A WRITING RETREAT

It began three weeks ago, this self-imposed writer’s retreat for one. It’s something I’ve dreamed about for years. Time alone, during which I would write and create astounding stories. Alas, when the time came for me to be alone in the mountains, other things crowded my plate. Editing jobs for others, marketing of my books, and organizing

Mountain Living

Our entry into living atop a mountain didn’t begin with any auspicious drum rolls. In fact, if I took those first few hours after arrival at our cabin with two vehicles and a U-haul trailer as a sign, it would send me right back to Pittsburgh. But life throws us those little curves so we

Reality Blogger Award

By Patricia Zick @PCZick I’m honored to have been nominated for the Reality Blogger Award by my blogger friend Staci Trolio. Staci writes an extraordinary blog about writing. She inspires me with every post. To accept this award, I’m supposed to answer the following questions (in lieu of the acceptance speech Staci thought might be

Nomination for Very Inspiring Blog

Originally posted on Writing Fiction Blog:
It’s happened again, however unlikely, right smack-dab in the middle of the holiday season. I have been kindly nominated by Nic over at http://www.afewshortwords.com for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. You can always be sure of finding short pieces and examples of fiction at that address. As everyone knows…

Finding the Road to Happiness

By Patricia Zick @PCZick I wrote Raising Independent Children about my daughter moving to Oregon. Here’s a follow up to that post. I stood on the bricks of an old St. Augustine street just after dawn one Sunday morning. Tears streamed down my face as I waved to the back of a VW bug. My

Writing & Gardening – No Time to Blog

By Patricia Zick @P.C. Zick I’ve had to let my blog go the past week or so. I’ve reblogged some of my favorite blogs on topics near to my heart, but I haven’t been able to find the time or inspiration to concentrate long enough to put out a thoughtful post. I’m juggling three projects

Very Inspiring Blog Award

I’m very grateful today to announce that one of my favorite blogs has nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blog Award. Faithrises inspires me with each post, so it is an honor to be nominated by this blog. Here are the requirements for this award: 1)      Display the award logo on your blog.

The Inspiring Blog Award

Today when I woke, frustration with many parts of my life filled my head. Where do I start with my second draft of my new novel? How can I improve the abysmal sales record for my newly released novel? I wondered if anyone ever read my blogs or my posts on all the social media

Pardon my blog

By P.C. Zick – @PCZick I’m learning daily on how to best post my blog, but something I did today with the settings caused my posts to post twice to Facebook and Twitter. Overexposure is not the greatest thing if you want to be taken seriously in this writing business. At least it turns me

Confessions from the Food Court

“The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people.” (Fortune cookie)

           It’s time I came clean with one of my secret activities that even my husband doesn’t know about until now. I go to the mall once a week, not to shop but to watch.

            I enter the doors by the food court and wend my way through tables to the last counter in a row of fast food heaven. No steak burger, chicken sandwich, sub, or pizza for me. I head straight for Asian Wok with its red and yellow sign proclaiming *Special* RICE or noodle with any 2 meats and eggroll $4.99. A young Asian woman with a red shirt stands waiting at the counter that never has a line. I order teriyaki chicken with rice, and she always asks, “To go?” I always respond, “For here.”

            I squirt soy sauce on my rice and squeeze hot mustard out of a little plastic tube onto my eggroll. I grab my fortune cookie from a pile in a basket next to the condiments and head to a table on the edge of the food court so I can sit facing all the other tables.

            I pull a book from my purse, but I don’t read much because I’ve really come to listen and watch. Grandparents tend toddlers at a few tables. Mostly it’s grandmothers, but today both a grandma and grandpa sat with two small children with sub sandwiches and chips in front of them. Before tearing into the wrapping around the food, all four bowed their heads and prayed.

            Three teenagers sat next to me eating pizza. They talked occasionally, but their eyes did not connect across the table because all three were busy texting other people.

            An elderly man sat alone at a table facing me. He ate his burger slowly as he stared out of the table without focus. I tried to keep my eyes on my book and away from his expression of morose. All of a sudden that expression changed and a sparkle nearly jumped out from his eye onto his French fries. I followed his gaze to an elderly heavy set woman wearing a red shirt and black apron. She’s holding a broom and sweeping debris from the floor into a dust bin. He said something to her that I couldn’t hear. It doesn’t matter. She smiled, and he picked up his burger, now smiling. They could be strangers flirting or a married couple together for decades. But what transpired between them was pure love.

            The grandparents and their charges put their garbage in the trash. The teenagers pushed back their chairs to leave with pizza box intact upon the table. And the gentleman in front of me continued to sit at the table long after he finished his burger watching the woman sweeping the floor. I turned to my fortune cookie and decided it was time to read it.

            “The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people,” I read.

            In those around us, we see love, hate, happiness, unhappiness, peace, turmoil, courage, fear. No matter the words we spout, and the words landing on us, what we see with the blinders removed reveals more about the human condition than words exchanged over cell phones at the mall.

            I could stay home when the urge hits me to go out into the world to see and save $4.99. I could turn on the television and watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Now that’s something to see, although the words not to be believed.