Smorgasbord New Book Spotlight -#YA #Contemporary Imperfections by Ann Chiappetta
Annie’s new novel promoted
| Filed under blogging Fiction novel writing
A publishing Success! 📕
| Filed under Poem writing Writing Life
I am sharing the acceptance letter with you.
If anyone reading this would like me to send the poem via email, please let me know: anniecms64@gmail.com I cannot share it publicly until after it is published in the anthology.
I’ve been working hard improving my craft and style. In 2023 I submitted my work to ten publications and was accepted to three.
Dear Ann,
It is Oprelle Publication’s great honor to congratulate you on being chosen as the
Third Place Winner in the
2023 “Coming Home” Poetry Contest
This contest was uniquely challenging in that the competition drew awarded and published writers as well as complete novices …where so many times, we find diamonds! Needless to say, the Coming Home competition always draws some tough contenders. Our judges really enjoyed your poem, Where the Heart Lives.
Your lines like,
“ Presence
Human touch
Holding hands before
Slipping off to sleep“
will not soon be forgotten. We really enjoyed your poem’s gentle journey in imagery and thought.
Your writing will gain excellent exposure because your poem and name will be featured in the upcoming “Coming Home” Anthology. The book will be in a 5.5 by 8.5 layout. We are looking forward to a really beautiful paperback later this year.
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 🧧🎁💖
Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 12 December 2023
Subscribe: anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
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]
- 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”
A Be My Eye Moment
| Filed under writing
The following is an auto-generated description of a photo provided by Be My Eye, an AI app being offered through another blindness assistance app called Be My Eyes. The best and most exciting part of this app and the AI skill it offers is independence. A smart phone user can now take a picture, then ask Be My Eye to describe it. It’s mad cool to do this. I read a blog post that states over three million photos have been described with this app.
Have you, the non-blind reading this, ever given thought to just how many questions we, the disabled, must ask our family and friends? Reading labels, finding a dropped object, coordinating colors and clothing, etc., etc. “What does that say?” I ask this of my husband quite a lot each and every day. It’s nice to have someone around to help. But when he isn’t here or I am alone or with other blind folks, this app has the potential to do more than describe a photo and I cannot wait to be part of its future development.
Currently there are video conferencing apps, like Be My Eyes and AIRA, that connect a blind person with a sighted operator via the phone’s camera who can assist visually. There is an app called Seeing AI, the skills include OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for reading text aloud with a smart phone’s speech output. The app will describe faces, colors, currency and street signs/landscapes and more skills are on the way, I am sure; the app includes a scanner to read product labels. Imagine an app doing both and adding more skills and possibly being voice-activated. I won’t go all Sci-Fi on you but one day this app might one day become a little electronic dot one could mount on an eye patch or on the rim of your eyeglasses or maybe even a contact lens. Until then, friends, let’s have fun with this cool app, Be My Eye.
The picture shows a happy moment in a backyard. A woman with light skin and grey hair is sitting on a black metal chair. She is wearing a beige t-shirt with a circular design on it and grey shorts. She has a big smile on her face and is looking at the camera. She is holding two dogs. One dog is brown with black stripes and has a sturdy build, while the other dog is a cream-colored Labrador. They both seem very content and are sitting close to the woman.
In the background, there is a house with a brick lower half and beige siding on the upper half. There is a window and a sliding glass door visible. There is also a small black table with a red cup, a white plate, and an orange ball on it. The ground is a concrete patio with some fallen leaves, and there is a patch of green grass to the left. The atmosphere seems very homely and joyful.
A Virtual Housewarming 🏡
| Filed under writing
That’s right, it’s Bingo night with Pampered Chef and Cindy G. –
The hostess with the Mostest!!!
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. eastern via zoom.
Here is the link to my party catalog if you cannot attend the zoom bingo. It will stay open until November 8th:
https://www.pamperedchef.com/party/annchiappetta1101
Many of my family and friends know Jerry and I moved to western Pennsylvania six weeks ago. We left New York behind along with old and outdated belongings. Yep, we ditched the cruddy bits and pieces of our past, along with kitchen items we nursed well beyond their best performance.
The most creative and sensible way I know to gather the village and ask for support is a doing a Pampered Chef party.
Inviting you and your friends to a Pampered Chef zoom bingo party is fun and gives you a chance to find out about these great products that enhance your life . Who doesn’t want to learn more about easier ways to cook and prep food ? Attending this party will be fun and full of great products. Plus, you might win bingo. If you do buy a product, your purchase will help me welcome some great products into my new home.
Here is the Zoom link, feel free to pass it to your contacts. In fact, please pay it forward, the more sales I receive, the better I will be able to apply my inner chef. 😊 If you want to book a party, Cindy will help you out.
PF products are the best quality and as a blind chef, I find them safe and easy to use. The products I use most are the garlic slicer, the mini chopper and The best utensil is the lasagna server.
My email is anniecms64@gmail.com if you have questions or comments.
Ann Chiappetta is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9146362393
Meeting ID: 914 636 2393
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k8JOS7ZY
Train Trip
Last week I boarded the train on a trip from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to New Rochelle, New York. The ride, about eight hours in total, lacked the typical stressors of airplane travel. I’ve always liked trains and after this longer trip, I discovered the rails do something I never noticed before. They sing.
During a handful of long stretches, the familiar clickety-clack we all associate with a moving train faded and a resonating hum emitted. I found it hypnotizing; since I am not a musician I don’t know if the notes were in a major or minor key or which key. It started with a low note and increased until the note reached a soprano and ended. The audible phenomenon lasted only a short distance and varied. Think of a finger circling the lip of a wine glass on a grander scale.
Rail Song
By Ann Chiappetta
Rails and wheels marry
Sharing the miles
Conversations carry
Conductor sashays past
In the distance the horn blast
Rebounds reaches the last car.
Pastoral corridor lulls
The song is heard
A message
It conveys
The paring of rail and wheel
The joy of invention.
Disembarking upon arrival
from west to east .
The urge to thank the thrumming metal beast
For performing it’s rail song
Twitches fingers
Stays with me.
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
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 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 .
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.
- Height: over 20inches; weight: 75 lbs. Color: no preference.
- 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.
- 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.
What We’ve Been Doing
| Filed under writing
Jerry and I are native New Yorkers. Over the years we both lived in other States but both found our way back to NY. Jerry came home after the military and I returned after living in the San Fransisco bay area in California. We met, married and raised the kids. Now we are both retired and moved one final time, to Western Pennsylvania. The house we purchased is perfect for us, larger than the apartment but not overly so.
Right now we are sleeping on air beds waiting for the movers to deliver our household packed into 150 boxes, among other furniture like a new bed, dining room table and chairs, etc. It is quieter, green, and the taxes are low.
I will be posting new home owner pics and posts. I will try not to geek out on you all, this house is cute and full of sun and good energy 😊
There hasn’t been much time for writing. I’ve got a bunch of ideas rolling around and a few poems are ready to flow. Once I can type on a table instead of propping up my keyboard on an open kitchen drawer and placing my laptop above it on the kitchen counter, I’ll write more. Until then, folks, wish us luck and enjoy yourselves, whatever it is you love doing.
