Void of Course Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams Book 1
Paranormal & Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Champagne Book Group
May 26, 2022
Kindle
420 pages
Taina Aponte, the sole survivor of an arson fire that killed her family, was taken to safety in Puerto Rico by her grandmother to escape the wholesale destruction of The Bronx. Thirty years later Taina, now a witch and still haunted by her memories, is back in the hood.
She’s inexperienced in urban magick and ill-prepared to battle the roving gangs of dhampirs and werewolves that set The Bronx aflame and wrested control from the police. But time is running out to find those who set the fire—and why.
Taina’s search for the murderers uncovers a vast werewolf/dhampir conspiracy—and an alliance of fae to aid in her quest for justice. It’s not long before she realizes she needs more than the elderly santera who teaches Taina mysterious Santeria rituals.
She enters into an uneasy alliance with Arnaldo Arroyo, a reformed addict turned community activist who schools her his own special mix of sex magick and brujería.
The truths she uncovers shake her faith in everything and everyone she ever knew. Will she give up and run? Or will she accept the mandate of the orishas to restore the balance
2022 RCA Author Interview with Carole Ann Moleti
Interview by Sherry Perkins
When you’re a nurse, it’s difficult not to include certain themes in your writing. Stigma, cultural norms, perception are among them, but hope, resilience and recovery are the motivations in what we strive to incorporate into our care. Carole Ann weaves what she knows (and often teaches) with what is unknown. The unknown is also a life’s motivator–for good, or not. Which is the outcome in her stories? You’ll need to read them to discover that.
I grew up in The Bronx, New York City, which is infamous for violent crime, arson, drug dealing and urban decay. While immersed in the day-to-day life of on the streets as a public health professional and nurse practitioner I developed relationships with the locals who allowed me to experience the diverse culture of the borough. My coworkers and I helped support communities as they struggled to improve their lives and living conditions. The color, energy and multicultural pastiche is integrated into this novel, which uses magical realist fantasy to show off the best, and the worst, of The Bronx as well as the resilience of its residents.
I wrote Void of Course (Book One) in 2009. Never give up trying to revise your work. Find other writers to for feedback and take writing classes and workshops to help you on your journey. Write what you know, but don’t be afraid to push the boundaries and try something bold.
The Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams series celebrates diversity, inclusion, and illuminates the struggle of persons of color against structural racism and the stigma of poverty. Its message is one of hope, resilience and recovery. Thank you for reading.
AN EXCERPT FROM 2022 RCA ROMANCE/PARANORMAL/FANTASY NOMINEE VOID OF COURSE:
Taina paced. Whatever Josefa was brewing must be quite intricate. The shop bell tinkled, the sticky door scraped over the floor. The woman she’d met in the park entered, the sparkling bronze colored fabric of her skirt so tight over ample hips it was a wonder she could walk. Bead necklaces adorned her neck, draping gracefully over the brown blouse interwoven with gold thread that made her sparkle like a jewel. She held her head, wrapped in a matching turban like a princess.
Taina’s heart lightened. “Blessed be, Yoruba.”
“Blessings to you, Miss Taina. Where is Miss Josefa?”
Taina’s eyes were drawn to the beads around the woman’s neck adorned with carvings of skulls and other ghoulish icons. “Making me a potion. For female troubles and migrañas.”
“Ah, yes, doing magick will cause that.” Yoruba spoke with no malice, no judgment in her voice. “But the spells I cast leave people with headaches and female troubles.” She chuckled.
No, this wasn’t a like mind.
“You favor this?” Yoruba picked up Eleugga‘s head—having sensed Taina’s gaze on the half black, half red face with seashell eyes.
“No, he frightens me.”
“There is demon and angel in all of us.” The exotic dialect conveyed a special eloquence to Yoruba’s words.
Josefa shuffled in and nodded to the two women. She held a small brown bottle and a seven day candle with the same arrow-headed black and red icon stenciled on the front. “How can I help you, señora?”
“I need these, please madame.” Yoruba handed her a list.
Josefa read it and raised her eyebrows. “Un momento. Let me pack up Taina’s things.” She cackled. “Don’t want to mix any of these in by mistake.”
There was no coincidence the three of them had come together here, today.
Synchronicity was a sign from the goddess to proceed. “Josefa, I met Yoruba near Ritual Rock a few weeks ago.”
“That park is a magnet for those craving filth and depraved orgies.” Josefa’s dislike of public displays, and of magick, was embedded deep.
“There is great power there, if one knows how to control it.” Yoruba’s teeth gleamed.
Josefa always ignored what she didn’t want to hear. She dropped a ball encrusted with black and red beads into Taina’s left hand, then fixed an azabache bracelet dangling a red fist onto the right. “This will quell the jealousy, the mal de ojo circulating around those men.”
The minute Josefa’s hands left hers a stabbing pain took the left side of Taina’s neck. She dropped Elegguá’s macuto.
Josefa packed the candle, the potion, and the beaded ball in a brown bag. “Thirty dollars for the reading and supplies.”
Taina’s fingers still tingled, and she had trouble grasping the bills in her wallet. “Thank you.” She pulled on the door. It didn’t open. She tugged again with her entire weight, but it refused to budge, trapping her in a hive of dark magick. Panic ricocheted between her shoulders like ping pong balls.
While Josefa was stowing the cash in her drawer, Yoruba pulled the door open with no effort and whispered in Taina’s ear. “I saw you in the park with your man. Making love and magick in the rain. Don’t be afraid to dance with demons, Miss Taina. But when you don’t like the music, stop dancing.”
Taina forced herself to not run.
ABOUT CAROLE ANN MOLETI:
Carole Ann Moleti lives and works as a nurse-midwife in New York City. Her nonfiction focuses on health care, politics, and women’s issues. But her first love is writing fantasy because walking through walls is less painful than running into them.
The Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams novel series was inspired by Carole’s life, and her life’s work while she roamed the streets of The Bronx as it morphed from an emblem of urban blight to a vibrant and ethnically diverse borough in New York City.
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