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A Family Saga Filled
with Love Triangles, Sea Turtles, and an Oil Spill
When environmental
writer Caroline Carlisle sets off to report on endangered sea turtles
during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the last thing she expects is
to uncover secrets - secrets that threaten to destroy her family,
unless she can heal the hurts from a lifetime of lies. To make
matters worse, Caroline's love for her late sister's husband, Simon,
creates an uproar in a southern family already set on a collision
course with its past.
Using real-life
events as the backdrop, Trails in the Sand explores the fight to
restore balance and peace, in nature and in a family, as both spiral
toward disaster. Through it all, the ancient sea turtle serves a
reminder that life moves forward despite the best efforts to destroy
it.
P.C. Zick began her
writing career in 1998 as a journalist. She's won various awards for
her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and fiction. She describes
herself as a "storyteller" no matter the genre.
She's published four
works of fiction and one nonfiction book. Prior to 2010, she wrote
under the name Patricia C. Behnke.
She was born in
Michigan and moved to Florida in 1980. She now resides in
Pennsylvania with her husband Robert.
Her fiction contains
the elements most dear to her heart, ranging from love to the
environment. She believes in living lightly upon this earth with
love, laughter, and passion.
"This is one of
the most exciting times to be an author," Ms. Zick says. "I'm
honored to be a part of the revolution in writing and publishing."
Love Those Writers
A Post Written by P.C.Zick
The main
characters in most of my novels share at least one characteristic.
They all write for a living or aspire to be writers. In my latest
release, Trails in the Sand, the main character is an
environmental writer. The choice of career is no accident on my part,
and as an author, I’m not an exception for creating characters who
write.
Pat Conroy’s
Beach Music is the story of travel writer Jack McCall who
escapes into his work to lose the past. In Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott, Jo March’s passion for writing fuels her until
she marries the professor. Thanks goodness, we’ve come a long way
since the novel’s publication in 1868.
In Trails in
the Sand, environmental writer, Caroline Carlisle, writes about
the wildlife impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The
wildlife experts in Florida choose her as the only reporter allowed
to cover the sea turtle nest relocation project, which involved
digging up nests and moving the eggs to the Atlantic coast to save
them from the oil. She’s able to observe the momentous event
firsthand. Much to her surprise, she begins to uncover secrets about
her family in the pursuit of the sea turtle story. Caroline’s
status as a reporter allows her special access, which helps unfold
the plot.
I use writers as
main characters because they are perfect observers and can go into
situations where the average character couldn’t or wouldn’t go.
On the television show, Castle, Richard Castle writes murder
mysteries using a New York City detective as his main character. As a
result, Castle researches his novels by going to murder scenes with
the detective and helps to solve cases. Far-fetched maybe, but it’s
enjoyable. His status as a writer allows him latitude to observe and
write realistic, yet fictional, plots
Writers uncover
information and find ways to expose culprits. In the novel I’m
currently writing, a minor character is a newspaper reporter. The
main character relies on him, not only for information about her
husband’s murder, but she also gives him information in hopes he
can help solve the mystery.
Writers are
resourceful with contacts in high places, which can help move the
plot along. Most reporters, in the real world, keep their sources
close. In the case of Trails in the Sand, Caroline Carlisle
speaks directly to wildlife officials, receives press releases, and
enjoys loyal, established relationships with her sources, which
brings her into the inner workings of government during the crisis.
She also knows how to do research, which again is a plus for plot
movement.
There’s another
reason for a writer to use a writer as a character. Research makes up
a large portion of my life when I’m working on a novel. Even though
the author makes up the plot details, the details still need to be
accurate and plausible. When I wrote about sea turtles and their
habits in Trails in the Sand, I needed to research how long
they lived, where they nested, how they made a nest on the beach, how
long the eggs incubated, and what happened after the hatchlings
emerged from the eggs. It took me days to research the details to
write one scene where a sea turtle comes ashore to lay eggs as two
teenagers watch on the beach.
I didn’t need to
research the life of a writer because I’ve lived it. I’ve been a
journalist. I’ve traveled for the job. I’ve worked with
scientists, and I’ve interviewed many people in very strange
situations – a man who owned a pack of hairless dogs he kept at his
home in a rusty and remote trailer in north Florida comes to mind.
Some of my
favorite people are writers, and they qualify as “characters” by
many standards. I might as well use them in my stories. They make
good company in a rather isolated career.
Caroline tries to
explain to her mother that she wants to be a writer when she’s
sixteen. I think I wrote this scene because I wished I’d been brave
enough to tell someone I wanted to write at that age. Instead, I did
the acceptable thing and became an English teacher. From Caroline
Carlisle on writing in Trails in the Sand:
“You can’t be a writer,” Momma said when I was sixteen and
told her of my career plans. “You need a profession you can count
on to support you. You can’t depend on a man, especially the way
you act.”
“I want to be a writer,” I said. “Who says I can’t be the
next John Steinbeck?”
“I certainly hope not, young lady. Isn’t he that writer who
killed himself a few years back? Is that the kind of life you want
for yourself?”
“Of course not, Momma, and you’re thinking of Ernest
Hemingway. Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath. I want to write a
book like The Pearl – so brilliantly poignant and symbolic. The
Grapes of Wrath is all right, but somehow I think if you can get the
message across in fewer words, you have truly mastered the art of
language. He uses ants and oysters to tell his tale.”
Momma stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. And I guess in the
world of Calico, Florida, I did stand out as a little odd. I spent
long summer days down on the riverbank reading, writing, or observing
the world around me. Nature became my home, and the turtles, frogs,
and birds of the Calico River that bordered our town were my friends.
“Where did you come from, child?” Momma asked. “How do you
know these things? Sometimes you talk just like Alex.”
“Uncle Alex? He liked to write?”
“He loved nature, absolutely loved everything about it, and
talked about it like you do.” Momma was no longer staring at me;
she was gazing out the kitchen window into the back yard. “He loved
chasing fireflies, too, just like you.”
“I wish I’d known him, Momma. What if I study marine biology?
Is that a substantial subject?”
“It’s something,” she said as she turned back around. “At
least you’ll be able to teach. You’ll need something to do with
your life.”
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