poetry – Behind Closed Doors

#ThrowbackThursday: Revisiting My Journey Through #Poetry #ARTG

It’s Throwback Thursday and two years ago this week, I was getting ready to publish my first book of poetry…on my own without a publisher. Fear and inexperience threatened to derail my resolve. No matter how scared I was to do it, I knew I needed to get the collection out there of all to see. I wanted to share my journey to find happiness. I had gone through hell and back again and detailed it all through poetry. When I couldn’t find the words to speak, my poetry came through for me. It helped me work through some of the most painful and dark times in my life to the happiest here with my soul mate.

It took many years, a failed marriage and a shattered heart but in the end I found my happily ever after with my husband, Liam. Neither of us were looking for a long-term relationship when we met. Both of us had come through nasty breakups and I was legally separated from the first husband. It was a mess but through it all we were able to find each other and a love that wouldn’t be denied.

Back to the poetry book. Follow Me: Poetry from the Heart and Soul. The first cover was a quick photo I found in some clip art. I didn’t have the money to get a good stock photo at the time, but when I did I updated the cover to what it is now. Some people may still see that old cover out there and when I see it, I smile. Like me, it’s gone through changes to its last edition. I have that original cover framed on my wall above my writing area. When we have the new office set up in the second bedroom, I’ll move it in there and put up all the covers. As with the poems, the covers detail my journey as an author, publisher and cover artist. I’m proud of them all!

As with my covers, the video trailers I’ve made have evolved from my first one. I’ve learned a lot and had tons of fun in the process. Here’s the video for this book. It showcases one of the poems in the collection that encourages the reader to follow their hearts because in the end that’s where your true love will be found.

Follow Me New cover Large

I’d like to share another poem from the book, one that I wrote when Liam and I were in the early stages of our relationship. He was active duty military and could get called away at any time. Both of us were dating others at the time but moving toward becoming each other’s one and only. The more I wanted to pull away from him, afraid I’d be hurt again, the more I had longed to be wrapped in his arms. Come to find out, he felt the same!

* * * *

Safe In Your Arms

Tossing and turning

Restless and burning

Aching to feel your body

Close to mine.

The bed that we once shared

Seems cold and lonely

Without you to hold me tight.

When you are here,

All sadness and pain disappear

And I am safe in your arms

Every night.

Once again tossing and turning

Restless and yearning

For the day you will

Return back to me.

Knowing in my heart of hearts

Your First Love will always call…

Taking you away to the arms

Of the beautiful, cruel and majestic

Lady of the Sea.

Knowing all along

Your heart would not belong

To me alone…

I still chose to share mine

With you.

For the Lady promised

She would keep you safe

And bring you home

When your journey together

Was through.

Tossing and turning.

My heart restless and burning

For your love,

Your touch and your kiss.

Hoping and praying

That the coming dawn would finally bring

The day I will be safe

In your arms…

And once again our hearts joined

In peaceful bliss.

©Tammy Dennings Maggy

3/28/2011

You can find this collection as an ebook for only 99 cents from the following retailers. It’s also available in print.

Sassy Vixen Publishing

#Holiday Surprise from @SassyVixPub Authors

Welcome to Behind Closed Doors! Today is the start of a fabulous sale of all the books Sassy Vixen Publishing has put out so far. Of course that includes all of mine except the two I have out with Siren Bookstrand. In just a few short weeks, I’ll continue that series with Sassy Vixen Publishing with the release of The Surrender of Julia (Now and Forever 3)

Before that happens, SVP has decided to offer my poetry, Lia’s novella, Tawny’s novella and the Christmas anthology all for 50% off on All Romance ebooks, Omnilit and Smashwords. To get the discount at All Romance or Omnilit, all you have to do is go to the book’s page on their sites and click to purchase. The price will already be slashed. For Smashwords, you need the individual codes listed in the banners below.

So go on and grab all of our titles while the sale lasts. You have until midnight December 23rd. Enjoy!

I Did It! @dochappycamper Is Now a Best Selling Author! #vampires #poetry

Hello my friends! Welcome back to Behind Closed Doors. I come to you today waist deep in the edits for The Surrender of Julia (Now and Forever 3) in order to share some fabulous news. Today, while I was at work at the veterinary hospital one of my poetry books climbed the charts at All Romance ebooks affiliate Omnilit. The Courtship of the Vampyre is now a BEST SELLER!!! It’s ranked number four of thirty-seven and it’s earned the coveted silver star. I had to stop myself from putting more exclamation points after the last few sentences. I’m just absolutely beside myself happy with this news.

It’s been one hell of a busy day seeing my patients and mulling over the first editor’s suggestions and corrections to Julia’s story. I have to tell you, I”m not very fond of edits and when I got them last night I was a bit upset with some of the criticism. Then I took a deep breath and read through the comments and suggestions again. Many made sense and I plan to work with those. Some suggestions just aren’t going to make it in the final draft. The reason is quite simple. They’re not the way I write. They’re not MY voice so to speak. Sure, I can take a few of them and make them into something I’d put to paper, but the others…nuh uh. NO WAY.

Does that make the critique wrong? Nope. It just means I choose not to take all the advice given. That’s what edits are all about. Your editors are not there to rewrite your work. They’re the grammar police and content patrol. They help you see the holes in the manuscript where the story isn’t flowing well, or where sections can be rearranged to create a better experience for the readers. You don’t have to take their advice, but if all of the editors on your project make the same suggestions or similar ones, it’s probably best to go with the consensus.

Having published my first two books with Siren, I had the benefit of working with some fabulous editors. They took the time to read through my work and recognize my vision. They helped me bring out the best in my writing and my characters. Was I forced to accept their changes? Nope. When it came to the Siren house rules on punctuation and grammar, the editors ruled the roost. When it came to my characters and cutting scenes because they were “too chatty,” I fought a bit. Most of the time I won out, but there were a few times, I had to concede they were right. The story did run smoother.

With Julia’s story…hmmmm

I’m waiting on my second editor to finish his run through. I’ll compare the two edits, make any changes and then the whole thing goes to a third editor. Is that too much? Not for me. I don’t think one set of eyes is enough. I want bad girl Julia Santos to get her story told. This is the way to do it properly. She’s not a saint and many readers will be a bit pissed off she’s so selfish. Some may even feel she doesn’t deserve her happily ever after because she doesn’t redeem herself soon enough in the story. Redemption can always come at the final hour. When the Gods believe one of their creations is worthy enough to get their happily ever after, who the hell are we to judge?

This brings me back to The Courtship of the Vampyre. In that collection of poems, the reader follows Cain from the moment he becomes the first Guardian of the Night. He wasn’t punished by the Gods for the death of his brother, but instead given the honor of guarding the legacy of man—The Tree of Life. His brother Malachi on the other hand is cursed with the same immortality, but at a cost. He’s cursed with having to walk the night forever because he dared to question the Gods called The Three. Go ahead and watch this video trailer featuring one of the poems in the book.

Thank you everyone for helping make my dreams come true. Now I can officially call myself a Best Selling Author. 🙂

Until next time

~Tammy

Debuting The Final Version of The Courtship of the Vampyre #Trailer #erotica #poetry #vampires

I’ve finished the final version (hopefully) of the video trailer for The Courtship of the Vampyre. As I created it with the Windows Live Movie Maker, the entire vision of the series hit me like a ton of bricks. There is so much information that I’m not sure I’ll be able to get it written down fast enough, but I’ll give it the ole college try! LOL

Back to the video…while I watched it for the “gazillionth” time I realized it’s one of the videos that tell the story of the series. It shows the underlying tragedy that ripped apart a family forever. That’s the heart of the entire series really. One brother is given the blessing that another brother feels should be rightfully his and demands to have it too. Well, when you mess with The Three (Yeshua, Lady Fate, and Lucius) and question their reasoning behind what they do, you end up with the short end of the stick. Just sayin’!

So when you’re the one receiving the short end and you have to live an eternity being reminded of it every single waking moment of every day, you tend to get bitter and turn to your dark side. Everybody has one, but some of us tend to embrace it a bit more fully than the rest of us. That would be Malachi, the seventh son of Adam. Even as bad as he is, he ends up finding a partner that can go toe to toe with him. She cropped up while I was looking at the photos to use for the video I released today. I don’t know her name yet, she’s a bit shy around me at the moment but I hope to get her to tell her tale soon…real soon. It’s looking like Malachi and this dark beauty will be the focus of Kayne Legacy 3.

Okay okay! I’ll stop talking in riddles and show you the video. As always, let me know what you think of it and the story. The text in the main body of the video is one of the poems that’s included in the book. It’s one that told Cain’s story in an abbreviated form, but one that served it’s purpose nonetheless.

Enjoy!

New Release! The Courtship of the Vampyre is Now Available #vampires #poetry

I’m thrilled to announce that I finally finalized and uploaded The Courtship of the Vampyre to Smashwords and Amazon. It’s going to take a little time for Amazon to have it live, but right now you can get all ebook formats at Smashwords…go on! You know you want to zip on over there and get your own copy. I’ll wait. 🙂

I still have to wait a few more days to see if it’s been accepted into Smashwords’ Premium Catalog, but it’s worth it. If it’s accepted, then it will be out to Barnes and Noble, Apple, Sony and many other outlets within the next week or two.

I decided to make this book only 99 cents. It’s a small collection and a fast read. For those of you who’ve been following my posts, you’ll know these poems are a small outline of the story lines in another series I’m working on about how vampires came to be. The Kayne Legacy is turning out to be a much larger story than I had anticipated. Much like with the Now and Forever series, the secondary characters have absolutely taken over. All of them are demanding their own scenes if not entire books. I swear, they are a spoiled bunch! LOL

I’ve also decided the next poetry book will be inspired by witches and other magical creatures. Well, I sort of started that with The Vixen, the Witch and the Daemon…the poem and the novel. The poem was the outline for the novel and the start of the entire Songs of Fate series that will be written by my alter ego Lia Michaels. I would do it, but that’s another thing that taken another life of its own. There will be multiple menage couplings in that group of books so that’s Lia’s territory. LOL! But so she doesn’t have all the fun, I get to write the poetry book that goes with that series. Look for witches, warlocks, mermaids, elves, and many others to make appearances in those books!

In the meantime, look for me and my books on Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes and Noble and well, just about anywhere. I’m trying to get my stuff out there!

Thank you all for going on this ride with me.

~Tammy

Second Poetry Book Nearly Finished! #vampires #erotica

I’m celebrating a few things tonight. First of all, I finally purchased the domain name for this site so now I feel like an official website/blog owner and author. Whoohoo! You can find this page now by typing in authortammydenningsmaggy.com Can you believe it? I know that may sound funny to some of you, but it’s just one more step making my dream a reality. I have also purchased sassyvixenpublishing.com . It’s going along with our LLC and soon my husband and I hope to get our little publishing house up and running enough to handle more than just me, Lia and Stephanie. Yes all three Sassy Vixen authors are me, but you got to start somewhere right? LOL

Now for the next surprise I’m celebrating. I had thought that I had a complete set of poems for the new book all set and ready to go. I was wrong. Several more ideas popped into my head over the last few days. What’s a poet to do? Keep going of course! I’m still planning on releasing the book on or before February 28th, but just in case let’s all keep our fingers, toes and any other appendages crossed! I thought I would share another poem from the collection and it’s one of the more sensual ones. Most of them are basically telling the story of the various characters in The Kayne Legacy series, but a few like this one, focus more on individuals. Who knows if they will actually end up as additional players in the series? We shall see.

So without further adieu, here is one of my latest finished just this evening.

Encounters in the Dark

The hours of the day pass ever so slowly
Causing my anxiety to rise.
My heart races at the memory of our coupling
From the night before.
Every touch, every kiss we shared only heightened the experience,
Making me feel even more alive.
The heat between us was more than I’ve ever known
And it’s shaken me to my very core.

Over and over again our bodies come together,
Mouths exploring, limbs completely entwined.
With one last feral thrust, you take me over the edge,
Your fangs at my neck leaving your mark.
When asked why must you always mark me so,
Your eyes flash with renewed lust before you whisper in my ear
“So ALL will know you are forever mine.
And although they’ll heal, my brand is upon you
So you’ll never forget our encounters in the dark.

Exhausted beyond belief and yet I still cling to you,
Unwilling to let you go with the approaching dawn.
You possess my heart and soul with one last kiss
As tender as it is brutal and hard.
Just as quickly as you entered my life,
In a flash you were gone,
Leaving me lost and alone with the fading memory
Of our last encounter in the dark.

©Tammy Dennings Maggy

2/20/13

8:25pm

Introducing Stephanie Ryan…

As many of you know, I write under different pen names in order to write in many different genres. As myself, I write poetry, erotica and erotic romance. As Lia Michaels I get to explore more of the erotica and erotic romance subgenres by writing menage, BDSM and GLBT pairings. Basically, Lia likes all things most people consider taboo. Now I’ve decided to bring a new personality/alter ego into the fold. Stephanie Ryan will take over my manuscripts that are meant for the young adult crowd, mainstream fiction and romance (nonerotic).

As with my current blogs, both Lia and Stephanie have days to host guest authors. The three of us make up the core set of authors that is Sassy Vixen Publishing. Confused? LOL Sometimes I am too, but overall it’s a blast having these alter egos.

This is the photo I’ve used for Lia Michaels. Her website/blog is called

The House of Taboo

You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

This is the photo I chose for Stephanie Ryan. I thought one of us should have the long brown hair since both Lia and myself have the short and sassy styles. LOL! Steph’s website/blog is Through Stephanies Eyes.

She’s also on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

So stop in and tell them both hello and help them build up their followings by signing up for their blogs and spreading the word about them. Thank you all for your continued support of my dream!

Brightest Blessings and Happy Reading!

~Tammy

Chasing The Dawn #poetry from Courtship of the Vampyre

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new year. The last one has brought a few sorrows yes, but the joys outweighed them by far. I’ve continued with my passion of writing and sharing it all with you through this blog and others and through my published works. I’m happy to say that within the next month I will have another book published. The Courtship of the Vampyre is shaping up nicely. It’s taken a turn that I didn’t see coming, but I’ve decided to embrace it. This collection of poetry is definitely a companion to The Kayne Legacy Series and it’s become more of an outline for it. A secondary character I didn’t even know existed decided to jump on in there and ask for his story to be told. You’ll get to learn more about him in other poems and in the series itself, but the poem I want to share with you introduces him.

Enough of the introduction. Let me just share the poem with you and see what you think.

Brightest Blessings!

~Tammy

Chasing the Dawn

Longing to see the brilliant colors explode across the sky,
I risk my life for just one more peek.
When the blazing ball of fire reaches the mountains on high,
My sight will grow dim and my knees will get weak.

It wasn’t always like this,
The fascination with chasing the dawn.
As a mortal, sleeping in until noon was a coveted bliss.
The memories of those days are fading fast,
And soon will be forever lost, simply gone.

Bitten by one filled with blood lust,
I thought death was close at hand.
But he took pity and gave me a choice
That could never be undone.
End this life forever or be reborn
And at his side would I stand.
Together we’d rule the night,
Never again to see the light of the Sun.

Immortality I chose, or should I say it chose me.
I gave in to every need and erotic desire.
I avoided those Immortals blessed by The Three
For fear that they would one day
Toss me on my funeral pyre.

As centuries passed and all that I have ever loved
Had now come and gone,
I sought out the truth from those with whom we had clashed.
Why were we cursed to walk the night
And forever chase after the dawn?

The First Born Cain guards the Essence of the Tree of Life.
This task was given directly to him by the Goddess Fate.
He was commanded to leave all he had ever known
In search of Lilith to be his wife.
Each of their descendants had to take a Royal Fae as their mate.

This part of the story I had heard many times before.
Why was there such hate between the Cursed and the Elite?
Turns out much of what I know was nothing more than Vampire Lore.
All of it beginning when the seventh son of Adam
Sought to avenge his mother’s grief.

Angry and jealous that his elder brother
Should be blessed instead of cursed,
He plotted to take by force what he felt was his birthright.
This angered The Three, making their blessing evil and perverse.

Lucius marked this son of Adam as an abomination
Who would thirst for blood, and forever hide from the Light.
“The Seventh Son of Adam will cease to exist.
Instead a Nightwalker will take his place.
Immortal you shall be, but Our mercy you have not won.
For you bring no honor to your parents, only shame and disgrace.
Nevermore will you see the light of day,
But forever chase after the dawn.”

Cain pleaded with Lucius to spare his brother
From his wrathful decree.
Lucius refused. “What’s done is done.”
“All of this must come to pass in order to protect the Essence of the Tree.
Once the lesson is learned, your brother’s descendants
Will once again be able to enjoy the light of the Sun.”

My sire never told me this part of the tale!
Were we ever taught this lesson?
Who could give me the answers?
Where have they all gone?
I searched the world high and low for any clue.
So far to no avail.
I’ll keep searching.
The answer is out there,
Somewhere chasing the dawn.

#Poetry From Soon To Be Released Courtship of the Vampyre

I’ve been working away at finishing the collection of poetry that will be included in this book and thought I would share another selection with you. This one gives you more of an insight into the world of the the different classes of vampires that will be brought to life in my new series The Kayne Legacy. I’ve talked about it before and even shared some excerpts from one of the books entitled The First Born. I’m really excited about both my poetry and erotic romances coming together again.

The first time I did this was with my Now and Forever series. It wasn’t intentional at the time, but the poems that flew out of me during the two years I was writing For the Love of Quinn and outlining the rest of the series just seemed to mess well with the story lines. I’ve even got another series out of it too. The Songs of Fate will feature The Vixen, the Witch, and the Daemon as the first book in the series introducing the characters of that world. That series I’ve decided to write as Lia Michaels since the characters have lent themselves nicely into menage relationships.

Well, enough of the background stuff. Here’s today’s featured poem. Let me know what you think of it.

Brightest Blessings and Merry Yule!

~Tammy

The Chosen

A member of the Vampire Elite
Has chosen her mate on this very day.
They’d been paired long before
They would ever meet.
This was the way it has always been
Between Vampyre and Fae.

From the moment Lilith wed the First Born Cain,
The destiny of all their descendants was secured.
For through this bloodline the Chosen would reign
And the essence of the Tree of Life would endure.

Others walk the night without the Blessing of The Three.
To rip and tear out the life of another
Is for them a means to an end.
They care not for the lives of humans
Whose blood gives them their Immortality.
It’s the Chosen Ones who watch over all
And among mortals they must blend

While most Vampires must avoid the light of the Sun,
Those descended from Cain and Lilith do not.
The Chosen have never had to fear the dawn.
The others must conceal themselves from the Light
In order to avoid the fate of the wife of Lot.

The Essence of the Tree of Life
Must be protected at all costs.
The Gift cannot be shared with another
Unless they are also descendants
Of the Royal Immortal Fae.
If taken by force by one outside of this bloodline
Part of the essence will be forever lost.
So this is why not every Immortal can be of the Chosen
Because the loss of the essence of the Tree
Is too great a price to pay.

Still there are those mortals who will never understand
Nor will they ever believe
That the First Born of Adam could be charged
With such a monumental task,
And that they Fae are more
Than just magical creatures designed to deceive.
One day soon all will become crystal clear
When the Tree of Life returns
To the Garden of Eden at long last.

New Cover for My Second Book of Poetry

I’m so excited! I’ve been working on the vampire inspired poetry off and on for a while now and it looks like I should be finished with the rough draft this week. Hopefully the edits will go smooth enough so I can release it on January 1st…just like the first book of poetry. Whoohoo!

I was going back and forth with the title as I wanted this book to be a companion to The Kayne Legacy series much like Follow Me: Poetry from the Heart and Soul is for my Now and Forever series. So after battling with myself for a few hours once again last night, I decided on using the title of one of the poems in the collection. In fact, it was the very first one I wrote for this book. Courtship of the Vampyre: Poetry Inspired by the Guardians of the Night is the full title. Here is the cover I designed for it. Let me know what you all think!