Welcome to April’s Featured Blog, something I’ll be posting here on Lit and Scribbles most of the month to introduce all of you to perhaps some new future friends and get to know a little more about your blogging community.
Today we talk with P.C. (Patricia) Zick, writer of the blogs Writing Whims and Living Lightly, and published author of several books, the most recent being Trails in the Sand. P.C. and I trade comments back and forth and I’ve really appreciated getting to know her better. It’s always good to get advice from those who’ve already trod down the writing and publishing paths. Tell us about yourself, P.C.:
PC: My career as a writer began in 1998 with the publication of her first column in a local paper. By day, I was a high school English teacher, but at night and on vacations, I began writing novels and working as a freelance journalist. In 2001, I left teaching and began pursuing a full-time gig as a writer. I describe myself as a “storyteller” no matter the genre.
Currently, I write two blogs. Trails in the Sand is my fifth novel and the second one I self-published. I published Live from the Road in May 2012.
My blog and novels contain the elements most dear to my heart, ranging from love to the environment. I believe in living lightly upon this earth with love, laughter, and passion. My husband Robert and I live in Pennsylvania.
J: When did you first start blogging and what is your blog about?
PC: I began Living Lightly in March 2012. The blog covers topics from gardening and recipes to the environment and climate change. I starting Writing Whims on April 20, 2012, which I just realized is the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, one of the threads running through my new novel, Trails in the Sand. I really didn’t know that until right now.
J: Which of your posts was the most fun to write and why?
PC: I wrote a post recently for Living Lightly about my husband smuggling tomato seeds into my luggage for a trip to Florida. I love writing humor that also imparts knowledge.
J: What type of stories do you write?
PC: I write contemporary novels with environmental themes used to parallel messed up families.
J: Protagonist excluded, which of your characters is your favorite?
PC: In Trails in the Sand my favorite character is the mother, Gladys or Gladdy. She’s a true southern belle who was abused as a child. She’s almost a caricature until the veneer of her persona is cracked.
CY: I was born in Long Island, NY and stayed there until I went to college in Oswego, NY. After getting married, I moved to Florida and came crawling back to Long Island with my tail between my legs after 4.5 years of trying to survive. I’ve wanted to be an author since high school and played the game of submitting manuscripts and waiting for the rejection letter. I thought this was the way to go until my son was born and I realized that I wanted to be able to tell him to go for his dreams after having done the same for myself. That brought me to self-publishing and blogging where I’m now working hard to forge a career as an epic fantasy author.
Lit and Scribbles with Jae 