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Finding Italy…and Paris
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Italy. I’ve never been to Paris. The closest I came to speaking French in another country was a visit to Quebec when I was in 7th grade. I began taking French classes that year—in 7th grade. Later, in high school, Mademoiselle Hammerstrom had our class read Les Misérables in French. In college, I took French classes as well. Last week, my husband and I started watching Stanley Tucci’s program Searching for Italy. My passport is updated and I’m ready to go. When it’s safe to travel again, I need to go to both of these countries. I make my father-in-law laugh…
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What Are You Missing Most Right Now?
Here’s the question: WHAT ARE YOU MISSING MOST RIGHT NOW? Most of us are probably missing the freedom we used to have to travel, being with those we love without social distancing, and seeing the world. Plus, as I am working on my syllabus for feature writing, I typically instruct and assign an article about travel writing. This morning I woke up realizing I may have to take this assignment out. How can I expect the students to travel and write about their local travel in these present circumstances? This semester is going to be unusual enough without now having to rethink assignments. I’m going to have to get creative.…
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Vlogging about the Writing Life—Connecting Inn Significant & Little Milestones
After I published Inn Significant in 2017, I seriously considered a sequel. People were writing to me and asking me what happens to the characters. I began constructing the sequel and dabbled with about 13 chapters until I stopped writing it altogether. After I put it away for a while and took a break, a lightbulb went off in my head: what if I wrote a second book with a character with a somewhat parallel life and had them meet in the new novel? It would be more of a series rather than a sequel, and that appealed to me much more. Typically, sequels aren’t very good. There are exceptions…
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Finding Inspiration
As someone who writes fiction as my side job, I seek inspiration, either from other people or from places. Additionally, as a writer who is about to publish my 4th novel, I use places almost as I use characters in my novel—they must have a personality and purpose. Setting is very important to me, and getting a handle on that place requires me to do some digging and exploring. Next month, I will launch my newest novel, LITTLE MILESTONES, set in St. Michaels, Maryland, a place I love visit when I need to get away from the rat race of life. It’s only a little over an hour away from…
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Twilight and Twinkles and Travel
* As I tell my students in the special topics in travel writing course I teach, travel happens as soon as you step outside your door. Day trips, afternoon trips, and evening trips can all be wonderful experiences, especially when you’re sharing the time with someone you love. It can also be great to go exploring by yourself. In our local travel writing class, students often pick Annapolis as their spot. I love to read about my hometown from their perspective, some of them only visiting Annapolis for their first or second time. As I’ve grown up in this area and have spent lots of time cavorting and entertaining in…
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Travel, Interrupted
Lesson learned in 2018: Perhaps avoid planning travel excursions during the holiday season when people are getting sick and germs are running rampant. Last week, the day after Christmas, for the second year in a row, we had planned a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, with two days in Williamsburg to follow at Christmas. We’ve been trying to do a little more travel and less material gifts with our kids now that they are older teenagers. And so, last year, the trip was put off because my son, as a then senior in high school, had a ton of homework and presentations to put together for both school and…
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Life Philosophies, Not Resolutions This Year
This year I decided to do something different. Instead of making New Year’s Resolutions that we forget two weeks into the year, I decided to adopt some life philosophies full of wisdom and put them into action the whole year long. I love quotes, sayings, and the ability that people have to say succinctly what I’m thinking, hence the use of so many quotes, some from well-known folks and some that were posted anonymously that I found searching for the right ones for me. What follows are the ones that speak to me the loudest. And what follows are the ones I plan on adopting in 2019. May all your…
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My Travel Writing Class and Their Work: Feeling Like a Proud Momma
* Wow. It’s hard to believe we have come to the end of another semester. My group of writers in our travel writing class published their stories today on our WordPress site called MORE THAN MARYLAND that I set up as a place to house of all of my All-Star Travelers who have taken the course at Stevenson University. As the students made some of their final presentations in class, a lot was discussed, such as what they learned from taking a travel writing course, which pieces from renowned travel writers were their favorites, how this course has helped them see travel differently, and what they will take with them…
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My Experience of Teaching a Travel Writing Course
I’ve been pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to teach a course called Special Topics in Travel Writing at Stevenson University, where I am a full-time professor. It’s one of my favorite courses to teach, and for years in another course I teach called Feature Writing, we cover travel writing as part of the curriculum. To be able to teach travel writing as a semester-long, intensive 400-level course is something I treasure. The students in my class are required to each pick a location relatively local to our region. Some explore cities or towns in Maryland, some in Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Washington, D.C. or any other destination that they…
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Take Me To Portwenn…Doc Martin’s Village
If you picked me up today and plucked me in the picturesque and intimate village of Portwenn, the fictional Cornish fishing town depicted in the British television series Doc Martin, I would be able to converse with the locals, know where to eat, visit Mrs. Tishell to purchase my vitamins, and, if I ever fell ill, be in the good hands of Doctor Martin Ellingham. I would wind my way up and down the streets and descend the hills to the waterfront area, replete with fishing boats, restaurants, and benches to catch a glimpse of the sunset. Admittedly, I was hesitant to begin this quirky series that takes several episodes…
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Travel Blog: Santa Barbara & Los Angeles
As we packed the car in the morning to make our way to Santa Barbara, we bought breakfast sandwiches from the Inn at Spanish Bay. It was my brilliant idea to take the sandwiches to go so that we could have some time in Santa Barbara, as it was our quickest stop overnight. The ride was four hours, and I wanted to at least see the town before we had to move on to Los Angeles the next morning. We picked a spot along the 17-mile drive and decided to eat our sandwiches at a picnic table overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Much to our surprise (and disappointment), a seagull swooped…
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They Say That Travel Changes You
They say that travel changes you. This is known to be true. For every time you take a step, No matter how many or few– The perspective that you used to have Is replaced with something new. —stephanie verni—
