Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

March Matching

| Filed under writing

This post is for my best friend and buddy, Bailey. He’s full of heart and 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.

 

 

Bailey boy yellow lab

picture of yellow lab Bailey in our livingroom

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 2

Free ebooks

| Filed under blindness Fiction Guide dogs nonfiction Poem

From March 7 to March 13 all my titles on www.smashwords.com are free.

Go to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AnnChiappetta

To download all or any of my titles. If you want to read poetry, fiction and nonfiction, I’ve got a title for you. Poems in Upwelling, heartfelt journeys with my guide dog in the memoir, Follow Your Dog a Story of Love and Trust, essays and poems written for nature lovers in Words of Life: Poems and Essays and a short story collection certain to send your imagination soaring in A String of Stories From the Heart to the Future.

 

I hope you come along for the word journey with me and share this link, it’s only free from March 7 until March 13, 2021.

#smashwords #ebookweek21

White tail stag deer standing majestically in forest.

 

 

The Bone Hoarder

| Filed under nonfiction

 

May the Dog Chronicles – Christmas 2020 unveiled canine gifts judiciously chosen with two objectives in mind: price and product longevity. We were not going to spend more than ten bucks a bone and the product would need to be tough enough to deter a beaver, er, a young dog with terminator teeth. Before I get further along with this post, let me also mention    we wanted to avoid a product with toe breaker status, as in the real beef bones that, when dropped or kicked, will feel like it just crushed   multiple digit flanges.  We have grown to hate these bones and yet we cannot part with them, like a broken toilet seat.

 

It’s funny how the mind forgets going through this with other dogs. Nikka, for instance, possessed razor-edged chompers that shaved off skin with a mere touch. May’s gleaming fangs, while not like  razors,  honor the years of knuckle bandages and Nyla bones of her predecessor, Nikka, with honing the ends  of nyla like bones   which lay in wait to impale a foot with prison shank precision.

 

Back to the purchases.  We finally added two large breed Nyla brand wish bone flavored bones and a Nyla like chew that looked like a hammer or T.     On Christmas day May and Bailey both put some dents in all of them and we shivered with dread when the T shaped bone was determined to also be a toe breaker. At least it wasn’t my foot put to the test. Don’t worry, Jerry’s foot didn’t bruise. may and her bonesThis image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

 

 

Annie Shares News issue 2

| Filed under Fiction nonfiction writing

Annie shares news issue 2 February 2021
To subscribe to my monthly newsletter, send an email to anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
Hello all –
It’s a winter wonderland in beautiful Westchester county, New York. It’s been snowing since yesterday, the polar vortex pumping out the little white flakes up to two feet in places. Brrrr!

🌨❄The cold months make for great writing time and I’ve been keeping busy with a few projects. First, stay tuned on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/verona.chiappetta/ for an audio teaser for A String of Stories: from the Heart to the Future C 2020. The audio book will be released on www.audible.com and will feature the dual narration team, Lillian Yves and Vincent Lee Grayson www.lillianyves.com .

For folks who access books via Bookshare, www.bookshare.com all my titles are now listed in the catalog. Reaching readers who access printed material in alternative formats has been an ever-present goal for me since establishing myself as an independent author and knowing Bookshare subscribers can read my books is a big win. 📔

The big reveal in this issue is my new logo designed by Mara Reitsma https://coveredbytherose.wixsite.com/coveredbytherose and curated with assistance from Clair Plaisted https://plaistedpublishinghouse.com /. The Book Dragon avatar will make appearances and be my brand moving forward. I might even run a contest to name her. 😉
Picture description: a smiling green dragon with red wings floats amid a few books and winged musical notes. Words printed to the right say Ann Chiappetta Making meaningful connections with others through writing. This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

Poetical Repeat

| Filed under Poem

Like so many others, I’ve struggled with my personal feelings and political alignments during the most recent presidency. Rather than say anything I would later regret, I am going to quote someone else’s words. Here it goes:

“High though his titles, proud his name, / Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; / Despite those titles, power, and pelf, / The wretch, concentred all in self, / Living, shall forfeit fair renown, / And, doubly dying, shall go down / To the vile dust from whence he sprung, / Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.” -Walter Scott, novelist and poet (15 Aug 1771-1832)

Animal Encounter

| Filed under nonfiction recovering the self writing

Years ago, before I lost most of my vision, our family often visited our favorite nearby zoo. I recall one time in particular, the interaction with a cheetah made a lasting impression.
Read more
from: https://www.recoveringself.com/animals/cheetah.

Open Door

| Filed under paranormal Poem Relationships writing

Open door
By Ann Chiappetta

Horizontal Travel nestled in breaths
Deep and restorative. A place of relaxation, attracts
Energy, the curtain billows, the visitor
Inserts herself, uses the most familiar place, the bathroom – why
are most of these encounters located in the dream bathroom? By now I know there is a message born from the veil, the thinness beyond
Air, beyond anything we know here in our soft beds of reality.

She shows me a hand with a ring, conveys it is significant, her face seems to say, it will soon be yours. Then she is gone. I awaken.

Today, before the horizontal travel I write with the ring upon my hand. She spoiled the surprise.

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

flamethrowers for all

| Filed under blindness

Flame throwers for Everyone
}blame this post on the cold medicine}

Dear readers, this is not a homicidal post, perish the thought. I’ll leave those stories to more established authors like King and Koontz. This one is for those times when one cannot sleep, when the mind wanders. It is a ‘what if” — How would, a blind person, attempt to even survive in the zombie apocalypse? If what the stories, movies and gory series tell us, someone who is blind will most likely end up voluntarily dead or eating human flesh a la George A. Romero.

So, thinks I, spouse of a survival freak, how would a blind person survive these horrific conditions? Yup, self-defense would demand the most bang, or burn, for the buck. In comes the flame thrower. The model we would like on our wish list is $3200 but hey, it is compatible for napalm, should we find any of it while incinerating maniacal, frothing, people eating people.
So, what’s on your wish list?