Open Mic Monday is featuring Author Tammy Dennings Maggy who is talking about her inspiration behind her "Now and Forever Series." Sometimes the path to true love is rocky and winding.
Welcome, Tammy!
When Amber first asked me to
talk a bit about my Now and Forever series, I wasn’t sure what to say. Once I
sat down and thought about it, I realized of all the projects I have going on,
this one means the most to me. Besides starting out with the first book I ever
had published, it’s actually a tale of my own journey to find my happily ever
after.
Now for those of you who’ve
read the first book, For the Love of Quinn, you’ll recall
one of the heroes is a billionaire. Did I have a fling with a well to do gentleman
in Sin City? While I don’t kiss and tell, my characters do! All the pain and
emotional upheavals detailed in those pages are what I went through when my
first marriage fell apart. The sexual encounters…I’ll just leave the up to your
imagination! J
I used my writing as an
escape from the pain. I poured my heart out onto those pages and wished with
all my heart to find that special someone to complete me heart and soul.
Through Quinn’s story, I found my courage to get out of a loveless marriage and
on with my life even if I had to be alone.
All of the books in this
series bring fated mates together. Their journey to find each other isn’t easy,
even after they get together. Once again, this is my way to share the bumpy
road I had to travel on to be with my current husband. He is my soul mate and
the one I’ve been searching for my whole life…in this lifetime and all others.
I know many will read that and think that’s just a fairy tale.
I’m here to tell you fairy
tales do come true and will happen to you. You just have to open your heart and
let them in. You have to believe you deserve to have the happily ever after.
This is the overall message I wish for readers to take away from this series.
That’s why I called it Now and Forever. It’s actually part of a phrase I have
tattooed on my back: “Now and Forever, Forever Mine.”
The first two books detailed
Quinn and Jacob’s story back to each other after meeting for the first time in
the realm between life and death called The Island. Funny thing is I didn’t
have that part of the story arc planned at all. It came to me after the first
book was published. Readers wanted to know more about Jacob’s past. While
writing that, the story took on a life of its own and Julia stood up, demanding
to be heard.
She’s what I call an “anti-heroine”
because she isn’t likeable to the reader right away. In fact, she’s a grade A
bitch. She’s selfish and only out for herself and satisfying her own lust and
desires. Underneath all of that is a lost little girl in need of someone to love
her unconditionally. Like me, she didn’t think she deserved to be with the one
she loved and pushed the person away. Both of us also went through incredibly
dark times in our lives where death seemed like a viable option to stop the
pain.
Lucky for both of us, our
soul mates stuck around until we saw the light.
The next book will be out
this summer. My Love, My Friend follows the journey of two people in Quinn’s
life—her cousin Samantha and another friend, Nathan. Samantha’s been in love with a man since high
school, but through the years he’s given her nothing but heartache. Nathan’s
been through hell and back as a Marine during the first Gulf War and the years
after. Both need to let go of their pasts in order to have a future together.
That past is involves the same man: Michael.
I wrote this tale right after
I filed for divorce and before I met my current husband, Liam. I had recently
reconnected with a love from my past. He said all the right things, made me
feel good about myself for the first time in ages. He told me he loved me too
and wanted to start a life together…and then he didn’t. He used me to make his ex-girlfriend jealous
enough to want him back. Just when he was supposed to spend a vacation with me,
he tossed me aside like a used Kleenex. That was the strike against my already
damaged heart that shattered it beyond repair. I put all of my pain into
Samantha’s story. Nathan is her Liam. In those pages you’ll see our story
played out. We are each other’s best friends and what was needed to mend our
broken hearts.
As with the first three
books, My Love, My Friend and the others that follow, show couples
who’ve been fated to be together from the beginning of time. For some it takes
many lifecycles and a bit of celestial intervention for them to finally
reunite. For others, it takes nearly losing the one they love before they see
what’s been right there in front of them the entire time.
Everyone has a ying to their
yang, the one who completes them heart and soul. They’re there waiting for you to
open your eyes and your heart so your journey together can begin.
I did it. How about you?
Story excerpt of "The Surrender of Julia"…
The only way to the beach seemed to be
through the sliding doors on the other side of the bedroom. The sound of sea
gulls reached her ears as she stepped out onto the deck. A bubbling hot tub sat
to her left and to her right was an outdoor kitchen, complete with a grill pit
and cushioned deck chairs. Directly in front of her stretched the pale sandy
beach. The waves called to her and she practically ran through the sand to get
to the point where the water gently lapped against her calves. Julia wiggled
her toes into the sand, loving the feel of it slipping and sliding between
them. “This is sheer Heaven.”
Then it hit her. The whole confrontation
with Jacob and Mario in the condo replayed on fast forward in her mind. She
remembered drinking way too much whiskey and then swallowing some pain killers.
“Oh, my God! I just wanted to sleep. I
didn’t want to die. This is why I’m here. I’m dead.” She sank to her knees in
the surf and sobbed.
“Julia, you’re not dead.” A tall blond man
stood before her on the beach. He looked to be in his late twenties, covered in
tattoos and sporting multiple piercings. His eyes were what drew her right in.
They were the blue green color of the ocean she sat in. His eyes made her feel immediately at ease.
He held out his hand to her. “Come on.
We’ve a lot to talk about and I’m sure you’re full of questions for me too.”
“Where did you come from? I thought I was
the only one here.” Julia took his hand and allowed him to help her get to her
feet and out of the water. Goosebumps
covered her body, but she wasn’t cold. “If I’m not dead, then how did I get
here?”
He laughed. “I’ll answer all your
questions, but first you have to give me a chance to do it before you fire off
more.” He wrapped a large beach towel
around her shoulders as they made their way back up toward her bungalow. “I’ve
been waiting for you to wake up. I’m the Guardian assigned to watch over you
and help you find your way back to the destiny chosen for you by The Three.”
She sat down on one of the deck chairs and
beckoned to him to sit next to her. “Guardian?
As in guardian angel?”
He nodded. “My name is Daniel. The Goddess
Fate chose me to watch over you and several other people. One of them you know
already, Jake Hartley.”
Julia’s eyes filled with tears. “I hurt
him so badly. Is he okay? I mean he stormed out of our condo last night. I
don’t know where he went.”
Daniel shook his head. “He was in a horrific accident on his bike.
He slammed into the back of a semi—”
“No! He’s not dead. He can’t be.” Julia
bolted out of her chair and barely reached the end of the deck before she threw
up.
Daniel went immediately to her side,
holding her hair out of the way until she stopped retching. “I’m not going to
sugar coat it for you, Julia. Jake’s fighting for his life right now. But you
need to believe me when I tell you he’s in good hands. His father is my partner
and right now he’s there with him and the rest of the family.”
“He wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for me.
I did this to him.” Sobs tore through
her body again. She’d never cried over anyone or anything before Jacob. All of
it became more than she could take. “Please. Leave me here to die. Take care of
him.”
The Guardian wrapped his muscled arms
around her and held her against his chest. “That’s not why you’re here. In
fact, you’ve been allowed to come here in order for your heart and soul to
mend. Then, you have to make a choice.”
Julia wiped the tears from her face and
gazed into Daniel’s eyes. “I don’t understand. What is this place?”
“We call it The Island. Basically, it’s
what humans would call limbo. It’s the realm between life and death. The
ability to come here is a gift given to you by Yeshua, Fate, and Lucius. You
have to choose to either stay here and wait until your next life cycle, or go
back to face your demons and fight for your chance to be with your soul mate
and your chosen destiny.”
“The only person that’s ever loved me like
that, the only one who told me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his
life with me, is fighting for his life in a hospital bed.” Julia managed to get
back into the deck chair without having another wave of nausea hit. She curled
up in the towel again and wondered if it would be the best thing to stay here
and not go back to all the pain she’d caused.
Daniel smiled. “The only one? Think hard.
Who’s been by your side through everything? Who has let you pursue all your
desires and still loves you unconditionally?”
She smiled through her tears. “But Carmen
can’t be my soul mate. It’s one thing to have an affair, but the love we have
for each other will never be accepted, especially not in her world as a doctor
and hospital administrator. The
religious groups in L.A. would crucify her if our relationship was made public.
The hospital Board wouldn’t want to have that kind of publicity. Carmen’s
worked too hard to get where she’s at in her career. I won’t be responsible for
ruining another person’s life.”
“I understand your fears about that, but
you and all those groups have it completely wrong. The Three didn’t create us
as just male or female. We are both. Soul mates are just that, mates of the
soul. Being a male or female isn’t part of it. Souls have no gender. They’re
just pure life force.”
Julia shook her head. “That may very well
be true, but after all I’ve done in my life I don’t deserve to have that kind
of happiness. Jacob does. Carmen does. But not me.”
Daniel took her hands into his calloused
ones. “Why not? If The Three feel you’re worthy, who are you or anyone to judge
differently?”
Buy now! If you haven't read the series yet, now is the time to start!
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A bit more about Tammy Dennings Maggy…
As the founder of Sassy
Vixen Publishing, Tammy has a lot on her plate. Not only has she
established herself as an erotic romance author with Siren Bookstrand, but
she's also published two books of poetry and has many more projects underway.
Finding time to write and keep up a full schedule as a veterinarian in a very
busy practice in the Pacific Northwest has been a difficult task, but one she
takes on happily with the help of her husband, “Mr. Vixen.”
Through her website/blog Behind Closed Doors and her
blog Not Enough Time in the Day you can
get a glimpse into her hectic schedule. Now she can add Best Selling
Author to her resume as her vampire inspired poetry book The
Courtship of the Vampyre is one of the top sellers on Omnilit (ARe
affiliate).
The love of books of all genres helped her decide
to write under four pen names. This way she's able to tell the stories all of
her characters wish to tell whether it's the sweet and sensual or hot and
spicy. Speaking of spicy, Tammy is also part of the Four Seduced
Muses along with three of her Siren author friends. No topic is off
limits with the Muses and that's the way “The Vixen” likes it!
Readers can also connect with her and her alter
egos through Facebook and Twitter.
1 comment:
Thank you for having me here today, Amber! This series means so much to me and to be able to share it with everyone is icing on the cake!
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