A Writer’s Muse: Annapolis

Hello, Readers!

Happy Holidays! I hope you are all doing well, despite our circumstances.

I’m writing to you today, on Friday, at the end of the semester. Yesterday, all my grades were entered, and the semester has officially ended. While it wasn’t a perfect semester, I believe the students and I got through most of the important material we needed to cover, and I’m excited for the spring semester.

Which leaves us with the space between now and when the semester begins in January for me to work on my novel.

I love that space when I get to write—to really write. It’s exciting to dive in and begin to comb through what’s there, what I like, what will go, and what is yet to come.

In order to get myself psyched up to continue writing this story that’s set in Annapolis, my hometown, once again, I figured it was important to get inspired. Some people utilize people as muses when they write. I seem to use a place. Annapolis is my muse. I have a pretty wild/vivid imagination as it is, so being able to imagine my characters in this city as the story unfolds is important to me. Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, I pride myself on writing fiction that feels as realistic as possible. As a reader, I enjoy the most realistic fiction I can dive into for pleasure.

So imagine, if you will, four people who are pretty down in the dumps. Each one has been through something tough—a breakup, two divorces, a problem with drinking too much and disappointing your family, and we have a cast of four characters who must overcome the depths of these doldrums when the story begins. Then, enter an empath who has some baggage of her own, but whose sole goal in life is to help others, and we have the makings of a story with a lot of possibilities.

That’s the story I’m writing.

Set in Annapolis.

And these are the photos I took last Sunday as I walked the streets and attempted to “hear” what my characters wanted me to know.

Writing requires you to be a good listener, no matter who the muse is.

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Other Books by Stephanie Verni
Beneath the Mimosa Tree (2012); Baseball Girl (2015); Inn Significant (2017); The Postcard (2018); Little Milestones (2019)—All available on amazon.com and bn.com