Welcome
A Note from Maria
Thank you for visiting my website. I hope you’ll return often to enjoy our changes as the site evolves.
My book, He Gave Me Barn Cats, releases March 14, 2017, from Dancing Lemur Press. I hope you’ll enjoy it―and let me know what you think.
If you want to read this book with friends, you might enjoy the Book Club/Class Discussion Questions that are in the back of the book.
If you’d like for me to speak to your group, please e-mail me. I have limited availability, but I love to talk with fellow readers!
Be sure to view this website’s photos! You’ll see the real Barn Cats that appear in my book, as well as other characters―and the real barn! We’ll be adding more photos later, so please revisit often.
Also, we’ll be including a Blog on this website. I hope you’ll Follow it.
Please let me hear from you. As reporters often say, “Everyone has a story.” I’d love to hear your story. Who knows, you might even contribute to my next book, Cat-Tales, in which a cat sits on my front porch and eaves-drops on the humans’ conversations. And remember: Cats are not only nosey, but they are mind-readers!
Until we visit again, here’s some advice from Barn Cat Jack: “If you don’t reach out, you don’t get treats.”
About Maria
I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I even took double the number of English classes required at Central Cabarrus High School. I majored in English in college, graduating from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, where I was editor of a poetry journal and an arts magazine.
My first job out of college was as a reporter for a small town daily newspaper (The Concord Tribune). After that, I was a public relations writer. Then I entered the world of sales as a rep for college text book publisher Holt, Rinehart, and Winston/Harcourt Brace.
Now, I own and manage Alta Vista Gallery in Valle Crucis, NC, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where I live with my husband, Lee Hyde. Running in and out of the gallery is our current Barn Cat, Roma.