| Filed under blindness blogging writing Writing Life
Got cabin fever? How about some reading to help pass the time.
Hop on over to
https://pattysworlds.com/sublime-sunday-reading-presents-featured-author-of-the-week-ann-chiappetta/
and read an interview I submitted for Patty’s Worlds blog. If you haven’t checked Patty’s books, why not find out about them while you’re visiting.
| Filed under Writing Life
Sweet and Savory Chicken Thighs with fresh garden herbs
Four to six boneless, skinless chicken thighs
¾ cup Italian bread crumbs
Marinade ingredients:
4 to 6 TBL spoons of Extra V. Olive Oil EVOO
½ tsp Chili powder
Two cloves thinly sliced fresh garlic cloves
¼ tsp garlic or onion salt to taste
Here’s where I diverge from traditional cooks with exact measuring:
Use fresh herbs in season.
I used one or two sprigs of rosemary leaves, and lemon Thyme picked yesterday and left them to dry overnight.
I stripped the leaves from the stems and put them in a small Ziploc and crushed them up, what is equal to two pinches
One large pinch of fresh chopped parsley
1 TBLS brown sugar syrup
You can use corn syrup but use less.
Juice of one medium lemon
A sprinkle or smidge of nutmeg and cinnamon stick, grated fresh
Add all ingredients except the bread crumbs and mix well.
Use fork to poke holes in chicken for marinating.
Marinate chicken for two hours in refrigerator, making sure marinade is evenly distributed over and under chicken, cover with plastic wrap.
After an hour, slosh marinade around
the chicken and let marinate the final hour in fridge.
Remove chicken from marinade and place in large freezer bag, add 1 cup bread crumbs seal bag and toss until chicken is covered well. Let sit ten minutes.
prep a broiling tray or use mesh tray with nonstick spray
set the convection oven setting at 350 for 30 minutes.
Air fry time may be less, refer to your oven’s settings.
For Regular oven time, which may be longer, refer to your oven’s instructions.
Chicken should be sweetly flavored with a hint of savory and garlic, bread crumbs holding in juice of chicken.
We roasted patty pan summer squash as a side dish. Yummy!
Don’t ask about calories or exacts, my cooking is like my writing, I know the rules well enough so when needed, I can experiment with them.
| Filed under Poem Writing Life
| Filed under blindness blogging Writing Life
Annie Shares News Volume 3 Issue 1 January-February 2024
Subscribe: Anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
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:
Until next month,
Peace
🐲 🌚
| 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.
| 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.
| 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
Bailey licking Ann’s face
| 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.
| Filed under blogging Writing Life
Annie Shares News Volume2 Issue 11.5 November/December 2022
Subscribe: anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
🌨️ 🎍 🦃
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.
| 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!