The write stuff: Author takes the road less traveled to success
Growing up in the 1980s in the United Kingdom, Hauck worked as an English as a Foreign Language teacher for a few years. She later moved to Italy for much of her 20s and started to explore the world while working as a self-employed translator, beginning in 1993.
Through that role, she met Darryl Hauck, her husband, while serving as his interpreter in 2000 when he was part of an American team building a power plant in Italy. Two years later, they married, and Hauck moved to Blacklick Township, Cambria County, continuing to work as a self-employed translator for European clients and developing her writing skills on the side.
In 2008, Hauck became involved with Pennwriters, a multi-genre writing organization that provides opportunities for writers to learn and share from one another. When Hauck joined the board of directors in 2015, she became an area representative for Pennwriters, establishing The Inkwell, a subsidiary of the organization that serves Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties.
According to Hauck, she sent out a call for the group's first meeting and only two people attended. Originally believing three people was not enough to form the group, Hauck said the members were persistent and continued to look for others to join them.
By their third meeting, the group had 14 members and "we've never looked back since," Hauck said.
Today, The Inkwell has 147 members and about 20 regular attendees at its monthly meetings, according to Jenn Diamond, the group's coordinator and area representative to the Pennwriters board of directors.
Diamond said she became The Inkwell's coordinator in May 2019, a time when Hauck was serving as Pennwriters' president. She said Hauck was encouraging of her aspirations to become a writer.
"She encourages writers of all levels to call themselves a writer. That was something I struggled with when I first started going to The Inkwell," Diamond said, adding Hauck is "a loyal friend who ... lifts everyone up around her."
Since Hauck speaks several other languages — Italian, French and Spanish — Diamond said she has asked Hauck to advise on certain phrases a character in her upcoming book will speak in Italian.
"I needed my character to say something in Italian, and she said I should check with her because there are cultural differences," Diamond said.
Hauck said one of the reasons why she encourages aspiring writers to call themselves a writer is because she didn't know whether she had what it took to become a writer when she started out. Many people gave her the guidance and encouragement needed to persevere, and she hopes to pass it forward to others, she said.
"It's incredibly hard to write, so you need a support system around you," Hauck said, noting The Inkwell's community is open and supportive of one another's ideas.
One example of that is when Inkwell member Ron Johnson suggested the idea of a book festival during an monthly meeting in 2016, which gave Hauck the idea of starting the Festival of Books in the Alleghenies.
The first festival in 2018 was in Bedford, the second was in Somerset, and it's been held in Ebensburg Borough ever since — except for 2020, when the festival was held virtually, Hauck said, noting it generated $4,500 last year and nearly $5,000 at this year's festival at the Veterans Park between North Center Street and West Crawford Street.
The money is fundraised to support literacy needs among the Dolly Parton Imagination Libraries in Bedford, Cambria and Somerset counties, Hauck said, adding the hope is to not only showcase local authors who have connections to the area, but to attract readers to the Laurel Highlands and the Allegheny region so they can explore what the area has to offer.
"It's the biggest of its kind in the whole area," she said. "We have so many authors who are worthy of being showcased and so many readers."
According to Danea Koss, Ebensburg's community development director, the festival "definitely brings people to the area," which is great for Ebensburg's downtown businesses and restaurants, she said.
"Anything we can do to increase foot traffic and get people into our downtown to see everything that we have to offer here (is great for Ebensburg)," Koss said, noting she hopes attendees return to the area for other events and future festivals. "We appreciate them for hosting it here every year."
Koss said she enjoys working with Hauck to ensure the festival is a successful event each year.
Hauck is "very organized" and "very detailed," Koss said.
"It's easy to say 'yes' to her," Koss said of Hauck. "She's so lovely and such a warm person with such a positive energy. It's kind of a win-win for me because I get to work with her and host an additional event here in town to bring people to Ebensburg."
In her own personal journey as a writer, Hauck started writing her first book, "From Ashes to Song" in 2008. The story is fictional but is inspired by true events, Hauck said, noting it took nearly 13 years of rewriting and editing before the book was published in 2021.
Deciding she wanted to be more hands-on with future projects, Hauck purchased a micropress and began to self-publish her own books, noting it was "harder" to market her books while working with a publisher.
"I like to make decisions and then run with them rather than asking somebody for permission," she said.
She never approached any of her books with the same writing process, Hauck said.
Her second book, "The Wrong Kind of Magic," is a fictionalized Christmas story in which the characters are based on her three grandchildren.
The children "unleash the wrong kind of magic" when they take a sneak peak at their Christmas stockings while their parents are sleeping, which makes their toys come to life, Hauck said.
That book has a sequel, "The Wrong Kind of Courage," which is her fourth published book.
Hauck's third book, "The Things We'll Never Have," won an award of excellence from the Historical Fiction Company and was a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award. "The Wrong Kind of Magic" was also nominated for the Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia's book of the year award.
Hauck's next book is a collection of short stories entitled, "When the Stars Were All I Had," which will be released Tuesday, Nov. 26.
Speaking about her latest project, Hauck said she "wanted to do something that brought together a lot of stories."
Some of the stories are inspired by life events and "those moments in life when everything changes," she said.
The title story, "When the Stars Were All I Had," has already been published in a different anthology,
according to Hauck, who — while sitting in the Ebensburg-Cambria Public Library — recalled the moment a member of her book club, which met at the library, told Hauck about a letter her great uncle had thrown from a train station while he was going off to war.
The letter is the foundation for the story, Hauck said.
"I didn't know too many details, so I made up the characters. But that's the scenario," Hauck said. "I was happy she shared that story and let me use it as inspiration."
Hauck's books are available for purchase on her website,
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.
The Hauck file
Name: Hilary Hauck
Age: 54
Family: Darryl Hauck, husband; Jess Vezzoli, daughter; Lacey Belmore and Kyle Hauck, stepchildren; Melody, Porter and Autumn Belmore, grandchildren.
Education: Graduated from Sydenham High School in London, England, Class of 1988; tested out of an undergraduate education and earned a professional teaching qualification from the City, University of London.
Employment: Worked as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in the United Kingdom for a few years before becoming a self-employed translator in 1993 in Italy. Hauck has remained self-employed ever since, working as a translator and a self-published fiction author.
Hobbies: Tennis, walking, traveling and reading.
Quote: "Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly." – Neil Gaiman, "The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections"
