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

🐲  🌚

 

 

 

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.

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

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.

 

 

Annie Shares News July 2023 newsletter

| Filed under nonfiction novel writing Writing Life

Annie Shares News Volume 2 Issue 7 July 2023

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www.annchiappetta.com

 

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

Annie and yellow lab Bailey licking her face

Bailey licking Ann’s face

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Lack of Motivation

| Filed under blogging Poem Relationships Writing Life

Motivation Acrostic

By Ann Chiappetta

Most days it is present

On the days it is absent

Touching   the creativity fails, dispersed

Into me, whispering within, like

Veins packed with  scribbled, microscopic   cells

Alphabet  infused molecules jumbled

Twisting and turning liquid

Impossibly

Overflowing with brain food I’ve

No chance of catching.

 

What can I say? Some writing days are better than others. One good thing that helped me write this poem was being able to end a writing-related  gig I found no longer provided the inspiration I needed to support my writing style.  A pressure has been alleviated and I feel  much better. Being a Pisces is complicated. ♓

 

I learned what I don’t want to write and what type of writing gig  could be more enriching for me.

Annie Shares News Holiday issue 🎁

| Filed under blogging Writing Life

Annie Shares News Volume2 Issue 11.5 November/December 2022

anniesharesnews@groups.io

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www.annchiappetta.com

🌨️  🎍  🦃

Hello and welcome to the last newsletter of 2022. I hope you all have had a good year and moving toward post pandemic activities once more.  The year has been productive, taking a positive direction in terms of writing

 

The biggest piece of news is adding another resource to share  news and writing related happenings. First, if you follow my blog, www.thought-wheel.com, you will receive an email posting my newsletter. I plan to test this new option for sharing the newsletter so don’t be surprised if you receive  something from me via Word Press.

Next, . I am happy to announce I am contributing an advice column to National Braille Press’s quarterly Our Special  variety magazine which  is only   available in braille. It feels good to share the years of counseling experience for the benefit of others. Finding writing gigs that fit my lifestyle and help pay the bills is challenging and I hope to find a few more opportunities like it in the coming year.

 

Thanks to Friends In Art, www.friendsinart.org the monthly Art Parlor podcast has added a few new episodes. Catch my talented colleague and author Chris Kuell in the November 2022 show as well as a collection of other artists from past episodes.

 

Where else have I been? 🐝   Collaborating with the many other authors of Behind Our Eyes, of course. We now have a solid podcast collection for listening, called the Behind Our Eyes Book Launch program, thanks to the passion and cooperation of our members. Each sixty-minute presentation highlights one author and recently released book recorded on the zoom platform.       Go to www.behindoureyes.org to find out more, to join or to listen to recordings of our members reciting their writing and questions from the audience. We already have members scheduled for 2023.

 

I am writing a new book and this time it is nonfiction and will include the healing process  brought about by therapy animals and my experiences working as a clinician.

 

 

 

Here is a fun poem I’ve been working on, I hope you like it.

The Torture of Sonnets

By Ann Chiappetta

 

I don’t know much of Sonnetry

‘tis with rhyme and meter I fail

Concocting strings of symmetry

Commences with pulling out my hair.

 

Pluck and twist  with fingers and fist

ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum,

Clumsy, I trip into the Muse’s grip

vexed  by verse, overcome.

 

A scribble a scrabble —  my attempts aren’t pretty

Word    smithing Causes my cranium to throb

and I fear my friends shall not withhold their pity

and with pitchforks, chase me like Frankenstein’s mob.

 

Mayhap soon  I shall toss  up a poetry salad

Once I imbibe in a few pints of ale

Such an endeavor may result in a ballad

When recited will not result in a rain of rotten kale.

 

Undaunted I mentally twerk and type

Until the meter, rhyme and poetic measure is ripe.

Annieand  Jerry smiling at the camera standing in matching holiday colors and Bailey the yellow lab at their feet.

 

 

Listen to  a Tale of Two Species 🐱 🐶 🌌

| Filed under blindness Fiction Writing Life

Those of you who know I am blind might be curious about the assistive technology and software I rely upon to  operate my pc and  mobile devices. This recording will demonstrate what I hear when writing and editing stories and other written correspondence. Since this story  is a mini-space drama  —  I thought why not record it being read by a synthesized voice?  Enjoy!

 

Year in Review

| Filed under blindness nonfiction writing Writing Life

Annie Shares News Issue 2.2 February 2022

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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. 😊

 

 

Life is a Grand (Writing) Adventure

| Filed under blindness writing Writing Life

♓ ✨ 🔯

I read my daily horoscope. It waits in my inbox until the right time. Sometimes it is a day late, providing insights into  things that already happened, other days it’s right on the money.  Today is  an accurate horoscope day.

 

Since semi-retiring at age fifty-something, I’ve picked up a few contract jobs but none in the field where my true passion lay: writing and creating content for blogging and podcasts. I am hoping my horoscope and a new opportunity will assist me in shifting   focus and a new adventure will include my passion with a salary, too.

 

I’m on a grand adventure

Full of words and sounds

Together Heart and mind  smile

photo description of Ann's personal logo of green dragon floating amid books and musical notes.

Ann’s personal logo