Stephanie Verni

Author of Contemporary, Women's, and Historical Fiction

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    • From Humbug to Humble: The Transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge – Personalized & Signed
    • Beneath the Mimosa Tree: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • Baseball Girl: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • Inn Significant: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • Little Milestones: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry – Personalized & Signed
  • About Me
  • About My Novels
  • Press Kit
  • Podcasts 2022
  • Books I’ve Enjoyed
  • Shop My Products
    • Book Pages Wreath
    • Heart Pages Wreath
    • Small Book Pages Wreath
    • From Humbug to Humble: The Transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge – Personalized & Signed
    • Beneath the Mimosa Tree: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • Baseball Girl: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • Inn Significant: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • Little Milestones: A Novel – Personalized & Signed
    • The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry – Personalized & Signed

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  • Things I Learned From…

    January 20, 2022 /

    It’s hard to believe my daughter is going into her second semester of her sophomore year of college at Towson University. When I was exactly her age at this point in my college career at Towson, my life changed. I was, like her, a second semester sophomore who had changed majors from Business Administration to Mass Communication. I heard other students in my new major talking about their cool internships—at television stations, event venues, and Baltimore’s newspaper. Hearing them talk about these awesome experiences caused me to get off my duff and get serious. I mailed off a letter to the Baltimore Orioles and within a couple of weeks, I…

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    Why I Will NEVER Break Up With Coffee

    January 16, 2019

    The Madness of Writing a Novel (in my own words)

    July 8, 2020

    The Slump: A Short Story in the Absence of Baseball for Fiction Friday

    March 27, 2020
  • Goodbyes. Gripping Pain. And a Giveaway.

    August 28, 2018 /

    *** Hi there! I feel as if I’ve been away from my blog for a while, and I actually have, although it’s been entirely unintentional. Today, I wanted to explain why, especially as I wanted to write about the past week, which has been somewhat momentous for my family. My son started his freshman year at a university, and it’s not the one where I teach. The preparation, though, was all that you’d expect. The day before he left, we were frantically getting everything together, making sure he had all he needed. We washed clothes and ran to Target. We created a checklist and began ticking things off. We organized…

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    Coming Up With A Book Title

    January 6, 2019

    For the Love of Postcards (and other written correspondence)

    January 14, 2019

    FROCKTOBER Week 2 for Ovarian Cancer

    October 18, 2018
  • Coping With Your First Child Heading Off To College: A Mother’s Lament

    July 27, 2018 /

    *** This concept of a child going away to study at a university shouldn’t really phase me at all, right? I’m a college professor. I have been for years now. I’m the one smiling at other parents during Open Houses as I say all the right things to them about how their student will love college; how they will grow and flourish; and how they will have the time of their lives. This should be easy for me as I have a son who will start his freshman year at a university in Pennsylvania in a few weeks. I’ve been in this profession since 1993, long enough to know that…

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    Sentimentality Run Amok

    July 28, 2021

    Deciding to Be A Hallmark Movie in Annapolis, Not Just Watch One

    December 9, 2018

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

    December 30, 2019
  • A Parent’s Thoughts on the Eve of High School Graduation & The Ellicott City Flood

    May 28, 2018 /

    Graduation Tomorrow All the standard thoughts apply today. “Time Flies.” “How did this happen?” “How is this even possible that time has marched by so swiftly?” Let me start with advice to young parents: treasure every moment with your children, because I was once like you thinking high school graduation was light years away. Now, it’s tomorrow. I’m so proud of Matt. He’s truly found his way in high school. From being the co-captain of the golf team (County Champs!), to his work as the VP of DECA with his best buddy, Luke, (and a trip to compete in California out of it), to his academic achievements in the Business, Innovation…

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

    February 3, 2020

    Summer Reading Roundup Thus Far

    July 21, 2021

    Happy World Book Day

    April 23, 2020
  • Tell Your College Students to Pull Out the Old Pen and Paper, Studies Find

    January 21, 2018 /

    You may want to tell your college students to put their laptops away during class lectures. It appears the “old way” of taking handwritten notes in class trumps typing notes into your laptop. If you’d like to know why, a study by researchers Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that taking notes by hand wins out for several reasons. Taking notes by hand offers you the opportunity to write key points as you listen, which engages active listening in students. Students are more selective and write down main ideas, and they highlight and circle things that seem to be…

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    Happy World Book Day

    April 23, 2020

    Travel Writing: From Teaching It to Doing It

    June 21, 2021

    A Few Updates On This Rainy Saturday

    September 12, 2015
  • Monday Melancholy

    July 10, 2017 /

    *** I’m typically not one to dwell in malaise and melancholy, but this morning, I’m feeling a little bit of it. It’s July 10, and vacation is over for our family. We had a great time, enjoyed spectacular weather, got to visit Charleston then spend time on the beach in Hilton Head. We ate at fantastic restaurants, the boys played golf, the girls rode bikes and relaxed on the beach, we hit a jazz club, played putt putt, and ate way too much ice cream. I really shouldn’t be complaining. But my son turned 17 yesterday, and now I feel like all I’m doing is counting down the days until…

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    Fashion Resolutions for 2016

    January 1, 2016

    Life Philosophies, Not Resolutions This Year

    December 31, 2018

    Unlost – Sharing a Short Story from The Postcard

    December 18, 2019
  • 8 Things Teachers Enjoy During Summer Break

    May 19, 2017 /

    *** Yesterday, students at Stevenson University celebrated their graduation at our ceremonies in Maryland. As a professor in the department of Business Communication, I was thrilled to see our graduates walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. They worked hard the last four years, and it paid off. As for my colleagues and me, that means we are done teaching until August (unless some are teaching a summer course). While we certainly have preparations to make for the Fall 2017 semester (and I will be teaching a newly created course as well that requires a lot of work), we are free to do some things we want to do…

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    5 Sure-Fire Ways To Boost Creativity

    March 16, 2016

    We Need a Little Christmas, Especially This Year

    December 8, 2021

    Baseball = Love : Reflections on Ripken, Gehrig, and 2131; Baseball Girl Receives an Award; and Thoughts on Moments in Time

    September 1, 2015
  • Holding On and Letting Go of Your Children

    April 26, 2017 /

    The second a child comes into your life, you know at some point, you will have to let go. They are babies, and they need you as infants, but not too long after, they find their own two feet can take them places, and they start walking, exploring and discovering. Even as toddlers, they are beginning their journey away from you. As much as you want to hold on, the truth is, you are already beginning to let go. Think about it. Your toddler turns three or four, and he is ready for pre-school. You let him go. He has to find his way, make friends, create things on his…

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    My Newest Writing Project

    September 7, 2018

    7 Takeaways from Blogging on the 8th Anniversary of Steph’s Scribe

    April 10, 2019

    Recipe of the Week: The 3-Ingredient Ice Cream Cake

    June 17, 2019
  • Procrastination Doesn’t Pay

    September 22, 2016 /

    * As a college educator, I can certainly tell you with certainty that procrastination doesn’t pay. I see it every day—sometimes getting started on the task is actually more difficult for some than executing the task itself. The truth is, people think procrastination is about managing time. However, it’s much more complex than that. People underestimate how much time a certain task will take. Another fallacy is that people think procrastination is just about putting off a task. It’s not. It’s also about being late to meetings, events, interviews, or parties; not paying your bills on time; or even something that can be good for you, like taking your paycheck to the bank. These are…

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    The Loss of George

    July 10, 2020

    A Little Teaser for My Upcoming Novel: Little Milestones

    June 7, 2019

    Midnight Madness in Annapolis

    December 11, 2015
  • What Failure Taught Me, With a Nod To Author Markus Zusak

    May 11, 2016 /

    As part of the final in Magazine Writing, I asked my students to reflect on certain aspects of the course, including the readings, their writing, and the lessons learned, as well as their ability to construct a well-written response to a writing prompt. This year’s students were asked to reflect on writer Markus Zusak’s wonderful Ted Talk for Question #1 (Zusak is the author of the acclaimed novel, The Book Thief). I asked them to consider their own failure(s) or something that they are afraid to do that could possibly lead to failure. I got a lot of interesting answers, but most of them discussed how failure has led to…

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    5 Questions Writers Are Frequently Asked

    February 17, 2022

    5 Sure-Fire Ways To Boost Creativity

    March 16, 2016

    Today’s Suggestion: Keep Dancing

    October 19, 2015
  • Why We Should Stop Using the Phrase “In the Real World”

    September 7, 2015 /

    While there are many trite (and incorrectly structured) phrases that people use constantly, i.e. phrases like “It is what it is” and “I could care less,” whereby the first just sounds silly and the latter actually means you care, there is another phrase that I’d like to see stripped from our sentence constructs. The phrase is this: In the real world… In the real world, your resume should be polished. In the real world, you should secure a job you enjoy getting up for in the morning. In the real world, you’ll be paying more taxes. I hear people say this constantly. It is most commonly said to those in…

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    Getting My Books in Order

    May 12, 2020

    Opening The Door to Love or Closing the Door to Love

    February 12, 2016

    The Colors of Autumn

    October 27, 2015
  • The Biggest Mistake Some College Students Make

    January 25, 2015 /

    One the eve of the beginning of the spring semester, I thought I’d share something that I’ve seen as the downfall of a lot of college students with regard to their academics. It’s not something earth-shattering, but it is something that is real. The good news is it’s something that can be rectified if taken seriously, and it can make their lives infinitely more manageable. The biggest mistake some college students make is that they do not budget their time properly. There are various reasons for the lack of time management. They are living on their own for the first time and are tasting a sense of freedom they’ve never…

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