Schenectady author on penning her debut novel | The Daily Gazette
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Stories have the power to make us feel less alone, help us better understand the world and curb boredom.
“Four Letter Words: Act One,” a debut novel by Schenectady author Haley Beth Costisick-Unwin, began as a way to keep the latter at bay.
She started writing the book about eight years ago while working at a Piercing Pagoda at ViaPort Rotterdam (or Rotterdam Square mall as it was called then). The business was slow during certain shifts and Costisick-Unwin needed a way to pass the time.
“I would do inventory counts, this and that, talk to any person that would even come near my Piercing Pagoda to say hello,” Costisick-Unwin said. “However, sitting there one day I just decided that I was going to write myself a story because I had a notebook they gave me that morning and I said, ‘Write what you know.’ ”