Cooperative Lives is now a Somerset Book Award Finalist

It's been quite a wait, but Cooperative Lives is a Somerset Book Award Finalist.

For those of you who have been following, the Somersets are a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). The Somerset Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genres of Literary, Contemporary and Satire Fiction -- i.e., the good stuff.

Chanticleer Book Reviews is an editorial review and author services company that hosts one of the largest, poshest and most-respected book writing conferences and award ceremonies in the industry. Ordinarily, the conference and ceremony are in mid-April at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Washington, with panel discussions and lectures by marquee names in writing and publishing. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit Washington State early and impelled Chanticleer to reschedule this year's events for September, and, just recently, to announce the conference and ceremony will be conducted virtually. Bummer.

One upshot is that book contest announcements were stretched over months rather than weeks. On January 4, Chanticleer announced my novel made it out of the slush pile (their phrase) onto the long list. A month later, it was short listed. By March 7, it was a semi-finalist. After four months of nail-biting, it is now a finalist. Two more months of suspense to go.

Thank you, Chanticleer. I am thrilled to be a finalist, just as I was thrilled to be a semi-finalist, short lister and long lister -- anything but a slush pile discard. And, congratulations to everyone else who made the cut. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for September. I am signing up for 6 days of zoom conferencing later this afternoon. Hope to meet many of you virtually.

Chanticleer Announcement