Behind the Bar

Hello peeps! Today, I am thrilled to welcome author Pat Zick for a chat. I met Pat in our writer’s group, eNovel Authors at Work. Recently, she interviewed me on her blog, and so, today, I am pleased to repay her wonderful hospitality. Pat’s brought along some delightful snapshots to show us, but first, take a look at the array of her stunning book covers:

Behind the Bar is Book Two in the Behind the Love Trilogy. This contemporary romance goes back to Victory, Florida, as Dean and Leah from Behind the Altar say their vows.

Susie and Reggie return to the Behind the Love Trilogy as the main characters in this romance. Susie and Reggie have been together since high school. When they watch good friends Dean and Leah find happiness, they both know something in their relationship must change. Susie believes that means marriage; she didn’t expect it to be Reggie deciding they needed a break from one another. While on break, a handsome publisher comes back to Victory to sweep Susie off her feet, while the voluptuous Sally Jean works her charms on Reggie. Meanwhile, the Victory Tavern owned by Reggie grows into a star attraction for the town. Dean and Leah help, and Susie’s sister Lisa returns home and provides Susie some much needed answers to the questions about their father. Reggie nearly loses everything in a bet that jeopardizes the Tavern. Secrets revealed bring more questions. When Reggie realizes Susie is the woman he loves, Susie must decide if she can ever trust him again. Before either of them can move forward to a life together, they must realize their past does not define them.

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Caroline Carlisle loved Simon from the moment she first laid eyes on him when she was nine years old. Unfortunately, he married her older sister, and thus set a southern family on a collision course with its past. After the death of her sister that makes Simon a widow, the two finally marry and attempt to make a family with Simon’s daughter Jodi. Jodi has other ideas, and they don’t include welcoming a new step-mother who also happens to be her aunt. As Caroline starts to report on the oil spill threatening the sea turtles on Florida’s Panhandle beaches, she begins to uncover the secret of her own mother’s past, which includes her brother’s suicide and a teenage pregnancy. With Caroline’s sharpened reporter skills, she digs until she brings all the secrets to light, including her own.

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Forbidden loves, deceptions, and murder threaten to destroy nature and families in a saga stretching from the 1760s to the present day.

Join Locka and Mali as they lead their tribe of Timucuans away from the Spanish near St. Augustine in 1760 and settle into a new life in the Everglades alongside the Calusa Indians. Their progeny grow up in the Everglades, attempting to keep their bloodlines pure.

By 2010, Mangrove Mike, Joey Cosmos, and Rob Zodiac live among the white people and learn that the human connection transcends the fear of extinction of their people. Barbara Evans in the Everglades and Emily Booth in St. Augustine are the glue as the different cultures combine forces to fight a conglomerate of international interests.

It’s a dangerous journey as this oddly matched group attempts to halt the destruction of the natural world they treasure. Cultural boundaries established centuries ago are erased as love and nature seek the balance lost during the battle for power and control of the last of the Florida frontier.

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Drive Route 66 with four women seeking adventure on the road.

Live from the Road takes the reader on an often humorous, yet harrowing, journey as Meg Newton and Sally Sutton seek a change in the mundane routine of their lives. Joined by their daughters, they set off on a journey of salvation enhanced by the glories of the Mother Road. Along the way, they are joined by a Chicago bluesman, a Pakistani liquor storeowner from Illinois, a Marine from Missouri, a gun-toting momma from Oklahoma, and a motel clerk from New Mexico. Death, divorce, and deception help to reveal the inner journey taking place under the blazing desert sun as a Route 66 motel owner reads the Bhagavad-Gita and an eagle provides the sign they’ve all been seeking. Enlightenment comes tiptoeing in at dawn in a Tucumcari laundromat, while singing karaoke at a bar in Gallup, New Mexico, and during dinner at the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman, Arizona. The trip isn’t always easy as laughter turns to tears and back again. However, the four women’s lives will never be the same after the road leads them to their hearts – the true destination for these road warriors.

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Hello Pat and welcome to my blog!

Hi Frossie, thank you for inviting me!

Choose one of your books and tell us, what inspired you to write it.

I’ll chose Trails in the Sand because it was inspired by real life events. During BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I served as a public relations director for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. I handled the media for the sea turtle nest relocation project that took place during the summer of 2010 as oil threatened Florida’s Panhandle beaches. At the same time, I was beginning a new relationship with a lost love from thirty-five years ago and was in the process of moving to Pittsburgh. Two weeks prior to the oil spill, twenty-nine miners were killed in a coal mine explosion in West Virginia, just a few hours from where I was moving. It all fell into place to write about the oil spill, the coal mine disaster, and a family facing their own disaster. Trails in the Sand explores the themes of redemption and restoration.

Sounds like an intriguing read! What other writing have you done?

I’ve dabbled in different types of writing. My first professional gigs came as a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Florida. I wrote political, investigative, and human interest articles. I wrote a weekly column and feature articles. Then I expanded by starting my own newspaper with my ex-husband. When we sold the paper, I became editor-in-chief over two magazines and continued writing columns, investigative pieces, and feature articles. All the while, I wrote fiction, publishing three novels traditionally from 2000-2006. When I left my public relations job with the Fish and Wildlife folks, I decided the time had come to write my fiction full time. In 2012, I published my first novel, Live from the Road, as an indie author. Since then, I’ve published seven novels—either contemporary or romantic fiction–along with three nonfiction books.

Wow, your writing journey has been amazing. And I am astounded that you published seven novels so quickly. Well done! Any hobbies or interests that you enjoy in your spare time?

My husband and I enjoy outdoor activities. We have a small boat that we love to take out for weekend cruises. We also kayak and golf. My husband is an avid and prolific gardener, and I’m the chief preserver of the food he grows. I’ve also become a decent brewer of beer in the past few years. And when I’m not busy with any of those activities, I read. I wish had more time for all the great books I’ve loaded on my Kindle.

Goodness me, where do you find the time? I am so impressed. And what a lovely photo! You’re so lucky to be able to escape from it all like that. Pat, a little bird told me you’re a docent in a botanical garden. Is that true?

Oh yes, it’s the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh. Here is a photo of me there, giving a tour!

Oh wow, the gardens look fantastic. What are you working on at the moment? Tell us a little about your current project(s).

I started writing contemporary new adult romances last year as a new challenge to my skill sets. I’ve since published two romances, Behind the Altar and Behind the Bar. I’m currently working on Third Base, a novella about baseball and love. I’m going to start another online class of Romance in a Month soon and plan to write another novella. This one, Minty’s Kiss, is for Christmas with a sweet cat named Minty at the forefront of the love story. Both of these projects will be a part of box sets with other authors. Then I have two other novels in various stages, waiting for me to come and rescue them. Both of these will go back to my roots of what someone once called “eco-journalism” in fiction.

Big plans! Good luck to you, and you just hooked me on the Christmas kitty story. Do you have any advice for other indie authors?

My advice is fairly simple: Write. Be flexible. Write. Persevere. And lastly, write.

Emphasis on “persevere”, as every savvy entrepreneur knows. Good advice, Pat! What do you enjoy the most as an indie author that you imagine you wouldn’t if you were traditionally published? If you had a choice would you still go indie?

I enjoy the independence of making my own decisions on when, how, and what I publish. I love the royalties I receive. I’ve gone both routes. My traditional publishing experience was with small publishers. I also had an agent for about a year. I’ll take the indie route any day and don’t even consider going with a traditional publisher these days. I know that every month I’ll have money deposited into my bank account from my book sales, and while I have to pay a percentage of sales to the online retailers I use, that percentage is much fairer than with traditional publishers. I also have a choice on what I charge for my books. When I was published traditionally, the prices were set so high for the paperbacks that I was embarrassed by it.

Being an author involves a lot of sitting around. What do you do for exercise?

That’s so true! It’s a dilemma. I have to push myself up out of my chair. I belong to a gym and do some form of work out every day. I attend dance classes twice a week, and I practice Tai Chi three times a week. Right now I’m in a class where I’m learning a Tai Chi routine with a sword. Not only do I move through these classes, but it gets me out into the world so I can socialize. Being a full time writer is an isolated occupation, so I need the push myself out into the world sometimes.

Oh Pat, I am in awe of you! Only if I cloned myself I’d manage all these activities. Good for you! Last question: how would you like to be remembered?

I want to be remembered as a person who lived by her convictions. I want one of my friends to stand at my celebration of life after I’m gone and say, “I loved this woman. She made me laugh, and she made me think. And then she made me drink. Let’s raise a glass of red wine in remembrance of one fine broad who sure knew how to live, laugh, and love.”

That’s lovely, Pat. Thank you so much for your time. I must say, you’ve inspired me with all you just shared. Many thanks!

Aw, thank you, Frossie. I really enjoyed our chat, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.

P.C. Zick describes herself as “a storyteller no matter what I write.” And she writes in a variety of genres, including romance, contemporary fiction, and nonfiction. She’s won various awards for her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and fiction.

Many of her novels contain stories of Florida and its people and environment, which she credits as giving her a rich base for her storytelling. “Florida’s quirky and abundant wildlife – both human and animal – supply my fiction with tales almost too weird to be believable.”

Her fiction contains the elements most dear to her heart, ranging from love to the environment. All of her novels contain elements of romance with strong female characters and descriptive settings. She believes in living lightly upon this earth with love, laughter, and passion, and through her fiction she imparts this philosophy in an entertaining manner with an obvious love for her characters, plot, and themes.

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