writings

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Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 all 2023 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2023 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Somerset 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 Four Points by Sheraton in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference. 

In two different timelines, an architect finds his perfect obsession,  and a writer chases the source of 39 mysterious photos across the globe. Like the very twins that pop up throughout this impeccable novel, the journeys of both main characters take them to the same spiritual historical sites that often share different historical societies and religions, centered in Malta, and stretching from Morocco to Kyoto.

Debut author Rick Shands creates a mesmerizing story about believing and knowing, certainty and uncertainty, and the search for spirituality that has obsessed human beings since the dawn of time.

This story is captured within an aura of mystery, passion, crime, and man's age-old quest for answers to life’s greatest mysteries. Every page will dazzle you, and readers will be mesmerized and surprised until the very last page.

          Bookstores Carrying Frame 39

Frame 39 is published by a US, woman-owned publishing house: RebelBooksPress.com. 

The novel is available in over 40,000 bookstores, all book retailers, and libraries in the US, EU, UK, and online everywhere.

If you use Amazon please be sure to paste this to your search: 

Frame 39, ISBN 9781087916125

Frame 39 is a literary work of fiction, and can be ordered at your favorite bookstore if it is sold out.

I am obsessed with a new book: Frame 39 by Rick Shands (Published 2.23.23)

It's been a long time since I read something so rich and mysterious. Frame 39 is a new literary novel I loved reading.

It's a long way from L.A. to London, or Malta, but lately I've been traveling the globe late at night, courtesy of a new book by architect and now fiction author Rick Shands. The book, Frame 39, hooked me with its parallel worlds and and ending that was so shocking I had to read it three times.

If you love literary novels, and are looking for the next big voice, I think my friend's publishing company (RebelBooksPress.com) just found it. Like she said to me, "I kind of tripped over this one - and when I fell, I ended up in one of the best books I've read in five years."

She told me to buy a copy, which I did.

I cracked it open a week ago, and instead of making me fall asleep it kept me up late -for three nights. It's a big book with even bigger ideas.

The story is about an architect from the past, who took 39 pictures (aka frames) that mysteriously washed up and discovered by a screenwriter. She is drawn to the photos, which are set in numerous countries in or near ruins, and can't stop thinking about the story behind them. The character, Jennifer, starts to hop on planes, and visit ruins and spots in Malta, Italy, and too many places for me to name at this point.

I cracked it open a week ago, and instead of making me fall asleep it kept me up late -for three nights. It's a big book with even bigger ideas.

The story is about an architect from the past, who took 39 pictures (aka frames) that mysteriously washed up and discovered by a screenwriter. She is drawn to the photos, which are set in numerous countries in or near ruins, and can't stop thinking about the story behind them. The character, Jennifer, starts to hop on planes, and visit ruins and spots in Malta, Italy, and too many places for me to name at this point.

ISBN #9781087916125

The hardcover version is almost ready to be printed.

This is a new book - you will enjoy it.

Happy reading! Mabel L.

Architect and author Rick Shands began studying architecture at Syracuse University in New York State. Given the opportunity to study for a year at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London for one year, Rick grabbed the chance. Four years later, he returned to the the US, to Columbia University where he took a master's degree at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. 

The year that was to be one year but became four altered the course of his life. After a decade in New York City, he returned to the 'far side of the Atlantic', living and working in Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malta, a return to London followed by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Rick now resides in London.

Whilst he has written to describe projects over the years, sometimes creating fictional vignettes to give a better sense of the designs he has done, Frame 39, begun in Abu Dhabi, is his first full-on plunge into fiction. The story brings together a myriad of experiences from across the countries he has lived in - his three years in Malta being a primary mover - as well as bringing in travel across a larger protion of the globe.

Rick continues with writing fiction, finding himself still exploring the cultures he has been privileged to live in.