Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Prestigious

Discover your next great read with the 2023 Somerset Awards Hall of Fame

Contemporary tales of literary proportions?

Submit to the Somerset Awards by October 31st!

***Submit Your Novel Today!***

Are the pages of your book full of rich literary themes, captivating contemporary narratives, a touch of magical realism, or heartfelt explorations of family dynamics? If so, it’s time to put your work to the test by submitting it to the Somerset Awards! These awards seek to celebrate and honor books that shine with literary brilliance, offering a platform for those that delve into the complexities of human existence through the written word. Whether your work weaves enchanting tales of magical realism, delves into the intricacies of modern life, or delves deep into the bonds that tie families together, the Somerset Awards is your chance to gain recognition and acclaim for your extraordinary storytelling.

For Humor, Satire, or Allegorical works, we suggest that you consider the Mark Twain Book Awards division of the CIBAs.

Lets take a look at the Grand Prize Winners of the Somerset Awards!

Everything That Was
By Conon Parks, Chris Sempek, Mike MacNeil and Larry Knight

Everything That Was echoes myriad broken emotions born of the world in turmoil after 9/11, intricate and politically bold, and as disturbing in its brutal humanity as it is satisfying with witty jests.

The 9/11 terrorist attack has shattered the psyche of the American people. A volcanic eruption of questions demands the whys and hows of the attack. From this anger, a massive war on terror begins. This historical fiction reflects the chaos of 9/11 and its ensuing global chaos – resulting in a series of violent endeavors and events. Throughout Everything That Was, one can find a swarm of fragmented ideologies, mini memoirs of war veterans, and witness accounts – all screeching reasons for the attack, the ensuing war, and its consequences: political, ideological, and theological.

Read More Here

Lies In Bone
By Natalie Symons

From the first paragraph of Lies in Bone, Natalie Symons’ debut novel delves into human darkness.

Lies in Bone, set in a factory town in 1986 Pennsylvania after its industrial boom faded, is told from the point of view of a girl who struggles with more than usual teenage angst. Symons relentlessly reveals the fear, ignorance, and poverty which often suffuse a community left behind.

The residents of Slippery Elm, Pennsylvania, were bewildered and ill-equipped to deal with their new reality when the steel mill shut down seven years before, leaving many unemployed and discouraged.

Frances Coolidge, known as Frank, knows the struggle of being left behind.

Read More Here

A Season in Lights
By Gregory Erich Phillips

Gregory Erich Phillips’ A Season in Lights is a well-crafted, engaging exploration of creatives, each following their heart and trying to reach their dream.

Against backdrops of the 1980s AIDS crisis and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, the story entwines the lives of a 30-something dancer and an older musician as they strive to make their artistic mark in the cultural capital of New York City.

Here in a two-fold unveiling, the story comes to life from the first-person perspective of Cammie, a starry-eyed aspiring dancer from Lancaster, PA, and the third-person reveal of Tom, a more seasoned black pianist. He longs for a classical career but is too often labeled a jazz musician. Cammie first encounters Tom in a studio dance class where he’s taken a job as the musical accompanist. Befriended by the gay dance instructor, Tom heeds the worldly advice offered about surviving in the Big Apple. “All you’ve got to do is convince people that you belong. You’ve got to tell them who you are before they tell you.”

Read More Here

Hard Cider
By Barbara Stark-Nemon

Abbie Rose Stone is a woman determined to follow her newly discovered dream of producing her own craft hard apple cider while navigating the ups and downs of family life with her grown sons and husband.

Abbie Rose knows how to deal with adversity, and dives headfirst into this new chapter of her life with energy and passion. She describes her early adulthood years of infertility struggles and the hardscrabble way she built her young family through invasive medical procedures, a surrogate attempt, and adoption barriers.

After finishing a successful career in education and raising her three sons, Abbie Rose now sees an opportunity to create a new segment of her life’s work in a blossoming business venture. She’s set to take on this new venture by herself, determined to succeed, with or without her husband’s support. Yet, while she lays out her meticulous plans for her cider business, life keeps happening around her, attempting to derail Abbie Rose at every turn.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Somerset 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!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Contemporary story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Somerset Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Somerset Awards is your chance to shine!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners from CAC23!

And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

October 23, 2023
Celebrating the I&I Awards 2023 with the Hall of Fame for Instruction and Insight

Seeking to spread wisdom and knowledge?

The Instruction & Insight Awards are here to help!

Presentations like J.D. Barker’s are a great way to learn!

The Insight & Instruction Awards celebrate exceptional books that provide valuable knowledge, guidance, and enlightenment across a wide range of subjects. From alternative remedies to self-help, these awards acknowledge authors who have made significant contributions to the fields of education, self-improvement, and understanding the world around us. This diverse collection of books foster learning, personal development, and a deeper understanding of the world around us. Enrich lives and contribute to the non-fiction landscape bu submitting today!

***Submit your Book Today***

You have until October 31st to Share your Book and Submit to the 2023 CIBAs!

Looking for something to learn? The I&I Awards have what your looking for! We’ve got categories for Travel, Crafts, Cooking, Motivation, Self-Help and More!

We’re always looking for reasons to celebrate our past winners. You can see the Grand Prize and First Place Winners from 2022 here, but let’s hope into our time machine and recognize our past I&I Grand Prize Winners!

Honoring the Grand Prize Winners of the Instruction & Insight Awards!

Emotional Magnetism
By Sandy Gerber

Emotional Magnetism: How to Communicate to Ignite Connection in Your Relationships is a self-help and marketing book in one—in fact, it’s a self-marketing book.

A seasoned marketing professional, author Sandy Gerber uses common elements in marketing theory to aid those who wish to enhance their communication skills and ability to get along with people around them. It’s easy to be misunderstood or unheard, and it’s even easier to be at cross-purposes, leading to frustration and animosity. But using Gerber’s SAVE technique, understanding what we mean and what we need becomes clear.

In this work, we learn what emotional magnetism is, and how well we can communicate when we learn how to harness it. We also learn about how emotional magnetism can be repelled when it’s not done right. But in order to use emotional magnetism, we must first learn what the emotional magnets are, using the acronym SAVE—short for safety (S), achievement (A), value (V), and experience (E)—and how they are reflected in our personalities.

Read More Here

The Black Foster Youth Handbook
By Ángela Quijada-Banks

The Black Foster Youth Handbook: 50+ Lessons I Learned to successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal is a distinguished compilation of award-winning author Ángela Quijada-Banks’ insights, seeking to assist those in foster care to stay optimistic and triumph over traumatic experiences.

The text features the author’s candid revelations regarding the disarray she encountered in foster care and the overwhelming emotional roller coaster she underwent through family upheavals and a heart-breaking rift between her siblings.

Foster care had seen her forget her goals and aspirations, as traumas and emotional misfortunes spread their venom in her soul. Banks had found herself misplaced, perplexed, wounded, irate, and unloved. Her background, past wounds, and pessimistic beliefs ruled over her. In a painful recap, she reveals how she became accustomed to constant alarming incidents, creating in her a perpetual state of survival.

Read More Here

Independent Living with Autism
By Wendela Whitcomb Marsh

Author and autism counselor Wendela Whitcomb Marsh has created a specialized guide for those with autism, seen through the eyes of five characters of different ages, with differing needs and aspirations in her book, Independent Living with Autism: Your Roadmap to Success.

Boldly launching her work with the ambitious chapter, “Solutions,” Marsh depicts some of the possible departure points for her readers: those just out of school, those who were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder or who self-diagnosed, and all who face the challenges of ASD, whether alone or with family or social supports.

Marsh relays her story, focusing on the lives of five individuals with ASD.

Read More Here

Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew
By Ellen Notbohm

Renowned author and mother of a son with autism, Ellen Notbohm here writes from both a personal and a studied viewpoint.

Not so long ago, autism was considered incurable, hopeless, a sort of dead-end diagnosis. But with time and attention to real people on the spectrum, we know now that children with autism can become positive, productive adults. The author’s son, Bryce, decided early on to “be happy” despite his differentness. For parents initially facing the diagnosis, there will undoubtedly be challenges, often on a daily, hourly basis, but Notbohm’s diligent exploration assures us that “autism is not awful.”

Read More Here

Explore Europe on Foot
By Cassandra Overby

Due to COVID-19 sweeping across continents, travel restrictions are at an all-time high. With the general population being placed on lockdown, the need for social distancing, and hunkering down moving towards an indefinite timeframe, some much-needed armchair travel adventures couldn’t come at a better time.

Here in Cassandra Overby’s encyclopedic guide Explore Europe On Foot, readers are taken through a step-by-step process of dreaming, planning, and hopefully soon experiencing memorable, slow travel ventures of a lifetime. Whether it’s choosing a route and destination, deciding what to pack, finding appropriate accommodations and food options, or dealing with inevitable challenges, Overby supplies a world of information in this colossal foot travelers’ bible.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of I&I 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!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Non-fiction story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Instruction and Insight Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The I&I Awards is your chance to shine!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners from CAC23!

And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

October 20, 2023
The Chaucer 2023 Long List for Early Historical Fiction
The Chaucer Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in pre-1750s Historical Fiction. The Chaucer Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

The Chaucer Book Awards competition is named for Geoffrey Chaucer the author of the legendary Canterbury Tales. The work is considered to be one of the greatest works in the English language. It was among the first non-secular books written in Middle English to be printed in 1483.

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring Pre-1750s Historical Fiction, including pre-history, ancient history, Classical, world history (non-western culture), Dark Ages and Medieval Europe, Renaissance, Elizabethan, Tudor, 1600s, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Chaucer Early Historical Fiction entries to the 2023 Chaucer Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Chaucer Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. All FINALISTS will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. Winners will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

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

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on April 21, 2024, at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2023 Chaucer Book Awards novel competition for Pre-1750s Early Historical Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Cryssa Bazos – Rebel’s Knot
- Craig H. Bowlsby – The Cyrano Solution
- Derek Wachter – Black Flags: The Nautical Tale of William Teach
- Gail Avery Halverson – A Sea of Glass
- Carrie Sword – Gospel of the Reindeer
- Gina Buonaguro – The Virgins of Venice
- Griffin Brady – The Hussar’s Duty
- James Hutson-Wiley – The Merchant from Sepharad
- Regan Walker – The Strongest Heart
- Juliette Godot – From the Drop of Heaven
- Stefan Scheuermann – Kyra
- Kelly Evans – Turning the World to Stone – The Life of Caterina Sforza Part One 1472 – 1488.
- Yvonne Korshak – Pericles and Aspasia: A Story of Ancient Greece
- Robert S Phillips – Elodia’s Knife
- C.V. Lee – Token of Betrayal
- Rebecca D’Harlingue – The Map Colorist: A Novel
- Cindy Burkart Maynard – Esperanza’s Way
- Rozsa Gaston – Margaret of Austria
- Mary Pat Ferron Canes with JR Foley – Dark Queen of Donegal
- Kerry Chaput – Daughter of the Shadows
- James T. Hogg – Girl with a Knife: Assault
- Margaret Porter – The Myrtle Wand
- Anthony R. Licata – Caesar Obsessed: Passion, Conquest, and Tragedy in Gaul
- Rebecca Kightlinger – The Lady of the Cliffs: The Bury Down Chronicles, Book Two
- Adrienne Dillard – Keeper of the Queen’s Jewels: a novel of Jane Seymour
- Richard W. Wise – The Dawning: 31,000 BC
- Brigitte Goldstein – Princess of the Blood-A Tapestry of Love and War in 16th-Century France
- Adam Alexander Haviaras – Sincerity is a Goddess: A Dramatic and Romantic Comedy of Ancient Rome
- K.M. Butler – House Aretoli
- David Tory – Exploration: The Stanfield Chronicles
- A. L. Kucherenko – Knight’s Pawn
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CHAUCER Awards is:

Mack Little, author of

Daughter of Hades

Click here to see all the 2022 Chaucer Book Award Winners for Early Historical Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions for the 2024 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Early Historical Fiction. The 2024 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2025.

Please click here to submit to the 2024 Chaucer Awards

For our other Historical Fiction Awards, please see the following:
Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony which is sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at info@ChantiReviews.com.
October 19, 2023
The M&M 2023 Long List for Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries
The M&M Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Cozy and not-so-Cozy Mystery & Mayhem. The M&M Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards.)

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 M&M entries to the 2023 M&M Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for 2023 M&M Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the next level of achievement in the CIBAs. The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBAs divisions’ Finalists. We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremonies on April, 20, 2024 in Bellingham, Wash. at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles have advanced to the LONG LIST of the 2023 M&M Book Awards for Mystery & Mayhem

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
- Trish MacEnulty – The Whispering Women
- Sallie Barr Palmer – A Dinner to Die For
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Dead Man’s Pose
- Craig H. Bowlsby – The Cyrano Solution
- Ruud Richardson – The Girl Who Never Was
- B.T. Polcari – Fire and Ice
- B.T. Polcari – Against My Better Judgment
- Tawn H. Skousen – Seashells and Scoundrels
- Jeremy Gluck – Face Value
- Mikky Eagle – Burden of Proof, the Freya Files: A Most Despicable Deed of Arson
- Angel A – Holy Parrot
- Ron Destro – The Starre, the Moone, the Sunne
- Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
- Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
- Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
- Charlotte Stuart – In$ured to the Hilt
- Anna St. John – Doomed by Blooms
- Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
- Topper Jones – All that Glisters
- Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
- A.J. McCarthy – A Stranger in the Family
- Traci Andrighetti – Tuaca Tan
- Marlene M. Bell – Copper Waters
- E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
- Mary Seifert – Fishing, Festivities & Fatalities
- Sharon Michalove – At the Ready
- Liz Larson – Fireflies and Zeroes
- Michel Prince – Always a Groomsman
- M.K. Dean – A Corpse in the Condo
- Mary Seifert – Diamonds, Diesel & Doom
- Kate Hallock – Nine Ways to Die: An Enneagram Murder Mystery
- Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions
- Cindy Sample – Birthdays Are Murder
- Nancy J. Cohen – Star Tangled Murder
- Carolyn Summer Quinn – Cloudy with a Chance of Answers
- D. C. Gomez – A Desperate Cat Lady
- Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
- Joy Ann Ribar – Deep Dire Harvest
- Charlotte Whitney – The Unveiling of Polly Forrest
- Marty Eberhardt – Bones in the Back Forty
- Kim Herdman Shapiro – The Raven’s Cry
- Lori Roberts Herbst – Negative Reaction
- Lori Roberts Herbst – Photo Finished
- Joni M Fisher – East of Evil
- George Albert Brown – Who Killed Jerusalem?
- D.R. Ransdell – Party Wine
- Connie Berry – The Shadow of Memory
- Hadley K. Knox – Murder Sundae
- Christine Knapp – Murder on the Widow’s Walk
- Christine Knapp – Murder at the Wedding
- M. A. Monnin – Death In The Aegean
- Paisley Summer pen name – Walk in the Light
- Patricia Sorg – Habits that Haunts Me
- Erica Miner – Aria for Murder
- Wendy Bayne – Guilds and Gunpowder
- Shelly Frome – Shadow of the Gypsy
- Matthew Cost – Velma Gone Awry
- Jule Selbo – 9 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery
- Amy S. Peele – Hold
- Kim Davis – Buttercream Betrayal
- Kamille Roach – A Matchbox Full of Pearls
- D. J. Adamson – With a Vengeance
- Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death
- Jeffrey Matthews – The Case of the Disappearing Beaune: A Sherlock Holmes Christmas Story
- Brigitte Goldstein – Death of a Diva–From Berlin to Broadway
- Eleanor Tatum – Countess of Change
- Kim Davis – Muddled Matrimonial Murder
- Brandon Lawniczak – Riding in Circles
- J. Ivanel Johnson – Just A Stale Mate
- Mary Seifert – Santa, Snowflakes & Strychnine
- T.K. Sheffield – Vintage Model, the Backyard Model Mysteries Book 1
Good Luck to All as Your Works Compete to Advance to the Next Level of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:

A Spying Eye

A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel

by Michelle Cox

See the Full List of M&M Winners here!

The 2023 M&M Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC24 on April 20, 2024. Save the date for CAC24, scheduled April 18-21, 2024, our 12-year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2024 CLUE Book Awards are open now. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!
October 18, 2023
The 2023 CLUE Book Awards for Suspense/Thrillers – CIBAs Long List
The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Clue Suspense/Thriller Fiction entries to the 2023 Clue Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Clue Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

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

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 21st, 2024 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2023 Clue Book Awards novel competition for Thriller/Suspense Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Roxana Arama – Extreme Vetting: A Thriller
- Craig H. Bowlsby – Requiem for a Lotus
- Nancy Adair – The Appearance of Guilt
- Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
- Joanne Jaytanie – Retrieving Remy, The Winters Sisters Book 5
- Jeremy Gluck – Face Value
- Ana Manwaring – Backlash Venom and Vendetta from ‘Nam
- Mikky Eagle – Burden of Proof – the Freya Files – A Most Despicable Deed of Arson
- B. C. Howard – SEL
- Chuck Morgan – Crime Scene, A Buck Taylor Novel
- Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogotá
- Kevin G. Chapman – The Other Murder
- T.O. Paine – The Excursion
- Corey Lynn Fayman – Gillespie Field Groove
- Paty Jager – Damning Firefly
- Mary Desch – Tangled Darkness
- Jonny Thompson – Ash and Sun
- Jonny Thompson – Atlantis
- Charlotte Stuart – The Sham Shamus
- Charlotte Stuart – Forget or Forgive? NEVER
- Jim Nesbitt – The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
- Caroline Taylor – The Pit Road War
- Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
- Gar Mallinson – Night Moves: The Stroll Murders
- Mark Shaiken – Cram Down
- Joshua Cohen – Past Imperfect
- Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
- Ron Roman – Of Ashes and Dust
- E. Alan Fleischauer – Sherlock and the Tiger
- J. Luke Bennecke – Echo from a Bayou
- Mark James – Friendship Games
- George Brown – Who Killed Jerusalem?
- Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions
- Dave Lager – Sniper’s Day
- Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
- Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
- Alexandrea Weis & Lucas Astor – River of Ashes
  Kamille Roach – Pine Creek
- Justin M. Kiska – Fact & Fiction
- Melissa L. Berger – What Mae Brings: A Novel
- Mike Van Horn – Controlled Flight
- Decima Blake – Hingston: Smoke and Mispers
- Cathi Stoler – With A Twist: A Murder On The Rocks Mystery
- Richard C. Brusca – The Time Travelers
- Bill Mesce, Jr – Median Gray
- Kathryn Lane – Missing in Miami
- Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
- D. R. Berlin – The Third Estate: Secrets of the Manor
- Lisa Towles – The Ridders
- Rita M Boehm – The Price of Revenge
- Philip Derrick – Saigon Spring
- Tejas Desai – The Dance Towards Death
- Martha Crites – Danger to Others
- Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
  Chris Chan – Ghosting My Friend
- Nina Romano – Dark Eyes
- McKinley Aspen – Praesidium
- Robert W. Smith – Long Way From Clare
- Jason Kapcala – Hungry Town
- V. S. Anderson – Three Strides Out: A Horse Show Novel of Suspense
- Howard Berk and Peter Berk – TimeLock
- T.E. Lane – The Cornbread Letters
- Brigitte Goldstein – Death of a Diva-From Berlin to Broadway
- Mary Keliikoa – Deceived
- Mary Keliikoa – Hidden Pieces
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CLUE Awards is:

Have You Seen Me?

By Alexandrea Weis

The 2023 CLUE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC24 on April 20, 2024. Save the date for CAC24, scheduled April 18-21, 2024, our 12-year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2024 CLUE Book Awards are open now. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!
October 16, 2023
The 2023 Shorts Award Long List for Short Stories and Essays
The Short Story Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in Short Stories, Essays, Novelettes, Novellas, Short Story Collections and Anthologies. The Short Story Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards program.

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Shorts in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Entries to the Shorts Book Awards Long List. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Shorts Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24). The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

Note: These are for Short Stories and Essays. There is a separate post for Novellas, Collections, and longer Essays

These titles are in the running for the Short List of the 2023 Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Collections and Anthologies!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Catherine Brown – The Heart of Kublai Khan’s Menagerie Keeper
- Catherine Brown – Finding Namaste
- Luray Embers – No Cat Is An Island
- A.J. McCarthy – A Rock
- A.J. McCarthy – The Strike
- Brian Feutz – Pity the Peasants
- Alice McVeigh – Pride and Perjury: A Jane Austenesque short story
- DL Fowler – Lincoln & the Dead
- Brittany Eden – Candles in the Dark from Fantasea
- Brittany Eden- Wishes
- Logan D. Irons – Bridge of Kings
- Sallie Barr Palmer – Conversation with a Vampire
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Sabbath
- Marie Sutro – Son Down
- Larry Sherrer – Spirit Letters
- Jay Ashkinos – June 18th, 2292: To the Forgotten
- PJ Devlin – Sea Purses
- Morgan Sloan – The Awakening
- Sharon E. Cathcart – Rose in Bloom
- Margaret Arross – Secret Pass
- S.M. Stevens – The Wallace House of Pain
- Robert S Phillips – The Great River
- George T. Arnold – Confession of a “Grammarholic”
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SHORTS Awards is:

God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me

by Lori Lee Peters

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Short Story Awards is:

Old Man Baseball

by Mike Murphey

See the full list of Shorts 2022 Winners here (Collections)

And Here (Short Stories and Essays)

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Shorts Book Awards for Romance Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
October 13, 2023
The 2023 Shorts Award Long List for Novellas, Essays, and Collections
The Short Story Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in Short Stories, Essays, and Novellas. The Short Story Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards program.

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Shorts in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Entries to the Shorts Book Awards Long List. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Shorts Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions.

All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

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

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the Short List of the 2023 Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Collections, Novellas, and Essays!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Michele L. Sayre – A Ghoulish Good Time – Tales to Make You Scream
- Seán Thomas Dwyer – Tiptoeing Past the Dragon
- Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. – Miami Vengeance: A Griffin Knight Conspiracy Mystery
- Elizabeth Chesla – You Cannot Forbid the Flower
- David Joseph – I Didn’t Know What to Say, So I Just Said Thanks
- Louise Lenahan Wallace – The Windows of his Heart
- Brittany Eden – Wishes
- J. I. Rogers – The Korpes File Series – Short Stories: Vol 1
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Sabbath
- Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 4
- D. C. Gomez – Recruited
- Maziar Lahooti – Comanche & Djinn VS Grown-ups
- Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. – The Nocturnal Devil: A Griffin Knight Mystery Thriller
- Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. – The Windy City Terror: A Griffin Knight Horror Mystery
- Vali Benson – Blood and Silver
- Mary Ann Bernal – AnaRose and the Templar’s Quest
- JuJu – The Costly Wish
- Elizabeth R. Jensen – Fire and Wolves: A Tale of Etria
- Ekta R. Garg – The Truth About Elves
- Gary Baysinger – A Kind of Homecoming
- Paper Lantern Writers – Unlocked
- Celaine Charles – Stained Glass Secrets and Star Wishes
- Scott Swanson – Philly’s Bridge And Other Northwest Stories
- Charlie Aquavella – The Elevator – Forever Young
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 3 Cinéma Vérité
- Turtle – A Grading of the Human Species
- Laurie Stevens – The Devil and Daniela Webster
- Mack Little – Shelter in a Hostile World
- Tori Ross – Rocks
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SHORTS Awards is:

God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me

by Lori Lee Peters

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Short Story Awards is:

Old Man Baseball

by Mike Murphey

See the full list of Shorts 2022 Winners here (Collections and Novellas)

And Here (Short Stories and Essays)

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Shorts Book Awards for Romance Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
October 13, 2023
The 2023 HEARTEN Book Awards Long List for Inspiring & Uplifting Non-Fiction
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Hearten Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

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

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Hearten Non-Fiction entries to the 2023 Hearten Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Hearten Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

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

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2023 Hearten Book Awards novel competition for Uplifting and Inspirational Non-Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Lynne M. Kolze – Please Write: Finding Joy and Meaning in the Soulful Art of Handwritten Letters
- Anna Casamento Arrigo – Patience Insanity & Wisdom
- Lisa Niver – Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
- Syril Levin Kline – Inspiring Legacy: David and Carmen Kreeger’s Journey to Philanthropy
- Lally Pia – The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor
- Alexander V. Girman & Cynthia J Girman – A Voice from Heaven: From Earthly Struggles to Thriving in the Afterlife
- Duncan McLauren – Owning Your Destiny
- Terri Kim – The Enlightenment Stories Represented in the Samgook Yusa and the Princess Bari
- Julie Morrison – Barbed: A Memoir
- Alex Bisset – The Destination Birth
- Shanita Liu – Dear Durga: A Mom’s Guide to Activate Courage and Emerge Victorious
- Theo Boyd – My Grief is Not Like Yours: Learning to Live After Unimaginable Loss, A Daughter’s Journey
- Trudy Wells-Meyer – Some Things Are Simply Meant to Be
- Maria C. Palmer and Ruthie Robbins – On the Rocks
- Tony Jeton Selimi – The Unfakeable Code®
- Tony Jeton Selimi – A Path to Excellence
- Art Berman – Art in the Middle Ages: A Memoir of Midlife Renaissance
- Nove Meyers – Running Away From the Circus
- Patrick M. Garry – The Power of Gratitude: Charting a Path Toward a Joyous and Faith-Filled Life
- Nove Meyers – Running Away From the Circus
- Kate Hudson-Hall – Anxiety Hacks: Proven Techniques, Tools and Tips to Calmness
- Hollie Stuart – I Can See For Miles
- Cory Mortensen – The Buddha and the Bee
- Julie Scolnik – Paris Blue
- Cort Casady – Not Your Father’s America
- Elizabeth Rau – The Good Slope
- Joel Harris – Searching for Steve
- Steven Greenebaum – An Afternoon’s Dictation: Inclusive Revelation for the 21st Century
- Dian Seidel – Kindergarten at 60: A Memoir of Teaching in Thailand
- Aurita Maldonado – The Zen of Dancing in the Rain: Becoming One with the Storm
- Grant Harper Reid – The Apocalypto Kid Goes to College
- Nanette J. Davis Ph.D. – Raging Currents: Mental Illness and Family
- Catherine DeMonte – Beep! Beep! Get Out of My Way!: Seven Tools for Powerful Creation and Living Your Unstoppable Life
- Dr. Kelly Rabenstein – Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success (It’s All About Love)
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 HEARTEN Awards is:

Inner Trek
a reluctant pilgrim to the Himalayas

By Mohan Ranga Rao

Click here to see the 2022 Hearten Book Award Winners for Uplifting Non-Fiction

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Hearten Book Awards for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction & Memoir. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC24.
- Please click here for more information.
- See our Full List of Non-Fiction Divisions here!
Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony, sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!
October 12, 2023
Celebrate the 2023 Humor and Satire Hall of Fame

Humor and Satire Awards!

The Humor and Satire Awards are here to bring you a laugh!

***No Joke! The Humor and Satire deadline is October 31st!***

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring satire, humor, political ideology, parody, fantasy, and allegory or fable. The Deadline for the 2022 Humor and Satire Book Awards is the end of November.

Looking to learn more about the Humor and Satire Awards? Click here!

Lets take a look at the Winners of the Humor and Satire Award!

Delphic Oracle, USA
By Steven Mayfield

The Coen Brothers meet Garrison Keillor in Steven Mayfield’s quirky, offbeat, and often hilarious Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.

One June afternoon in 1925, seventeen-year-old Maggie Westinghouse, out walking alone as was her custom, comes upon a stranger in a railroad switch-house asleep on a pile of gunnysacks. Maggie, who has always stood a little apart from the town, has recently begun to experience visions that come upon her “in a leisurely way,” ending in a swoon and a restless sleep filled with exotic talk of which she later has no memory. No one knows what to make of it, but they soon will. After this afternoon’s chance encounter with July Pennybaker, a charming grifter on the lam, her world will never be the same. Neither will the town of Miagrammesto Station.

Eighty-nine years later, in the days leading up to and following the July 4th weekend, domestic dramas are playing out across Delphic Oracle, Nebraska (nee Miagrammesto Station).

Read more here!

Certified
By Roger Wilson-Crane

Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane is a multi-award-winning comedy-drama, following one man down three sharp turns in his life trajectory.

Based on real-life events, Certified shows the narrator’s birth, marriage, and death, three of the most significant milestones in human life. The book is divided into three sections.

“One Unexpected Birth” explores his flawed string of relationships until he meets Dawn, the love of his life. However, a woman from the past makes a comeback, threatening to shatter his newly found happiness.

“One Hapless Wedding” careens about his well-planned wedding in Puglia, Italy, which is trampled by Justin Timberlake who wants the same venue. “One Bizarre Death”, on the other hand, follows the loss of the narrator’s loved one and the pain and confusion that surrounds an unexpected death. Certified is full of humor, heart, and unexpected gems that one might find in a trunk of well-lived memories.

Read more here!

Arnold Falls
By Charlie Suisman

Charlie Suisman’s debut novel is a wonderful escape to a small fictional community in upstate New York. Here a melting pot of quirky residents brings Arnold Falls to life, a town with a unique history and charming inhabitants whose lives are intimately intertwined.

Settled in 1803 by the unscrupulous Hezekiah Hesper, the town for unknown reasons was named after Benedict Arnold. Adding to the oddities, the closest waterfall is twenty miles away. The area is known for sudden bursts of crab apple-size hail pelting the landscape without any scientific explanation. Hence the incentive for “Hail Pail Day,” a neighborly tradition surrounding the distribution of galvanized bucket head-coverings.

Suisman engagingly presents Jeebie Walker as the story’s primary narrator. A gay man in his early 40s, he moved north of the city in the hopes of a quieter life with his partner, Miles. Though things didn’t work out, Jeebie has settled into his fixer-upper, Queen Anne-style abode, and now seems a positive fixture in this hamlet.

Read more here!

The Kissing Rabbi
By Andy Becker

Based on a true story, Andy Becker’s tale The Kissing Rabbi is a smart, witty, and engaging novel that takes readers into the heart of a Jewish community in the Pacific Northwest.

Here a young, self-serving rabbi sets a town on edge when his salacious desires and personal financial agenda are brought to light by the people he was brought there to serve.

Rabbi Mishegas Dreidel, a young orthodox leader, arrives in the quiet town of Destiny, Oregon. His intentions seem noble as he opens up a synagogue in his basement and establishes a flock of dedicated followers.

Read more here!

My Only Sunshine
Lou Discher

Lou Dischler delivers an intricately woven story about one well-meaning boy who tries to make sense of the crazy he’s been born into. Get ready for one belly laugh of an adventure in My Only Sunshine.

Welcome to the Louisiana low country, home of 9-year-old Charlie Boone, a kid growing up in 1962. Charlie, a most unreliable narrator, concerns himself with giant wingless wasps and biting red velvet ants. Combine his critter-concerns with the legend of the giant slugs, the story of his mother taken up by a hurricane, and the episode of the puddle he and his brother dug that grew into a pond, then turned into a lake, and we have one wildly imaginative ride well-worth taking.

Dischler delivers an epic tale that shifts from Charlie’s first-person point-of-view with his youthful ignorance coloring his observations to his Uncle Dan’s and “Aunt” Lola’s in third-person point-of-view. While Charlie ages and grows in wisdom as the story progresses, his uncle never seems to gain a lick of sense. Dischler skillfully applies the laws of magic realism to Charlie’s wonderful way of viewing his world. Uncle Dan’s story, on the other hand, derives from an inept conman’s rap-sheet – from failed grifts to bank robbery bungles that succeed only by accident. Dischler guides us, normalizing the ridiculous to the point that the characters jump off the page and set up camp in your living room.

Read more here!

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Humor and Satire 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!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Humor or Satire story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Humor and Satire Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Humor and Satire Awards is your chance to shine!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners from CAC23!

And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

October 12, 2023
Celebrating the Military & Front Line Awards 2023 for Service to Others
Stories of Service to Others

The Military and Front Line Awards are here!

***Submissions are Open until the end of October***

You have until October 31st to submit and Enter the 2023 CIBAs!

We have long wanted to hold a Book Award Division for Narrative Non-Fiction that highlights the Service to Others embodied by those in our Military and Front Line Workers. You can enter the 2022 Military and Front Line Book Awards today!

The new Division honors the following Non-Fiction Narratives:
- Military and Armed Forces Service Narratives
- Medical Stories focused on Nurses, Doctors, Health Care Workers, and other Essential Workers
- Stories of Community Service Workers such as Firefighters and Police
- CARE, Peace Corps, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other service organizations
- Work in Agencies that serve their Community and Government
- Families of those who serve in these Community Roles
We’re honored to celebrate these Winners of the Military and Front Line Awards, as well as books that are in the spirit of this incredible genre.

Lost in Beirut
By Ashe and Magdalena Stevens

Seeking to “fill his vessel with the truth,” young Ashe Stevens joins his friends on a thrilling adventure beyond the safety of his comfortable American life to chase stardom in Beirut, Lebanon.

Leaving behind a raucous life of plenty in Hollywood – complete with hot dates, popularity, and financial success – to the unknown of the Middle East teaches Ashe to prioritize his values and beliefs. But nothing could prepare him for what’s coming next.

Journey with Ashe and his friends as they bring the rapper 50 Cent to Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East.” Along the way, Ashe dates not one, but two drop-dead gorgeous billionaires and falls head over heels for a blonde beauty to whom he promises to devote his life. But just as business is booming and true love reaches the height of bliss, the Israeli military bombs their beautiful city, “weaving a tapestry of death all over the night sky.” The team barely makes it out with their lives in a harrowing escape, leaving their love and livelihoods behind.

Read More Here

Dear Bob: Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War II
By Martha Bolton with Linda Hope

During World War II, Bob Hope traveled almost ceaselessly to outposts large and small, entertaining US troops – and inspiring them; Martha Bolton brings the extent of this work to light in Dear Bob.

Writer Martha Bolton worked with and for comedian Bob Hope. Now, with Hope’s daughter Linda, she has gathered and organized the letters written to Bob by the soldiers he helped.

Hope, English born, and born to entertain, once said he could not retire and go fishing because “Fish don’t applaud.” Among his sizzling lines – and there are hundreds recorded here – he told one audience that he’d gotten a wonderful welcome when he arrived at their camp: “I received a 10-gun salute… They told me on the operating table.”

His performances could have been forgotten were it not for the letters from soldiers of every stripe, and those soldiers’ families – who did not forget him.

Read More Here

The Color of the Elephant
By Christine Herbert

“The toughest job you’ll ever love.” That was the original slogan for the Peace Corps, one that Christine Herbert found to be wholly true, as she shows in The Color of the Elephant, a journal of her time serving in Zambia from 2004 to 2006.

This is a story about the journey rather than the destination. After all, the destination of any posting with the Peace Corps is the place you first came from, hopefully leaving something positive behind, and having changed and been changed by the experience.

For the author, her experience was that of a muzungu, a word synonymous in southern, central, or eastern African countries with foreigners such as Peace Corps volunteers and Doctors without Borders.

Read More Here

General in Command- Hearten 1st Place 2020
By Michael M. Van Ness

Michael M. Van Ness, the grandson of “the general in command,” has created a remarkable biography chronicling the adventures of a farm boy who rose high rank in the US military and served with distinction in two world wars as a combatant, officer, and sage observer.

Born in 1891, John Benjamin Anderson must have had considerable intelligence as well as patriotism and grit, since he was accepted at West Point Military Academy at age 19, an honor conferred on only 130 applicants per year—and finished in the top third of his class. He would soon serve under General Pershing in the Mexican War, giving him the experience of combat and coincidentally, his first ride in an automobile. That deployment earned him inclusion in Pershing’s ranks in World War I. It was then his diaries began, and though he protested humorously that “I hate to write,” these personal recollections give readers an up-close picture of the devastation of warfare.

Read More Here

Fly Safe
By Vicki Cody

Not many people can capture the emotions that coincide with war, but Vicki Cody joins the ranks of those who do in her wartime memoir, Fly Safe: Letters from the Gulf War and Reflections from Back Home.

This powerful memoir shows us the behind-the-scenes lives of the women, children, and families left at home while their soldiers set off for war, bringing us close to their raw vulnerability. Fly Safe fascinates as it informs readers of what one wife experiences as her commander husband leads his battalion to the middle east.

Cody takes us back in time to the early 1990s when the first President Bush called up troops in an operation called “Desert Shield,” which turned into Desert Storm. She captures the events that led up to our first conflict in the middle east, but far from being strictly pedantic and historical, centers on the warmth, love, and fears that most of the wives were experiencing. Her letters from her husband – and her journal entries read like daily affirmations and blend well in telling this story.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Military and Front Line 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!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Military and Front Line Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Military and Front Line Awards is your chance to shine!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners from CAC23!

And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
October 11, 2023