Category: Trails in the Sand

• NEVER IGNORE A “LITTLE OLD LADY IN TENNIS SHOES”

  

  By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social “I’m just a little old lady in tennis shoes.” So said Margaret Hames when other more glowing titles followed her name. Environmentalist, conservationist, defender of wetlands, scrubs, and hammocks, and savior of public places in Brevard County, Florida, are more accurate descriptions of this “force of nature,” her daughter, Pat Baxter,…

  P. C. Zick

  July 29, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Brevard County, Enchanted Forest, Florida environment, Florida fiction, Manhattan Project, Margaret Hames Nature Center, native plants, Turkey Creek Sanctuary Preserve

• CELEBRATING EARTH DAY 2025

  

  Fifty-five years ago on April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. Maybe the word “celebration” doesn’t quite fit here because its inception came as the result of some horribly tragic events—an oil spill and the discovery by a woman scientist/writer of the harm done to wildlife and humans from pesticides. All those years…

  P. C. Zick

  April 22, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Allegheny River, bald eagles, DDT, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Department of Environmental Protection, Earth Day, Earth Day 2025, Florida Environmental Novel, Florida fiction, oil spill, pesticides, Pittsburgh, Rachel Carson, Santa Barbara oil spill, Silent Spring, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

• TRAILS IN THE SAND CELEBRATES #FREE

  

  To start off Earth Day 2025 week, I’m offering my Florida Fiction novel, Trails in the Sand, for free downloads April 21-25. What does this novel have to do with Earth Day? Everything. Book Blurb: When environmental writer Caroline Carlisle sets off to report on endangered sea turtles during the Deepwater BP oil spill in…

  P. C. Zick

  April 20, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, interview, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  BP oil spill, Cape Canaveral, Deepwater Horizon, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Earth Day, Florida beaches, Florida environment, Florida Environmental Novel, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gulf of Mexico, oiled wildlife, sea turtle eggs, sea turtle nests, Trails in the Sand

• WILD FOR FLORIDA WILDLIFE

  

  “Why aren’t there any mosquitoes when I visit Florida?” I was once asked. “Where do you go in Florida?” I asked. “To Disney World, Sea World – all those theme parks around Orlando.” I wondered how to reply without bursting this man’s image of “natural” Florida that exists within the gates of “unnatural” worlds made…

  P. C. Zick

  April 15, 2025

  Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, travel

  alligators, coyotes, Disney World, Florida environment, Florida Fiction Series, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida wildlife, natural Florida, Sunshine State, tourists in Florida, wetlands, wildlife

• FOR THE LOVE OF SEA TURTLES

  

  I’ve long had a love affair with sea turtles. It might have started when I learned the amazing life history of this species. It only grew after my experience first as a volunteer member of a sea turtle patrol on Matanzas Beach, Florida, twenty years ago. Then fifteen years ago, I was a part of…

  P. C. Zick

  April 1, 2025

  environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Deepwater Horizon oil spill, endangered species, Florida beaches, Florida environment, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, hatchlings, life history sea turtles, loggerhead, saving sea turtles, sea turtle nests, sea turtles, Trails in the Sand

• #OhioChemicalDisaster – Shows Us We’ve Learned Nothing Thirteen Years After Deepwater Horizon #Oilspill and Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster

  When I published my novel Trails in the Sand in 2013, I had hoped one of my messages would be heard and repeated. On the surface, the novel appears to be a family saga with more secrets and drama than an afternoon soap opera. That was my vehicle for telling the story of two major…

  P. C. Zick

  February 19, 2023

  Books by P. C. Zick, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand

  Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Norfolk Southern, Ohio River, Upper Big Branch

• Reality Informs Fiction: Trails in the Sand

  

  I’m a firm believer in the subject choosing the author. When that happens, it’s best to let the muse lead me to the keyboard and allow the words to find their way to the story. Trails in the Sand stands as my testament to the process.

  P. C. Zick

  April 21, 2019

  Books by P. C. Zick, Trails in the Sand

  BP oil spill, characters, contemporary fiction, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, environment, Florida Panhandle, Gulf of Mexico, literary fiction, oiled wildlife, sea turtle eggs, sea turtles, Trails in the Sand, writing process

• Reality Creeps Into Fiction – #DeepwaterHorizon

    Five years ago today, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon caught on fire.  Even though the newscasters downplayed its significance that morning, I felt a black cloud deepen. I’d just moved to southwestern Pennsylvania where news of the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster a few hours away in West Virginia still dominated local news.…

  P. C. Zick

  April 20, 2015

  Books by P. C. Zick, Trails in the Sand

  BP oil spill, characters, contemporary fiction, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, environment, Florida Panhandle, Gulf of Mexico, oiled wildlife, sea turtle eggs, sea turtles, Trails in the Sand

• Real Life Seeps into #Fiction

  I’m often asked if real life seeps into my novels. As we head into the anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20, I’ve thought about how much of my life seeped into the writing of Trails in the Sand. During April 2010, two significant manmade disasters occurred in the United States. Both…

  P. C. Zick

  April 19, 2014

  Books by P. C. Zick, Trails in the Sand, Writing Ideas

  amazon.com, authors, BP oil spill, characters, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, environment, fiction, Kindle, nature, novel, Trails in the Sand

• Writing from the Heart – For #.99 Cents

  Someone once said, “Write what you know.” That doesn’t mean that an author has to experience everything that appears in a work of fiction. To me it means to write what is in my heart. I lived in Florida for thirty years, and it’s in my heart. Most of my novels are set in the…

  P. C. Zick

  April 1, 2014

  Books by P. C. Zick, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand

  amazon.com, authors, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Florida, Florida fiction, nature, Trails in the Sand, wildlife