe the world around her and kindle, from her earliest memories, a flame attuned to the unjust?
With writing that is simultaneously wise and shimmering, nuanced and direct, Marlowe confronts her own experiences with the hallmarks of patriarchy. Interweaving stories of life as the child of a Catholic Peruvian mother and an atheist American father in a family that lived many years abroad, she examines realities familiar to so many of us—unequal marriages, class structures, misogynist literature, and patriarchal religion. Portrait of a Feminist explores the essential questions of feminism in our time: What does it look like to live in defense of feminism? How should feminism be evolving today?
From Chanticleer:
Marianne Marlowe’s memoir, Portrait of a Feminist, reveals the evolution of her feminism through a collection of thought-provoking essays.
“I would say, if it were possible, I was born a feminist” is at the heart of Marlowe’s story. She relates to this defining identity throughout years spent in Peru, California, and Ecuador, where she navigates childhood, marriage, motherhood, and a professional career.
The section titles reflect periods in Marlowe’s life that correspond to nature’s rhythms— “Seeds Planted”, “The Growing Years”, “Maturation”, and “Harvesting”—and maintain strong connections between her thematically-linked experiences.
As a Peruvian American woman, Marlowe navigates the concepts of gender, race, and culture from a personal and critical point of view.
At the age of eight, Linda Lockwood moves with her family to an isolated ranch in eastern Washington State. Within two years, she’s patrolling the ranch on horseback alongside her border collie—herding sheep, killing rattlesnakes, and defending the ranch’s livestock from coyotes, bears, and even trespassing hunters—and working tirelessly to realize her dream of training horses. But her most daunting challenge is one hard work can’t overcome: her mother is descending into madness. And Linda’s deepest fear is that she might inherit the schizophrenia that threatens to dismantle her family.
At age twenty-five, Linda marries, but the joy of her first pregnancy is darkened by her mother’s suicide. Then she endures a painful miscarriage and the death of her beloved grandmother, traumatic events that send her back in time to the births and deaths of animals—domesticated and wild—that she loved in childhood. Eventually, her own family grows, but her happiness is haunted by questions people have tiptoed around all her life. How did her mother become schizophrenic? What did she endure as a patient in 1960s mental hospitals? Might Linda and even her children be next to battle that catastrophic mental disorder? Driven by the courage and will she sharpened as a rancher, Linda vows to find out.
Also the 2024 Journey Grand Prize and a Clue First Place Winner!
This book about the author’s harrowing experience with a stalker is not yet released, but we are excited to see it come out and see her story get told. To find more information see the authors website kathryncaraway.com or her advocacy project at unfollowme.com
What happens when a younger person gets dementia and becomes filled with peace?
Finding the Light is a poignant memoir about a mother’s journey caring for her son with a terminal form of early-onset dementia, Frontotemporal Degeneration, or FTD. From the overwhelming tasks that must be done to ultimately sharing the meaningful insights that can be gained in this experience, you can’t come away without being deeply moved.
Claytor shares ways to lessen the toll of caregiving with stress-reducing methods and options for self-care, financial tips, and suggestions for good estate planning.
But most importantly, her message is about developing a way to instill a sense of well-being in dementia sufferers and their caregivers. When Kasey Claytor found out that her 49-year-old son had Frontotemporal Degeneration, her world came crashing down…
Finally grappling with this situation head-on, she set out to learn everything she could about this devastating condition and create an environment around her son that would hopefully give him a sense of well-being despite the odds.
From Chanticleer:
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.
A young teacher buys a one-way ticket to Shishmaref, Alaska. Within minutes of landing, she finds herself dealing with unexpected, rustic accommodations, and the culture shock of living in a remote Iñuit community. She relies on her courage, resilience, and wit while enduring freezing temperatures, power outages, loneliness, and first-year teacher anxieties and missteps, but eventually realizes that those challenges pale in comparison to the life lessons she learns about the heart of teaching—lessons from her students, their culture, and their community, on the vast, windy landscape at the edge of the Chukchi Sea.
From Chanticleer:
How does place shape who we are—and who we’ll become? In this memoir, Teaching in the Dark, Genét Simone puts that question to the test by recounting her first year as a teacher.
The initial year of teaching is never an easy feat, but for Simone it was especially challenging, and transformative. She spent it with Native students in the remote island village of Shishmaref, on the Arctic edge of Alaska—no small wonder the school year became an unforgettable one.
Today, Simone has decades of teaching experience to draw upon. Yet, in this memoir she rarely employs her present voice to reflect on the past. Instead, the narrator remains in the moment: a young and inexperienced Simone, who only knows that she feels destined to be a teacher. When she signs up for the Shishmaref teaching job, she doesn’t even realize that it’s on an island.
The submissions for the 2025 Cover Design Awards – CCDAs – are underway, and both Fiction and Non-Fiction divisions close on July 31, 2025!
In the three seconds it takes you to read this sentence, a potential reader has already decided whether your book is worth their attention. That’s the brutal reality of today’s marketplace: your cover has exactly three seconds to communicate genre, grab attention, and compel someone to pick up your book or click that buy button.
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards celebrate the visual art of storytelling—recognizing the designers, publishers, and authors who understand that powerful cover design isn’t just decoration, it’s marketing. Whether displayed 50 feet tall at a trade show or reduced to a thumbnail on Amazon, your cover is your book’s most important piece of retail real estate.
The 5-Element Formula for Cover Success
Every winning cover must instantly communicate five critical elements:
Genre – Is it clearly science fiction, romance, mystery, or a memoir within those crucial three seconds?
Target Audience – Does it speak to young adults, literary fiction readers, business professionals, or general trade audiences?
Mood – Suspenseful, romantic, humorous, dark, or inspirational—the emotional tone must be unmistakable.
Timeframe – Contemporary, historical, futuristic, or period-specific settings should be immediately apparent.
Place/Culture – Whether it’s small-town America, ancient Rome, or outer space, location context sells books.
As Chanticleers founder Kiffer Brown says: “Effective covers sell the first book. The content between the covers sells the second book.”
Celebrating Our First ever 2024 Grand Prize Winners for the CCDAs!
Fiction Grand Prize Winner: Luna by Strider Klusman
This YA steampunk adventure cover perfectly exemplifies winning design—immediately communicating its genre through Victorian-inspired mechanical elements, targeting young adult readers with dynamic character positioning, and establishing a fantastical mood that promises adventure. The cover tells potential readers exactly what they’re getting: imaginative steampunk storytelling for the YA market.
Non-Fiction Grand Prize Winner: Teaching in the Dark by Genét Simone
This powerful memoir cover demonstrates how non-fiction design can convey both emotional impact and genre clarity. The visual elements immediately signal this as narrative non-fiction while the mood suggests a serious, transformational story that will resonate with educators and readers interested in social justice themes.
Both winners will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. They’ll also be invited to participate in Chanticleer 10-Question Interviews and receive featured coverage across our promotional platforms.
Design Categories That Drive Sales
Fiction Categories:
Literary/Contemporary/Satire – Sophisticated design for discerning readers
Romance – Emotional connection and genre expectations
Historical Fiction – Period authenticity with modern appeal
Supernatural & Speculative Fiction – Otherworldly elements that intrigue
Suspense/Thriller/Mysteries – Tension and danger in visual form
Youth Reads – Age-appropriate design that appeals to young readers and their parents
Non-Fiction Categories:
Narrative Non-Fiction Works – Story-driven design for memoir, biography, and true stories
Advisory/How-To/Guides – Clear, professional design that builds trust and expertise
Looking at Cover Excellence
Check out some of the outstanding cover designs we’ve celebrated recently that showcase the perfect marriage of artistic vision and market savvy!
These covers represent the gold standard: designs that work whether they’re displayed in bookstores, featured in online retailers, or showcased at book fairs and conferences.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional cover designs we receive every year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
Your cover design deserves recognition in an industry where visual impact drives sales. From indie authors investing in professional design to major publishers showcasing their best work, the Cover Design Awards celebrate the artistry that makes books impossible to ignore.
Your Cover is Your Silent Salesperson
In bookstores, at trade shows, on digital platforms your cover works 24/7 to sell your book. Whether you’re a designer proud of your visual storytelling, a publisher showcasing your best releases, or an author who invested in professional design, the Cover Design Awards provide the recognition that turns great design into marketing momentum.
You know you want it…
Don’t let your cover blend into the crowd—the deadline is July 31, 2025!
Submit to the Cover Design Awards today and make your book impossible to ignore!
The Global Thriller Awards celebrate stories where individual actions determine the fate of nations—or species. Our Hall of Fame showcases authors who’ve mastered the art of maximum-stakes storytelling, proving that the best thrillers don’t just entertain; they remind us that heroes can emerge when humanity needs them most.
From underwater civilizations fighting for survival to international conspiracies threatening global stability, these Grand Prize Winners understand that when the world hangs in the balance, readers demand heroes worthy of the challenge. Each of these celebrated works demonstrates what happens when exceptional writing meets planetary-scale peril.
We’re here to celebrate the past Grand Prize Winners that showed us just how high stakes the suspense can be!
A Blanket of Steel: The Rise of Oceania Book 6 By Timothy S Johnston
The review for this year’s Grand Prize Winner is forthcoming. In the meantime, here is our review for the previous book in the series and 2023 Cygnus Grand Prize Winner, The Shadow of War:
In Timothy S. Johnston’sThe Shadow of War, gripping personal, ecological, and political battles rage undersea for autonomy and power against the powerful surface nations. But even the ocean depths churn with betrayal, conflicting loyalties, and the ruthless ambitions of humanity.
This thriller opens on the dystopia of the year 2131, when rising sea levels have forced humanity to establish and inhabit underwater colonies. The fear of environmental collapse is heightened by the prospect of war as the colonies struggle to maintain their independence.
A simple scientific exploration of theChagostrench by two geologist brothers takes a horrific turn, snapping the science fiction tension with the impact of gore horror. A slight touch by one brother on the hull of their Seacar causes his hand to suddenly dissolve into a strange mass, melting flesh away from bone. This opening foreshadows the enigmas and anomalies to be unravelled in a vast undersea mystery.
Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy By Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke
Talk about a ripped-from-the headlines thriller in Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy!
In this multinational geopolitical thriller by Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke, a power-crazed Russian oligarch wants to usurp the current Russian dictator to take his place as the head of the government. He forms his own paramilitary force to steal priceless paintings from a Vatican church with plans to resell them for billions to fund his campaign. But why stop there? He also explodes illicit small-scale atomic weapons to further destabilize the Russian leader and cast himself as the country’s new czar.
Meanwhile, a crazed U.S. right wing military adjutant buys loads of AK-47s from the Italian mafia to arm U.S. paramilitary groups intent on enforcing their own far-right views in America.
Two professors uncover a conspiracy to sterilize liberal Americans with specially-manufactured electric cars, in Charlie Robinson’s thriller, Hybrid Hysteria.
Dr. Theresa Lauzon, endowed assistant professor at SUNY-Canton’s Department of Automotive Engineering, comes to Charlie “CC” Cavanaugh, university Chaplain and physics PhD, with two troubling revelations.
First, while testing an electric car donated by the Gauss Hybrid Electric Automobile Company (GHEA), she’d discovered troubling spikes in its battery’s electromagnetic field. She connects these spikes to a rash of infertility and miscarriages along the Pacific coast, where GHEA cars have boomed in popularity.
Second, Theresa is pregnant, and the father is GHEA’s technician-on-loan to SUNY-Canton, Jay Fish. And though Fish recently disappeared from campus, Theresa has much more complicated problems.
The Chameleon: A Jake Palmer Novel by Ron McManus takes on one of the most terrifying issues in the modern world: nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.
Amidst the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, the world’s superpowers recognize that both nations possess large nuclear arsenals, which intelligent, well-armed fanatics threaten to steal for their own nefarious purposes. If these weapons went off, they could easily lead to World War III. To prevent this, the U.S. eagerly takes on the role of supervising the security of these weapons in both countries.
In this terrorism thriller, India and Pakistan clash over the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan’s leaders decide to secretly deploy a variety of nuclear weapons to the front, sending them along backroads in unmarked trucks. But in a carefully planned attack, terrorists kidnap one of these vehicles containing three nuclear weapons, before substituting a precise duplicate truck to take its place. The theft is not discovered until the decoy truck reaches its destination.
Bill Hefflin is a man apart—apart from life, apart from his homeland, apart from love
At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin—a disillusioned Romanian expat—arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, code-named Boris. As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems, including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions.
With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris—the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings of Hefflin’s life.
The Bourne Identity Meets John le Carre’s The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Global Thriller 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!
Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Thriller story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2025 Global Thrillers Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.
The Global Thriller Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of High Stakes Thrillers. The Grand Prize Winner, Timothy S. Johnston’s book, A Blanket of Steel, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Global Thriller contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the continued love and promotion for your book!
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. It’ll drive you crazy. Literally.
Emma has sacrificed everything for her research in psychology at the University of Baltimore, dedicating her twenties to studying the persuasive effects of social media on the masses.
And, just when it’s about to pay off, her relentless graduate professor mysteriously disappears. They never got along, and the detective on the case blames her.
Now, desperate to clear her name, Emma sets out on a dangerous adventure only to discover a web of shocking lies and twisted motivations. Dark forces set in motion during the ‘90s converge, intertwining the dot com era, social media, and toxic manipulation.
A sinister, narcissistic madman has stolen her research, and with it, he can persuade the world to do as he wishes.
Scientific and moral questions swirl in Charlie Robinson’s latest thriller, Heavy Hysteria: A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Involving the Minerals of this Sacred Earth.
Readers are thrust into a suspenseful journey with worldwide implications alongside Dr. Charlie Cavanaugh, a 68-year-old priest and scientist.
Arriving home after a spiritual retreat, he is surprised by an FBI agent sitting with Cavanaugh’s gun on his lap. The agent has subverted a freshly enhanced security system to retrieve Cavanaugh’s encrypted, unpublishedHybrid Hysteriareport from a concealed USB stick.
The FBI needs Cavanaugh’s assistance with a delicate national security issue.
Having survived the implanting of another man’s memories, ballet dancer David Knight is struggling to adjust. He has been hunted, attacked, and almost killed because a TV minister wanted the acquired memories destroyed; injuring his best friend. Now a year later, the memories are gone, but his life will never be the same.
While trying to find his new normal in Canada’s premier dance company and living a pauper’s life, he’s fired because of anger issues. But when friend and aging spymaster Asher Fitzsimmons offers him a three-day contract for some light surveillance of one of the world’s largest security software companies, he jumps at it. However, David is soon embroiled in a corporate conspiracy that drags him to Japan to save the life of a billionaire’s daughter and uncover the greatest sleight of hand in history.
IN THIS COMPELLING third installment of the Jake Fortina global thriller series—set predominantly in Italy—US Army Lieutenant Colonel Jake Fortina and his Italian Carabinieri bride, Sara Simonetti-Fortina, must each face deadly threats from different enemies. Meanwhile, Jake’s decision to seek a change in his life’s mission turns out to be far more momentous than expected. Jake’s new mission will require him and Sara to face criminal and dark international enemies head-on, and to seek the assistance of his closest allies while employing his vintage resourcefulness and agility. Will the assistance provided by a highly trusted US Army sergeant and a Ukrainian Air Force colonel be sufficient for Jake Fortina to accomplish his mission? Find out in this fast-paced and heart-pounding thriller!
From Chanticleer:
This Series also won a First Place in the 2024 Series Award, book 1, Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat, will be showcased in the first-place post for Series. You can also check out our review for book 2, Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy, Our 2023 Global Thriller Grand Prize Winner here:
Talk about a ripped-from-the headlines thriller inJake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy!
In this multinational geopolitical thriller by Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke, a power-crazed Russian oligarch wants to usurp the current Russian dictator to take his place as the head of the government. He forms his own paramilitary force to steal priceless paintings from a Vatican church with plans to resell them for billions to fund his campaign. But why stop there? He also explodes illicit small-scale atomic weapons to further destabilize the Russian leader and cast himself as the country’s new czar.
Meanwhile, a crazed U.S. right wing military adjutant buys loads of AK-47s from the Italian mafia to arm U.S. paramilitary groups intent on enforcing their own far-right views in America.
RUPTURED: The story of a family torn apart, unsuspected betrayal, terrorism, secession, and potential civil war as the nation is sundered.
Following the loss of a hotly contested election, Jefferson Calhoun Lee, a former U.S. senator with a questionable past establishes the Nationalist Christian Republic of America, a conglomeration of states with ties to the old Confederacy.
Janice, wife of FBI Director Steven Whitinghill, accompanies her debonaire lover James Goodwin, a close friend of Lee, to the NCRA’s capitol in Montgomery, Alabama where Lee is sworn in as the all-powerful leader of the new nation. Amid mounting chaos U.S. President Edith Barnes is encouraged to declare war as powerful members of the NCRA engage in draconian measures that spin out of control. Janice, having severed her relationship with husband and daughter, learns of Goodwin’s checkered past and attempts to survive as her world turns upside down.
In a near future where DNA tests are used at ID checkpoints, brilliant Alexandra Tashen is hiding in the open. After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, she learned of the secret in her genes—a harmless inherited marker and ancestry that would get her deported to a brutal regime and likely death. Her adoptive father’s experimental gene therapy masks her marker, but not completely. Every security check is a one-in-ten chance of getting caught.
When her father vanishes, Alex risks everything in a headlong and often comic search across nations. A volatile love triangle develops with two brothers—one a disgraced intelligence officer, the other a damaged, charismatic diplomat—each guarding secrets of their own. As betrayals mount and the secrets unravel, Alex must confront the confounding choices between love, family loyalty, and moral obligation.
Edge of the Known World blends the tension of a global thriller with the heart of a love story.
Valentina Sorelli is a part-time graduate student and full-time marketing director of a community park in New Orleans. Jack Stillman is a corporate executive who hijacks his company’s research for personal gain, and he doesn’t care about the consequences. Their separate paths intersect when Valentina meets Jack’s son Sam, who becomes the link between the worlds of scientific discovery and corporate espionage.
As the story unfolds, Valentina and her classmates unite to try to stop Jack. They get a little help from a corporate whistleblower as well as the FBI. Valentina’s friendship with one of her classmates evolves into something more as they fight for their lives. A Place Unmade takes the reader on a provocative journey into the dangers lurking in our decreasing lack of biodiversity and patentable genetics.
An international criminal gang, known as Diablo Corps, plans a series of devastating attacks to take over the G7 countries unless their demands are met. Secure in their hidden headquarters in Antarctica, they possess the means to disrupt the leading world economies. The CEO wants what other power-hungry people want—more power.
Will the G7 bend to the will of these rogues or will evil triumph? Diablo Corps believes their previous infiltration of the international banking system and world stock exchanges will allow them to risk all on a single gamble.
The Scandinavian Protection Agency joins forces with Bedlam to thwart the efforts of the group and restore faith. Will Antarctica become a smoking ruin or will the world suffer an economic meltdown?
From Chanticleer:
Frozen Conquestby Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.
The icy edge of Antarctica serves as the center of a sinister organization, Diablo Corps. The ruthless leader, Walter Brown, threatens global mayhem if his aspirations for power are not met. With technological efficiency and the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure, Diablo Corps is poised to leverage its capabilities against the G7. Soon, an anonymous climate-related warning is sent out, with events such as the hacking of the London metal exchange proving to authorities the true weight of that threat.
Such dire actions demand an immediate answer. A classified team of specialists is called upon to gather at Ramstein Air Base. With naturally skilled leader Craig, sharp and observant Evelyn, and the humor and humility of Rufus and August, the promising recruits form the Bedlam Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and venture out into the peril of a frozen land.
There’s something magical that happens when a single great book becomes part of something larger—when characters you’ve grown to love continue their journeys, when worlds you’ve fallen into keep expanding, and when the story you thought was over reveals it was just the beginning. The Series Awards celebrate this unique literary achievement: the ability to sustain excellence across multiple volumes while building reader loyalty that lasts for years.
In today’s competitive market, a successful series doesn’t just sell books—it creates communities. From fantasy epics that span generations to mystery series featuring beloved detectives, from young adult adventures that grow with their audience to non-fiction works that build comprehensive expertise, series offer something no standalone work can: the promise that the story never truly ends.
The Power of Sustained Storytelling
Creating a successful series requires more than just writing multiple books—it demands the vision to build worlds that can support extended exploration, characters complex enough to evolve across volumes, and the skill to maintain consistent quality while keeping readers surprised. It’s the difference between telling a story and creating a literary universe.
Series also offer unparalleled marketing advantages. When readers discover a series they love, they don’t just buy one book—they buy the entire collection and eagerly await the next installment. Publishers understand this power: a successful series can anchor an entire catalog, creating reliable revenue streams and devoted readerships that traditional standalone novels rarely achieve.
But perhaps most importantly, series allow authors to explore themes and develop characters in ways that single volumes simply cannot accommodate. The greatest series become more than entertainment—they become ongoing relationships between authors and readers.
Multi-Genre Excellence
The Series Awards welcome submissions across every genre and format, recognizing that great serial storytelling knows no boundaries. Whether your series spans science fiction galaxies, historical periods, contemporary mysteries, or non-fiction expertise, we celebrate the unique challenges and rewards of multi-volume excellence.
Our categories align with all Chanticleer divisions, encompassing both fiction and non-fiction works. From epic fantasy trilogies to business guide series, from young adult adventures to literary explorations, every genre offers opportunities for the kind of sustained storytelling that creates lasting reader relationships.
Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!
We’re thrilled to honor Tim Facciola, whose epic fantasy series A Vengeful Realm claimed the 2024 Series Grand Prize with a completed trilogy that masterfully demonstrates everything we look for in award-winning series fiction. This sweeping saga—described as “Spartacus meets Game of Thrones”—follows Zephyrus from his awakening as an amnesiac gladiator through his ultimate confrontation with gods and destiny.
What makes A Vengeful Realm exemplary is Facciola’s ability to sustain complex world-building across three volumes while developing characters who evolve authentically with each installment. From The Scales of Balance through The Age of the End, readers witness not just epic battles and political intrigue, but profound character growth and an ever-expanding fictional universe that rewards investment.
The series showcases the marketing power of cohesive serial storytelling—Book 1 won the 2023 Overall Grand Prize for Best Book, proving that exceptional series often begin with exceptional individual volumes. Facciola’s achievement demonstrates how the best series create worlds readers never want to leave and characters they never want to say goodbye to. In addition to ongoing promotional features, A Vengeful Realm will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Tim Facciola will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview and receive continued recognition across our promotional platforms.
Looking at Series Excellence
Check out some of these outstanding series we’ve celebrated recently that showcase the power of sustained storytelling!
The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles
By Jerena Tobiasen
Jerena Tobiasen’s The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles weaves together the personal costs of duty with the sweeping political upheavals of early 20th century Europe. Through Viscount Simon Nightingale-Temple’s journey from naval officer to reluctant spy, Tobiasen creates a panoramic view of revolution, family loyalty, and survival.
Love and loss define the stakes in revolutionary Russia.
Beginning with Simon’s covert mission in Petrograd during the 1915 Russian Revolution, the series establishes its emotional core through Simon’s romance with Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna—the sole surviving Romanov daughter. As Mary hides among British aristocracy in the second book, her trauma from witnessing her family’s execution adds psychological depth to the espionage framework.
Family betrayal elevates traditional spy fiction.
What distinguishes Tobiasen’s work is her willingness to complicate spy narratives with intimate family conflicts. Simon’s forced recruitment into MI6 becomes doubly painful when he must investigate his own brother Richard’s treason. The series succeeds because Tobiasen balances meticulous historical research with emotionally resonant character development, grounding the series in lived historical reality while exploring timeless themes of loyalty and sacrifice.
Read the review for book 1 Tsarina’s Crownhere and book 2 Tsarina’s Jewelshere.
These works demonstrate how the best series create something greater than the sum of their individual volumes—building reader loyalty and literary worlds that endure.
Bella Brown Series
By J.W. Zarek
J.W. Zarek’s Bella Brown series captures the joy of childhood curiosity and the special bond between grandmother and granddaughter. Through Bella’s adventures with butterflies and everyday challenges, Zarek creates stories that blend whimsical exploration with gentle life lessons, all brought to vibrant life by illustrator Anastasia’s playful artwork.
Grandma Yetta’s wisdom guides Bella through wonder and worries.
Whether Bella is searching for Grandma Yetta’s missing butterfly locket across imagined global destinations or tackling her overwhelmingly messy room, their phone conversations form the emotional heart of each story. Yetta’s calm blue dialogue contrasts beautifully with Bella’s energetic pink text, making it easy for young readers to follow their conversations while emphasizing their different approaches to problem-solving. The series celebrates how patient guidance can transform daunting tasks—from cleaning chaos to processing memories—into manageable, even enjoyable experiences.
The books excel at teaching through discovery rather than preaching. Bella learns butterfly facts during her imaginative travels and cleaning strategies through Yetta’s step-by-step encouragement. Anastasia’s illustrations enhance this educational element with hidden details like Pip the Domovoi tucked throughout the pages, rewarding careful observation. The vibrant pastel artwork makes each location and emotion feel immediate, whether capturing the wonder of butterfly gardens or the satisfying transformation of a clean room.
Read the review for Bella Brown—Grandma’s Missing Butterfly Lockethere and Bella Brown’s Messier Than Messy Roomhere.
Helena P. Schrader WWII Aviation Series
By Helena P. Schrader
Helena P. Schrader delivers two of the most authentic and compelling WWII aviation novels in recent memory, exploring the psychological toll of aerial warfare on RAF pilots and crews. Through meticulous research and deeply human storytelling, Schrader captures both the technical precision of military aviation and the emotional cost of sustained combat operations during Britain’s darkest hours.
From the dogfights of the Battle of Britain in Where Eagles Never Flew to the bomber campaigns of 1943-44 in Moral Fibre, Schrader demonstrates masterful command of aviation history and human psychology. Her aircraft practically come alive with technical detail—Hurricanes, Spitfires, and Messerschmitts engage in breathtaking aerial battles that feel immediate and visceral. Yet what elevates these novels beyond military fiction is Schrader’s unflinching examination of combat stress, survivor’s guilt, and the crushing weight of repeated missions under impossible conditions.
Character depth transcends genre expectations.
Kit Moran’s journey from decorated veteran to accused coward and back to redemption in Moral Fibre exemplifies Schrader’s nuanced approach to heroism. Rather than creating invincible warriors, she crafts vulnerable, authentic characters who struggle with fear, exhaustion, and moral complexity. The novels explore Britain’s class-conscious culture while celebrating the resilience and camaraderie that sustained the RAF through its most desperate period. Schrader’s authentic dialogue and multiple perspectives—including German airmen—create a comprehensive portrait of aerial warfare that honors both the sacrifice and the humanity of all involved.
Read the review for Where Eagles Never Flewhere and Moral Fibre: A Bomber Pilot’s Storyhere.
Salem Stories Series
By Sandra Wagner-Wright
Sandra Wagner-Wright’s Salem Stories series brings 18th-century Massachusetts to vivid life through the interconnected sagas of the Derby and Crowninshield families. These meticulously researched novels explore how personal ambition and family loyalty shape the founding of American maritime commerce, told through the perspectives of both powerful patriarchs and the strong women who guide them behind the scenes.
Family rivalry drives early American enterprise.
The series chronicles the fierce competition between merchant dynasties as they build privateering empires through dangerous overseas trade. From Mary Derby’s marriage to George Crowninshield in the first novel to the next generation’s struggles in Sea Tigers & Merchants, Wagner-Wright demonstrates how family bonds and business rivalries intertwine across decades. The Derby and Crowninshield families are simultaneously connected through marriage and divided by commercial ambition, creating complex dynamics where brothers-in-law compete for dominance while their wives navigate the social and emotional costs of such rivalry.
Authentic historical detail anchors personal drama.
Wagner-Wright’s extensive research shines through rich period vernacular, detailed descriptions of maritime commerce, and unflinching portrayals of 18th-century hardships. The novels capture everything from the perils of childbirth without modern medicine to the treacherous realities of international trade in an era of pirates and hostile foreign governments. Rather than romanticizing the past, Wagner-Wright shows how families built fortunes through calculated risks while facing genuine dangers—both on the high seas and in Salem’s ruthless social hierarchies.
Read the review for Ambition, Arrogance and Pridehere and Sea Tigers & Merchantshere.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional series we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
The Series Awards provide recognition that extends far beyond individual book promotion. When we celebrate your series, we’re promoting an entire literary universe—creating marketing momentum that benefits every volume and builds anticipation for future installments.
Your Literary Universe Awaits Recognition
Whether you’ve completed a trilogy that ties together all loose ends or launched an ongoing series that promises years of reader engagement, the Series Awards recognize the unique achievement of sustained excellence across multiple volumes. For publishers, series recognition provides powerful marketing tools that highlight your investment in long-term storytelling. For authors, it validates the vision and commitment required to build worlds worth revisiting.
The Global Thriller Awards celebrate the highest-stakes suspense fiction—where the fate of nations, civilizations, or even humanity itself hangs in the balance. While our Clue Awards focus on personal crimes and our M&M Awards celebrate intimate mysteries, Global Thriller demands nothing less than world-shattering events and planet-threatening conspiracies.
This is where Jack Reacher meets Mission: Impossible, where scientific discoveries become weapons of mass destruction, and where a single hero’s actions determine whether civilization survives another day. From underwater empires fighting for the future of humanity to cyber-terrorists threatening global infrastructure, Global Thriller authors understand that sometimes saving the world is the only story worth telling.
The Categories Where Heroes Rise to Global Threats
Historic features the theater of war, international spycraft, and epic conflicts that shaped our world—think The Hunt for Red October or wartime espionage where one mission changes history.
LabLit merges real science with “what-if” scenarios that feel terrifyingly plausible—where cutting-edge research becomes humanity’s salvation or its doom, like The Andromeda Strain for the modern age.
Science Fiction explores threats from beyond our known reality—alien invasions, interdimensional warfare, or technological catastrophes that make Independence Day look like a warm-up act.
Dramatic delivers classic Die Hard-style consequences where personal stakes escalate to global proportions—one hero, impossible odds, and the clock ticking toward worldwide disaster.
Action/Adventure needs no explanation—pure adrenaline-fueled storytelling where heroes race against time to prevent global catastrophe through spectacular set pieces and death-defying stunts.
CyberTech (Cyberpunk) presents dystopian futures with 1980s aesthetics and futuristic technology—where digital wars determine physical reality and hackers hold the keys to civilization’s survival.
Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!
Timothy S. Johnston took home the 2024 Global Thriller Grand prize win with his epic underwater thriller A Blanket of Steel! This concluding volume of The Rise of Oceania series delivers everything we expect from world-class global thriller fiction.
Johnston’s masterpiece imagines a future where climate change has devastated the surface world, forcing humanity to colonize the ocean floors. As nations suffer famine, drought, and apocalyptic flooding, underwater leader Truman McClusky faces his gravest threat: a Russian assassin bent on destroying humanity’s last hope for oceanic civilization. With the fate of underwater colonies hanging in the balance, Mac must uncover the killer’s identity while leading the largest underwater battle ever assembled.
A Blanket of Steel represents the pinnacle of global thriller storytelling—The Expanse but told beneath Earth’s oceans, where one man’s final test determines the future of human survival. In addition to all the featured posts that have already gone out for the Global Thriller Awards, A Blanket of Steel will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame post. Timothy S. Johnston will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and A Blanket of Steel will receive a coveted Chanticleer Editorial Review.
Looking for Your Next World-Saving Read?
Check out some of these incredible global thrillers we’ve reviewed recently that showcase the life-or-death stakes that define the genre!
THE LAST RIVAL: A Time of Our Choosing By Kyle Palmer
The Last Rival: A Time of Our Choosingby Kyle Palmer is a modern take on the mid-20thcentury style of pulp-fiction, combining the genre’s brazen and entertaining storytelling with reflections on the deeper meaning behind all the action. This masculine romp through history dares to imagine the aftermath of World War II—in a slightly different world.
The story opens in Washington, DC, in 1946, through the eyes of a fictionalized “Wild Bill” Donovan. The real Wild Bill was an American soldier and intelligence officer, perhaps best-known for founding the CIA. Author Kyle Palmer deftly weaves such historic details into his fictionalized account of American history, offering readers a chance to learn as they come along for the ride.
From the machinations of government in Washington, DC,The Last Rivalspirals into the wild resurgence of a World War II threat. The powers of the Third Reich haven’t truly been neutralized.
THE WOLF HUNTER: DESOLATION: Mack Murphy Series Book 1 By Terrence O’Malia
InThe Wolf Hunter: Desolation, Book One of Terrence O’Malia’sMack Murphyseries, staff sergeant Mack Murphy is convinced there are three types of people: sheep, wolves, and hunters.
The sweet, innocent, dutiful sheep are blissfully unaware of the deadly wolves that could strike at any time. But thankfully, the hunters protect the sheep and even seek out the wolves to prevent their attacks on the flock. Mack defines himself steadfastly as a wolf hunter. He loves his family with all his heart and would do anything to protect them.
Mack’s protective nature continues into his military life where he is part of a team based in the mountains of Afghanistan. Just as it is with his family, he pledges his full allegiance to his team.
Frozen Conquestby Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.
The icy edge of Antarctica serves as the center of a sinister organization, Diablo Corps. The ruthless leader, Walter Brown, threatens global mayhem if his aspirations for power are not met. With technological efficiency and the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure, Diablo Corps is poised to leverage its capabilities against the G7. Soon, an anonymous climate-related warning is sent out, with events such as the hacking of the London metal exchange proving to authorities the true weight of that threat.
Such dire actions demand an immediate answer. A classified team of specialists is called upon to gather at Ramstein Air Base. With naturally skilled leader Craig, sharp and observant Evelyn, and the humor and humility of Rufus and August, the promising recruits form the Bedlam Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and venture out into the peril of a frozen land.
CLIMATE DRAGON: Treachery, Pestilence & Weirding Weather By S.W. Lawrence
Climate Dragonby S.W. Lawrence offers a unique blend of climate fiction, thriller, and real scientific inquiry, setting the stage for an intriguing trilogy centered on dual crises—an impending climate catastrophe and the outbreak of a mysterious disease.
Jake Harper, a newly minted engineering professor, and his romantic partner Abbey London, an infectious disease specialist, balance their burgeoning careers with their bustling inn outside Washington, D.C. But the demands of their lives are disrupted as the two crises draw in Jake and Abbey—the only people prepared to face them.
Jake’s suspicions of a cyberattack on the North American power grid grow after attending a lecture at George Washington University. Meanwhile, Abbey discovers an alarming new bleeding disorder spreading among the drug-injecting population, raising the stakes for both her career and personal safety as she navigates the risks to her pregnancy.
The Byzantine Crossby Dena Weigel starts at the end of an explosive rogue mission. Sarah Kraft is committed to saving a record of irreplaceable relics from a bombing mission in World War II. Despite her extraordinary success, the OSS spy is later put out in the cold by her handler, Albert Phillips, for a mistake she didn’t commit.
Years after World War II has ended and the Cold War is dominating headlines, Kraft has a new role as an art insurance appraiser in New York. The company’s lip service for their rich clients and irreverence for her skills don’t sit well with Sarah. It becomes clear that her moral compass will soon lead her into unemployment. But right at the end of her rope, Agent Phillips returns to recruit her back into the organization, now rebranded the CIA.
Sarah Kraft’s mission is simple: break into the Kremlin and retrieve an ancient relic from before the birth of Christ.
These reviews represent just a glimpse of the high-stakes adventures and world-threatening scenarios waiting to be discovered in today’s global thriller fiction.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional books we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.
The World Needs Your Story!
Global catastrophes demand global recognition. Whether your thriller features international conspiracies, scientific disasters, or heroes racing to prevent worldwide destruction, the Global Thriller Awards provide the platform your world-saving story deserves.
In a world facing real global challenges, readers hunger for stories that remind them heroes can triumph against impossible odds. Your thriller could be the next to join the ranks of celebrated authors who understand that when the stakes are planetary, only the best storytelling will do.
You have until July 31st to share your Novel with us and enter the 2025 CIBAs!
This Division is dedicated to one of the most Well-known Mystery authors, Dame Agatha Christie. Writer of Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and so much more.
WWI Nurse, Writer, Playwright (and record holder of longest running Stage Play, The Mousetrap which opened in 1952), and Archaeologist, the latter of which contributed greatly to her novels.
When she wasn’t busy writing, She spent quite a good amount of her life working on excavations in Egypt and Iraq with her 2nd Husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan.
Agatha Christie (center) with Max Mallowan and Sir Leonard Woolley at the ruins of the Mesopotamian city of Ur in 1931
But enough about Christie. The Hall of Fame features the Grand Prize Winners of the Mystery and Mayhem Award who we are proud to have in the Chanticleer Family!
If Two Are Dead: A Garnick and Paschal Mystery By Jeanne Matthews
An enigmatic raven-haired beauty mysteriously murdered and cast into a stranger’s grave, left for scurrilous resurrection men to uncover in the dark of night! In Jeanne Matthews’s historical mysteryIf Two Are Dead,Detectives Quinn Paschal and Gabriel Garnick take up this case of vicious murder and ignite a mire of secrets and resentment at the pinnacle of 1867 Chicago society.
After catching the body-snatchers in the act of stealing a freshly buried corpse to sell for medical research, Quinn and Garnick realize the body found in Emmett Buck’s grave is by no means that of a young man, but that of a woman, whose bloody head and clean clothes point to a complex mystery. With only her appearance and some identifying jewelry, Quinn insists they can and will catch the killer of ‘Marietta A.V.’ Enlisting the help of an unscrupulous journalist, they locate her husband, a wealthy and influential doctor.
The woman’s husband, Dr. Horace E. Vinings, offers them an incredible reward if they can find Marietta’s killer. But Quinn and Garnick suspect he might not like the answer he receives.
A Haunting at Linley: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel By Michelle Cox
In this seventh book of the series, Clive and Henrietta return to England to find Castle Linley in financial ruin. When Clive’s cousin, Wallace, invites an estate agent in to assess the home’s value, the agent is later found poisoned, throwing all of the Castle’s guests into suspicion. Clive and Henrietta are soon drawn into an investigation, which is slowed by an incompetent local inspector and several unexplained phenomena—the cause of which many, especially the frail Lady Linley, believe to be the workings of the ghost of a hanged maid.
Meanwhile, Gunther and Elsie have begun life on a farm in Omaha. Circumstances are difficult, but they are content—until Oldrich Exely appears, proposing an option Elsie finds difficult to ignore. Melody Merriweather, still masquerading as a nun to aid Elsie’s escape, likewise finds it difficult to ignore a letter with tragic news from home, while Julia, on the other hand, receives a very different sort of letter from Glenn Forbes.
Back in England, Clive is called away to London on suspicious business, leaving Henrietta to carry on with the investigation alone. When she is mysteriously locked in the study one night, however, things take on a more deadly, supernatural feel, leaving her to fear that Lady Linley’s “ghost” might just be real after all…
A Spying Eye: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel By Michelle Cox
Brooding Château du Freudeneck, just outside Strasbourg, France has villains in the drawing rooms, stolen art hidden in the cellars, and bats in the belfry – all the best elements for a 19th-century Gothic mystery.
However, in Michelle Cox’s novel, A Spying Eye it’s the 20th century. The Great War is passed, but the next war already looms on the horizon. The people of Strasbourg feel the growing conflict sharply, at the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, a fertile region that has been contested between France and Germany since time immemorial.
Which means those bats are in the unfortunate head of the elderly Baron Von Harmon, the current lord and master (as much as he’s still able to be, at least) of the Chateau, while the stolen art is pursued by both the villainous Nazis and the only slightly-less villainous agents of Britain’s MI5.
Ophelia’s Room by Michael Scott Garvin begins with a bang – and a child’s whimper.
A frantic, distraught father pounds on a bolted chapel door in a small country hospital…. A tiny, two-day-old infant cries in peril…. A deranged grandfather sees demons in every shadowy corner.
The opening scene read like something out of a young parent’s nightmare. Will their child be healthy? Will they grow up to be successful? Will the child be safe in their grandparents’ arms? Questions that any new mother and father ask themselves. In Garvin’s Ophelia’s Room, the answers are terrifying.
Patrick M. Garry’s The Discovery encompasses a narrative that traverses a family legal case jigsaw puzzle toward a discovery of self by exploring the ghost of ancient regrets, basic human desires, and questions of faith.
Frank Horgan, a former lawyer at one of Minneapolis’ largest firms, now practices small-case litigation in the little community of Basswood Hills. Frank, a victim of his own follies, has one more chance to restore his career to its former glory. But not before a huge legal matter comes knocking on his door at his father’s diner. This case kicks off the legal drama, bringing in several main and secondary characters to play their parts in the ultimate discovery of buried contentedness and eventually a scandal that breaks into the national newspaper.
Meanwhile, Frank comes upon the case of the most prominent McCorkle family in Basswood Hills.
From Victorian Chicago to wartime France, these Hall of Fame winners prove that the best mysteries don’t just puzzle readers—they transport them to other worlds entirely. Each of these celebrated authors cracked the code that so many mystery writers struggle with: how to stand out in a crowded genre.
What’s their secret?
They didn’t let their stories remain unsolved cases buried in obscurity.
Your cozy mystery deserves the same recognition. In Dame Agatha Christie’s tradition, the M&M Awards celebrate authors who understand that the most satisfying mysteries combine clever plotting with unforgettable characters.
You know you want it…
The Case for Your Mystery
Will your amateur sleuth be next to join this prestigious lineup? Whether your story unfolds in a quaint English village or a bustling American town, the M&M Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform that transforms hidden gems into must-read mysteries.
The Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries. The Grand Prize Winner, Jeanne Matthews’s book, If Two Are Dead will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the M&M 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!
Jenny Hershberger returns to Apple Creek, Ohio, called by Detective Elbert Wainwright to help solve another cold case—a young Amish boy murdered in a deadly snowstorm and never identified. But as she digs into the case, she finds so many connections to her own life that the story becomes like a house of mirrors. As Jenny and Bobby Halverson travel from Apple Creek to Shipshewana, to Texas and Colorado, and back to Apple Creek, the trail grows warmer each day. But each step uncovers a new murder… and a new twist. Who is the killer? And who is…THE BOY IN BLUE DENIM?
A photo assignment at the cemetery leads Callie Cassidy to a corpse—this one above ground. Now, her search for the killer unearths some long-buried secrets…
Callie’s mother Maggie, a notorious hobby jumper, has embarked on a new pursuit—grave rubbing. When she recruits her daughter to photograph her first endeavor at the local cemetery, Callie brings golden retriever Woody and tabby cat Carl along for the outing. It’s a breathtaking autumn morning in Rock Creek Village, Colorado. Golden aspen leaves rustle in the cool breeze, and the air is filled with the scent of pine. What could go wrong on a day like this?
Then, a ghostly woman emerges from the trees, bleeding from a head wound and claiming to have no memory of how she arrived, or even who she is. Maggie quickly identifies her as a woman who disappeared from the village forty years ago—without a trace.
If that’s not enough intrigue, Woody disobeys her and sprints deeper into the cemetery. When Callie catches up to him, he is sitting sentinel at the tombstone of a recently deceased villager. And behind the stone, a man lies on the ground—with a pickaxe jutting from his neck.
Callie recognizes him as the low-level mobster who has been dating her best friend Tonya’s mother—and they’d been having problems. Did Tonya’s mother kill the man? Could it have been the mysterious woman? Or maybe someone with ties to his crime family?
Callie can’t resist investigating—and this time, Detective Raul Sanchez welcomes her assistance. Because if they can’t solve the crime soon, the town may be facing grave consequences…
Swansea Station – 1947 The war is over, and with hopes of reconstruction beginning, rationing ending, and lives starting over, Drew awaits the decision regarding a new position with the railway. But mystery and mayhem arrive aboard an afternoon train carrying the new vicar, Liam O’Neill, and a cadre of visitors from Ireland. Drew’s attention is once again focused on unraveling the threads of revenge and solving another murder. The unfolding of an unexpected relationship with the young vicar proves another mystery for Drew to unravel. This is the second book in the award-winning Drew Davies Railway Mystery Series.
The third Trudy Genova mystery from award-winning author M. K. Graff brings Trudy home, leaving her New York City studio consulting job to visit her rural hometown of Schoharie, three hours north. NYPD detective Ned O’Malley accompanies Trudy, primed to meet her family, but with a secret mission to find out what really happened when her father died eleven years ago.
Mario Genova’s death was deemed a tragic accident, but Trudy feels there was more to her beloved father acting out of character the day before he died. After years of hard work building a successful apple orchard business with her mother, Mario cleaned out their bank accounts. No reason-and no money-was ever found. As Trudy and Ned try to investigate without informing her family of their actions, a new death occurs on Genova Orchards property, and once again Trudy’s family is under scrutiny.
She’s hired to find criminals. What if they find her first? She’s racing to stay alive and bring them to justice.
Saskia is an unlikely hero, a computer geek and mountain bike enthusiast, but when she arrives in the highlands of Australia to help restructure a family-owned logging company, she soon finds herself in the heart of a wild chase to uncover a surprising plethora of crimes. With the fate of a logging community hanging in the balance, can Saskia unravel the mystery in the forest before it’s too late?
From Chanticleer:
The Forest, a slow-burning mystery and the second book in Miriam Verbeek’s Saskia van Essen series, follows a young investigator trying to unravel a mystery that sits deep in the core of a private logging organization.
Saskia, a co-owner of International Financial Services, is requested by Tania to help uncover a network of criminal activity in her family’s Australian timber business. After taking over the company as its new director, Tania doubts the legitimacy of their remarkable profits, given high expenses, severe competition, and a substantial reduction in timber production that should have made it difficult to make any substantial gains.
Wasting no time, Saskia travels to Australia, having agreed to investigate possible criminal activity while helping the timber mill restructure.
1885. Arabella Pryce is struggling with heartbreak. In keeping with her late husband’s final wishes, she must leave behind her dazzling celebrity and breathe new life into their namesake hotel in Colorado.
But when a beloved town beauty is found dead, all eyes—and suspicion—turn to her.
With blood-stained evidence, handsome sheriffs, and libelous journalists turning her investigation into a dangerous drama, this determined thespian fears she’s missed her cue for survival.
Amid whispered betrayals and shadowed secrets, a mischievous ghost guides her through a maze of perilous clues, drawing her ever closer to a truth more shocking than the lies surrounding her.
Can she unmask the true killer and clear her name before her reputation is ruined forever?
The Cover Design Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in every genre. The Grand Prize Winner, Strider Klusman’s book, Luna will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cover Design contest page year ’round!
The Cover Design Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in every genre. The Grand Prize Winner, Genét Simone’s book, Teaching in The Dark will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cover Design contest page year ’round!
