Welcome to my first book update

Current Word Count: 10,615

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey of authoring my first novel! I’m so grateful for your support and encouragement – The more I think people are counting on me to finish this book, the more likely I actually will!

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.

One of my favorites of “Gram,” taken 20-30 years after the events of the book

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!

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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.

What do you think of this little logo I designed to get myself started?

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!

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

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Until next time,
Patty