Steph's Scribe

The Website of Author & Professor Stephanie Parrillo Verni

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

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  • The Loss of George

    July 10, 2020 /

    * This week, I learned much too late of the passing of my favorite professor and one of the best people I knew, George Friedman. He passed away in late February. Every once in a while someone comes along and makes an impression on your life. That person, for me, came in the form of Dr. George Friedman, professor of English at Towson University. George, as I came to call him, was the singular inspiration for my first novel, Beneath the Mimosa Tree, which began as a short story in George’s class—Writing Creative Short Fiction—during my first master’s degree. When he returned a short story I wrote, and verbally told…

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    Books. Book Talks. Bookshelves.

    January 19, 2020

    Life Philosophies, Not Resolutions This Year

    December 31, 2018

    Autumn is Always a Good Time to Fall into a Story

    November 9, 2015
  • The Move to Online Learning and Its Benefits

    March 22, 2020 /

    A few months ago, no one could have predicted the serious state we would be in as the coronavirus affects the world. I looked back at my camera roll this morning, and it’s filled with photos of local travel, time with friends and family, writing and promoting my books, and all the love I feel when I am on Stevenson’s campus. Now, as we are all quarantining ourselves to help flatten the curve, it looks as if this will be the new normal for some time. At Stevenson University, we took action quickly. We convened, came up with a plan to finish out the semester, and have put that plan…

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    Friday Fiction – The Beginning of a Love Story

    November 6, 2015

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

    January 27, 2020

    Kissing My 40s Goodbye

    August 16, 2015
  • Meeting Mitch Albom Was A Dream Come True For This Indie Author

    October 11, 2018 /

    My Bucket List of Writers I Would Like To Meet (in no particular order) Elizabeth Gilbert (heard her talk; did not meet) Jeannette Walls (heard her talk; did meet) Mitch Albom (heard him talk; did meet) Charles Dickens (impossible; dead) Jane Austen (impossible; dead) Rosamunde Pilcher (elderly, no longer writing or traveling) Steve Martin (still working on it) Andrew McCarthy (actor now Editor-at-Large and writer for National Geographic Traveler; bumped into him in NYC, but didn’t talk to because I was too scared to). *** This is a partial list of writers I would like to meet. Some I have met; some I’m still working on, and others may be added…

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    Meeting People at Baltimore Book Festival

    September 28, 2015

    Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin or Do Any of THESE Things

    March 20, 2016

    Prettiness & Priorities

    January 6, 2016
  • The Real People Who Have Inspired My Leading Men

    May 7, 2018 /

    As I did a few weeks ago, I thought I’d continue this series which was inspired by a fellow writer’s blog whereby he wrote a post about people who have inspired his characters along the way. I loved reading his insights and what informed his writing, so I’m going to continue doing so with people who have inspired some of my own characters in my novels. Again, I’ll pick three, one from each book. MICHAEL CONTELLI from BENEATH THE MIMOSA TREE When I was little and my grandmother and grandfather (Nanny and Poppy) lived in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, on Myrtle Avenue, I would regularly visit. We didn’t move from…

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    FROCKTOBER Fashion- Week 3 Recap

    October 22, 2018

    What I Didn’t Say About Life as an Author

    January 22, 2020

    Fashion Resolutions for 2016

    January 1, 2016
  • Why I Write, Part II

    March 8, 2013 /

    “The rain was beating down hard, hitting the awnings over the kitchen windows. The leaves of our old magnolia tree were drenched and wilting. I wished I could afford a place of my own. My parents had been kind enough to let me stay with them until I save enough money to buy something, but I was beginning to feel anxious. But this I knew for sure—that my house would be just as cozy as my parents, and in the backyard there would be a sprawling mimosa tree like the one in Michael Contelli’s backyard.” ~ From my short story entitled, Contelli’s Mimosa. 1992. This is how the short story…

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  • Finding George: One Teacher’s Profound Effect on Me

    October 19, 2012 /

    This story begins back in 1992, as I was finishing up my master’s in professional writing at Towson University. I decided to take Writing Short Fiction as my final class—an elective of sorts—in the Professional Writing program. I had selected the public relations track, so this class was taken for fun. I had taken Creative Writing in high school, and had loved it, so I decided to give it a try. Enter Dr. George Friedman, the professor. His teaching style was one that, to this day, some twenty years later, I try to emulate in my own classroom. There we were, all of us students writing stories, and George would…

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

    September 1, 2015

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I finally picked up my mail from campus and got the award I received in August for the work the Fellows did to help the university navigate the pandemic. As one of five Faculty Fellows for the newly established Center for Teaching and Learning, we created programming workshops to help faculty adjust to teaching during these challenging times.
Today, I'm trying to break the Monday blues by wearing an outfit inspired by the fashion on @emilyinparis. The character Camille wore a cute one-piece plaid jumper with a sheer-sleeved shirt (see my stories), and I tried to mimic that outfit in my own way.
Before you write something, do you have to get mentally prepared and inspired? I know I do. Getting in that head space and physical space to be ready to write can be hard sometimes.
My daughter and I were lucky enough to spend an afternoon in Monterey, CA. We had lunch at a restaurant that was on the Pacific Ocean that jutted out over the water. It was a cloudy day, but stunning, and the meal was delicious.
Well, we made it to Friday🥳With so much uncertainty still floating all around us, sometimes you just gotta toss your head back and laugh. My wish for you today is that you have people around you who can make you belly-laugh. You know the kind of laughing I mean, right? The kind where you snort or cry or can’t catch your breath because it’s so damn funny????
Venice. 💕 #tbt
Annapolis has a lot of cool neighborhoods, and there are many on the water...including homes on rivers, creeks, and the Chesapeake Bay. I took this shot of Sherwood Forest from the boat in the fall. It was a beautiful day, and my camera was ready to capture the colors that were all around us.
Tired of being here, here in the cold,
FINALLY! Woo-hoo! An edited and complete manuscript is DONE and ready for beta readers!
Yesterday, I was able to get to the 100-page mark of editing my new novel (in stories). There were a couple of points where I got a little choked up reading the story—not at all expecting myself to react that way, as I wrote the words. Again, as I said last week, that’s what can happen when you put a little distance between yourself and the work.
Any other tea lovers out there? I’ve been watching a bunch of British movies lately, and it reminded me of all the high teas we enjoyed in London. You can probably guess from my posts that I’m going a bit stir crazy and I’m totally dreaming of our next trip. Until then, we’ll have to make our tea at home and watch shows/movies set around the world. Some recent favorites include: Emily in Paris, Cider with Rosie, Love and Friendship, Photograph, Island at War, Finding Joy, Grantchester, The Last Post, and Call the Midwife. #tbt
The truth about empty nest syndrome:

Recent Blog Posts

  • 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
  • Reading, Writing, and an Empath for November November 1, 2020

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

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