Is it paranormal, or just plain weird?

Today's blog is a little late.  I know this.  It's also a bit on the rambling side.  Sorry about that.

The topic of the week is how much paranormal should a writer add.  Of course, with a topic like that, I couldn't possibly have a normal day, could I?

My novel has paranormal.  But it's more of the everyday type.  It's the "throwing salt over your shoulder" superstitions and "consulting the tarot cards" events which take place.  Oh, and the "seeing spirits in my living room" things, too.  My protagonist sees a coincidence and knows that it's fate or karma.  She is able to pull into traffic on a busy street and knows it's synchronicity.  

Despite being named after a Celtic Goddess, Cerridwen Baker doesn't want anything to do with spells or magic, so those items play a very minor role in my first book.  She does like the tarot, so the cards are more prominent.  She relies on feelings and intuition.  Isn't that psychic ability with another name?  A rose by any other name.....

What I think of as normal, others would consider odd.  The gifts I embrace would scare others away.  Heck, the gifts I embrace some say come from God, others say from Hell, right?  Just depends on your religious persuasion.  

So what is paranormal?  According to Wikipedia, it's a phenomena that science can't explain.  At one time airplanes would have been paranormal.  Science couldn't explain flying machines!  Who is to say that in 100 years the things we write about — spirits, ghosts, spells and whatnot — won't have a scientific explanation?  Will ghosts and "fortune telling" still be considered paranormal?  Or will science have caught up to the way people really live?  The way they think and believe and have believed for centuries?

It's hard to say, and I don't have an answer.  I do know that I'm going to keep writing what I do.  I'm going to keep working on stories with ghosts.  I'm going to write what I like to read.  Heck, if I like others probably will, too, right?

Blessings!

Nichole