Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

Annie Shares News plus bonus link to new article

| Filed under blindness blogging Writing Life

Annie Shares News Volume 3 Issue 1 January-February 2024

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Web: www.annchiappetta.com

Blog: www.thought-wheel.com

 

🥳  🌚  💝

I am behind on this newsletter and should have sent it out sooner. The last month was full of obligations and family activities.  We rang in the new year  together from the comfort of the new sleep number bed in our house. We are settling in well, the animals love the space and quiet positive energy.

 

Jerry and I registered to vote, got new  State identification, met with our respective medical care providers,  and checked off many of the post-move tasks each day. Trips to the home store and hardware store depleted our finances a bit but it needed to be done. Apartment living doesn’t require a leaf blower, ice melt, garbage pails for weekly pickups, outdoor lighting, video door bell and back door camera, updated alarm system, a ladder, rake, shovel, HVAC filters, five rooms of furniture and so much more.

 

Our daughter visited with her fiancé and her cat at the end of January. It was rewarding for us to offer a guest room. We appreciated the open and welcoming living space this home  offers.  We all got along wonderfully.

 

📚

Get ready for my next contemporary fiction novel, Imperfections, scheduled for a March 2024 release.

Listen to an interview with  DJs Sam Jasmine, Charlene Dahl  and me on KFAI radio’s Disability and Progress: https://kfai.org/player/?episode_id=52048

 

More about the book:

For Lainie and Efren affirming their love  for one another comes with consequences and his name is Shane.  Will his stalker mentality erode their love or will Lainie and Effren be strong enough together and  be free of Shane’s cruelty for good?

 

 

My poem “What the Heart Lives” placed third place in the Oprelle spring 2024 anthology.  I am hoping to take part in readings and book fairs in 2024 and I am hoping to complete a nonfiction book about the human and service animal bond by next year.

 

Visit this bonus link to read my newest blog article for the American Printing House and Career Connect series:

http://tinyurl.com/2ct3ybjt 

Until next month,

Peace

🐲  🌚

 

 

 

The Word River

| Filed under assistive technology blindness writing

 

Being an author, I am often asked about the writing process. Where do I write? What is the time of day I am the most creative? What equipment or software do I use? How do I get my ideas? The answers are straightforward. I write in my office and prefer the daytime from mid-morning to early evening. I type all my work on a pc with Windows and assistive technology   software for the blind. I edit my work with this technology, listening to   documents with text-to-speech access.    Ideas come to me via observation, examination and experience. They  form through dreams, news, conversations I hear, observing the sensory  information and what surrounds me. Curiosity  leads me through it all.

 

Once an idea reveals itself, I make a mental note to   track it. . If it persists, if I fall asleep mulling it over and it is there the next morning, I know it is a subject or idea I must  relax into for it to develop.  When I say develop I mean a piece of something  destined for words taking hold and growing. Setting an idea free means being conscious of it while it travels through  my gray matter, collecting relevance and resonance  until we meet again.

 

The most difficult question regarding the writing life is describing the creativity involved in the writing process. There isn’t a short answer, it’s more like paddling a canoe along the sluggish tidal pools and terrifying rapids of a miles-long river .  An idea is the starting point. What if the dream  I woke up remembering  could be written into a short story? What if the influx and pattern of birds and their hierarchy at the feeders could be described in a poem? What if the  blog articles I’ve already written on a particular topic could  be organized into a handbook of some kind?

 

Once I know the idea is forming, I write a brief note to myself and  step back, absorb my effort into another writing project. This is essential for the idea to continue developing.

 

For example, I got an idea for an urban fantasy short story about garden gnomes  playing a major role in helping rescue prisoners of human trafficking in China with dimensional magic. I sketched out the timeline, location, characters, and other details. I researched elements in the story following a rough outline. I am a hybrid of a planner and a Pantzer, creating enough of a timeline of scenes and the story arc to follow but loose enough for it to  flex as the story expands.

 

Next is the typing, word play, placement of scenes,  theme of the story, plot, and deleting, replacing and revising.

 

When the story stalls, because inevitably it will stall as part of the evolution of the story, I go onto another project. I do not believe in writer’s block. I believe the story will write itself as long as I have faith it will do so. If the story is meant to be written and I am purposeful about writing it, it will get done.

 

Sometimes the ideas lay dormant for years, others seem to call to me in a more creative urgency. Some stories , after a few hundred pages sit in my manuscript folder on Drop Box because I wrote myself into a corner.  I think about them all the time, consider pulling one up and begin the revision process.  I am not the only author to lament unfinished work laying in the manuscript closet.    Maybe a few will eventually be revived and become something for the masses, but I do not question. This is how my first two novels were completed. When the piece beckons, I’ll take up my creative paddles,  push off into the word river and ride the current, trusting the words will come.

 

 

 

 

Annie Shares News V 2 Issue 12 🧧🎁💖

| Filed under blindness Poem writing

Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 12 December 2023

anniesharesnews@groups.io

Subscribe: anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io

Web: www.annchiappetta.com

Blog: www.thought-wheel.com

 

🎅  🤶  🌲  💖

 

Christmas and holiday greetings, readers. In these trying times of war and strife, peace and joy are elusive and sometimes difficult to express. It is for these reasons I am writing this newsletter. My purpose, as insignificant as it may be, keeps me grounded and it is my hope it helps someone else to keep the hope going.

 

I am pleased to report my second novel, Imperfections, is being sent to the independent book publishing company, DLD Books  for formatting. The release is planned for spring 2024.  It’s been a long and rewarding path for the writing of this story. It is less biographical and  I hope different enough for readers to rave about. I’ll be telling you all more about it in the January 2024 newsletter.

 

Also in my Sharingdom, Smashwords/D2D is launching an End-of-year eBook sale from December 15 to January 1, 2024. The sale will include genres from children’s books to horror titles.    Upwelling: Poems, my first poetry collection is free and my other titles are discounted. eBooks make great gifts! 🎁🧧

Save this promo link so you can shop as soon as December 15 rolls up:

https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos

 

Of course, by now, being a subscriber to this newsletter, you are aware I am a person with a disability. I support other writers with disabilities as well as promoting my own writing and books. One such writer, Patty L. Fletcher, is the person who  had a role in assisting me to find my own path to independent publishing. I am excited to include the information for readers to check out her new book.

The Blended Lives Chronicles: Sides of the Order.

 

If you prefer an anthology, check out this one, hot off the indie press, Behind Our Eyes 3 A literary Sunburst. It is written and edited by writers with disabilities and the proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to funding the Behind Our Eyes organizational literary programs , most  offered  free-of-charge. Sales will also assist in the costs of publishing  their biannual literary magazine, Magnets and Ladders.

 

 

My gift to you is a recording of the poem, Little Tree by e.e. Cummings. Below is the text.

[little tree]

  1. E. Cummings

 

“little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see            i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid

look           the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold.
every finger shall have its ring
and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you’re quite dressed
you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they’ll stare!
oh but you’ll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we’ll dance and sing
“Noel Noel”

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/miiljk17ugsupwqud79m9/little-tree-by-Annie-c.mp3?rlkey=1c9rsomli57qm8s5h05pudfao&dl=0

 

 

 

 

Annie Shares News V. 2Issue 10

| Filed under blindness Poem Relationships

Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 10 October 2023

anniesharesnews@groups.io  Subscribe anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io

www.annchiappetta.com  Blog: www.thought-wheel.com

🎃  🍂  🍃

Autumnal greetings!

The most important  announcement is we are now living in Pennsylvania. Western PA cozied up beside Pittsburgh. We found a lovely one level house.  It came equipped with solar panels, three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, laundry, den, picture windows, garage and a beautiful, fenced yard. Not too much to maintain and plenty of living space.

 

I can’t wait to celebrate the holidays here and welcome  visitors who will be able to stay in the guest room.

 

In writing news,  Hope For the Tarnished is being narrated and it is halfway done. My second novel, Imperfections, is scheduled for a spring 2024 release.

 

I am looking forward to winter routines like drinking hot tea, slurping soup and cooking stew in our crock pot. And now I am also a Steelers fan. 😉

 

Here’s to a blessed month. Until next time.

 

The move has inspired  me to write a few poems.  Here’s one I wrote the day we moved from the apartment in New York.

Moving Day

By Ann Chiappetta

An empty room

Where once  life’s evidence  —

the energy and the sound  Saturated

Now Sparseness  joins

echoes. Memory echoes

touch echoes  visual echoes

 

Present yet empty.

 

Medium tan home bottom lined in matching brick. A truck is parked in the drive. A small lawn and peddle walkway in front and flag mounted above garage.  Halloween decorations  and a bench are to the left of the front door.

 

 

The Guide Dog Book Club 💖 🦮

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs writing

Greetings from the Guide Dog Book Club Team,

 

We hope your fall is off to a great start and full of plans for fun times with your dogs, family, and friends. A big woof and wag to the cooler temperatures!

 

Jumping off from the awesome discussion with Sharon Peters on “Trusting Calvin,” we are gearing up for another book club read and discussion. The next meeting of the club is scheduled for November. As always, all are welcome to join. More details to follow on exact date and time.

 

Our next book selection is…(drum roll, please, and hold the appaws):

 

“Forward Together: An Inside Look at Guide Dog Training” by Christie Bane

 

The book is available on BARD and other electronic book services. Get a copy today and start reading for another informative guide dog book club discussion.

 

Here’s a recent amazon review:

 

“This was such an amazing book. The explanations were well thought out, but not overly descriptive. The author was honest and realistic. The writing was down to earth and a pleasure to read. I would seriously urge anyone who has anything to do with the guide dog community to read this. It will increase knowledge and understanding for puppy raisers, handlers, GDMI applicants, other staff, and even the general public. I really really enjoyed this read!”

 

You can also review a synopsis here: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53548729

 

To help keep us in touch and encourage conversations in the virtual world, we’ve created a new email list serve just for the Guide Dog Book Club community. That’s right, we have a list serve dedicated to our book discussions. Please check it out.

 

To subscribe to the list, send a blank email to guidedogbookclub+subscribe@groups.io. Or request an invitation to be sent to your inbox by emailing guidedogbookclub@gmail.com.

 

We can’t wait to share more information with you, so get those people-paws tapping on your computer or smart phone and sign up! We would also appreciate it if you could share this announcement with other guide dog handlers, puppy raisers, GDMIs, guide dog program staff and family and friends who support the partnership between human and guide dog.

 

Please let us know if you have any questions. Until we chat again, happy reading and wagging,

 

Guiding Eyes Graduate Council

gebgradcouncil@gmail.com

 

 

News Flash 🦮 big Yellow Dog Retires

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs pets and people writing

 

Bailey, my second Guiding Eyes dog guide, has hung up the harness. He is now the senior adopted dog of house Chiappetta and for him, at least the change is good. It’s a push and pull of relief and regret for the humans, though. But hey, he’s almost eleven, has bounced back from lung cancer and enjoys napping in the sun in his new back yard.

 

Yellow lab Bailey one year old standing at the shor in Maine

Yellow lab bailey posed with blue skies and clouds in the background.

We met in 2015 and during the second week of class I returned home with a serious case of RSV. A month later, when we reunited, he flew into my lap and nibbled my cheek as if to say, “Finally, we’re together again!”

 

Our first year was exciting and focused. His energy and love of working became infectious. He approached it all with curiosity and confidence. This is his best trait. The most difficult one to control is his scavenging and I hope his successor is not as intense in this category.

 

He is a great swimmer, doesn’t play fetch, drools profusely waiting for his meals and tolerates our cats with quiet dignity. He loves learning new tricks and learned to roll over, spin and  balance a treat on his nose.

 

Amusing quirks:

  • When he barks, which isn’t often, he scares himself.
  • When exiting a vehicle in a new location he needs a moment to scent the air before moving on.
  • Loves to sleep under my desk
  • Expresses impatience by sighing like a person
  • Walks on the tips of his toes and spreads out his toes when excited.
  • Air licks if he can’t get to your face.

 

The most significant saves while working were clearing us from a dangling wire hanging from the ceiling in an office building and a utility wire laying on a sidewalk. Avoiding e-scooters more than once while crossing a street. Plus numerous traffic checks on the block leading to my former office building .

Annie with pink mask and Bailey close up

Ann and Bailey on bench: Both looking straight on

 

Doggone Good

By Ann                                                                             Chiappetta

 

Good dog

Guide dog

Love what you do

Cool dog

Goofy boy

So much respect for you

 

Yellow dog

Poochie-poo

with a big brown nose

 

Steps out,

Nostrils flared

Catching

Air-scented code.

 

Guide dog

Good dog

There’s so much we do

In you

There is acceptance

loyalty

My moods don’t have you fooled

 

Big dog

Bigger heart

Grateful to be a pair

Stepping out

I want to shout

I trust in your care.

 

Good Dog

Guide dog

My heart is full

Love you

To the moon and back.

Glad to be matched with you.

 

 

As with the retirement of my first dog, Verona, I am posting my call for a new canine partner. My needs have changed over the past ten years yet the drive to be independent has become stronger as I age. I am cognizant the next dog will most likely be the last guide dog for me. Here’s to the next potential partnership and adventure.

 

Situation Wanted

A sixty-something white female who just happens to be blind is seeking a highly motivated working dog. If you are a Labrador retriever and are willing to work with me, please read the job requirements. Only serious applicants need apply.

Males preferred but will consider a female if all other character and personality traits are met.

  1. Height: over 20inches; weight: 75 lbs. Color: no preference.
  2. I am a moderate walker, use a support cane and travel in all modes of transportation. This includes paratransit vans and public buses. I also fly at least once a year and ride passenger trains. I stay in hotels and motels. I visit cities and live in the suburbs. I shop and attend social gatherings and meetings.
  3. My new partner must be experienced in offering a kind and gentle nose to other furry critters including cats and guinea pigs and other dogs as well as children. You will be filling the paws of my current partner, who is retired. He has been an amazing worker, friend, and part of our family for over ten years.

If you have read these requirements and feel that you have the right combination of breed, personality, manners, strength, adaptability, affection, drive, and possess intelligent disobedience skills, and wish to work with a human who will trust and love you the best she can, please send your contact information to Ann Chiappetta, Care of: Guiding Eyes for the Blind 611 Granite springs Road, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Yello lab Bailey age 10 laying on his side in the grass in our new back yard enjoying his retirement.

 

 

 

Celebrating National Dog Day 🦮

| Filed under blindness blogging Guide dogs pets and people

For National Dog Day 2023

 

Dog Two

By Ann Chiappetta

 

He is  a sweet yellow fellow

Toasted darker

On ears and tail tip

Gives a nibble and a lick

Golden eyes Better than cash

He comes with a snow nose And personality to match

He’s tall and silly

Works, wags, and licks

So far no one’s gotten ticked

When he sneaks a kiss.

 

Guiding me around

Alert and looking  for sights and scents

On the bus and on the street

Freedom with four feet.

 

Dedicated to  Guiding Eyes Bailey

Yellow lab Bailey lick's Annie's face. She is laughing.Annie and yellow lab Bailey licking her face

 

 

 

Annie Shares News V. 2 I. 8 August 2023 📖

| Filed under blindness blogging Guide dogs

Annie Shares News volume 2 Issue 8 August 2023

Subscribe anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io

Web — www.annchiappetta.com

Blog — www.thought-wheel.com

Our time in New York is at an end, we’re moving onto a less urban location in the foothills of Western Pennsylvania.    A modest one level home with a fenced yard for the dogs and plenty of sunny windows for the cats. I’ll be writing in a different studio, meeting new people and collecting new experiences. What could be better? Shh, don’t tell my husband I’ll be traveling a bit more once we are settled. 😉

My guide dog, Bailey, is retiring once we reside in PA and I know it’s the right time. Next year I’ll most likely meet my new guide dog and train at home.

 

Earlier in the month, I was invited  to interview author Leonard tuchyner by good friend and author, Peter Altschul,   who cohosts the In Perspective podcast  with Bob Branco.  Leonard’s new book, Moon Rising: Stories and Poems  is whimsical and expressive, exploring life’s vicissitudes in a unique perspective.

Imperfections, my second novel, has been slated to be released in late spring or early summer of 2024. The audio for my first novel, Hope For the Tarnished is underway. Below is a poem I wrote during  our most recent visit to Pennsylvania. Enjoy it and may August bless you.

 

Doubletree by Hilton

or

Four dinky pillows for the bed

By  Ann Chiappetta

 

I thought the suite would be opulent

The King  bed

A sultan’s  necessity  for sleep

 

An Enviable, blissful transom

 

Whisk Weary  bones   beneath duvet and anticipate the soft

Pillowed  plumpness  cradling my head

My cranium  flattens cotton puff pastries  instead

WTF I say and inspect the offered spread.

I discover Dollar store purchases within

A  pricy three-night stay

 

shall we be complacent?

elect to ignite our  inner Karen  and

shout of the injustice of dinky pillows —

it insults  our guesthood

 

In the prone position

 

these little nothings  make no difference

 

Another thing about these pillows is their identity

Are they feather and down or

microfiber  polypill or some

hybrid of all of the above

I can’t figure out which one or  which combination

They’re like a generic of generic of generic

I’ve taken to putting a sofa cushion behind me instead

I am not Karen and will not stay there again.

Post a thumbs down on YELP while

reclining on a

Too hard king-sized bed

In a too large corner suite

With too many little pillows for sleep.

 

 

 

Annie Shares News June 2023 🍿🎬

| Filed under blindness blogging writing

Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 6 June 2023

anniesharesnews@groups.io

www.annchiappetta.com

 

Making Meaningful Connections Through Writing   ✍️

 

The month of May skipped by with her basket filled with springtime blessings. I hope you were able to appreciate some of them. 💐

 

Bailey and I attended ten disability awareness presentations  for grades K and first graders in May. He has recovered from the removal of the tumor in his lung and is back to being the goofy, treat begging dog of my heart.  He celebrated his tenth birthday in April, working and playing with eight other Guiding Eyes guide dogs during a three-day seminar for the organization’s graduate council. Going to the facility and campus is like visiting our Almer Mata. It is, after all, just like a college for dogs and is our second home.

April was National Poetry Month (NPM) and I typed a poem a day, many of them  made it to the poems folder instead of the recycle bin, I am proud to say.  If you read this and would like a document including the keepers from NPM, email me anniecms64@gmail.com and ask for the file.

 

Back in April, I was a guest for the APH Career Connect interview series with Lori Scharff and Amy Lynn Smith. Check it out on the APH blog:

https://aphcareerconnect.org/blog/careerconnect-blog/finding-joy-and-career-fulfillment-in-self-expression/

Listen to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrYRPRgoDyA

 

 

Here is an article where myself and other blindness advocates are mentioned in relation to listening habits and terrestrial radio:

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/programming-and-sales/radio-and-the-blind-an-evolving-relationship

 

In other writing and book related news, I finished the  first draft of my second novel, Imperfections. I am now seeking beta readers. If you would like to be a beta reader and read and respond to  questions after reading the draft copy, email me anniecms64@gmail.com and drop in “beta reader” in the subject line. The book is 250 pages.

This is a story of destiny and obsession and  the  determination of love.

 

If you want to listen to independent authors discuss their books, visit www.behindoureyes.org and check out the book launch presentations. You can listen to a recording or read a transcript.

 

Sharing this poem is my way to herald in the warm weather. Enjoy. Until next time,

Random Thoughts from September to the End of December

By Ann Chiappetta

 

  1. Shoes slip-on damp leaves, an olfactory  mockery

Reminiscent of  fungi and distinct smell prods thoughts about

What  to cook, who to think about or not to think of because

Not everyone  skips along with the holiday song or marvels

At the foliage  or bakes ten dozen cookies or  decorates the weird, pimpled  squash gourds. It’s better To  mull over the ugliness of the  flesh hollowed vegetables then wonder how many less cards will come in the mail this year.

 

  1. . It’s not that I don’t like the essence of  Christmas, it dwells  in the intimate Place  only energy and intent reside, the location of which only I know and where both darkness and light are partners. I am not sure anyone else I know describes it like that but it is how I  do it.   God might know the place, keeping a respectable distance and maybe only  peeking  into the receptacle during  birth and death.

 

  1. It’s like that now, a time of resonance, a phase, time for the coldest air competing  with  the hottest air Pumping from the baseboard heating, pets snuggled beside each other for warmth. Snoozing late into the morning beside  my husband. Time for thoughts of others, catching up on social media.  The picture window in the living room apartment tapped by Nor’easter sleet beckons. It is  undecipherable Morse code sent by Brigid.
  2. Once the baby Jesus is placed in the cradle by millions of hands and millions of voices sing the chorus in a thousand tongues it’s time to

Let go. I’m going to keep the groovy gourd, eat leftovers and wait for the sleeping seeds protected  for months by damp fungus  and Brigid’s vast blanket   to burst. I cannot  read Nature’s Morse Code but My  nose can seek the  olfactory transition and my steps shall discover the burgeoning shoots of spring with a welcoming toe

Annie and yellow lab Bailey licking her face