Stephanie Verni

Author of Contemporary Fiction

  • About Me
  • PRESS KIT
  • Podcasts from Steph’s Scribe 2020
  • Books I’ve Enjoyed
  • Books I’ve Written
  • About Me
  • PRESS KIT
  • Podcasts from Steph’s Scribe 2020
  • Books I’ve Enjoyed
  • Books I’ve Written

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  • My 5th Novel Has a Name (at least for now)

    November 15, 2020 /

    Today, it’s official. I have a book title. I have a copyrighted ISBN number. I have a “mood” for the cover. And while I am going to seek traditional publishing this time around and solicit an agent to represent me, I still need to go through this process to help move in the right direction and keep me motivated should I venture down the self-publishing road again. The characters in this novel are not only in my head, but in my soul. Each one is a part of me, and a part of you, and a part of everyone we have met along the way. With five main characters, a…

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    Fiction Friday: An Update

    January 25, 2019

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    July 29, 2020

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  • Capturing Moments

    November 12, 2020 /

    *** Capturing Moments Capturing moments, instead of things—A cloudless sky, a heron’s wingsThe things we loveHave come to passDimming sunshineDarkness, alas—Winter’s moodsBefall us hereWhen days are shortAnd nights are clearThe blackest nightWe’ll soon have metBut days like theseWe’ll not forget.We’ll not forgetThe way it feltWhen bleakness leftAnd hearts did melt. *** In August, my husband totally surprised me on my birthday and bought me a boat. Our friends were selling their boat and upgrading to a new one, so he bought the one they were selling. In the COVID-19 world, I can’t even begin to tell you how much that gift has meant to me. Since August, we have used…

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    The Best Soup | A Family Favorite

    October 20, 2015

    Podcast 14: Finding and Flushing Out Story Ideas for Novel Writers

    April 14, 2020

    Midnight Madness in Annapolis

    December 11, 2015
  • Frocktober begins tomorrow & I’ve picked my charity

    September 30, 2020 /

    FROCKTOBER BEGINS TOMORROW… And I’m announcing the charity I have chosen for the next 31 days. What is FROCKTOBER? It’s a 31-day fashion challenge, whereby you post an outfit a day on Instagram, that calls attention to a charity of choice! As an educator, author, blogger, and reader, I am so happy to support and call attention to another woman of style’s organization that fosters reading: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Dolly’s nonprofit organization is a book gifting program that delivers free books to children from birth to age 5 in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Republic of Ireland. The organization was inspired by Dolly’s father’s inability to…

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    Dear Fellow Writers

    March 6, 2020

    Friday Fodder | It’s Been a Good Week

    September 4, 2015

    Writing About Baseball: The Slump from The Postcard & Other Short Stories

    December 11, 2018
  • Some Updates on Some things

    September 8, 2020 /

    As I’ve been a little out of touch, I thought I’d share a few updates, and things that have been happening during quarantine of late, starting with… The Unnamed Boat The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement. On my birthday in mid-August, my husband surprised me by purchasing a boat. Our friends upgraded to a new vessel, and he bought their boat. As I had been out on their boat several times, it was a lovely, and completely out-of-the-blue surprise. Since then, we’ve been spending as much time on the water as we can before the season ends. Growing up, my dad had boats. When I was…

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    Give the Gift of Books

    December 15, 2020

    2019 – I Bid You Adieu With a Swift Kick of The Boot

    December 30, 2019

    Go Ahead—Call Me Corny

    December 18, 2015
  • Little Milestones Receives 5-Star Review from Readers’ Favorite

    July 17, 2020 /

    *** One of the things I won’t ever do on my blog is to pretend that being an independent author is at all glamorous. It’s not. It takes tireless work, both on the creating/writing/editing side, as well as on the marketing/public relations/promotions side. It can be an exhausting adventure—and it is most definitely an adventure every single time—but you have to know this going into the endeavor. And never expect too much. That said, you can imagine my surprise this morning, when I was already feeling down about where my next piece of writing is headed, to see the 5-star review for Little Milestones, a novel a published in October…

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    What Are You Missing Most Right Now?

    July 29, 2020

    Running Out of Time? You’re Not Alone.

    November 3, 2015

    Podcast 4 – Addressing Some Questions From Last Week’s Book Talk

    January 27, 2020
  • Sundays Are for Stories

    July 12, 2020 /

    ✨FROM MY PORCH OFFICE✨ This is what Sunday morning writing looks like here at the Verni house. As I’m now officially over 33,000 words of building this story—probably my most complicated story to create to date—I am feeling the hum of the characters, the movement of the story, the connection of my 5 characters, and the way this story will end up. It’s a great feeling to know you’re on track with the story you want to tell—that the characters are yearning for you to tell. . I write relationship-driven fiction. It comes from a place of understanding the nuances of people and what potentially drives them (or does not…

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    Hat Obsessed

    October 26, 2015

    Back To School Sunday

    August 23, 2015

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    December 30, 2019
  • The Madness of Writing a Novel (in my own words)

    July 8, 2020 /

    ✨HOW DOES IT FEEL WHEN YOU’RE IN THE ZONE?✨ I’ve hit my stride, finally. As we are approaching mid-July, I’ve made some pretty good progress with reading and writing. I’m about to hit 26,000 words on my work in progress, and my goal this week is to make it to at least 30,000 words. As well, I’ve finished one book about bookstores and I’m on to another. My pile of these books is pretty tall, so I have a lot to work toward. I’m also finishing the last week of the master’s course I’m teaching, so it’s been a little busy. What do I mean when I ask how it…

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    Christmas Supper Club

    December 20, 2015

    12 Tips for Being a Successful College Student

    January 10, 2020

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  • A Recent Article in Shore Monthly About My Writing (yippee!)

    June 29, 2020 /

      *** I’m not sure why I’m slow in sharing this bit of publicity I received from Shore Monthly. As my two latest novels are set in Oxford, MD (Inn Significant) and St. Michaels, MD (Little Milestones) respectively, Shore Monthly ran an interview about my writing. The best part of the story is, a very talented former student of mine from Stevenson University, Ms. Dabrianna Green, wrote the piece. I was utterly flabbergasted when she told me she wanted to cover my newest novel, and I enjoyed a Saturday morning sitting in her office sharing stories of writing. She, too, is a writer, and is working on her first collection…

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    Dealing with Disappointment

    March 1, 2020

    Podcast 7 – Writing a Character Sketch—it’s pretty helpful

    February 24, 2020

    Podcast 11 : Don’t Bring Negative To My Door

    March 23, 2020
  • Booking Remote Book Club Visits

    June 16, 2020 /

    *** As many of us are still in the “working remotely” phase of this pandemic, I’ve decided to promote virtual book club visits to help promote reading and our sanity! I’m currently booked for a book club in July and have a lot of openings for book clubs who might want to read my books and discuss them. As an author, one of my favorite things to do is to meet new people through book club discussions. As I have five books on the market, I’m happy to visit your book club virtually. I’m getting good at this, especially since the back half of the semester I just taught was…

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    New: Monday Podcasts on Steph’s Scribe to Kick Off Our Writing for 2020

    January 6, 2020

    Podcast 5 – Clearing Your Head, Work Space, and Thinking About POV

    February 3, 2020

    An Easter Contemplation About Grandparents

    April 11, 2020
  • Getting My Books in Order

    May 12, 2020 /

    This whole lockdown has been pretty strange. Not only are we getting sick of being in the house, we’re in front of our computer screens nonstop, with walking breaks stretched throughout the day to keep us sane. I thank goodness each day for the park/farm up the street and the odd little jobs we’ve been doing, in addition to watching Game of Thrones from the beginning all the way through with our kids (they had not seen my favorite all-time show before) as diversions from work. It’s truly been a whirlwind. One of the projects I decided to undertake was rearranging my bookshelves in both my office and piano room.…

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    Writing About Women + Friendship in Little Milestones

    June 9, 2019

    Fifty Shades of…Shades

    January 20, 2016

    Classically Beautiful

    January 12, 2016
  • Happy World Book Day

    April 23, 2020 /

    *** What’s one of the first stories you remember reading as a child? The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash and Cinderella were two of mine. Now I prefer stories about fire-breathing dragons that torch fighting pits with Daenerys and love stories that make me feel so deeply for the characters, I want them to be together, such as with Francesca and Robert in The Bridges of Madison County. Books allow us to travel to foreign lands, melt the Wicked Witch, or be visited by three ghosts before Christmas morning..It’s World Book Day today. Pledge to yourself that you’ll create a summer reading list and conquer it like…

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    The Merriest Season and a Week of Joy

    December 24, 2019

    Podcast 5 – Clearing Your Head, Work Space, and Thinking About POV

    February 3, 2020

    Podcast 17: The MFA Journey as a Writer (and a teacher of writing)

    May 27, 2020
  • An Easter Contemplation About Grandparents

    April 11, 2020 /

    * Two days ago, my aunt posted the above photo of my grandparents on Facebook, wishing my grandmother (we called her Nanny) a happy birthday in Heaven. She’s been gone from us for quite some time, but seeing the photo, while we simultaneously fight this coronavirus pandemic and Easter is upon us, made me contemplate my pretty blessed life thus far. While no life is perfect, and my own family’s past year and half has been beyond weird and strange and sad and disruptive, I look back with joy on all that we have been blessed with in our lives. I was very fortunate to have all of my grandparents…

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Stephanie Parrillo Verni, Author

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I remember telling my travel writing students to “travel like a travel writer” to get the best story. Getting to do a little bit of that for a local magazine, and as well, I do it when writing my novels. There’s nothing better than exploring and taking it all in.
Ok...who out there still loves to hold the printed pages in your hands? Bookstores are the best—especially this one in Boonsboro, Maryland, owned by famed author Nora Roberts and her husband (swipe to see all the photos). 😍 We loved perusing the store, checking out Boonsboro, and spending some quality time together this past weekend.
Yesterday was #nationalhusbandday, so I have to thank my husband for coming with me to author Nora Roberts’ lovely inn called @innboonsboro !
Happy Friday, everyone! Make it a good one!
Bittersweet today...presented my last workshop as a Faculty Fellow as my two-year fellowship ends in May. It has been an honor to be a part of the cohort that kicked off this new initiative as part of the Center for Teaching and Learning on campus. From the second I saw the call to apply, I was invigorated and wanted to be a part of it.
Throwing it back to Naples, Florida, and a quick getaway when our kids were younger.
When you see the words “market house” and get a glimpse of how charming it is, you immediately identify with this place. On a beautiful, sunny day, it calls for you to sit, grab a coffee and a pastry, and watch the boats go by across the street.
If Mondays are the pits, then this hat is, to use a 1940s term, a peach. 🍑 I’m not sure about my other friends out there in your forties, fifties, and sixties +, but I’ve already done some damage to my skin over the years, and I’d like to preserve my skin as I age.
Teachers look forward to summer break, too, right teachers????
If you haven’t been to #Annapolis in a while, it’s worth the trip. Merchants and restaurants have gone to great lengths to make the experience a good one for you. From decorating their outside windows, to setting up outside seating in the streets for diners, the city awaits your arrival.
Fashion Friday: Yesterday’s weather was spectacular. Wore my new Orioles orange dress in honor of opening day at Camden Yards. Despite not going to the game, I still support!
This is Eva’s house. Her partner/boyfriend of 10 years has left her for his high school sweetheart—a woman he reconnected with after many years on FB. Eva feels her life has been a fraud, and after throwing a bottle across the room and packing up all his crap to give to the Salvation Army, she has to find a way to pick up the pieces.

Recent Blog Posts

  • Well, it’s been a while… April 20, 2021
  • Show recommendations to binge-watch January 7, 2021
  • Here’s Hoping for a Brighter 2021 December 31, 2020
  • Ending 2020 with a Manuscript and Some Thoughts December 30, 2020
  • A Writer’s Muse: Annapolis December 18, 2020
  • Give the Gift of Books December 15, 2020
  • One of My Favorite Scenes November 22, 2020
  • My 5th Novel Has a Name (at least for now) November 15, 2020
  • Capturing Moments November 12, 2020
  • The 6 a.m Pledge for My Health November 4, 2020

Steph’s Scribe is the blog of Stephanie Parrillo Verni, professor, author and blogger. Copyright 2021.

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