Monday, September 22, 2008

Review on Catholic Pondering!

Wow! Check out this great review of Book One on "Just another Pondering Catholic..."

My favorite aspect of this book was the fact that, despite having “Catholic” in its title, this book would be great for ANY teen or young adult. There’s no “secret Catholic stuff” included - you don’t have to be a Catholic or even understand anything about the Catholic Church to enjoy this book. One of the main characters isn’t a practicing Catholic and isn’t very familiar with things Catholic, and when the kids at her new school mention things - such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet - she doesn’t understand. And though she does sometimes feel like an idiot, we readers get a natural explanation (and a reminder of just how hard it is to be a teen, and to feel like you don’t fit in) that’s not ponderous or overly cerebral. Read more...

If you're an adult thinking about buying Catholic Reluctantly for your teen, you should read this one.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Interview with Time With Tannia

I forgot to mention earlier that I'm the featured author for September on the blog Time with Tannia by Tannia Ortiz-Lopes. It was a lot of fun to do the interview: she asked very thought-provoking questions! You can find it by clicking here. Here's an excerpt:

Are you working on new projects?
Right now I'm in the thick of launching the John Paul 2 High series for teens (
www.johnpaul2high.com). It's a kind of fun "pulp fiction" series, about the adventures of seven kids in a new Catholic high school. I'm the overall editor for the series, and I love it. The first book, Catholic, Reluctantly is out on amazon now. It's not pious tripe: it's a pretty gritty story about real teens with real issues. I think Catholic teens from any kind of background will find it speaks to them where they're at.
Going back to missing Joshua, after he died, I found myself drawn to start writing another series of novels, which is now in the planning stages. Read more...

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Catholic Reluctantly for Bookstores!

Up until now, Catholic, Reluctantly has been a print-on-demand book, but this week I learned that sales are such that Sophia Press is about to do a traditional print run on the book and enter it into their bookstore program: hooray! This means wider distribution for us and hopefully more sales! I'd like to encourage readers who liked the book to ask their local Catholic (or secular!) bookstore to consider stocking Catholic, Reluctantly. It's distributed through Ingram.

Bookstores not on Sophia Press's regular bookstore program can click here for terms of sale and wholesale prices. For bookstore terms, for our terms). And any youth ministers or teachers who want to order the book for use in their classroom can get a discount for orders of 5 or more books. Email Sophia Press if you're interested!