Penn Township woman's novel weaves personal story into adult fiction - TribLIVE

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A Harrison City woman has written a book that weaves elements of her life’s experiences into a novel about a woman dealing with trauma from an assault who eventually plots a way to exact revenge on the perpetrator.

In “Other People’s Words,” Leslie Savisky has written a 300-page story that has some events similar to those in her own life, but, “it is indeed a work of fiction and the majority of events are simply made up … just to make it a good story.”

Savisky, 40, who grew up in Ruffs Dale and graduated from Yough Senior High School, has experienced panic attacks and general anxiety. Her main character, Shayne, suffers from the same. An apparent takeoff of Savisky’s middle name Shay, Shayne seeks the help of a therapist and medication to deal with her anxiety, caused in part by the assault and the knowledge the criminal is going to be released from jail. Along the way, she is involved in romantic relationships, both broken and budding.

Savisky wrote the book in the first person “because I felt that would be easier to describe the anxiety and fearfulness I was feeling.” She started writing the book as a therapeutic process, “but then realized that maybe something more could come from it.”

Even the book’s title has a meaning connected to her experiences.

Oftentimes people, including herself, Savisky said, describe a panic attack “as feeling detached from yourself or in a fog. As if you are looking at yourself from the outside, meaning someone else is doing the talking and motions for you. … But it does feel as if sometimes you aren’t even the one speaking.”

Savisky, an office manager for family therapists in Hempfield, writes from the experience of being a crime victim and suffering mental anguish because of it. In her case, not the character’s, she was victimized not once but twice.

Savisky recalled her family’s home in the rural community was burglarized when she was 11 by two adults who were later caught.

“I was terrified and could not sleep,” Savisky said. She said she struggled with the aftereffects of the home invasion for years, suffering panic attacks and developing an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

While living in a Hempfield apartment when she was at student at Seton Hill University, a neighbor burglarized her residence while she was home for Christmas. State police arrested the suspect, and he pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, theft and receiving stolen property.

“I had a really, really hard time with it,” and it caused more panic attacks, she said.

The case lingered in the courts until the man died in 2018.

Some five years after the burglary, she started writing the book. She took writing courses at Seton Hill in Greensburg, where she graduated with a degree in criminal justice and sociology.

Through starts and stops, the work took about 10 years to complete, said Savisky, the mother of Leah, 3. She credits her husband, Jeff, with assisting in the editing process.

“It was cathartic. It was my way of ‘verbalizing’ the anxiety and stress I was feeling,” Savisky said.

Like so many other things in the past year, the coronavirus pandemic and covid-related restrictions limited her ability to sell the self-published book. The book is available through Amazon and in area libraries.

Savisky already is working on her next book — one less personal — a thriller genre.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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