Author Q&A with Stephanie Verne
Author Q&A
1. When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
In high school, I doodled in one of my history classes that I wanted to be a writer. I was already writing poetry. I took a creative writing course with Mrs. Susek, and that was it. I knew I wanted to write a book at some point in my life. I went on to earn my first master’s degree in Professional Writing and an MFA in Creative Writing. Now, I’m about to publish my ninth book.
2. Do you have a favorite writing routine?
When I’m knee-deep in storytelling, I like to write every day. A big chunk of my novel writing is done in the summers, specifically because I was a full-time professor at the college level. So, summers offered me the time to be creative. Now that I have stepped back to part-time teaching, I can write more fluidly year-round. My routine is to get up, get dressed, get breakfast, and write. I’ll usually write until early afternoon, then I stop and resume the next day. When I’m editing a novel—and this takes me the most time to finesse, diligently going line by line to ensure both context and writing blips—I typically edit every day, so that I don’t lose the continuity of the story as I edit.
3. I loved Anna in Tuscany. What was the inspiration for the novelette?
Anna in Tuscany was initially meant to be a part of an anthology of love stories centered around Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, the anthology fell apart, and those of us who were writing for it were left with a short novella. We all decided to publish our stories independently, and to use them as a marketing tool. Because I had to write about Valentine’s Day, and because I’m not necessarily a romance writer, but more of a women’s fiction writer, I decided to set it in Italy and base it off a short story I had written on my blog. Valentine’s Day in Italy is specifically for lovers, as opposed to here in the United States where we send a Valentine to friends, family, and our loves. In Italy, it’s all about romance. Anyway, I set the story in Siena, Italy, one of my favorite places I have ever visited, and focused the story on an American woman who gets the dream job of writing travel articles in Italy for a year. The story is about what happens to her during that time, and even more specifically, about the people she meets: namely, her neighbor Matteo, who has a love story of his own to tell and a sweet grandson who is her age.
4. Do you have a favorite fictional character?
How can you not love Mr. Darcy? I mean, he’s such a great fictional character, and it’s easy to see why Elizabeth Bennet fell in love with him in Pride and Prejudice. He’s a brooding, sometimes snobby, ill-mannered rich man with a very big heart, good looks, and a whopping bank account. Jane Austen knew exactly what she was doing when she crafted Mr. Darcy. I always say that Michael Contelli, one of the main two characters in my book Beneath the Mimosa Tree, is my own (Italian-American) version of a Mr. Darcy.
5. Do you have another book in the works, and if so, can you tell us a little about it?
Yes, I do, and it should be published before summer! As a follow up to The Letters in the Books, a hopeful novel set in Annapolis, Maryland, about an empath who owns a bookstore and slips inspirational letters into the books of her customers who need a pick-me-up (which earned a bronze medal in Readers’ Favorite for Inspirational Fiction), I’m about to publish a novel of historical fiction that’s a little darker (this is hard for me, because I am an eternal optimist). The novel is called The Ones Closest to You, and it’s set in the years 1956-1957 in New York City, where our protagonist, Veronica DeMarco, is a writer at newspaper and a first-time novelist. She lives with her older sister, who has a handicap. As she writes a piece about famed mafia dame Rosa Manetti and hears about her harrowing and heartbreaking experiences, Veronica begins to uncover truths about her own past and the lies have been told to her throughout her life. But don’t worry, readers! I will not leave you with a sad or bitter ending. It’s just not in my nature.