Chanticleer’s annual conference and awards banquet is an author’s opportunity to learn, network, and celebrate the best books of the year!
It’s my favorite time of year! April is the month when Chanticleer holds it is annual writers conference and the CIBA awards. My employer, Chanticleer Book Reviews, has held this conference for fourteen years. It’s a weekend filled with informative classes, valuable connections, and an awards banquet that inspires as much as it awards.
I feel incredibly fortunate to have found Chanticleer, both for my daily work and for developing a writing career. One of the best things about my job is meeting other writers, and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new friends in only three weeks!
If you feel your manuscript needs a new set of eyes who can map it out and locate vulnerable areas, consider a manuscript overview to get your story to the finish line.
Putting together a manuscript is like putting together a puzzle. You add in the characters, the action, the red herrings, the clues, and everything else that creates a memorable tale. It’s easy to have all the needed information in your head when you’re writing, but it never shows up on the page. In your haste to get the great story out you can sometimes overlook an important piece of your story.
Manuscript overviews are your manuscript’s wingman. A good manuscript overview pinpoints areas where your work can be improved. It evaluates character, plot, action, romance elements, and everything else found in a story.
If you feel your manuscript needs a new set of eyes who can map it out and locate vulnerable areas, consider a manuscript overview to get your story to the finish line.
Find out more about Manuscript Overviews and the service Chanticleer Book Review offers here.
One of my favorite genres is historical fiction. It acts as a time portal that can lift you up and transfer you years into the past. With vivid details and sometimes language of the time, you get to experience a world that was well-known to our ancestors but is only a blurred image in our minds today.
I recently discussed a few tips to writing historical fiction in a post I wrote for Chanticleer Book Reviews. If you are interested in writing historical fiction, or just want to learn more about how your favorite authors can conjur up the past, I invite you to read my article; “Three Rules for Writing Historical Fiction That Will Transport Readers Back in Time.”
The Chanticleer Authors Conference has a great line up of guest speakers this year, including J.D. Barker, bestselling author and ghostwriter for James Patterson.
I am a lucky writer.
A year before my first novel was published, I received a job offer from Chanticleer Book Reviews. For someone whose previous career did not intercept with the publishing industry in any way, this was a fortuitous turn of events that has led me to learn by osmosis. All day I have the privilege of talking with bestselling, award-winning authors and learn from my co-workers about the publishing industry, the writing craft, and what life as an author is all about. It’s an education that I do not take lightly.
One of the most anticipated events we look forward to each year is the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference & Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA). It’s our biggest event of the year, bringing authors across the globe to learn and celebrate great books. Each author brings with them their own unique stories of how they came to be an author and what informs their work.
I’ve been writing about this year’s line of up guest speakers and I thought I’d share their remarkable stories here.
Keynote Speaker: J.D. Barker, award-winner and bestselling author who has been ghost writing for the world famous author James Patterson. His book Forsaken has gotten the attention of Stephen King and he received notes from Bram Stoker’s descendants for his novel, Dracul.
Masterclass Presenter: Christine Fairchild, Book Doctor, professional copyeditor, speechwriter and freelance reporter. Writer and editor for publications like XFiles and SciFiMall.com, and provided executive communications, marketing, branding, and press releases for corporate giants, like Microsoft, AT&T, and DHL.
Presenter: Kim Hornsby, bestselling and award-winning author and screenwriter. Her adventurous life as a scuba diver, singer, and traveler have inspired screenplays picked up by Lifetime Television and other streaming services.
Presenter: Tim Facciola, 2023 Chanticleer International Book Award (CIBA) Overall Grand Prize Winner and Grand Prize Winner in the Ozma division for Fantasy Fiction.
Falling in love with a good book is a process. The same process as falling for a lover.
Falling in love with someone is an special event that affects our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. Falling in love with a good book follows the same path to our hearts. Our minds are intrigued by a compelling plot, our hearts beat erratically as we travel the rough roads of a burgeoning relationship, and our spirits soar when the boy and girl finally realize their love for each other.
Romance is found in just about every genre. I recently wrote about the process of falling in love with a great book, from the time a cover catches your eye to the sadness you feel when you turn the last page and know it’s time to move on from that love affair. If you find yourself falling in love with a book, you might see yourself in the article, and you can read it here.
Celebrating a true pioneer (and pioneering writer) on her 158th birthday!
I was in second grade when I discovered Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Little House on the Prairie series. I connected with little Laura as she explored the Kansas prairie, and I read those books until the covers fell off. Twice—I went through two volumes of those books and still own the second round.
Laura was born on February 7, 1867, making it her 158th birthday this year. To honor her writing, I wrote an article about how her writing was my introduction to the Western genre and detail how she created a child-friendly series set in the Wild West. It’s an examination of how she used the familiar Western tropes—vast landscapes, killer storms, renegades—you’ll find it all inside her stories.
You’ll also find warm, domestic stories of a loving family facing devastating life events with the same “we’ll make it through this together” spirit. Laura handles these moments with a subtleness that allows children to experience them at an appropriate level while also presenting the worries of Ma and Pa Ingalls.
I hope you’ll check out my article on Chanticleer Book Reviews’ website. I enjoyed reconsidering Laura Ingalls Wilder’s writing, now as a fellow writer, and seeing how her beautiful descriptions of the Kansas prairie has seeped into my own writing today.
One wonderful benefit I receive in my day job is that I am constantly learning about new authors. This month I was introduced to the writing of Ursula Le Guin, a master of speculative fiction.
One wonderful benefit I receive in my day job is that I am constantly learning about new authors. This month I was introduced to the writing of Ursula Le Guin, a master of speculative fiction.
Oscar Wild, Ann Rice, John Le Carre-Genre defining authors with October birthdays
The fall is fortuitous time for readers of classic literature! Several of the most famous authors of several different genres were born in October, and I profiled them in blog posts for work. Click on the ones you want to explore.
The great Russian writers-Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov-subverted government censors to define a new Russian society.
Russian writers, the great storytellers of the “Golden Age” of literature (18th & 19th century), were masters of observation. Their world was changing; rapidly and permanently. Western influence introduced to them during times of war provided them freedom of thought for the first time in their long history as a monarchy. In a matter of a few years the Russian intelligentsia absorbed the knowledge of over three hundred years of Enlightenment thought, innovations, and art. They became the catalyst for conversations on the rights of man and the role of church and state in the lives of their citizens. Suddenly, a feudal society’s eyes popped open from a deep sleep and they realized their dreams of freedom were real and within reach. It was a dynamic time, and a confusing one.
Members of the Moscow literary group Sreda: Top row from left: Stepan Skitalets, Fyodor Chaliapin, Yevgeny Chirikov; bottom row from left: Maxim Gorky, Leonid Andreyev, Ivan Bunin, Nikolay Teleshov.
Because of their late arrival the Russian people were in a position to expand their knowledge base exponentially and soon conversations heard in the salons and receiving rooms of St. Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia at the time, had become passionate with talk of the “rights of man”. Influence the church and state had over the middle class decreased and, as it did, their power went with it. The common man gained the ability to ask his own questions and decide his own beliefs for the first time in Russian history, and as they sipped their vodka they began to speak of revolution. They began to seek their freedom.
And a few wrote.
Government censors, focused solely on traditional news sources, weren’t quick enough to pick up the messages behind the storylines and this gave writers of fiction a way to move the conversations they were having privately forward into the mainstream. As a result, Russian literature stands to this day as some of the most important to our society, regardless of where your origins lie. By examining the human condition with compelling narratives these great Russian writers succeeded in questioning the way we live our lives. Questions that are still with us today.
The great Russian writers of the “Golden Age”. Top row (from left): Leo Tolstoy, Dmitry Grigorovich, Bottom row (from left): Ivan Goncharov, Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Druzhinin, and Alexander Ostrovsky
In this Age of Information we’re facing another sweeping change to our culture, and this time its on a world-wide scale. The struggle governments are facing around the world are proof the status quo is changing once again. Think Arab Spring or the recent struggles in India and Turkey. It’s the same story but now a new element has been added; Globalization.
As a way to improve my own writing I’m reading and learning about these great Russian writers. The characters, plots, rhythms, styles and themes of Tolstoy, Checkov, Doestoevsky, Pushkin, and others. A side effect of this is a sideways glance into my own world through their eyes.
I recently wrote an article about Banned Books Week for my job at Chanticleer Book Reviews. You can check it out here.
Mary Shelley’s horror story, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, is a classic examination of the ‘science vs. religion’ debate. Written during the Industrial Revolution, Doctor Victor Frankenstein is so taken by the technological achievements of the time he forgets the soul of his creation; his Monster, and ultimately loses all he loves as a result.
Mary Shelley, the literary revolutionary, genre-inventing diva from the late eighteenth century, celebrated her 227th birthday on August 30. A few years ago I wrote an article about a scientist who historians believe could have been the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein.
So, in honor of Mary Shelley’s massive contributions to the art of writing and the horror/paranormal genre, I’m reposting it here. I hope you enjoy it!
The Monster’s Doctor
Mary Shelley’s horror story, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, is a classic examination of the ‘science vs. religion’ debate. Written during the Industrial Revolution, Doctor Victor Frankenstein is so taken by the technological achievements of the time he forgets the soul of his creation; his Monster, and ultimately loses all he loves as a result.
Scientists conducting electrical experiments at the time certainly provided much of the inspiration for Shelley’s maniacal doctor, but one man is cited as a possible model for the theme of her novel.
“I saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision—I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.”
-Mary Shelly, Frankenstein
Johann Conrad Dippel (1673-1734) was born in Castle Frankenstein in south central Germany in the region of Hesse. As was the custom of the day, he acquried Franckensteinensis or Franckensteina-Strataemontanus as a surname and became forever linked to the place of his birth. He received a Master in Theology in 1693 at the University of Giessen where he also studied philosophy and alchemy and gained a prominent position among Europe’s intellectual elite.
Influenced by the Age of Reason while remaining a fervently religious man, Dippel authored several controversal theological papers under his nom de guerre; Christianus Democritus, a name that represented the duality of his views. In them he called for the demise of the traditional church organization and a rejection of the Bible as the literal word of God in favor of a more personal approach to faith. They were widely circulated throughout Europe and earned him both praise and criticism. One enthusiastic follower, Emanuel Swedenborg, later criticized him as a cultish opportunist who was “bound to no principles, but was in general opposed to all, whoever they may be, of whatever principle or faith…becoming angry with any one for contradicting him.” Swedenborg also accused Dippel of being the ‘most vile devil…who attempted wicked things.’ This opinion was surely based upon his suspected experiments in alchemy. In his Maladies and Remedies of the Life of the Flesh, Dippel announced his discovery of the ‘Elixir of Life’, as well as, a method to exorcise demons through potions produced from the boiled bones and flesh of animals. Even more alarming to the public were rumors of his attempts at ‘soul-tranference’ on human cadavers, where he was viewed as playing God on desecrated corpses.
In the end, it was reported by his contemporaries that after having been thoroughly trashed by the religious leaders of the day Dippel gave up his faith altogether, directing all his energy to his experiments in alchemy. He never backed down from his arguments or the experiments that he felt supported them and may have even actively encouraged rumors that he was in league with the Devil, having sold his soul to become a dark sorcerer.
So, in the end, Mary Shelley may have used this real-life ‘mad scientist’ as inspiration but the moral lesson she provided her Doctor Frankenstein was lost on Johann Conrad Dippel.
