Paranormals | Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author

January 12, 2007July 8, 2019

Botanicas, Santeros and Santeria

Let me preface this with, I’m far from any kind of expert on Santeria. My exposure to it is because as a Cuban, santeria was something that everyone knew about. Even my parents and grandparents, devout Catholics that they were, would do things that I later recognized as being tied to Santeria beliefs.

How the Virgencita Caridad appeared in Cobre Bay What kinds of things? Well, the first thing you saw in my house was the statue of the Virgencita de la Caridad.

Who’s that? you might ask. Caridad del Cobre was an apparition of the Virgin Mary in Cobre bay. Our Lady of Caridad (or Charity) is also the Patron Saint of Cuba and my patron saint.

Anyway, on special days, the parents and grandparents would leave sweets or bring flowers to the Virgencita, much like you see Ricardo doing in DEVOTION CALLS as a way to honor the beliefs of those people who think he is a santero. I think those actions were a natural blending of their Christian beliefs with those of the Afro-Cuban santeria religion that was practiced in Cuba.

What’s a santero? It’s someone who is a priest in the Santeria religion. Santeros learn their practices orally from another santero.

What’s Santeria? As I said, I’m no expert. I researched the subject for the book and included what I could from my personal experiences in visiting an occasional botanica in NY, NJ or Miami. We sometimes went to get a statue or medal of La Virgencita Caridad for a new baby or home as the Virgencita was always with us.

What’s a botanica? It’s a place where you can acquire religious objects and other things, including what you may need to practice Santeria.

For a little more on this, including some links to other sites that explain Santeria, you can visit the Ricardo’s Botanica page at the new site we are developing.

January 11, 2007March 13, 2019

Characters of the Heart

Before I get to characters of the heart, just a few quick things.
1. I gained back a pound as you can see from the progress meter on the right hand side of the blog. Must be all that muscle I’m building on the treadmill and bike since I’ve been a good girl.
2. Speaking of good, check out the Entenmann’s Little Bites Fudge Brownies. A bag is 100 calories of delicious chocolatey goodness — but you’ve got to stop at just one bag because they are so good!
3. If you want to subscribe to the blog, just click on one of the buttons at the bottom right of the blog and you can add the blog to your personalized browser page. It works great.

Finally, 4. Thanks for your comments. I don’t normally reply on the blog itself as I like to reply to each person personally and if they want, continue the conversation. If you’d rather that I did it on the blog, please let me know.

Okay, characters of the heart. Diana Reyes and Ryder Latimer (DARKNESS CALLS, DEATH CALLS). Definitely special to me. Tori , Sylvia and Virginia from the Chicas books. Also sharing a place there. Your heart can never be too crowded with people you love.

Yes, I called them people because when you’ve been involved with them for so long, they almost become real which is why it’s so hard to think about letting them go . . . eventually.

Ryder is special because he represents so many different things. Eternal love. Strength. Honor. Caring. He was always a special character from the moment he came to life in my head.

Diana has many of the same traits, but she’s wounded and troubled. I wanted to find a way to make her whole and hence THE CALLING was created because even though each story is about different characters, in my mind, each story also takes Diana a step closer to becoming whole.

If you want to see how I originally pictured Diana and Ryder, you can click here for a sneak peek at some scenes that were either deleted or changed in DARKNESS CALLS. Once you visit there, you can also check out a slightly more intense scene that was changed in DEATH CALLS.

Much as Diana and Ryder represent the darkest aspects in my heart, Tori, Sylvia and Virginia are the light. The yin and yang of me.

Why Tori? Deep dark secret time here . . . She’s the one who is most like me in real life. Responsible. Dependable. Demanding of herself, but with a good heart and lots of buried passion (I luckily can release that passion through my writing!)

Sylvia and Virginia! I am so excited that their story will be coming out in September of this year. The tentative title for the book is SOUTH BEACH CHICAS CATCH THEIR MAN, but this book is so much more than a story about two women finally finding love. It’s a story about a headstrong and temptestuous daughter, Sylvia, who has a successful and sexy mom, Virginia.

The relationship between mother and daughter is special and it’s very similar to the relationship I had with my mom and which I know I’ve created with my daughter.

I also wanted to show that women in their forties are still sensual and desirable, especially since 40 is the new 20!

Do you have any characters you’ve fallen in love like that? (And it’s okay if they’re not in one of my books!) Let us know who and why?

January 10, 2007

Do you believe?

Do you believe in life energies and otherworldly things? In alternative treatments for illnesses?

I don’t know what made me choose such topics for DEVOTION CALLS, or maybe I do. When my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer (and a big KEEP IT UP for all of you who had New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking), we followed all the regular avenues for treatment.

Since then I’ve asked myself, were there others to try . . .

So, Life Energies? Are there such things?

In DEVOTION CALLS, Ricardo Fernandez has learned to augment the gift he was born with — the gift to heal or kill — by using certain meditation techniques. Research showed me what kinds of things people said they experienced in such states and from there, Ricardo’s experiences were born.

Alternative Treatments?

Much like I must have felt, Sara Martinez is willing to try anything to save her mother and so she visits Ricardo and relies on his powers.

So do they work? What do you think?

I know this — I do believe that prayer and meditation can accomplish things if the will is strong enough. If love is present. If you have read DEVOTION CALLS, you know what I’m talking about. If you know the scene to which I’m referring, let me know what you thought.

So, I guess I’m warning you all that there could be spoilers in the comments to this post, but they will not ruin the mystery in the story involving the chupacabra. They will, however, maybe give you something to think about.

As for the procrastination and all your comments to JUST DO IT! Okay, I am (and have been) hard at work on multiple sets of revisions. Right now I’m deep into the last of them which I hope to have ready within a week or two.

But even I need a little break and so while watching HOUSE last night (yes, I do watch TV and work at the same time), I took some of your suggestions and fixed the trailer I had done. Here’s the new one:
[wmv width=”320″ height=”240″]http://home.att.net./~rtsmedicalsystems/calling_2.wmv[/wmv]