Midwives have long been associated with the use of herbs and potions, as well as with witchcraft. Most of my colleagues are not witches, but before the advent of modern medicine, women were called upon not only to assist with childbirth, but also to use their knowledge to heal any number of ills, both physical and psychological, in men, women, and children. When the outcome was not good, or the one expected, the midwife was often accused of witchcraft or sorcery.

Modern midwifery practice embraces all belief systems and incorporates the use of herbs and alternative medical practices and, as such, Wiccans and those with less mainstream religious and spiritual practices often seek our services.

Though divination and connection with ghosts and spiritual beings lies outside the grasp of my mind and abilities, watching those who have the gift do their work has convinced me that all humans have the capacity to use parts of their brain in the same way, but few have developed it.

The first step is opening one’s mind to the possibility, then embracing it with a peaceful, accepting attitude. But in order to transfer that into credible fantasy and paranormal fiction, writers must, at the very least suspend disbelief and, at best, understand and accept it themselves.

In addition to mining my experience and harvesting story ideas from dreams, I’ve applied my research and journalistic skills to writing paranormal romance and urban fantasy. I begin with the facts. Huh? We’re talking paranormal, right?

Herbology, alchemy, astrology, tarot, and divination are as old as history. Prayers and offerings to deities in exchange for favors, intercessions, and miracles are part of most religions, as well as the belief in an all-powerful being or beings that manipulate events.

I value among my friends and clients many witches, energy healers, and spiritualists who have taught me much about their beliefs, and allowed me to experience how rituals (including births conducted in settings where the space is conducive to spiritual and metaphysical connections) generate energy, and how it is channeled to produce the desired effect or outcome.

I’ve carefully followed the instructions of a santera on the use of teas, banishing and cleansing, potions, offerings of fruit and burning scented candles to heal both physical and emotional distress (much the same way people use aromatherapy and many Catholics light votives and pray to saints).

Natural phenomena, like observing a woodland full of blinking fireflies, gave me pause to consider the possibility that fairies really do exist. I’ve talked with ghost hunters about their research and practice and learned how to monitor for electromagnetic activity.

I approach research for my paranormal fiction as a traveler who wants to enter the culture to best experience it. Showing up with a camera, pad, and pencil will not allow you to obtain the information you need, nor the context required to translate it into a compelling plot with believable characters. If you’re going to ask readers for leaps of faith, you’ll need to take a few yourself.

One result is my recent publication in Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/133489

“The Dhampir’s Kiss” introduces the characters in my current writing project. A gritty urban fantasy, Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams is set in The Bronx, notorious for its gang violence, arson, drugs, and prostitution. A beta reader compared to Sin City, and I describe it as and mix-up of the film Fort Apache, The Bronx and Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities with an updated paranormal twist.

Blurb:

Can any vow survive immortal life?
Excerpt:

No ordinary Bronx girl, though naïve and unaware of the vast power she possessed, Taina Aponte wasn’t desperate enough to offer her loyalty, her neck, or any other part of her body, to Raul in exchange for a hit of heroin, cocaine, or crystal meth.

Down boy. The desire to leap from his perch and take her, too compelling for even the most lovely of his harem to satisfy, must be restrained. His aura threatened to flare like a candle flame too close to gasoline. Raul suppressed his demon’s halo lest she become suspicious of his intent. Claiming The White Witch required more effort than he was accustomed to. Much more.

Taina bound a circle in the witches’ area. Sun glimmered through the trees, speckling the grass with flecks of gold. Brighter than he liked, but private. The multitude of castings over the years kept mundanes away. Poor bastards weren’t even aware of bumping into the transparent curtain of energy that snaked off in the other direction like a magickal path to the noisy playground.

No sign of her defacto bodyguard Arnaldo. Good. This evening he could get Taina dhamp drunk and willing, scratch a fang across her throat, penetrate her. It only took one encounter to inoculate with the virus and begin the change, to absorb the elixir of life, to transfer the soul, the body, and the mind to his service. To advance the evolution of his kind.

Author Bio:

Carole Ann Moleti lives and works as a nurse-midwife in New York City, thus explaining her fascination with all things paranormal, urban fantasy, and space opera. Her nonfiction focuses on health care, politics, and women’s issues. But her first love is writing science fiction and fantasy because walking through walls is less painful than running into them.

Carole’s work has appeared in a variety of speculative fiction venues including Lightspeed, The Internet Review of Science Fiction, Tangent Online, The Portal, and The Fix. Her short stories set in the worlds of her novels are featured in Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts and Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires.

http://caroleannmoleti.com