Steph's Scribe

The Website of Author & Professor Stephanie Parrillo Verni

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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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    Two Exercises for Teaching Description and Using The Five Senses in Writing

    May 22, 2020 /

    One of the biggest losses I’m feeling from completing the semester at home is the inability to execute my favorite “Five Senses” activity in the classroom with my writing students. It’s one of my favorite days in the classroom, where I play music and ask students to sit and write based on prompts pertaining to their five senses. THE FIRST EXERCISE The exercise requires students to reach into a brown paper bag that I bring into the room and “touch” something that I’ve placed inside it. In the past, I’ve put pinecones, Silly Putty, or sand in it. After they touch it, they have to write what comes to mind…

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    Show recommendations to binge-watch

    January 7, 2021

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

    February 24, 2020

    7 Tips for Working From Home During This Unusual Time

    March 20, 2020
  • Podcast & Prompt | #nanowrimo | Day 8

    November 8, 2017 /

    Steph’s Scribe Podcast 5 | Best Books For Writers My apologies in advance. I never realized how often I say the word fabulous until I listened to this PODCAST back. I’ll work on that… But seriously, all these books are F A B U L O U S, which is why I am recommending them to writers. WRITING PROMPT For Fiction Write a scene in dialogue only. Do not use any other description or narrative techniques. Just write dialogue. For Non-fiction Write the dialogue of a conversation you overheard and tried to piece together. Do your best to stay true to the actual words that were spoken by your characters.

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    A Few Updates On This Rainy Saturday

    September 12, 2015

    FROCKTOBER Fashions Meet Literacy Support for Kids

    October 13, 2020
    sea beach water ocean

    Fictography For Old Time’s Sake and as a Teaching Tool: Back Home

    March 12, 2019
  • I Can’t Make Him Love Me, A Short-Short

    June 12, 2012 /

    When I was taking courses for my MFA, I had to write weekly exercises that went up for critique. I came across this one that I hadn’t shared. It’s a really short one. We had to “get in and get out” quickly so readers could “feel and understand the situation” in under 400 words. Here’s how it went. . . I Can’t Make Him Love Me There, by the lake, she was watching the two figures, bobbing in the water, clothes strewn on the shore where the sand meets the grass, nude, hair soaking wet, arms grasped tightly around each other, lost in each other’s eyes and lips. Her heart…

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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
  • Half Smiles: A Piece of Short Fiction for Friday

    September 2, 2011 /

    Short fiction for this gloomy Friday… Half Smiles Mona kissed her husband and three-year-old daughter Marla goodbye that gloomy Monday morning as the rain christened her new Honda Accord. She was usually a morning person, excited to put her two feet on the carpet every morning as she got out of bed. Today, however, her hands were shaking and her heart was pounding. She couldn’t touch her breakfast. “Don’t you want your toast?” her husband asked her as she buttoned her raincoat and took one last look at herself in the hallway mirror. She studied her face and thought that something looked unfamiliar. “I can’t eat a thing,” she said,…

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  • Fiction Friday: A Knight, A Princess, and a Dragon make up The Village of Happinyss

    August 26, 2011 /

    When my son was little, I used to tell him stories that revolved around a character I made up called Myron the Knight. I have the original story written down and perhaps, in the future, may do something with it. Nevertheless, for this week’s Fiction Friday, I left behind my usual tragic romantic or happy romantic writing and used this character of Myron in a different type of piece. The challenge from Brian Kiteley’s book was to do the following: “…for the first part, tinge the world in dark hues and show us a narrative style that reflects frustration, sadness, and alienation.” Then later, we were to switch and “use…

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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
  • Fiction Friday: Three Perspectives

    August 5, 2011 /

    From the Brian Kiteley book, The 3 A.M. Ephiphany, (a great text that offers exercises to keep writers fresh), I attempted to write the same story in two voices and then use a detached narrator. This exercise was a little tricky to stick to the story, but yet offer two takes on it. Detached narrator is more difficult once you get inside your characters’ thoughts and emotions. Two Voices First Voice: I sit tapping my fingers at the bar waiting for her to arrive. My Cosmo’s half gone, and I’m about to order a second. She’s late, as usual. She had called me from her car to say she was…

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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
  • In Honor of the Royal Wedding

    April 29, 2011 /

    Today, a post went around on Facebook that said the following: In honor of the Royal Wedding on Friday, use your royal name. Start with either Lord or Lady. Your first name is one of your grandparents’ names. Your surname is the name of your first pet, double-barreled with the name of the street on which you grew up. Post yours here. Then cut/paste into your status. Four of my Facebook friends and I did it, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the names. They were as follows: Lord Clarence Henry of Devonshire (Scott) Lady Helen Lizzie of Old York (Currie) Lady Catherine Rebecca of Howard (Christin) Lady Gwendolyn…

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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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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:
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. - Oliver Wendell Holmes
How It Started vs. How It’s Going—Hello, friends. 🤗 Well, I said I was going to finish editing my completed manuscript this weekend, and I did. Feeling relieved and happy to move on to the next phase.😏
Just a reminder that a handwritten love note or a homemade Valentine is a very special way to remind someone how you feel about them. 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Be creative✍🏻🌈🌟
Among my many teaching duties on the docket for today, I also plan on editing more of my novel. That said, I thought I’d share a tip with writers. Some of the pages I am editing today I haven’t read since late fall. I put a lot of distance between the work and myself, and I can’t even begin to tell you how beneficial that is. To read it months later with new eyes helps writers correct things that need fixing. It also allows you to attack the work more objectively. When we get too close to our masterpieces, sometimes we can’t see what’s not clicking right in front of our face. It has also allowed me to appreciate the story thus far. And while it still needs some finessing, I feel certain I’m on the right track with this story and these characters. I’m quite fond of them.

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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