Greetings from a Hot, Humid New York City and Carol Ann Moleti

Though it is best known for the bright lights, quirky people and places in the five boroughs of New York City, just a short drive to the north and you’re in the country. A few more hours, and you’re in ex-urbia.
I was born in Manhattan, raised in Da Bronx, and have spent most of my life losing the accent while holding onto the lessons learned in a place whose name is synonymous with urban decay and despair.

I still work in the heart of The Bronx, which pumps its lifeblood through my veins. Like most New York City residents, I traveled on the subways before I could walk. No better way to get around and no better entertainment value for the dollar, even though service disruptions are frequent and the challenges formidable.

Which is why I love to escape to the country whenever I get a chance, my most favorite upstate destination being Cazenovia, a lovely Central New York town with cornfields, cows, a lovely park, hometown parades, festivals, and cool, fresh air. Last fall, we watched a hunt club assemble.  Poking around the Ledyard mansion and grounds at the Lorenzo historic site, one can imagine herself as a character in an English garden or in the downright Gothic Dark Aisle.

When I’m not working or tending to my husband, three kids, dog, cat and garden, I’m writing. There are the things I must write: academic articles, the things I need to write: op-ed, and essays about health care, politics, and women’s issues, and the things I want to write: speculative fiction, especially paranormal romance and urban fantasy.

Where do I get my writing inspirations? Hey, I ride the subway, ya know. Plus, if you’ve ever stayed up all night working, you know that strange out of body experience that occurs at about four a.m. when alien life forms and strange creatures crawl out of the shadows.  Everything takes on a surreal dimension. There is rarely a day that goes by without a new scene, snippet of dialogue or story idea. Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams was “conceived” and “gestated” on my daily commute to work (in The Bronx). Unfinished Business, my paranormal romance, was “born” one Fourth of July weekend upstate. While opening up a cottage and vacuuming up dead flies, the image of a woman finding a trunk of clothes in an attic popped into my head.

Time for a little fun. Where did I capture the image of the hen and her chicks? Hint: It’s not what you think. First one to answer correctly on this blog wins the choice of one of the anthologies featuring my work.

Now, a quick peek at my usual haunts: 

My favorite places to eat in New York City:

Any restaurant on Arthur Avenue, Little Italy of The Bronx.

Johnnie’s Reef, at the tip of City Island, The Bronx. 

My favorite things to do with the kids:

Visit The New York Zoological Society (aka The Bronx Zoo), The New York Aquarium and Coney Island Boardwalk (Brooklyn) 

My favorite Manhattan Destinations:

The Upper East Side, 96^th Street off the Number 6 Local subway, for the 92nd Street Y, low key restaurants and plenty of local color and culture. 

My favorite escape:

The Catskills or Adirondack Mountains to hike, ski, canoe, kayak, relax, write.

Carole Ann Moleti is a nurse-practitioner, midwife, and lifelong New Yorker. The streets, subways, and emergency room cubicles are a rich source of inspiration not only for professional publications, op-ed and commentary, but also for her urban and paranormal fantasies.

Excerpts of Carole’s memoir, Someday I’m Going to Write a Book: Diary of an Urban Missionary, have appeared in Oasis Journal, Thanksgiving to Christmas: A Patchwork of Stories, This Path, and Noneuclidean Café. One, "Everything Must Go" was awarded Oasis Journal’s prize for best nonfiction in 2009.

She is a staff reviewer for the speculative fiction review venues Tangent Online and The Portal, and has also written for The Internet Review of Science Fiction and The Fix.

Free Reads –available on Carole Ann Moleti’s website on the News page http://carolannmoleti.com-worth the few clicks over. 

You’ll also find links to excerpts and buy links at her site plus links to all her fabulous blogs.  To reach her on Facebook, search Carole-Ann-Moleti.  She’s also got that so amusing Twitter.