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I researched how to be a successful author and one of the pieces of advice that came up again and again was to write a series to form a fan base. Deciding that I was going to be one smart cookie, I mapped out a trilogy based on my shifter lion book, First Heat and wrote the second book in the series…

I ate the cookie.

Not only did the second book take three times the amount of time to complete as First Heat, but I hated it—the characters, the plot. I wasn’t feeling anything. I wasted months agonizing over it before I finally realized the pressure I felt for this book had sucked the life out of the story and the passion and joy of writing out of me.

Time to move on.

I shelved it and created a whole new world with new characters and new ideas. I began writing futuristic romance / science fiction romance, all meant to be the beginning of series but all ended up being stand alones.

It was like that saying, “You can never go home.” Once I’d completed a story in one world, I couldn’t find my way back there again.

Fans would write me (and still do) asking if there is going to be a second book in this series or that, feature this character or that and I always say yes…because there is. I think. I hope.

Someday I want to go home to those worlds again and give my secondary characters stories of their own. One day I want to remove this block and buy a ticket to Kissa’s pride or Paradise Moon or Revolution Lovers.

I’ve tried clicking my heels together like Dorthy. I’ve tried wishing on a star. I’ve even tried shelving the stories and coming back to them months later. But I want to explore new worlds with new characters. I want to dream new dreams, stand on new planets and gaze upon new stars.

So, no, I’m not a smart cookie. I’m like Cookie Monster, a victim of my appetite, looking for my next fictional fix (yes, I used alliteration and you can eat me!). I’ve tried forcing my muse to behave and give me what I want.

She pouts. She cries. She hides in a dark corner and refuses to talk to me.

Call me a big dummy, but I’ve learned to move on, to travel through the stars in search of a new story that makes me feel all kinds of tingly inside. Because if I can’t go home, I can always build a new one.

Tomorrow: Jocelyn Modo Day Seven: Reality Yo

Bio
Jocelyn Modo may be crazy but writing keeps her from going insane. She grew up reading science fiction and fantasy and fell in love with romance when her girlie hormones kicked in. Nothing makes her day like working on her current manuscript…and nothing makes her crazy like working on her current manuscript. But all’s fair in love and war, and Jocelyn likes to put a whole lot of both in everything she writes.