Article posted on AFB Career Connect ✍️ 🧑💻
| Filed under blindness blogging nonfiction
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
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
🐲 🌚
The Word River
| Filed under assistive technology blindness writing
Being an author, I am often asked about the writing process. Where do I write? What is the time of day I am the most creative? What equipment or software do I use? How do I get my ideas? The answers are straightforward. I write in my office and prefer the daytime from mid-morning to early evening. I type all my work on a pc with Windows and assistive technology software for the blind. I edit my work with this technology, listening to documents with text-to-speech access. Ideas come to me via observation, examination and experience. They form through dreams, news, conversations I hear, observing the sensory information and what surrounds me. Curiosity leads me through it all.
Once an idea reveals itself, I make a mental note to track it. . If it persists, if I fall asleep mulling it over and it is there the next morning, I know it is a subject or idea I must relax into for it to develop. When I say develop I mean a piece of something destined for words taking hold and growing. Setting an idea free means being conscious of it while it travels through my gray matter, collecting relevance and resonance until we meet again.
The most difficult question regarding the writing life is describing the creativity involved in the writing process. There isn’t a short answer, it’s more like paddling a canoe along the sluggish tidal pools and terrifying rapids of a miles-long river . An idea is the starting point. What if the dream I woke up remembering could be written into a short story? What if the influx and pattern of birds and their hierarchy at the feeders could be described in a poem? What if the blog articles I’ve already written on a particular topic could be organized into a handbook of some kind?
Once I know the idea is forming, I write a brief note to myself and step back, absorb my effort into another writing project. This is essential for the idea to continue developing.
For example, I got an idea for an urban fantasy short story about garden gnomes playing a major role in helping rescue prisoners of human trafficking in China with dimensional magic. I sketched out the timeline, location, characters, and other details. I researched elements in the story following a rough outline. I am a hybrid of a planner and a Pantzer, creating enough of a timeline of scenes and the story arc to follow but loose enough for it to flex as the story expands.
Next is the typing, word play, placement of scenes, theme of the story, plot, and deleting, replacing and revising.
When the story stalls, because inevitably it will stall as part of the evolution of the story, I go onto another project. I do not believe in writer’s block. I believe the story will write itself as long as I have faith it will do so. If the story is meant to be written and I am purposeful about writing it, it will get done.
Sometimes the ideas lay dormant for years, others seem to call to me in a more creative urgency. Some stories , after a few hundred pages sit in my manuscript folder on Drop Box because I wrote myself into a corner. I think about them all the time, consider pulling one up and begin the revision process. I am not the only author to lament unfinished work laying in the manuscript closet. Maybe a few will eventually be revived and become something for the masses, but I do not question. This is how my first two novels were completed. When the piece beckons, I’ll take up my creative paddles, push off into the word river and ride the current, trusting the words will come.
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.
Spring and Things Magazine
A great read and resource for Spring.
The writer’s Grapevine is a quarterly news and literary magazine featuring Writers, Small Business owners and Nonprofits.
In each issue you’ll find a variety of Articles, Essays, Short Stories and Poems for your enjoyment and education.
Read the full edition at: https://pattysworlds.com/the-writers-grapevine-spring-and-things-
To learn more about Patty Fletcher and her magazine, here is the link to her blog:
Patty L. Fletcher
author and social media marketing assistant.
Learn more at: http://www.pattysworlds.com
APH Career Conversations podcast Join the presentation 🎙️
| Filed under blindness blogging Guide dogs writing
Save the Date
📖 📚
Join the APH Career Conversation with Ann Chiappetta
April 6, 2023, 6:00 – 7:00 PM EST
Career Conversations Interview with an Author
Ann Chiappetta will share what it has been like for her to self-publish her poetry, fiction and nonfiction books. Ann has delt with changing vision as a result of retinitis pigmentosa and has used writing and her creative skills to help cope with her vision loss.
Register Here for Career Conversations Interview with an Author
Read about Ann on the APH blog:
Ann and Bailey on bench: Both looking straight on
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.
January 2023 Annie Shares News V.3 I. 1
Annie Shares News January 2023 Volume 3 Issue 1
Anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io
2023 greetings! 🥳 🎉
2022 has been challenging and it’s great to be stepping out more, giving and receiving a hug from friends and colleagues once again. Society has endured and learned how to cope with the physical limitations associated with the pandemic and while we are still being effected by covid, we are adjusting. To hug or not to hug, that is the question.
One mask-wearing phenomenon I’d like to share is the increased level of general disorientation when wearing one. And it isn’t just me experiencing this weird reaction. Whenever I first put on a mask, it causes me to feel dizzy and like I am in a bubble. I can’t hear or rely on my sense of direction, which is usually good. The spatial awareness is the worst and I have spoken with other blind friends who have experienced a similar lack of sensory information from mask wearing. I tried a clear face shield and it was even worse. I hope this is something we can research more to help others.
I want to share some good news about a friend and colleague, Elizabeth Ianelli. She and I worked together and remained friends after we both left the VA. She is one of the most resilient people I know and I am pleased to share the advanced ordering link to her new gritty and powerful book about the troubled teen industry called I See You Survivor: Life inside (and outside) the totally f*****d up troubled-teen industry.
Another author I know, Trish Hubschman, has released her newest book, check it out:
Gayle’s Tales: Tracy Gayle Mysteries
by Trish Hubschman
Copyright December 2022
The book is for sale from Smashwords in eBook formats and from Amazon in e-book ($3.99), paperback ($8.50), and hardcover ($16.50).
175 pages in print.
Full details of this book and Trish’s four Tracy Gayle mystery novels are on her website:
https://www.dldbooks.com/hubschman/
Synopsis:
Gayle’s Tales is a collection of Tracy Gayle mystery short stories.
Everyone’s favorite couple, Tracy and Danny, are still going strong, romantically and professionally, rocking and rolling and solving crimes. The story is a first-person account told in Tracy’s point-of-view, detailing the circumstances as only she can tell it. Through all this, she and Danny are planning their wedding extravaganza at the Plaza Hotel in New York. In the end, she brings long–lost family members and friends back into each other’s arms and lives.
Trish is also appearing on January 25 at 7:00 p.m. eastern time as a guest author hosted by the Behind Our Eyes Book Launch program via zoom. If you would like the Zoom invitation, email booklaunch@behindoureyes.org and make sure you mention it is for Trish’s book.
What’s in store for 2023? Writing, of course! 😉 I am working on a nonfiction book about pet assisted therapy, gathering a third poetry collection, and writing a new crossover novel plus a new chapter of a sci-fi novella. I am reading different genres of books, including an RPG-inspired series penned by Kevin Sinclair, a series by Andrew Rowe narrated by one of my favorite voice actors, Nick Podell and Marshal Arcane by Terry Mancour is waiting in the queue. I also read The Address by Fiona Davis for my local book club. Very good historical fiction/mystery novel. I also must recommend The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. The audio book is performed by a talented voice actor and it is better than Irving’s book, The World According to Garp. It’s brilliant.
Reading is a considerable piece of developing as a writer and I plan to continue the quest. 😈
Until next month, be well and blessings to all.
Enjoy this classic poem about the New Year by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
The Death of the Old Year
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing:
Toll ye the church bell sad and slow,
And tread softly and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying.
Old year you must not die;
You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,
Old year, you shall not die.
He lieth still: he doth not move:
He will not see the dawn of day.
He hath no other life above.
He gave me a friend and a true truelove
And the New-year will take ’em away.
Old year you must not go;
So long you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go.
He froth’d his bumpers to the brim;
A jollier year we shall not see.
But tho’ his eyes are waxing dim,
And tho’ his foes speak ill of him,
He was a friend to me.
Old year, you shall not die;
We did so laugh and cry with you,
I’ve half a mind to die with you,
Old year, if you must die.
He was full of joke and jest,
But all his merry quips are o’er.
To see him die across the waste
His son and heir doth ride post-haste,
But he’ll be dead before.
Everyone for his own.
The night is starry and cold, my friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold, my friend,
Comes up to take his own.
How hard he breathes! over the snow
I heard just now the crowing cock.
The shadows flicker to and fro:
The cricket chirps: the light burns low:
’Tis nearly twelve o’clock.
Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we’ll dearly rue for you:
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.
His face is growing sharp and thin.
Alack! our friend is gone,
Close up his eyes: tie up his chin:
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,
And waiteth at the door.
There’s a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.
This poem is in the public domain.
Dreya sends her best wishes for the New Year!
One Dog’s Life 🦮 💖
| Filed under blindness Guide dogs writing
Second place winner! this essay will be in the December 2022 issue of the National Federation of the Blind’s Writer’s Division Literary magazine, Slate and Style.
One Dog’s Life
2011
Verona and my daughter play in the lake for an hour. the funniest thing is the way Verona blows water from her mouth after dropping the stick. It makes a loud, spitting sound that can be heard from the patio.
When the assorted waterfowl horde realizes she is visiting, it waddles in masse from grass to the lake weeds beside the dock. Labrador nose dilates, a front paw lifts, instincts override even an offer of a cookie. for just a little while she is the retriever, the soft-mouthed hunting companion, not a guide dog.
Each and every year we have together is a blessing, a time for me to feel unfettered. I try to think back on the way life was before training with Verona but my mind veers from those dark moments and I let them go. We are here, being warmed by the late afternoon sun. We are dog and woman, partners for however long time and fate permit.
2013
Four humans and two dogs fill the little red sedan. I sit in front, along with Mom, who is driving. In the back seat, Music’s furry butt crushes my sister, who, until now has suffered in silence.
“Thank God it’s a short ride,” I hear her mumble from somewhere behind us.
We reach our destination, extract ourselves from the little red sedan. Verona’s excitement is palpable. Once inside the gate, loose dogs run up to us, but I make her ignore them and sit until I’m ready. With a word she’s off. We claim a bench in the warm California sun. moments later Verona lopes by us, a pack of dogs giving chase. I listen for the pack to turn back and run past us again, Verona in the lead.
California 2013
Pebbles and shells litter the meandering path to the beach. The air resonates with surf and sea birds. I release Verona and she lopes off, nose to the ground
Music, my sister’s Golden Retriever, chases Verona into the water. As she turns to give chase, a huge wave crashes down and for a moment she is engulfed, Sucked away by green sea and foam. my heart skips a beat in arrested panic; The wave spits her out onto the beach and she runs to me, weaves in-between my legs and soaks my pants. I look like incontinence has gotten the best of me. Thereafter, Verona avoids the waves and prefers a safer splash in the wet sand and tidal pools instead.
It’s important that Verona has the opportunity to be a dog; so much responsibility is put upon her when waring the harness, it seems that this is the best way to let her know. As she digs a hole in the sand and flops down to dry off, my heart is content because she is doing just what she’s supposed to be doing, living a dog’s life.
close up of Black lab with snow on her face
Springtime Bliss
| Filed under nonfiction Poem writing
Springtime Bliss with Valentina
Blessed to have been invited to submit something for Valentina’s blog.
https://valentinaexpressions.com/2022/04/26/spring-beauty-and-books-ann-chiappetta/