Greater Charlotte Book Crawl Shows Up for Red Masquerade

It kicked off April 1st, a month-long community crawl to fight the 'book deserts' of Greater Charlotte. A campaign for the most dedicated of local readers. With 22 stores participating. Across 7 counties. It's a daunting task. And we're already at the half way mark!

Nearly five hours of driving...and that's all 22!

It takes commitment to enter the Grand Prize running (worth 420USD), but as they say, it's the journey not the destination.

As a local herself, Shaye Madison has entered the crawl for the first time, not as a participant, but as an author. Her debut Red Masquerade is stocked at numerous of these stores including Editions and Park Road Books. And selling out.

Sales for Red Masquerade at Park Road have especially taken off with the store requesting additional stock every month this year! But with the book crawl kicking everything up a notch, she's already had to double back. And we still have two weeks left! Ain't that the dream?

First launched in 2022 by local bookstores owners, the Charlotte Book Crawl has since doubled participating vendors (and then some), seen tens of thousands participate, and now makes national news. A much needed breath of optimism in the mayhem of today's world.

Design and illustration has begun for Red Masquerade's sequel book cover, titled Black Veil.

You can stay up to date on the goss here and on Shaye's instagram.

And best of luck to all you Charlotte boo crawlers! Thank you for supporting Shaye :)