Thought Wheel

From the mind of Ann Chiappetta

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

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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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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

 

 

Why I Like the Word Tweak

| Filed under nonfiction writing Writing Life

Why I Like the Word Tweak

 

Hey there readers-

I left you all in limbo with a post stating I was moving my blog over to my website www.annchiappetta.com and I am happy to announce it is now completed.   This is what I refer to as a tweak. As an informal verb  definition, among other terms, it means to make an improvement to a system. Thank-you Siri, for the information. 😊  You all will still receive the blog updates, too.

 

Stay tuned for more now that thought-wheel has settled into it’s new home on the interwebs.  💻

And, as the announcer once said on the old-fashioned TV broadcasts, “and now back to  the show.” 📺

 

Technology Love Story

| Filed under nonfiction recovering the self Writing Life

www.annchiappetta.com

https://www.recoveringself.com/poetry/technology-love-story.

 

I am a beautiful nerd. I love my technology, drool over new gadgets and would have two computers if I could afford it. Well, I do own an iPad, that counts at least a little bit, right? I call my laptop Skywalker because it’s powerful and insightful, thanks to Windows 10. Yes, it does outthink me sometimes, too, maybe I should have named it R2D2 instead.

 

In late 2018 I upgraded to a new iPhone XR and admittedly grieved for the lost home button and fingerprint lock. The face I.D security features and gestures at first made me want to crunch the darned thing under the heel of my slipper but working from home softened my attitude and feet.

Here is a little poem about it.

On the Tip of a Finger

By Ann Chiappetta

 

Tap.

Flick up.

Flick down.

Double tap.

use a digit

drag it around.

 

press side button;

“Hello Siri” — why doesn’t she talk?

Slide and lift

Thumbs are best   to text.

Swipe up with index finger

Double tap to select.

Tippity-tap tap

Doink doink doink

Try middle finger gesture instead.

 

Spell Onomatopoeia

  • NOT ammonia —

 

Swish, swoosh blunk

 

Dexterity demands flanges

To execute a pinch or scrub.

 

“Hi Siri,”

 

I didn’t say that

 

Slide and lift

Thumbs are best   to text.

Swipe up with index finger

Double tap to select.

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

Ann’s personal logo

 

 

Thanks NFAA

| Filed under Fiction nonfiction writing Writing Life

I’ve been a member of NFAA for two years. Having benefitted from being part of a supportive community that includes great publishing info, I thought I’ share. Take a read at how they’ve helped me with a book even though it’s not nonfiction.

Author Interview: Ann Chiappetta, Author of A String of Stories From the Heart to the Future