Category: Writing Ideas
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THE HUMAN HEIRS OF MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social Last week, I wrote about the inspiration of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on my life and career. Here is the essay “Human Heirs” that I wrote for the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Essay Contest in 2001 as I left my decades-long teaching career to venture into freelance writing. The essay won first…
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A WRITER’S LIFE AND INSPIRATION
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling and Cross Creek and many more books, remains an inspiration to me even though she died a year before I was born. Still, her journey as author and woman who left the north for the south provided a road map for me. I…
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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…
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How Much Background Is Too Much in a Novel?
By Patricia Zick @PCZick I’m happily working away at the new novel these days. When I wrote the original concept back in 2006, I provided lots of background research on Florida and the Everglades. That’s the way I’ve always written, even when I was a reporter. I regurgitated all the new and old knowledge onto…
P. C. Zick
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Tag, You’re It!
By Patricia Zick @PCZick I’m playing Indie Author tag today, and I’m IT. Being “IT” means that I share information about my work in progress, or WIP. The Rules Give credit (including a link) to the Indie Author who tagged you. Play by the rules; therefore, you must post the rules. You MUST answer all…
P. C. Zick
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Earth Day – Incorporate “Green” in Stories
By Patricia Zick @PCZick Today is the forty-third anniversary of the very first Earth Day in 1970 when environmentally minded folks came together to raise awareness after several major disasters in this country. First, in 1969 there was a devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara that compromised both the habitat and the…
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Checking on 2013 Goal Progress
By Patricia Zick @PCZick At the beginning of the year, I posted my goals for 2013. Here we are three months into the year, so it’s time to see how I’m doing once again. I highly recommend checking on the goals. I’ve never done it before this year, and I’m finding it’s a great motivator…
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The Next Big Thing Blog Hop
By Patricia Zick @PCZick Author Lynn Thompson http://www.lynnthompsonbooks.com asked if I’d participate in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop! Since I launched my Next Big Thing Novel (Trails in the Sand) yesterday, January 30, it seemed quite appropriate to participate in my second blog hop. This blog hop requires me to answer ten questions about…
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Authors Needed for Blog Hop
By Patricia Zick @ PCZick I’ve been invited to partake in a blog-hop soon, and I need five authors to post the week after me. I’ll post your contact information on my post Jan. 31. In my post, I’ll answer ten questions about my latest work. On Feb. 7, the authors I linked in my…
P. C. Zick
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A Hemingway Feast
By Patricia Zick @PCZick Confession time: I’ve never been a great fan of Ernest Hemingway’s writing. It leaves me cold. That’s not to say he isn’t a brilliant writer; I’m only saying his style of writing is not my favorite. I go more for Fitzgerald and Steinbeck. Nonetheless, I longed to read A Moveable Feast,…
P.C. ZICK 