He Gave Me Barn Cats {+ Giveaway}

I’m delighted today to welcome author Maria Santomasso-Hyde to Thoughts in Progress today as part of her HE GAVE ME BARN CATS Blog Tour with MC Book Tours.

Her book is being released today (March 14) by Dancing Lemur Press. In celebration of the tour, I’m sharing my thoughts on this charming book. In addition, you can enter to win your own copy of Maria’s book. Please see the end of the post for more giveaway details.

◊ He Gave Me BARN CATS
◊ by Maria Santomass0-Hyde

◊ Published by Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.

◊ Available March 14, 2017

◊ $10.95, 6x9 Trade paperback, 134 pages

◊ Genres: Christian Fiction/Christian Life-Death, Grief, Bereavement

◊ Print ISBN 978-1-939844-21-7

◊ eBook ISBN 978-1-939844-22-4

◊ Order through Ingram, Follett Library Resources, or from the publisher

◊ $3.99 eBook available in all formats

Inspired by true events...

        Maria has cared for her very ill mother for many years. Her burdens are heavy, causing a sadness bordering on darkness.  When she discovers her historic barn is now home to a mother cat and kittens, she feels lighter than she has in years. As the kittens grow, they teach her as only animals can do.

          Then tragedy strikes. As Maria loses her family, the darkness envelopes her like the heavy fog that blankets her Blue Ridge Mountain home each morning. She creates a scorecard:  God: 9, Maria: 0.  Her questions turn into anger at God.  She searches to find answers as to why her loving God would take away so much in such a short time.

          How will she learn to trust again? Can the kittens in her barn help her heal?

Here are my thoughts.

This is a tender story about love, loss, grief, and hope. The author uses a variety of viewpoints to share her story. While the story does go back and forth from the thoughts of these various viewpoints, readers are able to follow without any problem.

The author shares her emotional journey at losing her elderly mother after having taken care of her for many years. During this journey the author finds hope, loss, and happiness through numerous animals that she and her husband share their lives with.

If you’ve ever care for a loved one during a lengthy illness, this book will touch your heart. The comfort and hope the author finds from the animals around her will resonate with those who have four-legged fur babies as part of their family.

HE GAVE ME BARN CATS is filled with emotions. Readers will be able to relate on many levels to the ups and downs the author encounters throughout this story. If you’re the least bit tender-hearted, don’t be surprised if you need a tissue or two before the story ends.

FTC Full Disclosure – A copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review. The thoughts are completely my own and given honestly and freely.

HE GAVE ME BARN CATS is available for pre-order in print format at following sites: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, Everything Cats, Foyles, and Chapters-Indigo.

HE GAVE ME BARN CATS is available for order in eBook format at the following sites: Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and Amazon.

Be sure to add HE GAVE ME BARN CATS to your shelf on Goodreads.

Author Maria Santomasso-Hyde

Formerly a newspaper reporter, Maria Santomasso-Hyde now owns Alta Vista Fine Art Gallery.

She lives in Valle Crucis, North Carolina, with her husband, Lee, and The Queen of the Universe (Roma, their Black Cat) … and other Black Cats who decide to move in.

For more on Maria, visit her website and connect with her on Facebook.

Come join the blog tour and learn more about Maria and HE GAVE ME BARN CATS by visiting the following blog:

March 7 - Joylene Nowell Butler, Suspense Author - Feature

March 8 - Rockin' Book Reviews - Guest Post

March 9 - Mello & June, It's a Book Thang! - Feature

March 10 - Defending The Pen - Excerpt

March 13 - Reviews by Crystal - Q&A
Alex J. Cavanaugh - Guest Post

March 14 - Thoughts in Progress - Review

March 15 -

March 16 - A Bluestocking's Place - Excerpt
deal sharing aunt - Review

March 17 - Juneta @ Writer's Gambit - Q&A

March 20 - The Story of a Writer - Feature
CBY Book Club - Excerpt

March 21 - bookworm1102 - Excerpt
Storey Book Reviews - Excerpt
Celticlady's Reviews - Feature

This is a tour-wide giveaway for two (2) print copies (U.S only) and two (2) eBooks (international). To enter just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient.

Thanks for stopping by today during Maria’s visit. Do you think animals helps us in times of stress and loss? Do you think animals are a gift from God?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What to Do? … What to Do?

Have you ever come upon a situation that made you stop and say to yourself, ‘what to do?’ I’m not talking about a serious problem more one of confusion.

As you’ve probably already guessed, this isn’t going to be a post about books but more about this and that book-related. It’s one of those posts where I’ve been pondering things and would love your opinions and suggestions.

My first dilemma deals with Gmail and not being organized.

I’ve used Gmail since I began blogging in 2009. I noticed recently that I’ve used up 47% of my 15GB. I realized that I have emails from guest posts and tours that date back to 2009 saved in my Gmail folders.

How long do you keep emails? What about emails dealing with guest posts and tours?

I try to clean out my inbox daily, but I do a poor job of it. I leave items to go back to the next day or the next and then … well you know how that goes.

Okay, once you’ve downloaded the material from an email, how long do you keep that information? I create a folder for each day’s blog post. In that folder, I put the word document(s) and photos that make the post, as well as a copy of what the post actually says. I write everything out before I type it into blogger. I put the day’s folder into a folder for the month that it posts and then that folder into a year folder. So, if you click on folder 2016 you’ll see 12 folders, one for each month of the year. If you click on folder December 2016 Authors, you’ll see a folder for each day I posted.

Can you see where this is going? I have folders dating back to 2013 on my computer. I would have had them back to 2009 but my old computer crashed and those earlier files are still on the old hard drive. Do I need to keep them longer than a year?

My next issue deals with blogger. I know, I hear your groans already. I used to use Windows Live Writer to prepare and schedule my posts. Since it no longer works, I prepare the post in blogger. I can’t size my photos other than small, medium, etc. and I don’t know how to link them to a site. I’ve lucked up a couple of times where you could click on a photo and it take you to another site but I don’t know how I did it. That happens when you try about 10 or 15 different things and then finally give up and something works.

Do you use a special program to prepare your post for blogger? How do you link photos to a site in blogger? Is there any way to size photos in blogger other than small, medium, etc.?

I’ve thought about changing over to WordPress, but that’s a lot to change over. Besides, I’m not overjoyed with WordPress at the moment. I use WordPress for MC Book Tours.

I like WordPress for the most part except for its fonts. Maybe it’s because I’m currently using the free WordPress with a free template, but I can’t select the fonts I want to use when I prepare a post. I can only select from Paragraph, Heading 1-6, and Preformatted.

How can you pick the font you want to use when you’re writing your post in WordPress?

Now that I’ve asked for your thoughts and suggestions on all these questions, I’m going to do a bit of shameless promoting.

MC Book Tours currently has one book tour underway and preparing for two upcoming tours.

Author William Michael Davidson is on tour with his novel, THE REMNANT (which was released yesterday by Dancing Lemur Press L.L.C.). You can check out his tour schedule HERE. Follow along each day and enter the giveaway to win a copy of his book. The tour ends Feb. 22. Don’t let the genre stop you from checking out the book I think you’ll be surprised by what you find.

The next upcoming tour is for author Maria Santomasso-Hyde’s HE GAVE ME BARN CATS. This novel will be released March 14 by Dancing Lemur Press. The tour will run March 7 – 21. You can read more about this charming story HERE as well as sign up to participate in the tour.

The next tour features author Hank Quense’s novel, CREATING STORIES. This writing resource book will be released April 1 by Strange World Publishing. The tour will run March 20 – April 14. To learn more about Hank’s book and to sign up to participate in the tour, click HERE.

If you have a book coming out, be sure and check out the services offered at MC Book Tours.

Okay, now that you’ve read my ramblings PLEASE share your thoughts and suggestions. Do I keep all the old emails and folders? How can I size photos in Blogger and add links to them? How do you change fonts in WordPress? What problems are you having?