Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

Feline Revenge

| Filed under writing

black and white cat. This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.Feline Revenge

 

This is about inter-species communication. No it’s not about extra-terrestrials, it’s about cats and dogs.

 

Jerry and I were in bed listening to an audio book, Bailey was on the dog bed and May was laying between us on our bed. In saunters Papa, our tuxedo cat. He and I have this routine of him coming onto my side of the bed and onto my lap, then we proceed with the human-feline interactions,  the feline sucklying  and kneading the blanket and me petting him until he relaxes and rests.  But this night May and Pappa are competing for the blanket space and my lap. So Pappa, not happy with May being so close to “his” place, begins to rub on her; he dives in, his face and upper body rubbing her face and shoulders.  He continues until she is twitching in annoyance and begins to scratch her face and neck. By this time Jerry and I are  trying not to laugh . The cat is giving May the feline version of the canine nose boop.  We want to cheer Pappa on, knowing he is doing his best to conquer the space on the human bed and in five minutes, May gets off the bed and Pappa has what he wants. Smart kitty cat. It makes up for all the times when May annoys him while he’s cat-loafing on the coffee table trying to catnap. 🐱🐱

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

National Poetry Month Such a Sweet Nectar 🍑

| Filed under Poem writing

Nectar —  an acrostic

By Ann Chiappetta

 

 

Nothing else as quenching

Elicits flavorful tongue-bursts

Carnival of colors

Tangy pulp jewels,  vine-ripened orbs

Ambrosia’s best friend

Rainbow juice.

 

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

Annie on Dream Young Arts & Media 🎥🎤

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs writing

Want to check out what I’ve been up to ? Thanks to Dream Young Arts and Media co-founders Nicky and Otis, I shared parts of my life, struggles and successes before and after blindness.

After watching it on YouTube, why not like and share it?

https://youtu.be/ftQOT-6Yc-I

 

More about DYAM:

Dream Young Arts & Media (DYAM) focuses on helping people with disabilities to develop social and fundamental skills. DYAM will support our member’s goals and help them co-exist in their communities through the use of educational and social skills, music, and media creation with our Podcast (@dreamyoungmedia on YouTube).

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Photo of Ann at Harbor Island Park, Mamaroneck, NY West Basin. She is with her first guide dog, Verona and is smiling.

Photo of Ann at Harbor Island Park, Mamaroneck, NY West Basin. She is with her guide dog, Verona and is smiling.

From Across the Pond

| Filed under Fiction Relationships

A new book Hope For the Tarnished promotion.

It’s great when  internationally-known  and respected friends help out independent authors like me. Sally is one of the best.

Check out Sally’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine,  it’s fun, informational and full of inspiration.

 

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative. Book cover photo of a couple in sihouetted looking out upon a beutiful beach sunset over the water. The book title is printed across the top and author’s name is printed across the bottom.

 

Reactions like this are Real

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs Relationships

We walked into the holiday party. I was already anticipating a good time with friends after the imposed bouts of social isolation as a result of Covid.

 

We were greeted and directed to our table by a pleasant staff person. Bailey, my guide dog, was excited to see our good friends and greeted one of them. I pulled out my chair, settled my coat and bag and asked Bailey to lay down under the table when the two women to my right became hysterical upon noticing him.

“I can’t stay here, the dog will eat all my food,” and “That dog is going to bite me,” and “I can’t relax with that dog so close,”.

My heart sunk and I put on the blank face.  The face that tries to hide the disappointment and frustration brought on by ignorance and fear of my guide dog by others.

 

My friend tells them the dog won’t do that, it’s trained. Still they go on and I feel the anxiety build. Will I have to leave? I do my best to ignore them, but one person continued to go on about “that dog, will bite me,” “I can’t stay here with that dog,”, etc.

I grope for my water glass and wait it out.

I don’t want to be here, don’t want to eat, I feel like these people just stole it all from me.  I almost got up to leave, was close to tears but I refused to let them see me cry. I had a right to be there, too, and because I am blind, my guide dog did, too.

 

a person sitting on the other side of our table spoke to the person who was now almost yelling about “that dog,” — and quieted them.   It took me some time to refocus on my meal and my friends. My guide dog curled up for a nap under the table.

The rest of the afternoon was fun thanks to a stranger who knew how to handle another stranger’s fear of dogs.

 

The thing is even though I stayed quiet, I was angry. Being subjected to reactions like this, while infrequent, still happen and still affect me in a powerful way. I felt confused and hurt by their reactions.    I hope they will remember how “that woman with the dog,” kept her cool and shared a meal. I hope they will one day understand how much it cost me personally to shelf the feelings and get past their outburst.

Annie with pink mask and Bailey close up

Ann and Bailey on bench: Both looking straight on

 

 

New Fiction Book Released

| Filed under blindness Fiction Relationships

Hope for the Tarnished is here!

📖   🌻   📕

About the book

 

Young Abbie struggles to cope with the traumatic experiences in her life. Ripped from everything familiar after her parents’ divorce, she is dropped into an unknown neighborhood and is emotionally abandoned by her mentally unstable mother. Abbie is caught up in the cruel nature   of one sister’s addictions and often rescued by her other sister’s sense of familial responsibility and love.

The story takes place in the 1970s, revealing family secrets   and the shift of cultural norms as Abbie leaves her doubts in the past, embracing a bright future.

 

“Well-known in disabled writers’ circles, Chiappetta is that rare novelist who is able to incorporate a character’s disability into her story without making it the focus of her narrative.  She lets her audience realize that a disability, like hair color or a personality quirk, is merely one aspect of a human being, not the person’s defining feature.”

  • Sally Rosenthal, author of Peonies in Winter

 

 

Purchase it now in your choice of hard or soft cover and Kindle eBook

© 2022 Ann Chiappetta

Description of book cover: silhouette of two people standing on a beach watching a brilliant and colorful sunset over the water. Title of book is printed at the top.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

Year in Review

| Filed under blindness nonfiction writing Writing Life

Annie Shares News Issue 2.2 February 2022

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

Everything Annie: www.annchiappetta.com

Here’s to palindromes, 2.2.2022! There are ten palindrome dates during 2022 and in 2021 there were twenty-two.  Hm. 💭

 

I wasn’t going to do it, wasn’t going to give into the year-in-review, fan the rolodex of personal and literary accomplishments and ego-boosting feats and phantasms claiming it is imperative for others to read it and feign being impressed. What can I say? I gave in like a cheap pair of dollar store flip-flops.

 

Here’s a year in review. I’ll attempt to complete it in quarters and leave the unmentionables unmentioned.

  1. Two of my books on Audible.com.
  2. Narrating part of the book, Words of Life: Poems and Essays. Gads of winks to Lilly and Graydon for encouraging me to even do it.
  3. Completing my YA novel, Hope for the Tarnished and getting it to my editor, Leonore.
  4. Submitting to more journals and article writing opportunities in paying markets to benefit my craft and visibility in the writing community.
  5. Collaborating and developing two podcasts.
  6. Being a guest on two international podcasts to promote my books.
  7. Posting a monthly newsletter and making it a routine.
  8. Stepping back from stressful volunteer responsibilities and healing my overstressed mind, body and spirit.
  9. Joining a private weekly poetry writing and critique group that I adore.
  10. Embracing my talents in both the physical, creative, and metaphysical places and forms.
  11. Accepting the aging process and working with what I’ve been given.

I am sure I could go on to number over twenty items but won’t belabor it, folks. I am good and find the place where I am now one of wonder, learning, and balanced with stubbornness necessary to push through the challenges.

Peace and health for you, friends. I value the connections and the free exchange of support and care we’ve shared over the past year and hope we continue the connections into the future.

Dreya the book dragon wants to wish you all well and continued flights of creativity to come your way.

 

 

1Red and green dragon floating amid books and musical notes. She is smiling and Ann’s  name and the words “Making meaningful connections with others through writing” is to the right of the dragon.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost Homonym

| Filed under writing Writing Life

👚 Six Sentence Story

 

 

Where is my underwear? Folded neat and clean only a moment ago, gone like the unmatched socks lost in the great beyond.  The brassiere and shirt and even the socks are present, along with the pants but the bloomers have disappeared. I decide not to call for bloomer back-up, instead I find a spare to wear, dress and   reach for my shoes. fingers brush against familiar lace and Lycra and I smile, feeling less like a doddering fool. Now, I wonder, how did the darn undies get over there?

 

Thanks to Abbie Johnson Taylor and Behind Our Eyes  for  weekly prompts like this one to keep us writing. 😊

 

 

Tulips and Breath and Shadow

| Filed under nonfiction Relationships writing

Thanks to editor-in-Chief, Chris Kuell, I am honored to be featured, with other talented writers in the Winter 2022 issue of Breath and Shadow. Check out the prize-winning essays, fiction and poetry in this issue.

 

https://www.abilitymaine.org/bs2022winter-1/%22the-tulips-come-back%22