#WWoW! @dochappycamper Says Always Listen to Your Muse #am writing #MyWANA #BRAVE

Welcome back once again to Writer's Words of Wisdom. I'm Tammy and Wednesdays are my day to share little tidbits of wisdom I've learned during my journey in the wonderful world of publishing. Here I am about to release my fifth and sixth books over the next two months and still many people in my life think it's just a passing hobby.

I've been asked by friends and strangers alike how I got into writing poetry and erotic romance. They seem to think there's some magical muse that determines the specific genre each author has to choose to craft their stories in and that's that. No switching around. Period. End. Of. Story. The End.

Not so fast, Jack.

The magical muse thing is real for me. I don't set out to write for the readers who love a specific genre. I just listen to those inner voices...errr...characters clamoring in my head to have their stories told.  More often than not, none of the characters talking the loudest are in the same tales, subgenres or categories.

For example, the first two books of my Now and Forever series had clear cut M/F pairings, detailed explicit sex scenes, and ended with happily ever afters—definitely contemporary erotic romances.

With the second book I stared adding a little fantasy and paranormal elements with the Guardian Angel characters and the Eternal Siblings known as The Three. These immortals and the angels help the characters of this series find each other through all the adversity thrown at them.  This book turned my erotic contemporary romance into an erotic fantasy contemporary romance with paranormal elements.

But wait! There's more...

With the third book of this series, I've explored more of the paranormal and fantasy aspects but now I've changed up the sexual pairings of the main characters. Instead of just M/F, my heroine is a bisexual and is in love with both a man and an woman. She's also having a hot affair with another man...whew!

Unfortunately, according to the publisher of the first two, the mixed pairings don't go over well with readers(read that as don't sell well) of erotic romance. So not even bothering to ask me to do a revision and resubmit, they decided to use their right to first refusal on not only this book, but any future books in the series.

Now most people would've been a bit upset, but I was relieved. My muse and characters won out. I can write the way I wish without having to keep to rigid guidelines. All the future books in this series will be done MY way with my own publishing house, Sassy Vixen Publishing.  No more "house" rules and I may not follow the traditional rules of romance either.

Why? Because I want to tell the story as it comes to me. The rules be damned. If the characters go to a dark place, I'll go there with them. If the ending isn't so happy, happy, happy, so be it. 

Last week I wrote about powering through writer's block. The times I got stuck with nothing but silence from my characters have been when I tried to mold their story into a specific genre or category. Once I let go of those preconceived notions, their worlds once again opened up to me.

So don't be afraid to tell the stories of your characters they way they're MEANT to be told. If you can't find an agent or publisher that sees your vision, keep trying or go the self publishing route. No matter what you decide, we're here cheering you on every step of the way!

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out later this year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website
Tammy's Blog
Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 
Sassy Vixen Publishing
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