Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

Moving My Blog to a New Home

| Filed under writing

 

Hi followers-

I am relocating my blog, packing up my digital belongings and sending it to my personal website, www.annchiappetta.com  Why am I doing this, one might ask, and I’ll tell you all it is to help me improve SEO, also known as search engine optimization. Hey, wanting to be the top Annie to pop up on a web crawl is what will help  become more marketable. At least that is what the book gurus say, among other things.  I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and have been saving my clams to make it happen and my top rated web person, Dave Annett, is helping make it so.

 

The next post you will get will be from my new virtual home on my website. Thanks for following and here’s to the future!

 

Artificial Divide Anthology

| Filed under blindness Fiction Guide dogs

Hi readers, check out a new #OwnVoice anthology by authors with visual impairment, the first anthology to include one of my short stories plus over twelve other authors. Read the description and you will understand why it’s a pivotal collection. Thanks to Robert Kingett and Randy Lacey for making it possible, along with Renaissance Press.

I hope you and your friends and colleagues support it by pre-ordering the collection. Thanks for your support, we cannot be a success without readers like you.

Release date is September 15, 2021, order now, why wait?

Artificial Divide Anthology by Renaissance Press

 

Step into a world of rogue screen readers, Braille in fantasy worlds, a friend meeting an acquaintance after several years, and more.

This #OwnVoices anthology features fiction by Blind and visually impaired authors showing readers how they thrive, hurt, get revenge, outsmart bullies, or go on epic adventures. Artificial Divide is an own-voices story collection that captures the many layers of Blindness and, for once, puts visually impaired protagonists in the driver’s seat, letting us glimpse their lives.

When we think about it, we’re not really divided. Stories by Eunice Cooper-Matchett, Anita Haas, Rebecca Blaevoet, Tessa Soderberg, Laurie Alice Eakes, Melissa Yuan, Innes – Jamieson Wolf, Ben Fulton, Felix Imonti, – Niki White, M.

Leona Godin, Ann Chiappetta, Lawrence Gunther, Heather Meares, and Jameyanne Fuller. Artificial Divide book cover, featuring bold white letters on a black background. A rolling cane tip slashes through the title diagonally, from the top left to the bottom right. Each I has a round cane tip replacing the dot

 

Links for preordering the paperback, eBook and Audio formats

https://tinyurl.com/b8mk6wxb

 

https://tinyurl.com/s2tz367e

 

Sharing Poetry

| Filed under Poem writing

A Blessing

By James Wright

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46481/a-blessing#mainContent

 

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans.  They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more, they begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

 

Winner On a Whim

| Filed under nonfiction Poem writing

A few months ago a writing friend suggested a contest being offered by the Handy Uncapped Pen. I hadn’t submitted my work for a while and hoped this would help get me back into the submission state-of-mind again. It did help.  I won second place for my poem, “Tide”.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.Here’s the link:

http://www.handyuncappedpen.com/2021/06/cripendy-contest-second-place-tide-by.html

Thanks to Cheryll Romanek for the beautiful beach pic.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

Acrostic Poem for Guiding Eyes

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs Poem writing

Hello all-

It’s always a pleasure to put my writing and performing skills to good use, like when helping out Guiding Eyes for the Blind www.guidingeyes.org . Here’s  something I wrote to help them out.

Hi my name is Ann Chiappetta and I am a Guiding Eyes graduate.

I’d like to share what Guiding Eyes means to me

In the form of an acrostic poem.

Guide dog mobility instructors who are the best in the business

Unparalleled   and internationally recognized brood and stud program

Increased independence

Doggone bestest puppy program

Excellent follow up services for graduates and their dogs

 

Developing programs for athletes

, active older adults, and people with additional disabilities

Organization who believes in the potential of it’s clients

Graduates like me who

are recipients of

confident, capable  and loving canine partners.

Thanks for listening.

Click here for the audio:

 

 

 

 

Book Corner

| Filed under nonfiction recovering the self writing

Hi all-

Thanks to Ernest Dempsey and  his blog, Recovering the Self https://www.recoveringself.com/ernest-dempsey-editor-in-chief , I have been posting book reviews. Two of my latest reviews and a wonderful collection of other reviews by Ernest and other authors are posted,  so go take a read. Here’s the latest from me about David Sedaris’s essay collection in audio book format

https://www.bookcorner.us/the-best-of-me/.

 

April Annie Shares News

| Filed under writing

Annie Shares News April 2021 Issue 4

www.annchiappetta.com

Share this with friends – subscribe by sending a blank email to anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io —  I promise not to flood your inbox!

🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸

Hello, spring greetings from Westchester County. Cherry blossoms are blooming. I grew up in Mamaroneck where Harbor Island Park is famous for it’s profundity of Japanese cherry blossom trees lining the east and west basins. If you ever drive past Mamaroneck on US 1 Boston Post Road at this time of year, you can’t miss them.

 

It’s also National Poetry Month and to celebrate it I am offering free audio copies of Upwelling: Poems to my readers.   Go to https://freeaudiobookcodes.com/book/dd0816ee-9505-4d78-b0ab-4dc62d369a44

 

I’ll be sending out one more post later on in the month to promote a radio interview, so stay tuned. 😉

The following poem is included in the book.

HELIUM

By Ann Chiappetta

Anchored

Ribbon chafing

Impatient

 

Will I be crushed

By the sky?

 

Breeze tugs

Pulses rub

Release me

 

Lighter than air

Captured in Mylar

 

Bound for Olympia

Pale blue elevation

Far below.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative. photo by Cheryll Romanek

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

Tease your senses with a string of stories🐲

| Filed under writing

 

Hey readers, I’m sharing a little bit of creativity today. Take a listen and have your Audible credits ready because the audio book of my short story collection A String of Stories from the Heart to the Future, is almost done, thanks to the awesome narration team Lillian Yves and Vincent Lee Graysen.

The sample is from the lead story, A Temporary Perspective. Enjoy!

If you’d rather read it in print or on a device, go to Amazon.com or any eBook seller or visit my website for the purchasing links.

Everything Annie is at www.annchiappetta.com

 

 

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 6

A Match in March

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs

 

This post is for my best friend and buddy, Bailey. He’s full of heart and  has cream colored fur. He’s got a big head and beautiful brown eyes. People say his face is puppy like and his big brown nose and ears make him look both regal and goofy depending on the situation. He is a 75 lb. yellow lab from Guiding Eyes for the Blind. His first family and puppy raiser are from Maine. He loves to swim and play.

 

He loves my hubby and daughter and shares our home with another dog, two cats and two guinea pigs. Last night the cat curled up beside him, it’s paw on his back. 🐾

He’s kept me safe and guided me through so much in life and has been there during some of the darkest moments of it.

 

The unconditional regard of a dog for it’s partner is felt and expressed through the ebb and flow of life and I will do my best not to take this for granted because it is a gift to be honored, cherished and earned.

Here’s to 6 years together, Bailey.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative. yellow lab Bailey in our livingroom