Smorgasbord New Book Spotlight -#YA #Contemporary Imperfections by Ann Chiappetta
Annie’s new novel promoted
| Filed under blogging Fiction novel writing
| Filed under blogging Fiction novel writing
| Filed under nonfiction novel writing Writing Life
Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 7 July 2023
anniesharesnews@groups.io Subscribe anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
Summer greetings!
🏖️ 🩴 ✈️ 🍹 🧳 🚢
New Projects and New Beginnings
June and July are busy months for me and my family. We take on projects and enjoy long weekends driving to regional fairs, events and picnics. I’ve been an active member of the American Council of the Blind for over twenty years. Our National conference and convention is in July. Since the pandemic, ACB has incorporated it’s virtual and in-person attendance, accommodating a hybrid program and schedule. Now that I am invested in and serving as the Friends In Art affiliate President, my time and passion for the arts and FIA keeps me busy in late June with the virtual program as well as attending some of the hybrid events. I wanted to attend the in-person portion of the conference taking place in Schaumburg, Illinois but circumstances have kept me from doing so. Positive circumstances, like house hunting and finishing my second novel. 😊
July is Read an eBook month.
All my Books are On Sale DURING JULY
Now is your best chance to find my entire eBook collection for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos all months! #SWSale2023 #Smashwords
I support learning something new each year post-retirement. Last year it was Zoom and all its bells and whistles. In 2021 it was learning how a two-channel USB connector and studio microphone and headphones worked with my pc and crafting a portable noise damper. Yes, folks, I used a twin sized sheet, 12 x 12 foam tiles and plenty of safety pins to make a tent. And, no, I am not taking pictures. It is too embarrassing. It works when needed, that is all I will tell you .
This year I am learning how to use a digital audio workstation, or DAW, called Gold wave. I am working on recording my next poetry collection myself. 😉
The novel? Imperfections is in final rewrite mode. It comes in under 300 pages and is a romance. But it is more than a romance; it is a great story about love, hope and healing. It’s not too late to be a beta reader. Email me at anniecms64@gmail.com if you would like to read an advanced copy and provide answers to six targeted questions. Once you return your answers, I will compensate you with a copy of the book.
My guide dog, Bailey, has recovered from his surgery and is healthy. He is still working part-time for me, enjoying road trips and attending presentations. I am blessed with the gift of independence in the form
of a great dog. Bailey will retire soon but indicates he still wants to work, so we will continue, being mindful of his condition.
I was featured in an article discussing the digital divide for people with disabilities. Go here to read it.
The energy I’ve absorbed from the recent summer solstice fills me with exciting plans. Relocating to another State is happening soon as well as decluttering our current home in advance of the move.
May warm breezes and pleasant experiences be with you.
Until next time,
Annie and Bailey
| Filed under blindness blogging novel writing
Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 9 September 2022
Tell a friend and help me share writing by subscribing to my low traffic email list. it’s simple. send a blank email to:
Anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
🌑 🌓 🌔 🌕 🌙
Wonderful Things Afoot
The creative life is often compared to an ebb and flow, like tidal or moon phases. The last two months were a prime example. I barely wrote anything more than email correspondence due to being removed from our home of thirty years no thanks to asbestos contamination in our old floors. During a vacation in temporary housing via an Airbnb to await the asbestos abatement and installation of new floors, no thanks to hurricane Ida, I managed only one poem. I disconnected and it was probably for the best. I read, I soaked in the blessed silence, basked in the sun, brushed Bailey until my arm was tired, took in the evocative smells of country living and scratched my bug bites with complete complacency.
The day prior to our return the stress flared and another two weeks of creative cut-off overtook me, but this time it wasn’t attributed to adjusting to the ambiance of country living and black bears eating the tasty apples from the tree in the yard next to us. It was frustration and disappointment that shut me down. Our home was in chaos. Boxes from floor to ceiling, many of them unmarked. It was beyond dirty, our appliances were unplugged and left to leak all over the kitchen floor. The list goes on but it is behind us now. It was a helpless feeling, for sure.
The lifeline appeared when I attended a few writing-related zoom meetings. The first was the regular Friday afternoon Writing Works Wonders Community Call podcast streamed by the ACB Media Network. It helped me reconnect with my creativity by providing a writing prompt and it resulted in a poem which will be in a sweet little online literary pub called the Plum Tree Tavern. Then, the following week, the WWW hosts Kathy and Cheryl provided a second prompt that resulted in yet another poem, posted below, which was well received by other writers and is looking for a publication home.
Thanks to a fellow author and editor, Robert Kingett, I signed up for an open mic call and I read five of my more recent poems and was thrilled to receive high praise from the listeners. The facilitator followed up with me resulting in an opportunity to record one of my guide dog poems. It will be added to a poetry project for the Chicago Public Library.
While writing is solitary, the sharing of it is not; the sharing is what pushes me to write, to create and keep a productive mindset. Being good at something like writing and hearing others say my writing is good gives me a feeling of belonging and purpose. I’d lost those two aspects of self when I became blind and reclaiming them over the years felt like gluing the jagged pieces of my soul back together.
Opportunities abound, from online writing prompts given by Writing Works Wonders to focused feedback and email lists to connect like in the writer’s group, Behind Our Eyes. One never knows where the opportunities and connections will appear but one thing is sure, striving to produce good writing and sharing it with readers is the goal.
I value you all, it is you, the reader, the listener, the literary compatriots, for whom I write. I will keep writing as long as you keep reading and listening.
Summer’s Book
By Ann Chiappetta ©
August is
A perpetual ending
Of wilting haiku blossoms
Of Heat and drought and rain on wind chimes
Of crisp leaflets capturing autumn’s promise and
open fields of earth’s parchment
awaiting to harvest and scribe
richness into Nature’s book with stories of Winter white.
2022
Dreya sends her fanciful smile your way, what’s better than a book dragon asking her friends to read more books?