P.C. Zick – Third Base is featured in the HBS Author's Spotlight Showcase

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.

The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES P.C. Zick's New Book: Third Base

Author Patricia Zick is an award-winning writer for her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and fiction. She has written the Route 66 Fiction Series, Florida Fiction Series, and the Behind the Love Trilogy.

Third Base

Author: P. C. Zick


AVAILABLE
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When Adriana Moretti meets baseball star Tomas Vegas, she's surprised by his kindness. While Tomas puts all his energy into winning the World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he's thrown off his game by the brilliant and beautiful Adriana, who owns a multi-million dollar business she started with her late husband. She’s determined to carry on his legacy, but she doesn’t expect to fall for the handsome Puerto Rican Tomas. His supermodel ex-girlfriend and Adriana’s tightly-knit Italian family threaten to tear them apart, which causes Tomas to disappoint his team and Adriana to ignore her business. The more they’re pulled apart, the more they yearn to be together.

Excerpt from Third Base
Chapter 1 - Dreams

Leo made love to me all night, caressing my cheek and rubbing my breasts with his large and rough hands.

I woke up smiling, until daylight shot bolts of reality through my psyche. It infuriated me that he only came to me in my sleep now. I never dreamed about him before, so why now? But there he was, holding me, touching me in the secret place only he knew drove me wild. Then he blew in my ear, and I woke up.

How could I forget? How would I remember? I felt the spot next to me on the bed—empty. Gone.

Concentrate. Remember. Forget.

I pushed the comforter aside, revealing my naked body. I rose and walked over to the wall of windows on the penthouse that Leo and I bought only a year ago. Time stood still for me at moments like this one, and then at other times, it astounded me that I kept on breathing and functioning.

I looked down from the top floor of the ten-story building atop Mount Washington and saw the fountain at Point State Park spewing forth its sprays of water, creating tall columns of steam in the cool November morning. The building sat on a small mountain overlooking the joining of three rivers in downtown Pittsburgh.

I hugged myself and rubbed my arms. The room was warm enough, but looking out on the cold morning—waking in an even colder bed—made me shiver. I reached for the terrycloth robe hanging on the bed post and sunk my arms into it. Leo’s scent wafted up to me. One of these days, I should just throw the damn thing out. That’d teach him to come back stealthily in the night, trying to lull me back into thinking he was still alive. When the phone rang, I thought about not answering, especially when I saw it was my mother. But she’d only hound me until I answered, so there was no point in trying to get out of talking to the formidable Carmen Triano.

“Hello, Adriana. What are you doing today?”

“I’m headed out to the new Habitat for Humanity house. We turn over the keys today.” I knew she wasn’t listening to my answer because she had an agenda for calling. She started talking about the luncheon at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church as soon as I finished giving her my answer.

“I can’t make it today, Mom. Next week. Today is important, and I need to be there.”

“What will I tell the other women? They’re expecting you.”

“How could they be expecting me? This is the first I’ve heard of it.” But I knew the answer to my question. My mother spent a good share of her time with the ladies of Our Lady talking about me. Now that I was a widow, I’d become the pet project of Pittsburgh’s very Italian Bloomfield community. After a respectable amount of time, they’d all decided I would make a great catch for any of the Italian young men not yet engaged or married. I knew how these women worked. “A lamb to the slaughter” ran through my mind for any one of them whose son, nephew, godson, or cousin’s son needed a wife. Forget that it was 2014. These women still carried the genes of the Old Country with them.

“They love you and worry about you. I do, too.”

“I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow at mass, OK?”

After I ended the call, I drank enough coffee to keep me awake for the next week. Then I showered and dressed in jeans and low-heeled boots and pulled on a Steelers hoodie. Time to head out to the house. I dreaded going, even though I was proud of our company’s work, which brought together two of my pet projects, Wounded Warriors and Habitat for Humanity.

Normally, today’s event would have been my favorite as I turned the key over to a Wounded Warrior family, giving them hope despite the debilitating injuries of the husband.

At least he came home. Leo didn’t go to Afghanistan to fight any battles. He went to garner more information so we could do even more to help those Wounded Warriors.

The Pittsburgh media referred to Leo and me as the embodiment of all that made Pittsburgh proud. Adriana and Leo, the children of strong Italian families, who by the age of twenty-four owned one of the most successful companies in the country. “A love story beyond compare,” one newspaper reported, when Leo died. Together, we invented software that created the template for artificial limbs that fit into sockets with ease, limiting the pain and infection potential for the recipients. We’d been inventing things in our parents’ garages from a very early age. By the time we entered the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering, we were beyond most of the students, and our professors recognized our potential very early in our college career.

Now I’m still considered a darling, although for different reasons. The poor millionaire widow left alone at twenty-five after the death of her handsome and charming husband, Leo Moretti.

I stared out the living room windows as Leo and I often had done in the few months we lived in the penthouse together.

So today, I’d go alone to the housewarming, sharing the limelight with Pittsburgh’s newest darling, Tomas Vegas. I do all the work, and he shows up for the cameras.

I pulled my Lexus out of the garage, still fuming about the big shot baseball star as I drove toward the east end. At least it helped take my mind away from Leo and the empty seat next to me. Just because Tomas took the Pirates to within spitting distance of the World Series in September, he was being praised as some big humanitarian. What the hell does a guy who plays third base for a living know about humanity? I felt resentment rising in my throat. Too much coffee and bile for this early in the morning.

Tomas opened his wallet, while I pounded nails, painted walls, and heard the heart-wrenching stories from the veterans and their families. This Mr. Vegas hit a little white ball and ran bases. What gives him the right to receive any recognition? I was sick to death of these celebrity types doing nothing, yet receiving all the glory.

Leo died for this cause. You threw balls from third base to first, Mr. Big Shot. It doesn’t qualify you for much of anything, except for the fans’ undying devotion. Ciò che un coglione. What a jerk.

Author Genre: Literature & Fiction

Website: P. C. Zick
Author's Blog: Living Lightly
Twitter: @PCZick
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Author Description: 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 five works of fiction and two nonfiction books.

She was born in Michigan and moved to Florida in 1980. She finds the stories of Florida and its people and environment a rich base for her storytelling platform. Florida's quirky and abundant wildlife - both human and animal - supply her 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. In her novels, she advances the cause for wildlife conservation and energy conservation. 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."



Author's Book List
Behind the Bar - Behind the Love Trilogy
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.


Order the Book From:
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KOBO
iTunes


Behind the Altar - Behind the Love Trilogy
Leah Bryant’s life satisfies all her needs. Her engagement to Jacob Davis, minister of the Sunshine Church, gives her the security she requires after living on the streets during her teenage years. She runs a food kitchen out of the church for homeless vets who are living on the banks of Deer River.

All is perfect until the day her future mother-in-law Geraldine tells her the church is shutting down the kitchen, and Dean”"Jacob’s brother”"rides his Harley into her heart. Leah’s world begins to crumble as she falls into Dean’s muscular and tattooed arms and discovers the passion she's never known.

??? Homeless vets, deranged mothers, and a tattoo artist collide in this story of true love.

Dean, who’s been away from his home for ten years, finds himself irresistibly drawn in by Leah’s natural beauty and genuine goodness. As they fight to stay away from one another, Leah and Dean keep finding ways to be together. The more they fight the attraction, the harder it is to stay apart.

??? Will Leah go ahead and marry Jacob despite Dean’s haunting her every thought?

??? Will Dean exact the revenge he came home to hand out?


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KOBO


Odyssey to Myself - World Travel Guide and Memoir
Take a trip to Casablanca and Marrakech, Tuscany and Venice, Bocas del Toro and Panama City, and Santiago, Chile

Odyssey to Myself is a world travel guide for trips to Morocco, Italy, Panama, Chile, and down Route 66 in the United States. The compilation of essays show Muslim women dressed in hijabs and working in Casablanca. Moroccan history and food provide a colorful backdrop as the author explores her place in the world.

Take a trip to Casablanca, Marrakech, Tuscany, Bocas del Toro, and Santiago as P.C. Zick writes about her experiences traveling outside the confines of her small world. Observations about life and culture bring to life the sights, sounds, and smells of the ancient alleyways of Fes, the masters of Italy, and the strategic location of Panama. The people of Morocco, Italy, Panama, and Chile come to life through the experiences of the author as she absorbs the cultures so different from her own.


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A Lethal Legacy
A fascinating study of human expectations, failings, and redemption

A Lethal Legacy takes the reader on a journey through Ed Townsend’s twisted family legacy. He complicates the familial connection even more when he falls prey to the siren of his much younger cousin Kristina, who is beyond saving as she plots to get her fair share of the Townsend family legacy. Ed’s best friend and cousin, Gary, struggles as he marries women he doesn’t love all because he knows his father will never accept his homosexuality. It takes divorce, disease, and murder for Ed to realize that acceptance only comes from within once he is ready to face the truth.


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Amazon
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KOBO


Native Lands - Florida Fiction Series
Nature and Love Disrupted Always Find a Way Back

Murder, Sex, and Deceptions Threaten the Existence of a Tribe of Native Americans and Their Beloved Everglades

When their environment is torn apart by a conglomerate of international interests, a tribe of native Floridians thought to be extinct rise up and form their own oddly matched conglomerate, and with the assistance of nature, attempt 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 in the battle for power and control of the last of the Florida frontier.


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Amazon
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KOBO


Trails in the Sand - Florida Fiction Series
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.


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Amazon
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KOBO


Tortoise Stew - Florida Fiction Series
Small town politics take center stage in this novel about the development of Florida at any cost. Kelly Sands is a reporter covering some of the more controversial and contentious issues in the fictional north Florida town of Calloway. Dead armadillos and gopher tortoise carcasses are left as calling cards to those opposing the development as commission meetings erupt into all-out warfare. With the murder of one commissioner and the suicide of his wife, Kelly begins an investigation that threatens to topple the carefully laid plans of the developers and politicians to bring a movie studio and landing strip within the city limits of the small town. When a young girl is killed by a semi-truck from Monster Mart, the environmentalists become even more vocal against the developers' plans. Chaos reigns as both sides raise voices and fists in one cacophonous uproar until saner heads bring justice to all.


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Live from the Road - Route 66 Fiction
Enlightenment on Route 66 - Humorous, Painful, Rewarding

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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