What happens when I pay attention and read the rules for Row of Words in 80 Days is a blog post like this.
Receiving ROW80 blog posts by email kept writing fresh in my brain, along with family; friends; spirituality; posts by Lynn Writing Over the Moon on Instagram; belonging to Plano Writer’s Group on FB; and being friends with Heather Bennett who inspires me to keep going with everything I do in life.
Today’s update is that I set a goal a few weeks back to write at least 30 minutes a day, four days a week. I chose to work on the Natural Gifts prequel I started in 2019. I wanted my love for writing to come back and it has. My check-in is that I have been consistent for a few weeks and am now researching Joshua Tree, CA in the year 1600 for story setting. Understanding my POV character, Ta’va, means learning about the world she lived in.
To my blog readers: guess what? This is the prequel to the Natural Gifts series! If you wondered how The Dreaming and Gehenna were created, well, so did I. We’re going to get to read that story.
Laughter followed Velvet as she left the stage in the grotto where she had been hired to perform a private show for the wealthy creatures’s birthday party.
She knew the crowd were eyeing her bare torso, hoping the current would sway her long silver and lilac-tinted hair off of her breasts so they could see if the color of her nipples matched the color of her lilac fin.
She sighed. Maybe it was time to change. Raven black hair with a bright, shiny aqua blue tail made her audiences stare, but she did get more jobs that way. She wanted more shows at the big clubs.
“Velvet.” Cassidy, her manager, called out to her from where she waited in the luxurious apartment the management called a dressing room.
Cassidy was a mermaid, too. She was much older than Velvet, who was only one hundred years old. Cassidy was more than three hundred years old. No one would know that if it weren’t for the Hall of Records there in The Dreaming because everything stayed the way you wanted it to.
Continued in Excerpt #2
Blurb:
She lives life below the waves. What will a man sacrifice to discover it’s not a dream?
Mermaid Velvet has always had a special fascination with the World. And studying its two-legged humans has given the aspiring comedian unique skills to make her audiences laugh. But when she saves a human who believes he’s drowning, she’s stunned by the magic that flows between them.
Saunders is trapped between two realities with no memory of his past. Lost in a strange, underwater domain, he comes face-to-face with an alluring goddess of the sea. When he disappears from her realm, he’s desperate to reunite with the entrancing beauty.
As Velvet continues to bring Saunders out of the darkness, her love for him grows along with her fear that his next disappearance might be his last. And as his memories slowly return, Saunders must decide if he’s willing to leave the World permanently for a chance to be with the mermaid he desires.
Can Velvet and Saunders overcome his terrible fate and sink into each other’s perfect arms?
Saunders’ Choice is a standalone novella in the enchanting Natural Gifts fantasy romance series. If you like irresistible attraction, mystery, and love against the odds, then you’ll adore Gina Briganti’s tale of the deep.
*An early version of Saunders’ Choice was published in the Changing Worlds anthology.
Buy Saunders’ Choice to dive into an ocean of passion today!
Gina Briganti writes fantasy and sci-fi romance in north Texas. She also writes holistic health non-fiction because real life can be magic, too. Her credentials in holistic health include certification as a Reiki Master Practitioner and teacher, certification as a nutrition consultant, and a degree in holistic nutrition.
When she’s not writing, eating delicious healthy food, reading, or making videos, she is spending time with family and friends. Her constant companion is a special soul who masquerades as a lab and chow mix.
I’m celebrating the new No Yesterdays (Natural Gifts, book 3) cover with a giveaway. There are 10 days left to enter to win a Starbucks gift card. Click here to enter and get all the details
Thanks to Victoria Cooper for another gorgeous cover!
No Yesterdays
Soul mates are being drawn together in numbers we’ve never seen.Gifts are unlocking faster than racing hearts, adding eight new people to the soul group. The group is growing, their energy blending in ways they didn’t know could happen. The big question is why is the soul mate bond in a hurry?
Brittany has been pining for Carter for years now. She needs a push.
Jack is stubborn personified and close to having Darah walk away, keeping her secrets to herself. They need a shove.
Jason is having the time of his life in college. All those beautiful women. Ha. Not the plan. Angelina can handle him.
Rowan is convinced that his soul mate didn’t incarnate with him in this lifetime. Surprise! This psychic finds out exactly why the women in his family told him his arrogance was blinding.
There’s no looking back now.
There are No Yesterdays.
Buy No Yesterdays to join in on the fantasy and the romance today.
“I didn’t come here with this in mind. I just wanted to see you, and to thank you for getting mad at me.” He sat on the toilet, mesmerized.
“I’ve been mad at you more than I’ve been anything else since the day we met.” She swirled water with her fingers, breaking up clumps of bubbles, drowning others. “What’s on your mind now, Jason?”
He shook his head, laughed. “You know what I’m thinking about.”
“Sex, Jason? Sex with me? Wet, slippery, bathtub sex?” She splashed him with enough water to wet his pants.
“Lina,” he warned.
“What? Mr. I-don’t-want-to-tie-you-down is afraid of a little no strings sex?”
“The minute you showed up in my life there were more strings than a yarn warehouse. I’ll wait for you out in the living room.”
Walking out of there was actually harder than talking to his mom about what a cheating, lying asshole his father had been, but he did it.
“Hi.” A pair of huge gray eyes in a pretty oval face was the first thing he saw when he came out of the bedroom.
“That’s Deb, she’s Tanya’s friend.” Rain pointed to each of the women as he introduced them.
“I didn’t know you were bringing a friend along for Deb.” Tanya threaded her fingers through Rain’s. “That’s so sweet.”
“Oops, misunderstanding.” Jason smoothed it with his voice. “I’m with Lina, Rain’s roommate. It’s nice to meet you both. I’m Jason Carapelli.”
The newcomers couldn’t know that he was saying his name with a whole new level of pride.
He’d been proud to be a Carapelli because his mother was one, too. When she’d married Joe and became a Jacobs, he was still proud to be a Carapelli.
It was when Carter and Brittany found their rhythm, then Rowan and Jenny jumped right into happy times, that he’d started to wonder about what effect his father had on him. It had chipped away at him until he came to the ugly, and wrong, conclusion that he couldn’t be with his own soul mate because he was his father’s son.
It had taken that special person, the woman who had just tempted him beyond reason, to help him see that he was his mother’s son as much as he was his father’s, and that she’d always had more influence on him because she’d always been there. His father had left long before he died when he and Jenny were ten.
Lina came in wearing a robe that covered everything but was way sexier than Jason considered fair.
“Hello.” Lina greeted their visitors. “I’m Lina, Rain’s roommate.” She turned to Jason. “Do you want anything to eat or drink? I was going to heat up some veggie pasta from the center.”
“Sure, thanks.” He smiled.
“We’re heading out to a movie, grab some pizza after. You want to join us?” Rain asked before Lina reached for plates.
“Jase?” Lina leaned against the counter, asking his opinion.
So his choices were to be here alone with her, or for them to go out with Rain and his company. It was time to rip the band-aid off. “I think we’ll hang out here, if that’s cool with you, Lina.”
Rain nodded, high-fived Jason. “Right on!”
Tanya and Deb were naturally confused.
“Thanks.” Jason told him, grateful for his support. “We’re sort of making up.” Jason explained for Deb and Tanya.
Tanya nodded. “That makes sense. We need to go, Rain, or we’re going to be late for the movie.”
“Cool, yeah. See you guys.”
“Does Rain ever have trouble with dates when you walk around looking like that?” Like a wanton sex goddess.
“It doesn’t happen too often. He’s only been on a few dates since the breakup. You want some juice, or water?” She glanced in the fridge. “I have carrot, or mango. I can mix them if you want.”
“This is weird, Lina. Isn’t it weird for you?” He made himself stay across the room from her.
“You turning me down in the bathtub that was the weird part. This feels pretty normal compared.” She shrugged.
“I think we should date-” He broke off. “Fuck, Lina, please go put some clothes on.”
When she reached up for the plates, the short robe rode up and showed that she wore a black G-string for panties.
“Sure.” She turned, threatened to untie the belt at her waist.
“In your room,” he groaned.
“You’ve already seen me naked,” she argued.
“What do you want from me, Lina? I’m trying to be a good guy here.” He held his hands out in supplication.
Gina Briganti writes paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi romance in north Texas. Her constant companion is a special soul who masquerades as a dog.
when Jason made that shaky drive pulling a horse trailer for the first time, guided by Joe and Stan, to go look at his first horse. Diablo let them take him home to Sunny Skies Stables. Lucky humans!
Diablo witnessed Jason and Lina’s first kiss. There’s more to that story. Take a journey with me to Top Drawer Ink Corp.’s Animal Stories page and see the story behind how that first kiss came to be.
Thank you to Top Drawer Ink for publishing Diablo’s Wish and an excerpt from No Yesterdays where you can read, or relive, the day Jason and Lina met.
Thank you for the time we spend together! It’s always better when we’re together!
I am in danger of wearing out the ! key on my laptop, but when it has taken eight years to share this book with you, I will take the risk!
Natural Gifts…where fate gets a good name.
A group of naturally gifted people have come together. One thinks he’ll surprise them with what he knows, but fate is playfully setting him up.
Fate has helped two couples to find their way to each other. To complete each other and unlock their gifts. Fate is done waiting. There’s no looking back now.
There are No Yesterdays.
I loved writing this story, meeting new characters and spending time with the originals. We have seen a lot of these characters grow since we met them in The Dreaming back in 2010. Thank you for staying with us (you know they are like family to me, right?) throughout the three novels and two novellas.
There is more to come, as you will see at the end of the book, where I share a sneak preview of Deep In The Dreaming.
No Yesterdays is the third novel in the Natural Gifts series of uplifting paranormal romances by Gina Briganti.
A group of naturally gifted people have come together. One thinks he’ll surprise them with what he knows, but fate is playfully setting him up. Fate has helped two couples to find their way to each other. To complete each other and unlock their gifts. Now, fate is done waiting. There’s no looking back now.
www.ginabriganti.com 