Thought Wheel

From the mind of Ann Chiappetta

Adding Zip to Your Manuscript 📚

| Filed under blogging Fiction writing Writing Life

Adding Zip to Your Manuscript

Cut and Replace  boring and predictable

 

I’ve been finishing my second novel, Imperfections for the past year. I feel like I’ve finally reached the home stretch. One of the indicators is  the task of scanning for redundancies. I think of them as  lazy  familiar words we fall back upon when banging  out  a story.  Examples: like,  was,  he/him, she/her, they/them, and as; passive verbs, nouns and  phrases penned by an average fifth-grader. Walk, sat, looked, hand, etc. “I looked in his eyes,”  “got in the car”, ‘he took my hand’,  and so forth.

 

I troll the books  of authors I admire   for strategies and stylistic tweaks applying them in my own stories. I employ the use of beta readers. I recon with thesaurus.com .

I am a mercenary in the act of  assist in reducing boring and repetitive words and phrases. I unpack the annals of my aging brain and  attack my manuscript executing  the find  function in the Word program.

The Control and f key combination identifies  68 instances of the offending verb,  ‘walk’.   I apply the literary gorilla wordfare. I slice and burn reducing the offenders to thirty instances and move to the next offending  word trap.

Whump!

 

 

The effort results in a tighter and more resonant story and I avoid the pitfalls of the mundane.

 

 

Memorial Day

| Filed under writing

Memorial Day

By Ann Chiappetta

 

The last Monday of May commemorates Memorial Day, the time to gather ourselves and remember the sacrifices made by our Nation’s soldiers who died protecting our country. It has always been a reflective and poignant holiday for me; my father served in Korea, my uncles and cousins in World War II, Vietnam, and my husband in the assorted international conflicts in the Middle East during the 1980s and1990s. During my time as a trauma therapist working with veterans, I heard the firsthand accounts of the demands and sacrifices our men and women in the armed forces made   and continue to make for us each and every day.

 

Originally called Decoration Day, the actual day set aside to fly flags at half-mast, participate in parades, and enjoy the launch of the summer season was May 30th.

It was referred to as Decoration Day because it was chosen as the best time by many families to brush off the ides of winter and decorate the soldiers’ graves. Memorial Day was officially declared a National Holiday   by President Lynden Johnson on May 1966 at Arlington National Cemetery.

A memorial written by Civil War-era orator, Robert Green Ingersoll, eloquently captures the significance of Memorial Day for all generations of our Fallen:

 

“They died for liberty—they died for us.  They are at rest.

They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless … Earth may run red with other wars, but they are at peace.

In the midst of battles, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.”

 

Below is a link with additional information about the history behind Memorial Day.


 

xhttp://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

image of waiving American Flag

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

 

 

 

 

Zip Ode So Long, NPM

| Filed under writing

10543 – Zip Ode

By Ann Chiappetta

  • By

(10) The bridge over the creek lies Tomkins Ave.

(5) Salty Harbor   air

(4) Mamaroneck

(3) Is my heart.

 

 

About this form

Invented in 2015, the Zip Ode is a five-line poem about where you live, written in the form of your zip code.   It can reflect either lines of words or syllables. Typically a zero is a wild card. This poem uses syllables to represent the numbers and ten syllables to represent a zero.

 

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

Why I Haven’t Been Blogging ✍️ 💻

| Filed under blogging Poem writing

Why I Haven’t Been Blogging

By Ann Chiappetta

Dedicated to  2023 National Poetry Month

 

 

I haven’t been blogging

Because my mind is fogging

From  NPM – rest assured I’ve been writing

Scribbling, typing and scribing

Alphabetically, in fact

Abecedarians, ballads and couplets

Haiku, Limericks a letters

 

Verses penned about  purple purses or  petals

The view to the summit is  near

And  it looks like the terrain is clear

 

Yet The flag is yet to be unfurled

And the completion of NPM

Will be celebrated by the world

When it is uncurled —

And next year we will  grab our literary packs

And retrace the poetic path to the summit

Inspired by a poetry-lined path.

 

View from bridge spanning Windham nountain looking out into the valley below.

 

Spring and Things Magazine

| Filed under blindness blogging writing

 

A great read and resource for Spring.

The writer’s Grapevine is a quarterly news and literary magazine featuring Writers, Small Business  owners and Nonprofits. 

In each issue you’ll find a variety of Articles, Essays, Short Stories and Poems for your enjoyment and education. 

Read the full edition at:  https://pattysworlds.com/the-writers-grapevine-spring-and-things-

To learn more about Patty Fletcher and her magazine, here is the link to her blog:

Patty L. Fletcher

author and social media marketing assistant.

Learn more at:   http://www.pattysworlds.com

APH Career Conversations podcast Join the presentation 🎙️

| Filed under blindness blogging Guide dogs writing

Save the Date

📖   📚

 

Join the APH Career Conversation with Ann Chiappetta

April 6, 2023, 6:00 – 7:00 PM EST
Career Conversations Interview with an Author 
Ann Chiappetta will share what it has been like for her to self-publish her poetry, fiction and nonfiction books. Ann has delt with changing vision as a result of retinitis pigmentosa and has used writing and her creative skills to help cope with her vision loss.

Register Here for Career Conversations Interview with an Author

 Read about Ann on the APH blog:

Annie with pink mask and Bailey close up

Ann and Bailey on bench: Both looking straight on

 

The print Barrier Continued

| Filed under writing

Thanks to friend and fellow author, Patty Fletcher, what began as my personal rant about the accessibility divide  is gaining attention. Please visit her blog and read, like, and pass along  what will  be a series of  informational, lived experiential accounts of the print barrier and how it effects people with print disabilities interacting with all digital and electronic resources like the internet, smart phones and tablets and  how developers and the general public can help with making these barriers a thing of the past.

https://pattysworlds.com/the-print-barrier-by-author-and-multimedia-specialist-ann-chiappetta-accessibility-assistivetechnology/

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

He’s Home! He’s Home! 🦮

| Filed under Guide dogs pets and people

 

After  two days in the hospital, Bailey is home and resting.  It has been  a stressful two weeks. Once we got the diagnosis and scheduled the surgery for a carcinoma in his lung,  Jerry and I  were in a kind of shell shock. Hoping for the best, ignoring the worst-case scenario.

 

The medical staff at Animal Medical Center in NYC is phenomenal. We are still waiting for a full prognosis  because the pathology takes at least a week but it is looking like pulmonary  carcinoma. One entire lobe was removed, so the guy has only half a lung on one side. He went into all this in good shape  despite the tumor and this has everything to do with   a good recovery and getting back to work. Not sure working again will be in his future but time and rest will  help the healing and no matter what happens,  there is relief for what was ailing him for so long. His quality of life has been given back to him and for this we are grateful.

 

If you want to donate to  the medical center and help support  them in treating  animals and educating future generations of veterinary  physicians and treatments for diseases like cancer ,  and caring for guide and service dogs, we would  appreciate it. There was no cost to us because Bailey is a working guide dog.

 

He is resting in the kennel on  his squish mellow and seems comfortable. The first thing he wanted to do  once we got home was eat. What a good boy!

 

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

A DNR for My Dog Guide? 😨🦮

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs pets and people Relationships

Whoa, pups and people, first of all, this is not a shock jock kind of post. It is my attempt to express the feelings and observations during the events of the past three weeks. We are all okay, so it is safe to keep reading.

🦮

Bailey, my 75 lb. yellow lab raised and trained by Guiding Eyes for the Blind, was diagnosed with a tumor in his lung. It was discovered in a routine vet visit and I am so grateful for the  staff veterinarian at Guiding Eyes for  listening to me and ordering the Xray and referring us to Animal Medical Center in New York City for  a CT and needle biopsy confirming the diagnosis.

 

We are now waiting for the surgery date  to remove it. During the examination of the CT scan/biopsy procedure authorization, I read the DNR clause. It said CPR would be administered unless directed otherwise by the owner. Of course I wanted lifesaving procedures to be performed, my dog  is showing very little symptoms and isn’t ready to check out.

 

I stopped, thinking, OH, shoot, a DNR? And it hit me just how serious this was and  how sick my sweet 9.7-year-old lab really is. He showed only a mild cough after playing and slowing down a little when we were out and about. I’m not sure why but  Bailey’s diagnosis brought me back to our Mom’s lung cancer and the mind-numbing period of time during her surgeries and treatments. Because of the consultations and  speaking with medical oncologists during our Mom’s illness, I believe I have a better grasp of Bailey’s chances and risk factors. I am not saying a dog is the same as a person, but I am thinking that Mom’s passing provided insight and strength for me and my husband to be better equipped to handle whatever comes after Bailey’s upcoming surgery and convalescence. Then again, maybe I am saying a life is worth fighting for, human or non-human.  Mom did not differentiate among two or four-footed family, and neither will I.

yellow lab Bailey in our livingroom