As soon as the Beaver County Library System opened registration for an upcoming event that would feature historical fiction author Kate Quinn, I booked spots for my husband, Adam, and I to attend. Adam usually joins me at author events and book signings—probably making note of the logistics for when it’s my turn to sit on the author’s side of the table.

During her formal presentation, Kate expressed many of the same experiences, interests, and struggles that I face in my own writing. Though she didn’t make it sound easy to finish any of her novels, somehow the shared experience gave me a renewed sense of ability to complete my own project.

The event also featured a talk by Leslie Przybylek of the Heinz History Center, who detailed the role of local women during World Wars I and II. Hearing about the strong women who contributed to the war effort on the home front and abroad reminded me of the strong women among my family and friends—not the least of which were my two grandmothers.1

It probably goes without saying that I left the event feeling very inspired!

Is It Worth It?

Two days after the library event, Adam and I went to see Suffs, the musical telling of the Suffragist movement of the early 1900s.2

I expected the show to be light and silly with some serious undertones, as many musicals are. Adam admits he braced himself for some man-bashing. I’ll be honest, though: it moved me to tears more than once, and Adam said it was one of the best productions he’s ever attended. (And we have been to many, many productions!)

Part of my emotional reaction came when the Alice Paul character chooses to give up the opportunity to pursue a romantic relationship with a man who “can recite the Magna Carta by heart”—which she finds “very attractive.” She sings “Is It Worth It?” wondering if pursuing women’s suffrage so relentlessly will be worth the loneliness she would undoubtedly experience after the “fight is finished.”

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The week leading up to the show, I had been working on the part in my novel where my grandmother’s character, 16 at the time, is contemplating her choice to marry. She had stayed in an abusive situation for years so that she could graduate high school and become what she deemed to be successful. If she chose to elope—and therefore quit school—would all of that suffering have been for nothing? Would eloping be “worth it?”

Not the same situation of course, but you can imagine how the emotion of that particular song really resonated.

In any case, seeing Suffs was definitely worth it!

New Beginnings

It’s been such a long while since my last book update, I better bring you up to speed on a couple of other things that have happened writing-wise during the past several months.

First of all, I finally, FINALLY, feel great about the flow and direction of my book.

For years I have been going back and forth on where in Rose’s life to start telling the story—either at 7 years old (when her father died), or at 14 years old (when she experienced some life-changing moments), or when she was 15-16 years old (not long before she eloped).

By now, I’ve started over too many times to remember! (I no longer include my current word count on these updates for this reason—it is meaningless for the time-being!)

After getting stuck yet again, I finally reached out to Book Coach Laura Oliver, who had come highly recommended by my writing friend and critique partner, Sherry Cormier. Laura reviewed my full plot synopsis, and after talking through some of my concerns, she identified my stuck-ness not in my starting point so much as trying to squeeze too much into a single book. She suggested there might be two stories to write!

My homework is to choose the primary message I want the reader to walk away with when they finish reading the book. Then I need to review a list of all the scenes I have come up with so far and highlight only the ones that directly support my chosen message. Anything left unhighlighted must go!3

While I was still working on this homework (it’s a lot harder than it sounds—there truly is so much I want to say!) I had coffee4 with another writer friend (Hi, Carrie!) who is well-versed in “The Hero’s Journey” story structure. We discussed my dilemma and some key plot points in the story.

She suggested eliminating some (or maybe most) of the build-up I had been creating around the first big plot point, and boy was she onto something! The book’s flow finally feels right, and I have not felt stuck since.

I still have to finish my homework so I don’t waste any more time writing scenes that don’t fit, but I’m confident that this latest new beginning will be the last new beginning for this novel!

So, that is what I have been up writing-wise since I last posted.

Adam and I also undertook what I’ve been calling a “World Cup Extravaganza,” travelling to three states in June for five World Cup matches. (See below for a few photos.) We had the pleasure of taking in most of the matches and sightseeing alongside Adam’s brother, sister-in-law, and their two sons.

Did you have a nice summer? Did you watch any of the World Cup?

Did you watch enough of the World Cup to wonder if Omar Alderete (Paraguay’s #3) ever found his pants after that match against France?

Anyway, thank you so much for reading! I truly appreciate you!!

Until Next Time,
Patty

We enjoyed so much soccer, culture, art, food, and sightseeing during our travels to Texas, Philadelphia, and New York. I’m still sorting through all the photos we took—these are just a handful!

Thank you again for being with me!

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Well, Friends, I was wrong.

In my last post, I wrote that by summer’s end I expected to be fully healed from breaking my wrist and the subsequent surgery. That is not the case. While I’m definitely doing much better with strength and range of motion, I still deal with quite a bit of soreness after cooking, cleaning, writing, exercising… pretty much after using my right hand for any length of time. But I’ve completed occupational therapy, and the surgeon assures me that by the end of 2025, I’ll be right as rain.

In the meantime, I am finally able to type with both hands again, so I am working to get back on track with a writing routine!

Thankfully, my injury did not prevent me from participating in lots of travel this summer!

My husband (Adam) and I kicked off the summer with our annual beach trip with Adam’s family. It’s always a fun time catching up and breaking bread together. Our beach trip would not be complete without a stop at the local book store, Bethany Beach Books, which often hosts book signings by different authors. This year, I met Brenda Novak, who is known for her contemporary romance novels.

I was encouraged to learn that it took Brenda five years to hone her craft and write her first novel. (In the 20 years since, she has written more than 100 books!) And Brenda is not the only one for whom it has taken multiple years to complete novel #1. I have heard from at least a dozen published authors that this timeline is to be expected, especially the first time around.1

This is good news for me, since we are approaching four years since I left my steady income and benefits to pursue writing full-time. Thank you for hanging in there with me as I put in the necessary time to get this right!

Other highlights from our travel this summer include attending two Club World Cup matches, one in Philadelphia and one in Cincinnati. The Club World Cup—not to be confused with the country World Cup—is a soccer tournament for the top club teams on the planet. Since the Club World Cup was hosted by the United States this year, and I married someone whose favorite sport is soccer, there was no way we were not attending!2

Both were short trips, but a lot of fun!

The biggest highlight of our summer travel for me, though, was a nine-day harbor cruise that took us from Bangor, Maine, down to Portland, stopping at a different harbor town almost every day.

I learned how to shuck my own oysters…and that I actually like oysters.

Being near Stephen King’s stomping grounds, I finally read his memoir, On Writing, during the trip. This book has been quoted and referenced so many times, I could not imagine getting “new” advice out of it. But it was extremely useful and inspiring. Now I know why it remains on most (if not all) must-read lists for writers 20 years after its original publication.

One of my favorite bits of insight from On Writing, is about the use of adverbs. King says, “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.”

He notes that the use of too many adverbs is a signal that the writer is coming from an insecure or timid mindset, afraid that he or she is not getting the point or picture across to the reader.3

After reading these insights, of course I had to go back and check my own work-in-progress for offenses. Sure enough, I found some adverbs lurking.

Here’s an example of one of the problematic sentences I identified:

Rose heard the slap of the screen door at the back of the house and quickly plunged the ring into the pocket of her dress.

Now, here it is without the pesky adverb:

Rose heard the slap of the screen door at the back of the house and plunged the ring into the pocket of her dress.

Not the best sentence I’ve written so far, but it’s such an improvement! I think it’s safe to assume that when the time comes, you—my readers—will not need the adverb “quickly” to gather what is happening with Rose and that ring! After all, nobody plunges slowly.

We met many, many wonderful people on the cruise from all over the country—including our own backyard of Pittsburgh! It really was a special trip, and I’ve come home more inspired than ever!

It seemed to be a “summer of travel” not just for Adam and me, but for several people I know! Did you see or do anything unique this summer? If so, what were your favorite parts?

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I’ll share more on getting closer to completing Draft #1 of my novel—my “sh**ty first draft,” as Anne Lamott might call it—in my next update!

In the meantime, thank you again for reading and enjoy the rest of the autumn season!

Until next time,
Patty

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Glad to have you along for the ride as I share what it’s like to write a novel based on a true story—the story of how my grandmother overcame multiple layers of abuse, grief, and loss while growing up in a coal mining town during the 1930s and ’40s. If you’re not already subscribed to Eliana Ink, you can do so here:

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Dear Friends,

So…. This happened:

Those are my fingers poking out of what’s called a carter pillow, after having wrist surgery last month.

The surgery was made necessary when I took an unfortunate tumble from a step stool and broke my wrist in two places. One moment I was happily finishing some window washing; the next, I was on the floor in a world of hurt, begging my husband Adam to get me to the hospital. The details of the accident are fuzzy, but the pain and trauma of the injuries and subsequent surgery are still vivid all these weeks later.

My stitches are out now, and I’m progressing slowly but surely through physical therapy. By the time I write my update for the summer, I imagine only the scars and the memory of the accident will remain. (Well, my new titanium plate and screws will be there too.)

While I’m experiencing the obvious inconvenience that comes with having to navigate the world using only one hand—and the non-dominant one at that—my injuries definitely could have been worse. I’m so thankful that only a few bumps and bruises accompanied the broken bones!

And I’m beyond grateful for the excellent care Adam has been providing, as well as for all the prayers and support received from loved ones.

The temporary one-handedness (not to mention the accompanying brain fog!) is certainly a setback when it comes to my writing life too, but I am still pushing forward as I am able.

Write On

Not long before my injury, I had written a 1,400-word scene that lays the groundwork for some later scenes and introduces Rose (and you, the reader!) to her future husband, Donald, and her future mother-in-law.

In May 1942, less than a year after meeting Donald and unable to suffer the abuse at home any longer, Gram ran away at age 16 and married her beau. Within a few months she was pregnant. Donald was called up to serve in World War II in April 1943, and headed off to basic training just before their first child (my uncle) was born.

For years, I have been piecing together Census records, newspaper articles, and family photos and recollections to figure out the movements of Gram and the other “characters” of her story through the 1930s and ’40s.

From this extensive research I learned quite a bit about Donald—who was such an integral part of Gram’s life at that time. However, tracking down the few remaining puzzle pieces of Donald’s time in the military would have required lots and lots of phone calls and likely out-of-state travel. In November 2024, I decided it made sense to hire a professional military researcher to find the details I was missing.

How timely that four months later, just when the physical act of writing/typing became problematic for me, I heard back from Geoff Gentilini of Golden Arrow Research with a treasure trove of research to examine!

Now I will set about the task of fitting these new-to-me historical documents from Geoff’s research together with my own research and understanding.

It’s certainly important to me to get the facts right for the integrity of the story. But the real fun (and the real challenge!) begins as I uncover the story behind the story, the heart among the data points.

Like discovering the hidden picture within one of those old Magic Eye stereogram posters, I am staring down reports and information, hoping for an image to emerge.

But this image is not of a simple object; it’s an image of choices made, regrets, and victories, that add up to a beautiful life lived.

Until next time,
Patty

If you have been a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or some other type of gift-giver to a set of young children before, you know you have to make gifts equal among the recipients. My husband and I thought we knew what this meant until one Christmas several years ago.

For that particular Christmas, we went shopping for two of our young nephews with a pre-approved list from my sister and—Bingo!—we found gifts that were roughly the same cost and roughly the same size. We took them home, triumphant, and placed them wrapped under the tree, along with some stocking-stuffer-type gifts—also equal in cost, quantity, and size.

When the big day came, “Uncle Adam and Aunt Patty” watched with knowing grins as the boys finished unwrapping their stocking stuffers and began to unwrap their “big” gifts. However, our grins were soon replaced by alarm and disappointment.

The younger of the two nephews had noticed that his brother’s gift had multiple smaller components inside, which meant in his mind that his older brother received more gifts. The green-eyed monster of jealousy took over our younger nephew, and he was blind to the wonderful gift we chose for him. Let’s just say that was not my favorite Christmas ever.

I could have kicked myself over this rookie move, especially since I have been cautious about hurt feelings among family members from the time I was a child myself.

As is the case with a lot of families, my parents didn’t always see eye-to-eye with their mothers-in-law.¹ As an ultra-sensitive kid, I picked up on that tension and was careful to show equal amounts of love and care to all of them. I never wanted to be the cause of hurt feelings.

In fact, in high school, I practically panicked when a new English teacher—who was fresh from student teaching elsewhere and therefore had not yet earned a local reputation for strictness or leniency—gave our first writing assignment that year. We were to write a paper on the person in our family we most admired. I struggled with this assignment because lifting up one family member above all others would certainly break my unwritten rule about equal treatment.

After much consternation, I ended up taking what was a huge risk for a rule-follower like me. Instead of writing about one family member, I wrote a paper titled “A Perplexing Paper,” and detailed why each person in my immediate family was special to me and therefore could not be singled out as the most admired.

To my great relief, the teacher enjoyed my take (including the alliterative title) and did not deduct points for my deviation from the original assignment. Phew!

Although it’s been decades since that “perplexing” homework, similar feelings have been nagging at the back of my brain since I began putting pen to paper on my future novel.

As I write an entire book based on the life of one amazing Gram, it feels a bit disloyal not to acknowledge the other amazing grandmother I knew and loved.

My dad’s mom led an incredibly challenging life, and I was as close to her as I was to my other Gram—even closer in some ways. I’m sure she would be disappointed not to be the center of my creative writing.

Unfortunately for me, I do not know nearly as much detail about her life as I would like. While she was living, she and I worked together on researching and documenting her genealogy, and I heard lots of stories about her family members and ancestors. But I somehow didn’t get her story.

By the time I realized this and wanted to remedy it, it was sadly too late. Thankfully, she confided a lot in my dad while she was still alive and her memory was still sharp. And now, he is sharing her story with me. Maybe one day, she’ll be the subject of another book!

But for now, I am pushing ahead on the story that has been on my heart for decades.

Writing Update

I am happy to report two major updates about my book-writing progress since last time:

1. Last year, I purchased a one-year subscription to a self-paced, four-course bundle offered by book coach Susan DeFreitas. This coursework was an excellent investment. I needed the entire year to work through all of the material, which covered everything from story structure to theme. I decided to subscribe for another year, which will be helpful as I get closer to my revision phase of writing.2

2. The other important update is that I have a new critique and accountability partner! After meeting with a new(-ish) writer friend, Sherry Cormier, for coffee/tea on a regular basis this past year, we decided to begin sharing our work with each other for critique. While it is a huge step for any author to share such personal writing with anyone (especially very rough first drafts), it is a tremendous help to get those early impressions from a trusted fellow writer. I am thankful that Sherry and I can be “that person” for each other!

Accountability is so helpful to me to complete a project like this book. That’s partly why I write this newsletter and accepted another friend’s challenge to write these quarterly! (Thank you, Amy!)

Thank you so much for reading, hitting the little heart, commenting, emailing…. It fuels me to keep going down this long and sometimes-lonely road that is novel-writing!

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Until next time, enjoy this beautiful season of wonder and light!

Merry Christmas!
Patty

P.S. Have you read any good books lately? My favorite reads this quarter were the short story Signal Moon by Kate Quinn, A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison (who I just found out has her own Substack), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is the last book in the series by J.K. Rowling.

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Having survived a career in nonprofit fundraising, I’m used to working in a competitive field. Resources were always scarce, and understandably many of my fellow fundraisers were not eager to “share the wealth.” Any newbie fundraiser who asked a more seasoned colleague from a different organization about their fundraising process would be eyed with suspicion.

Maybe you’ve felt a similar sense of keeping your trade secrets a secret. It can happen in any part of life. I’ve even witnessed requests between friends for a “signature” recipe quietly denied.

So you can understand how struck I was by a completely opposite experience among authors in the writing community this summer.

When visiting the 3 Rivers Comicon in June, I met several authors who had set up booths showcasing their books. As soon as I mentioned working on my first novel, each was quick to share advice about process and publishing — even providing their contacts for editing services, e-book layout, audio books, and more.

In fact, one of the authors wrote down her personal cell number for me (saying “I never do this!”) and told me to call her as I came up with questions or concerns about my plot.

Who does that?!

Authors, apparently!

For all these authors knew, I could turn up in a neighboring booth at next year’s Con and compete for business. They could have easily just sold me a book and wished me luck.

And yet every author I met was so free with sharing their knowledge and expertise. Their advice came from a place of abundance instead of scarcity.

Just when I was tempted to believe that was a unicorn of an experience — chalked up to the comic book convention vibe — I met two more authors.

I vacationed with family at Bethany Beach and book-ended the trip (if you’ll pardon the pun) by attending two author events at the local bookstore, Bethany Beach Books. The evening we arrived, I met Brooke Lea Foster, who has published three historical fiction novels and writes Dear Fiction here on Substack. Brooke was quick to ask questions about my work and shared helpful advice about staying true to the spirit of the real story while not turning the work into a biography or history lesson.

On our last night of vacation, I met #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Lisa Wingate, who published Before We Were Yours and more than 30 other books. Turns out that Lisa’s first novel was also based on her grandmother Rose, who had an intriguing past! (She teared up relating the true inspiration of that book to me, all these years later.) It’s an encounter I will long treasure.

Writing can be quite isolating, so maybe an innate desire for connection partly drove these authors to be so quick with encouragement. But I think it’s more than that.

I think these authors are living out a mentality that I am only just beginning to embrace: what benefits one of us, benefits all of us.

As I sit at my desk to write, I am uplifted by a swirl of wise words from a growing list of wonderful people. (I’m adding a short author shout-out list with links at the end of this post, which not only includes the authors I met this summer, but a few others from along the way.)

Also as I write, I am accompanied by the encouragement of my subscribers — fellow writers or not — who keep cheering me on as I make my way through this process. You are all dear to me, and you keep me going! Thank you!

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In addition to finding some author shout-outs, read on if you are interested in my personal writing and reading progress. 😊

If You Wanna Write, You Gotta Write

As indicated by the subtitle of this post, I have added more than 3,000 words to my book this summer. I, of course, wish I had written more. (I’m sure I say this every year, but where did the summer go?!) When I consider all of the travel and company we took on this summer, I know I did the best I could. A little progress is still progress.

I changed my book’s opening scene… again! If the experts are truly experts, the opening pages of your book are the most important. I have been focusing most of my writing energy on that section. However, though I know it’s far from perfect, it’s time to move on and get the rest written. One of my favorite writing quotes is, “You can’t edit a blank page!”

I am still working towards the goal of completing my first draft by the end of this year. Only four months to go! I’ll let you know how it’s going in my next update.

If You Wanna Write, You Gotta Read

• I’m still working my way through the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – I’m about half-way through The Half-Blood Prince. Whatever your feelings on Rowling or the series, there’s no denying the woman’s creativity.

Other recent reads include:

• Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino, who knows how to write a sassy older woman! (This one features a great-aunt.)

• All the Summers In Between, which is Brooke Lea Foster’s new release, chock-full of 1960s music nostalgia.

• Cut and Thirst, a fun and clever short story by Margaret Atwood.

• Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead. I picked up this entertaining thriller through Amazon’s “First Reads” program.

As always, let me know if you’ve read anything lately that you recommend, or if you’d like a recommendation from me. 😊

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Author Shout-Outs

I have met so many awesome people in the past year (or so), who have been quick to share advice and input on writing, including:

• Alan McGill

• Amy Camp — Amy and I go way back, and her level of consistency in writing is something I aspire to! She introduced me to Substack (her own Substack is named for her business, Cycle Forward) and has published the book, Deciding on Trails.

• A.M. Geever

• Brooke Lea Foster

• Catherine Baab-Muguira — I have not met Cat in person, but she deserves a place on this list for her free Substack, Poe Can Save Your Life, in which she is very transparent about her experience with publishing and the realities of making a living from writing.

• Fabrizio Aiello — I actually met Fabrizio long ago through my good friend, Stacey, but we only recently “talked shop” about current creative work. Fabrizio has started his own Substack too.

• Frederic Durbin

• Joseph Max Lewis

• Lisa Wingate

• Madison Uram

• Megan O’Russell

• PJ MacLayne

• Sherry Cormier — After meeting Sherry at an author event, we have begun meeting regularly for coffee/tea. I’m grateful to be able to call her a friend. Though we’re working in different genres (she’s writing a second non-fiction book), we are able to share our struggles and provide resources and input to assist each other.

Thanks again to everyone who has offered time, encouragement, and advice to support my work!

Until next time,
Patty

P.S. Have you tried Substack in the app yet? It makes it easier to Like, Comment, and Share! (Tap “Get the app” below.)

Hi, Friends!

At a recent lunch with my mom and sister, my sister was sharing updates on her boys. Her middle son is struggling to keep his grades up this year. In elementary school, he had been highly motivated to get good grades and worked very hard to achieve them. Middle school is more difficult for him, and his grades are beginning to reflect that. He told his mom, “I’m just not motivated.”

She, of course, told him it doesn’t really matter if he’s motivated. Sometimes she isn’t motivated to do household chores or pay bills, but she does it anyway.

What my nephew is learning early in life is that success is really about discipline. It’s about developing good habits. It’s about making yourself do important things whether or not you are motivated or inspired to do them.

This is one of those lessons that can apply to every aspect of life. It’s one of those lessons that I logically can get behind, but admittedly have struggled with recently in my writing life.

When I read or hear writing advice by the likes of James Patterson (MasterClass: James Patterson Teaches Writing), Stephen King (On Writing) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic) and countless other writing gurus, I nod along, Oh, yes, consistency and putting in the time are definitely important.

And then I promptly go back to completing tasks in order of urgency, getting to the writing “if I have time.”

It seems that while all of this advice — which boils down to “if you wanna write, you gotta write!” — makes perfect sense, and even having experienced wonderful results by applying this advice for chunks of time (like for NaNoWriMo) I just haven’t been able to firmly establish the excellent long-term habit of writing every day.

My previous experience hasn’t helped matters.

Through the years, my best creative work resulted after I was struck with a lightning bolt of inspiration. I would have a project or assignment in the back of my mind, and suddenly it would occur to me what I should do with it. I would get down to business, often working late into the night, capitalizing on the momentum of turning that inspiration into reality.

Then, in a blur, it would be complete. I would sit back and look at the finished product and smile. Inspiration did its thing, and the resulting dopamine hit would carry me through until next time.

I used to misquote Edison, saying “genius is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration.” Because that’s what my experience had been: 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration.

I didn’t believe my husband, Adam, when he gently informed me it was the other way around; I had to look it up.

At that point in my life, I had worked only in shortform so far. A poem. A press release. A collage for art class. A paper on El Niño. A 10-minute presentation.

But add a longform project to the mix — say, for example, a heavily-researched novel about the strength and resilience of a beloved grandmother — and there is no way that one stroke of inspiration is going to carry anyone through the entire process.

Now that I am working on this much more involved project, my brain is struggling to adjust to taking a small piece at a time, instead of expecting the 70,000+ words to simply show up at some point.

If I wasn’t motivated to write this book in the first place, I wouldn’t bother with it at all. And if I didn’t feel inspired each time I learn more about my grandparents’ lives or about life in the coal patches back in the 1930s and ’40s, my writing would come out flat and dull.

But if I actually expect to one day share the full story with you all, I need to get into a very solid habit of writing. So I am joining my dear nephew in the necessity of discipline. Scheduling the work and doing it, whether I feel like it or not. …even if there are other pressing issues vying for my time, because let’s face it: there will always be other pressing issues vying for our time.

This year has been unbelievably stressful and busy so far. I have been working on project after project, each consuming all of my available creative energy. On top of these creative projects, Adam and I took on a final (we hope!) round of major home renovations. It’s like we’re moving into a brand new home — moving furniture, endless cleaning and organizing, unpacking boxes…. So I am going to give myself a little break, and then with batteries recharged, I am renewing my commitment to write consistently, even when I don’t feel that wave of inspiration.

I usually fare better with a goal and deadline in mind, so my goal is to have Draft One written this year. By subscribing to my Substack, you are helping me with accountability towards meeting that goal, and I thank you!

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I look forward to continuing to update you on progress as it unfolds. In the meantime, I’m adding a new section to this newsletter: a list of the fiction I’ve recently read or am currently reading. (Because, you know, if you wanna write, you also gotta read!) Please reach out if you’d like to discuss any of these books or to let me know what you’ve been reading!

Until next time,
Patty

Currently reading:

• The Bad Weather Friend, by Dean Koontz (I read a lot of Dean Koontz in high school and college, and feeling nostalgic, I got this on Kindle.)

• The original Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – I just finished Book 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban. I have seen all of the movies, but this is my first reading of the books. (Thanks to my sister and nephews for loaning them to me.)

Recently read:

• Lovers at the Museum, by Isabel Allende (short story)

• A Fire to Kindle, by Daniel Dydek (Christian allegorical)

• The Lost Letters of Aisling by Cynthia Ellingsen (mostly based in Ireland, but the protagonists are from Pittsburgh, so….)

• Please Tell Me, by Mike Omer (thriller)

I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and are getting off to a good start in 2024.

When I promised a “Part II” to my last book update, little did I know I would be ill the following week… and again shortly after Thanksgiving.

After recovering each time, there was quite a bit of catch-up to be done, and I was happy to squeeze in what little writing I did.

So, thank you for bearing with me as I regrouped! Now, plunging headlong into 2024, I’m feeling healthy and hopeful.

Laundry Day

My mom and I both have August birthdays, and a number of years ago we decided that to celebrate, we would pick an activity in August for us to enjoy together. There is usually a cultural aspect to it—For example, last year’s activity was visiting the Fiberart International exhibit at Brew House Association and Contemporary Craft.

This year, we chose The Ruins Project, which I had learned about indirectly through my volunteer work with the Beaver County Industrial Museum. The Ruins Project is an outdoor mosaic art installation on the property of a former coal mine in Fayette County, now privately owned by Rachel Sager of Sager Mosaics. It is situated along the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and appreciated the detailed work that goes into creating mosaic art. And with its connection to the coal mining industry in Fayette County, this tour served my book research well! The tour guide, Erika, shared many insightful and fascinating stories behind the different mosaic designs.

One of my favorite examples is the Beehive Coke Oven by Jennifer Case. At this point in the tour, Erika noted that Monday was laundry day in the coal towns and continues to be for many current residents.

Erika explained that each day, 5 tons—metric tons—of coal would be piled into a giant oven (nicknamed beehive for its shape) to produce 3 tons of “coke” for steelmaking.

What happened to the remaining 2 tons? It burned off and spewed into the air through the hole in the top of the hive and eventually settled in the form of black dust onto anything and everything it could find. Multiply that by the 46,000 ovens that were burning 6 days per week and 24 hours per day, and you can almost see the air crust to black in front of your eyes.

The ovens did not run on Sundays, so by the time they would be in full swing on Mondays, laundry could be done and indoors before all the soot landed.

Incidentally, Monday is my laundry day. I thought I chose that day because of my work schedule, but perhaps it is rooted in coal.

Have you inherited a laundry day or other ways of doing things?

In any case, if you’re like me and love stories and insights that make history come alive, I recommend booking a tour!

You can also learn more about The Ruins Project and Rachel Sager—the artist at the center of it all—from the website, a recent article in Pittsburgh Quarterly, and Rachel Sager’s Substack (free and paid editions available).

You Now Know a Blacksmith

Adam (my husband) and I have been following the traditional gift calendar for each of our wedding anniversaries, starting with paper for our first anniversary. We were supposed to give crystal for our 15th anniversary in October, but we decided to go a different way.

Through The Ruins Project, I learned about the Touchstone Center for the Arts and their “date nights” on Friday nights, where they hold two-hour workshops for couples (or friends or relatives) to try their hands at ceramics, drawing/painting, glass, metals/jewelry, or blacksmithing. Adam and I chose blacksmithing!

Within 15 minutes of starting our project, fine soot was all over my shoulders. I thought back to The Ruins Project tour and the tons of soot that would have been in the air or on every surface (including people and animals) with those coke ovens going, and it finally sank in just how dirty it must have been during that time.

I also gained a new appreciation for the eye, the planning, the strength, and the patience of real blacksmiths.

Our instructor took a chance on our group by having us create a complicated candlestick holder. We began with three pieces of plain, flat metal and heated and sculpted and heated and sculpted until the pieces were ready to be assembled into our finished product. In addition to the tongs, hammer, and anvil, we (Adam) used a belt sander and drill press and shoveled coal into an oven to get the metal white-hot. It was a challenging project, and we’re glad we did it—surprisingly burn free with hair and skin left intact.

Trusting My Gut

In other news, I recently enrolled in Susan DeFreitas’s “Workshops Against Empire: Alternative MFA” program. This year-long program includes four online courses, as well as membership in Susan’s “Story Medicine” Facebook group and the ability to approach her directly with questions.

Susan taught a couple of the online writing courses I took in 2023 and wrote a blog article which I found to be particularly helpful. Only two lessons in, I can sense the improvement in my plotting and writing.

In my last update, I talked about my decision to try starting my book in a spot seven or eight years further into Rose’s life than I had originally planned. But I hesitated because that would mean “killing my darlings”—potentially giving up scenes I had spent many hours crafting.

As a newbie novel-writer, I don’t always trust my own instincts.

I need to give a shoutout here to Pastor Dave Snyder, one of the pastors I met through my work with Lutheran SeniorLife. Every time I feel “paralysis by analysis” setting in, his words of encouragement from an email several months ago chime in my head. He helped to re-center my thinking on why I am writing my book, and knowing that I am a praying woman, he encouraged me to rely more on my “spiritual gut.”

Of course, it certainly doesn’t hurt to get affirmation from a seasoned book coach, so I briefly described to Susan this decision with summaries of the two plot scenarios: one that starts off earlier in Rose’s life, and the other not long before Rose elopes with her first love. Susan very confidently assured me that my idea to start with the latter scenario is the way to go!

So, as I mourn the losses of my little darlings (not to mention my former word count), I’m further resolved in my decision to charge full steam ahead with the new beginning to my novel.

Cartoon for You

After being under the weather so much lately, I couldn’t help but share a healthcare-related cartoon for this edition of my book update. Special thanks go to my father-in-law, Ken Davidson, who provided some consultation on this one.

Thank you for reading! Here’s to a happy and healthy year ahead!

Patty

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P.S. If you use a smartphone but you’re not a huge fan of email, the Substack app might be for you. My mom receives hundreds of emails on a daily basis, so it is too easy for her to miss my little book update. We decided to test the Substack app together, and it’s a winner!

I don’t normally recommend apps, but I have been very happy with how this one notifies you (if you choose) when new posts or notes are available from me—or any of your favorite Substack creators. Get the app on your phone or tablet, and you can join Mom and me on the cutting edge of what might become the next big social media trend.😉

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First of all, let me say Wow and Thank You to those of you who felt strongly enough to respond to the question I posed in my May 18 update. I think I received more phone calls, texts, and emails on that subject than from any other post to date!

The overwhelming response was – and I’m paraphrasing here – If it happened, leave it in!

A lot of provocative discussions and rabbit-hole diving resulted from your responses and suggestions! One of the most interesting was courtesy of a subscriber (Hi, Barb!) who shared an excerpt from an Associated Press article she read about the memoir, Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene.

In the memoir, Greene discusses the sudden loss of his young daughter, which obviously carries with it some dark and challenging material. However, as explained in the article, Greene recognized the importance of protecting the reader through those tough sections, making sure the book was “bearable and readable.”

In the article, he explained:

“I think that there were books I opened up where I didn’t feel safe with the narrator. I’m stepping into this person’s wound rather than into their story, and it felt dangerous in a way that I was careful to avoid.”

Have you ever turned off a movie part way through or stopped reading a book because you just couldn’t stomach the gratuitous violence or take the emotional toil any longer?

If so, it is likely because the director or writer brought you too far into the wound and not far enough into the story.

It’s a delicate balance. Most audiences – readers or viewers – will accept at least some blood and gore when the story is strong enough. Just look at the success of Game of Thrones.

Stray too far from what’s necessary to tell the story, though, and most people are completely turned off by those explicit images.

(Audiences are also intuitive enough to realize whether a scene is driving the plot forward versus merely offering shock value and/or securing an R or TV-MA rating.)

I had never intended to spell out the “gore” of what Rose went through. This isn’t because I wanted to pay homage to Shakespearean drama, where violence happens off stage. And admittedly, I wasn’t previously motivated by the noble purpose of keeping my readers out of the wound.

I simply don’t like when other authors are overly explicit in their books, so why would I be that way in my own?

However, after delving into the psychological aspects of reading, I am acutely aware of keeping my readers safe from harm as I write and revise. I pledge to protect you, Dear Reader! (takes Wonder Woman stance)

From Protecting to Actively Helping

In exploring this psychology further, I learned that there is a biochemical response that occurs in our brains when we read. Our brains react the same way when reading heavy scenes as they do when living them!

My mother studied special education and then art therapy and was a reading specialist for many years, so I spoke with her about this phenomenon.

She told me about bibliotherapy, in which a patient is “prescribed” certain reading – fiction or nonfiction – that relates to that individual’s personal trauma or concerns.

As any avid reader already knows, reading can improve a person’s outlook and alleviate anxieties! But more than that, it can be quite healing for someone who is dealing with a traumatic experience.

Just like “being in the wound” can harm readers, vicariously experiencing healing from wounds can help readers!

This is all very affirming, since part of my “why” for writing Rose’s story is to serve as inspiration for anyone who might be dealing with similar circumstances. While there are some heavy scenes in my book, there are lighter ones too, and I want readers to reach the end with a sense of hope and satisfaction.

Not Quite Murder…

Any writer understands how precious a phrase or scene can become. Those pieces become your little darlings. Stephen King popularized the term Killing Your Darlings (which was coined hundreds of years ago) in reference to the need to sometimes eliminate those beloved little pieces of your writing from your work-in-progress.

I have been reading and studying story structure (more on that in a later post) and I had a bit of an ah-ha moment about my plot. I had been stuck for a while, but then it dawned on me that perhaps I started Rose’s story too early. I did quite a bit of rearranging, which led to a lot of cutting.

I couldn’t bring myself to truly delete everything, though. Because I don’t know whether or not this rearrangement is going to be the best solution, I didn’t want to eliminate my hard work only to have to recreate it later. So, I opened a new Word document and named it “Holding Spot,” and then cut all of my little darlings from my main document and pasted them there. (Hence, the dual word counts above.)

So, I did not actually kill them…. They’re just in a writer-induced coma for a while. I’ll revisit them at some point to see if any should be awakened or if I should pull the plug completely.

More in Part II

In addition to taking time to learn about protecting and helping my readers, this past summer has been jam-packed with research and writing. I decided to create a second part to this post, in which I’ll update you on what else I’ve been up to since May. This includes a visit to The Ruins Project in Fayette County, Pa. – which was inspiring to say the least – as well as your fall cartoon!

In the meantime, thank you again to everyone who has taken such an interest in this story and my path writing it. I’m touched and honored to have you in this with me!

Until next time,
Patty

Wow, has this spring been as eventful for you as it has been for me?

One of the big highlights for me writing-wise is that I participated in an authors’ “First 10 Pages” boot camp, which was offered through Writer’s Digest. For me, the primary appeal of the boot camp was being assigned to a professional literary agent to improve the first 10 pages of my story.

But the boot camp also included webinars to watch and a live chat room Q&A for everyone who was assigned to the same agent. Pretty cool!

My assigned agent, Amy, reviewed my pages, offered some really great advice and observations, and then gave a final critique of my work with the revisions I had made based on her input.

Agent Amy: You are very talented, and this is really well done.

Me: 🤯🤯🤯

Maybe Amy said nice things like this to everyone assigned to her through this boot camp. Either way, her emails have been posted on my sticky-note wall for whenever I need a little pick-me-up!

P.S. Ten formatted manuscript pages = roughly 2,500 words. I rewrote that section multiple times leading up to and during the workshop, but fewer than half of those words made it to my current draft and word count. *sigh*

Sad News

In other news, I’m sorry to report that my aunt – Rose’s second born – passed away last month. Though she was almost 80, the loss was sudden. One of our last conversations centered on some of her fun childhood memories and my book. I’m saddened by the fact that she won’t be around to read it when it’s finally finished.

As I reflect on her passing, I am reminded that I’m not just writing “what happened to my grandma.” Our lives are intertwined with the lives of many others. And Rose’s relationships and circumstances helped shape her into the woman who became my fun and spunky Gram – just as my relationships and circumstances helped shape me into who I am today, and yours helped shaped you.

I am attempting to capture the essence of many ancestors I’ve never met, a way of life that no longer exists, and a significant period of American history that I didn’t live through.

So, yeah. Easy-peasy.

But without conveying those details, I might as well be writing a biography.

When Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

One of Agent Amy’s comments that has stuck with me relates to verisimilitude (coming across as realistic) in storytelling.

The stage for Rose’s story is set when her father dies unexpectedly, and she is sent to live with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

In the first draft I submitted for the boot camp, I included Rose’s thought about wanting to get into her father’s grave to be with him. Amy thought this did not ring true – that this sort of thing only happens in the movies.

I had not shared with Amy that my story is based on the personal experiences my grandmother directly relayed to me – that poor Rose literally tried to get into her father’s grave with him as they began scattering dirt over his casket.

So that makes me curious about your thoughts on the matter:

Should I leave something out of the story because it might be too hard to believe, even if it’s true?

I don’t want to bring about eye rolls and lose my readers (especially in the all-important first 10 pages!) but I also want to tell the story like it really happened.

Disclaimer: Any scene I’m working on now could end up on the cutting room floor by the time this is all said and done, so the graveside drama might be moot for the final manuscript anyway.

However, I’m sure other scenarios with somewhat questionable plausibility will come up throughout the book – Gram went through some pretty unbelievable circumstances after all (Hence, the book!) – so I need to consider how to handle those as they occur.

Let’s Wrap with a Laugh

I have an aging-related cartoon for you this time. With my oldest nephew’s college graduation, with my middle nephew now wearing men’s shirts and shoe sizes, and after learning that my high school choir teacher – who was just beginning his career at that time – is now preparing to retire, aging is on my mind!

As always, thank you for your support. It means the world to me that you took precious time out of your day to read this update!

Have a wonderful summer,
Patty

Let’s first tackle the obvious: No, I did not write (nor reach a total of) 50,000 words in November for the NaNoWriMo challenge I mentioned in my last update. However, I kept at it almost every single day and managed to more than double my word count.

That, to me, was quite an accomplishment! I’m learning that celebrating the little victories is very important in a writer’s life – or in anyone’s life, really.

My writing is also a little more organized since my last update. You may or may not be aware that I haven’t been writing the scenes of my book in chronological order. I look at my wall full of sticky notes with my scene ideas (my version of a book outline) and choose one to focus on that day. From the beginning, I have opened my book document in Microsoft Word, jumped to the last page, and then added a couple of blank lines with a set of hyphens (----) where I could start my new scene.

As you can imagine, that Word document was getting to be pretty messy by the time I hit 20,000 words or so.

I took some writing time to assign headings to my scenes and then to organize them into the order they will likely go in the book. The result was pretty magical. My book is really starting to look like a book! It has structure! Another small victory!

In other news, I have completed more research. My cousin, Denise, inherited a recipe book that Gram had made for Denise’s mother. Among the recipes, Gram related some events with the people and places in her life that happened to be from the same timeframe as the story I’m writing. Not only were those details helpful for book research, but also – and more importantly – what a family treasure! I didn’t know it existed until my cousin’s visit in October. (Thank you for sharing, Denise!) I made an electronic copy of the recipe book for myself and my family, so we could all delight together in Gram’s stories and recipes that are just “so Gram.”

In addition to learning more about Gram’s past from the source, I also had the pleasure of interviewing a former mayor of Masontown, where my grandmother had lived during the ’40s.

The former mayor, Kay, is 97 – about the age Gram would be today – and sharp as a tack. She welcomed my mom and me into her home, where she told us some personal stories about her childhood and her amazing path to being elected the first female mayor in the town’s history. She hopped in my car – ignoring her unbuckled seat belt warning bell until it finally stopped dinging – and took us on a tour around town. I had brought photos of Gram from the ’40s, and Kay was able to show us where some of them were taken. She also pointed out where my grandmother likely attended school as a child.

In addition to a local nonprofit, Kay had helped to found Masontown’s historical society, which had resources from the local bicentennial and sesquicentennial. She sent us home with copies of books from these events, which featured many historical photos.

So, Kay is my new hero. She’s just going about her life without realizing what a true #boss she is. Have you ever met someone – a stranger – who left you with an impression like that?

After leaving Kay’s house, my mom and I headed out to a neighboring area to see if we could identify Gram’s childhood home from the photos I had brought along. We drove around Gram’s old stomping grounds for a while without much luck. As we were heading out of town, though, we passed a place that gave us a “vibe.” I found a place to park the car, and we walked back along the busy road to get a closer look. I looked up the address online and found that the structure was built in 1920.

To me, the curve of the road, telephone poles, and structures in the background all seem to line up. But don’t take my word for it. Below are the photos from May 1943 and December 2022, so you can make your own comparison. (In the 1943 photo, that’s Gram with her brother-in-law, holding their babies. My uncle and his cousin were born on the same day!)

Whatever the case may be, it’s all a part of what’s turning out to be a pretty grand adventure. Every peek into Gram’s past helps me to feel closer to her and appreciate all the more what she was able to overcome in life. I just hope that comes through in the book!

Thank you for joining me for the ride. I hope big smiles come easily for you in the coming year, as you encounter your own wonderful experiences with friends and loved ones!

This cartoon, which I drew during some wintry weather, will hopefully get you started with those smiles:

Until next time,
Patty

What crossed my path were cats of black,
     Whose paws left in my mind no track.

Beneath the ladder steps I went,
     And walked on through without repent.

I cracked my mirror into three;
     A thing like this won’t bother me.

My ceiling sees umbrella tops;
     It’s best to not get wet with drops.

I don’t skip cracks in old sidewalks,
     But mom is stronger than an ox.

At risk of sounding double-faced,
     I guess there’s always “just in case.”

But there’s no time on Earth today
     To waste on silly games we play.

So you can see that I don’t care
     For superstitions—or their fare.

Happy October! I wrote the above poem, “Superstition,” almost 25 years ago today as an assignment to write a rhymed poem in tetrameter (da-duh, da-duh, da-duh, da-duh).

In addition to the fun of Halloween and the beautiful colors and crisp weather of the autumn season, I have a lot of reasons to celebrate this month. It is the month of my wedding anniversary (Happy Anniversary, Adam!) and it is also the anniversary of my new writing endeavor!

It’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed since I took the full leap to follow my dream of writing this book about “Gram.” I officially left my health and wellness ministry position at the end of July 2021, but my boss at the time (Hello, Mark!) had asked me to stay on to help with communications projects until his retirement in October. And of course I agreed!

When I left, I thought I would have a full manuscript drafted in a year’s time. Unfortunately, writing a little more than 14,000 words is a far cry from a completed novel!

My husband was quick to jump to my defense a few days ago when I started to get really down on myself for not having written more by now. He first pointed out that my word count is the “net” number after lots of editing, which I do every time I sit down to write. (I can’t help it—I must tinker and fix!) And in true Adam-fashion, he made some quick calculations, factoring in the overall percentages of time required by the research and business aspects of writing, and determined that I am exactly where I should be in my writing journey.

No matter how he drew this conclusion, in the end I was comforted, and I once again believe this project will be completed in my lifetime.

One undertaking that will surely help boost my word count is this year’s NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, challenges newbie writers and seasoned authors alike to write 50,000 words of their project in the 30 days of November. Published authors give (written) pep talks, and participants can receive emails with tips and other encouragement. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days means I will not have time to edit anything, so I’m psyching myself up to write with wild abandon!

Based on my current pace, a 50,000-word goal is probably out of reach. But I will consider this challenge a huge success if it causes me to get back into a regular writing routine. When I first set out, I was putting pen to paper every day (or fingers to keyboard, if you will). I miss that structure! NaNoWriMo is a great opportunity to build good writing habits, which will be especially important as we get into the chaos of the holiday season.

So, please be thinking of me in November!

I will be thinking of you in the coming months, and I pray that you and your loved ones have the happiest of holiday seasons!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment or send me an email reply to let me know what is happening in your world.

Leave a comment

Thank you for being with me throughout this adventure!

I’ll leave you with a Halloween-inspired cartoon that I hope you enjoy:

Until next time,
Patty

As I mentioned in my previous update, taking online classes has helped me to stay focused and motivated to write. One of the classes I recently completed was “Neil Gaiman Teaches the Art of Storytelling,” which is offered through a very cool online learning platform called MasterClass. In his class, Gaiman talks about how the fear of making mistakes will sometimes lead new writers to self-sabotage – that this fear will cause us to hold back in our writing, and ultimately stall our project.

So, to help with building confidence, one of his assignments is to write a short story in one sitting. The logic is that if you screw it up, you can just try something else next time. It’s not a catastrophic loss.

For that assignment, I wrote a very short personal story about the time in seventh grade that the elastic broke in my “MC Hammer pants.”

Read the Story

Gaiman was right: It was great to hammer out a story, while deliberately keeping my internal editor at bay. I feel a little less daunted by the task of completing the more complex work. Now I just need to do what I did with this story about 100 more times. Lol

“Google is not a synonym for research.” ~Dan Brown

One thing I wasn’t expecting in this writing journey was the amount of research it takes to flesh out the story I’m trying to tell. Going in, I thought: I have first-hand accounts of all the major plot points, so the book is already half-written, right?

Wrong. So wrong!

Questions come up in every paragraph I write. And even in today’s age of online everything, the answers have not been easy to find. I have to give a shout out to my friend Don Inman at the Beaver County Industrial Museum for helping me to find some of the answers. He got me started with genealogy and loaned me several rare books related to southwestern Pennsylvania’s coal-mining industry during the Depression and World War II eras.

By the way, did you know that the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission offers free online research tools to Pennsylvania residents, including free access to Pennsylvania records on Ancestry.com? (You can check it out here.)

A fun surprise from my research was discovering that my grandparents lived in the same tiny coal town, or “patch,” in 1930, but it would be another 20 years before they officially met. I don’t think they ever knew!

What’s Next on My Journey?

More Research

As much as I love to read, I am intimidated by libraries. (Maybe that’s rooted in the fact that I was slapped with a detention by a school librarian – those middle school years were quite the challenge!)

But, as much as I need to take risks in my writing, I also need to step out of my comfort zone to (hopefully!) uncover those elusive details that will really bring Gram’s story to life. With that in mind, my mom and I are heading to the Uniontown Library later this month. (Yes, my mom will be providing moral support!)

This library, I’m told, has a fabulous “Pennsylvania Room,” which should hold lots of information on the people and places of Gram’s past.

Back in April, my mom and I were able to reconnect with my cousin Denise at the funeral service for my uncle Don, who was Denise’s dad and Gram’s oldest child. Next month, armed with a list of addresses and landmarks – and whatever we’re able to glean from the aforementioned library visit – the three of us are going to visit Gram’s and Uncle Don’s old stomping grounds. We’re all looking forward to a day of nostalgia and adventure!

More Reading

Multiple times, I have heard the advice that writers also should be readers. Thankfully, I am already an avid reader. I gravitate towards the suspense/thriller, “book club fiction,” sci-fi, and young adult (YA) genres, but I enjoy others as well. I finally signed up for Amazon’s First Reads program, which gives Prime members the opportunity to download free Kindle edition new releases. I recommend it – I have found quite a few gems among their monthly offerings.

I am also fairly active with Goodreads, which is a great website to find book reviews, book giveaways, reading challenges, author interviews, etc. And it’s free! When you connect with friends through the site, you can share reading lists and ratings/reviews. If you are a Goodreads member – or want to be – let’s connect there too!

And, Of Course, More Writing

The scene I most recently completed includes a young Rose watching as a well-dressed woman suddenly gets a runny nose and uses her gloved finger to wipe it. Rose wished she could one day be so wealthy as to use her beautiful glove as a handkerchief! With all of the serious scenes in this book, I was glad to have a little fun with this one.

And, speaking of fun…

Admittedly, I thought I was being pretty clever with this cartoon until I read The Last Summer Boys, which is historical fiction told in first person, present tense. And the author, Bill Rivers, made it work really well!

Thank you again for joining me on this journey! I am so grateful for your support and encouragement!

Until next time,
Patty

For my new subscribers (or as a refresher), the book I’m writing is the coming-of-age story of my late grandmother, Rose. But the book is more than that: it’s about resilience and finding hope and forgiveness on the other side of even the most difficult of circumstances. (And long before she was anyone’s fun and spunky grandma, Rose found herself in the absolute worst of circumstances!)

When I was in my early 20s, I had taken my grandmother – or “Gram” as I called her when I was an adult – to see the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, who were featuring a concert pianist she was excited to see. On the long car ride from Pittsburgh’s Cultural District back to her home in northern Beaver County, she opened up about some of the things she had been through as a teenager. I remember being reminded of stories from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. From then on, each time she mentioned a relative or something from her distant past, I asked her a lot of follow-up questions, and my curiosity was rewarded with new (new to me, at least) fascinating stories about her life. I told her I wanted to write a book about her someday, which she initially accepted solely as flattery; however, she also made sure I knew to include certain details – just in case I was serious.

I was indeed serious, but although a blurry book outline sat in the back of my mind for years, I had not felt compelled (brave?) enough to actually make it happen. However, with encouragement from my wonderful husband, Adam, I finally took the leap last year to leave my “day job,” and sit down to write Rose’s story once and for all.

Unfortunately, just as I was making that leap and wrapping up at Lutheran SeniorLife, our crazy house issues and situation with our builder (the subject of a whole other publication!) were coming to a jagged head. Those issues, along with volunteer commitments, holiday obligations, health stuff, etc., threatened to push this book to the back-burner once again.

After several weeks of this, though, I settled back into my desk chair with a renewed commitment to this work. I am excited about having completed another scene – this time about when Rose had rheumatic fever as a child, which was often a death sentence in those times. (The illness left her deaf in one ear for the rest of her life.) I created the doctor character for this scene – and for future appearances in the book – based on real-life doctors who were living and working in that area at the time. The scene also helps to build the character arc for Rose’s mother.

In addition to writing, I have been busy establishing a business entity and online presence (more details below), as well as researching, researching, and researching! I also took two more writing classes online, which always help to get the creative juices flowing.

I’m excited to share more with you as I move along this journey. Let me know what you’d like to hear more about in my next update!

Introducing… Eliana Ink!

Anyone who knows my business-minded husband, Adam, won’t be surprised when I say that he encouraged me to establish a business entity as soon as I started to get serious about writing.

The first thing I needed was a business name, and some of you know my early ideas. I must have entertained a hundred possibilities.… everything from writing terms, to variations of my name, to favorite literary characters, to my own characters, and more! After several disappointments – primarily, learning my favorite options were already “out there” and in use – I tossed out my running list of ideas and went back to the drawing board (or Google, as it were).

When I stumbled across the name Eliana, I knew I was onto something. My ah-ha moment came when I read the meaning behind the name: “God has answered.” How fitting! 

The second part of the name, Ink, is a homophone for an abbreviation that means business, but more than that, it reflects the actual work that I’m doing in addition to this book: writing, editing, cartooning, and other communications stuff.

Eliana Ink, LLC, is now officially registered with Pennsylvania and has its own EIN. In addition to establishing elianaink.substack.com (the home of this newsletter), elianaink.com is under construction, and I’m even delving into that crazy thing called social media – better late than never, maybe?

Don’t be surprised if I actually start following and friending more people soon!

I’ll leave you with a random cartoon I drew:

Until next time,
Patty