The public library may be one of the last places on planet earth where it is possible to get something for nothing–and it is definitely the only place where a taxpayer can make direct decisions about how to spend government dollars without consulting The Powers That Be. That’s right: the public library has a budget allocated from your taxes, and you, as a library patron, can request that they purchase any book you choose. The money is going to be spent, but whether it goes toward the 857th copy of a John Grisham novel or something truly unique and interesting is, in part, up to you.

That’s why I’m proud to partner with Chrism Press, Dappled Things Magazine, the Catholic Writer’s Guild, Catholic Reads, CatholicMom, and Catholic Author to bring you Stock the Shelves, a simple, absolutely free way that you and I can help bring Catholic and Orthodox fiction to a wider audience. When libraries order new books, they tend to stock them on the New Arrivals shelf for several months, where they’re front and center to attract new readers and inspire new imaginations. I’ve seen this happen with books I myself requested, books with small sales figures that would seem to appeal to niche audiences–yet when I visit the library or check the status online, they are almost always checked out. People will take chances on new titles or unknown authors at the library more readily than in the bookstore because they can do so for free. Yet when a library purchases a book, the author makes the same royalties as on any other sale. Everybody wins.

Will you please join me during this campaign, May 15-31, 2022, by doing something simple and absolutely free to help promote great Catholic and Orthodox fiction? Choose any modern novel from a Catholic or Orthodox writer and simply ask your library to acquire it. Most of them have online forms where you can do this easily from your own home. Or you can take a trip to the library (Yay! Book road trip!) and make the request to your librarian in person.

To see all the books and authors affiliated with the campaign, click here. For information about my own books, keep reading.

Jennifer the Damned

What your library needs to know:
Title: Jennifer the Damned
Author: Karen Ullo
Genre: Gothic horror, literary fiction
Audience: YA/Adult
Publisher: Wiseblood Books
Publication Date: October 31, 2015
ISBNs:
978-0692303030 (print)
0692303030 (digital)
Editorial Review(s):
It is rare to find a book of this calibre. –Julie Davis, Happy Catholic 

Back Cover Copy:
When a sixteen-year-old orphan vampire adopted by an order of nuns matures into her immortal, blood-sucking glory, all hell literally breaks loose. Yet with every rapturous taste of blood, Jennifer Carshaw cannot help but long for something even more exquisite: the capacity to experience true love. As she struggles to balance her murderous secret life with homework, cross-country practice, and her first boyfriend, Jennifer delves into the terrifying questions surrounding her inhuman existence, driven by the unexpectedly human need to understand why she is doomed to a
life she never chose.
Bridging the gap between the literary tradition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the modern teen vampire romance made popular by the Twilight series, Jennifer the Damned reexamines the legendary monster as a conflicted and complex being. Jennifer is at once the quintessential vampire, embodying an unholy union of life and death; yet she is also a sympathetic young woman full of spiritual anxieties, gifted with a limitless sense of ironic humor, and possessed of a beautifully persistent
hope in the love she yearns for.

Cinder Allia

Title: Cinder Allia
Author: Karen Ullo
Genre: fantasy, fairy tale
Audience: YA/Adult
Publisher: Karen Ullo
Publication Date: July 6, 2017
ISBNs:
978-0999022122 (hardcover)
978-0999022108 (paperback)
978-0-9990221-1-5 (digital)
Editorial Review(s):
Cinder Allia is a rare book both parents and kids can enjoy. –Fr. Michael Rennier, Aleteia

Back Cover Copy:
Cinder Allia has spent eight years living under her stepmother’s brutal thumb, wrongly punished for having caused her mother’s death. She lives for the day when the prince will grant her justice; but her fairy godmother shatters her hope with the news that the prince has died in battle. Allia escapes in search of her own happy ending, but her journey draws her into the turbulent waters of war and politics in a kingdom where the prince’s death has left chaos and division.
Cinder Allia turns a traditional fairy tale upside down and weaves it into an epic filled with espionage, treason, magic, and romance. What happens when the damsel in distress must save not only herself, but her kingdom? What price is she willing to pay for justice? And can a woman who has lost her prince ever find true love?
Surrounded by a cast that includes gallant knights, turncoat revolutionaries, a crippled prince who lives in hiding, a priest who is also a spy, and the man whose love Allia longs for most—her father—Cinder Allia is an unforgettable story about hope, courage, and the healing power of pain.