The Joys of Connected Stories
Posted by Joanne Rock in Joanne Rock, tags: Encounters, miniseries
Who doesn’t love a miniseries? No romance fan I know. Writers enjoy the bigger world building a series affords. Readers love to connect with characters they’ve met in previous books, sneaking updates on the happily-ever-afters of heroes and heroines they already know and love.
Some writers we know take miniseries to a whole new level. I checked out one of Brenda Jackson’s Westmoreland books recently and couldn’t believe what an expansive world she’d built with this series for Silhouette Desire. (And in case you haven’t heard, you can look forward to Brenda Jackson in Blaze… check out Spontaneous in May 2010!) Big, sweeping miniseries are a wonderful benefit of category romance in general.
Blaze has been kind enough to offer its authors built-in miniseries opportunities for those of us who aren’t ready to plot out families as big as the Westmorelands. Take Uniformly Hot! For example. The joint miniseries lets lots of writers contribute to a bigger world. In this case, a military world filled with studly men. The writers got to pick a branch of service to write about and readers got a whole year of delectable military men. A great idea all the way around.
But my favorite new Blaze format for connected stories is Blaze Encounters. I don’t know about you, but when I read Leslie Kelly’s One Wild Wedding Night, I fell in love. And thanks to the format, it didn’t happen 
once. It happened five times… once for each yummy novella.
If you haven’t tried a Blaze Encounters, you are missing out, especially if you’re a novella fan. The Encounters offer multiple, themed stories all by one author. Tori Carrington came next with A Few Good Men. Heather MacAllister followed with Undressed.
Now, it’s my turn. I lobbied right away to write an Encounters when I 
heard about them. Ever since I finished writing Sliding Into Home, I’ve been waiting impatiently for it to arrive in bookstores so I could share it with readers. It allowed me to write connected stories in a succinct format and it provides world building for readers short on time. And no matter how much beach reading you manage to pack into your summer, I’m willing to bet there are other times—sitting in a carpool line, taking the train into work, a much-needed coffee break—where you’d really appreciate a quick read.
Frankly, I’ll be surprised if other lines don’t develop Encounters style books for their series. They’re fun, fast, and best of all, no waiting a whole month for the next installment. All you have to do is turn the page.
***Reminisce with me! Tell me a couple of your favorite miniseries—in Blaze or not—and I’ll giveaway a signed copy of the very exciting, super sexy, aforementioned SLIDING INTO HOME.***
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I’m really enjoying the uniformly hot series and encounters. I liked Kimberly Raye’s series Love at First Bite. I like Brenda’s Westmoreland series. In Special Edition, Karen Templeton’s Guys and Daughters is really good and Christine Rimmer’s Bravo family I love.
Don’t put me in the drawing because I already have Sliding into Home. I really enjoyed it, being a big baseball fan. You did a an awesome job on it!
Thank you, Nicole! I love Karen T’s books too…
I’m reading Sliding Into Home as we speak! I love it! Love the premise, and as another baseball household, I’m very much relating.
I did the same thing after reading Leslie’s, and will have an Encounters coming out next year. Mine’s an office Christmas party, yet to be written, which is one reason I’ve been gobbling them up when they hit the shelves. These are such fun books, I really hope they stay popular and stick around for a long time. Debbi Rawlins has one in September, too. That one’s cowboys.
Hmmm, Marines, baseball players, cowboys. Does it get any better? LOL!
Thanks for the great read! I’m really enjoying it!
Thank you for mentioning Debbi’s! I didn’t know what other books were on tap for the series in the future, but I’m looking forward to finding out. I hope one day EHQ will post notices of books a bit farther into the future as well. It’s always fun to peek down the road and see what we have to look forward to!
(C) I don’t need Sliding into Home because you sent me a copy and it was YUMMY! LOL (Y)
I just love Diana Palmers Jacobsville series although I think they are called Long Tall Texans. They center around the town of Jacobsville, Texas and the missionaries and town folks that call it home. There is just something about those Texas men. I really loved her character Micha Steel (Missionary man). She is coming out with Tony the Dancers story soon and I can not wait. And really who could forget the town’s chief of police Cash Greir ( I porobablly really miss spelled their names but they were all unforgetable men and stories)
I am working on a Encounters type book featuring the McCoy brothers of the Swinging M Ranch in Twin Falls, Montana. I have the first and oldest brother Judd finished and am working on the middle brother Matt. Soon I will be doing baby brother Noah. I have gotten positive feedback from those that I have allowed to read it and hope that it will be published.
Yall have a great day…I know we will be frying yet again here in the Lone Star state. But not as badly as we have been! (H)
Patsy, I’m off to buy ice cream and hope I make it home before it melts too much. Oh, I know I should put it in a cooler, but where’s the fun in that?
Heather, you live on the edge :-O .
I also have Sliding Into Home and I’m enjoying it. I’m one of the few who normally do not like on-going story lines. That said, I did love the recent Blaze Mighty Quinn series.
Thank you for picking up Sliding Into Home, Liz!
I like the connected storylines. The Uniformly Hot series is great. Others I’ve enjoyed are:
The Martini Dares
Mighty Quinns
Love At First Bite
Stolen From Time
0-60
The Wrong Beds (these have been going on a long time)
There are so many I won’t name them all. I have enjoyed the Blaze line right from the start. Have a lot of the old Temptation line too.
Linda Henderson (Y)
I know all of these except Stolen From Time and now I’m very curious! Is it a Blaze series that slipped by me? I’m a time travel fan…
I love series. Three of my favorite Blaze series have been gIRL-gEAR, Mighty Quinns and The Wrong Bed.
gIRL gEAR was awesome, wasn’t it? I really liked all those characters.
Hi Joanne, I love “minis.” I am one of those readers who likes to check in onthe HEAs of previous characters because I became so invested in them and their stories. I have a long list of favs: Les’s Santoris are one of my fav families, and her Encounters was awesome. I can’t remember how many copies of those I gave away. I loved Tori Carrington’s “A Few good Men” as well; I pretty much enjoy any Blaze written by them. “Endless Summer” was another one of my favs. I have your recent one and Heather Mac’s as well, but I haven’t opened them yet; they are sitting on my night table, top of the TBR pile too, but I am not home…haven’t been for about 2 weeks, but I go back tomorrow…yippee! The Wrong Bed and the Wrong Bed Again minis are awesome. I also love the Blazing Bedtime Stories. The Bad Girls series was great too. Love at first bite was awesome. Kimberly Raye did a heck of a job on those. I have the Mighty Quinns on TBR bookshelf; yep, I have a pile and two entire bookshelves of TBR books. I really enjoy the Blazes, what can I say? :-$
Thank you for the head’s up on Brenda Jackson. I will look for hers too. Could you please count me in the drawing? I would love to own an autographed copy. I have a friend who loves baseball and I will give her the other copy I bought…Thanks!
Peace and love,
Paula R.
Paula, thank you for checking out so many Blazes!!! And yes, yes, yes regarding Wrong Bed. That may be my all time fav miniseries, in part because it hooked me on Temptation and ultimately led me to Blaze. The concept so perfectly encapsulates an important part of the series personality, IMHO.
I got to Blaze via the same highway, Joanne. I started with Temptation, and fell into Blaze with Stripped by Julie Leto…I remember having to ask her to explain the difference for me…I am so glad that I got into…the first time I read one, I couldn’t believe how close to the line the books went…I remember thinking, “Is this for real?” I have been hooked ever since…she was the one who introduced me to you as well…
Peace and love,
Paula R.
I remember an old series called The Magic Skirt? I think that was what it called. I liked those. Lots of fun.
My favorite series by the same author is Rhonda Nelson’s Men Out of Uniform/Uniformly Hot with:
The Player
The Specialist
The Maverick
The Loner
The Hell-Raiser
Letters from Home
The Soldier
I also enjoy Amanda Quick’s/Jayne Ann Krentz/Jane Castle’s (non-blaze) Arcane Society series. I think it’s a brilliant idea for her to cross all 3 of her genre lines with this society idea. Amazing marketing. The books are:
Second Sight
White Lies
Sizzle and Burn
The Third Circle
Running Hot
The Perfect Poison
Julie
Ooo, ooo! (Heather wildly waves hand) Cara Summers, Kristen Gabriel, and I wrote the Single in the City series featuring the magic skirt. Good times.
That’s uit! Single in the City! I knew I had the series title wrong but for the life of me couldn’t remember what it was. Loved all those books.
I enjoy that touch of magic, fate and paranormal in a romance. Just a little bit. I think it touches that kismet romantic in all of us.
Julie
I like series. Kathleen Long’s the body hunters, and more that I just can’t remember the names of right now.
Oh I love series and one of my favs is The Wrong Beds. I enjoy following along with series… from novellas to full out novels!
I’ve never read a miniseries with books. Does watching Roots count? That’s the closest I can get!
Have a super great day!
I really enjoy revisiting characters from past books, getting a glimpse of where they are. My favorite thus far has been the Blaze series, Sex and The Supper Club by Kristin Hardy. I loved that the books were connected by the heroines’ friendships, it was kind of Sex and The City-ish.
I love the Diamonds Down Under series from Desire and Julie Miller’s The Precinct: Brotherhood of the Badge mini series.
I really liked the gIRL-gEAR series from Blaze as well as The Mighty Quinns.
For non-Blaze, there are wwwwaaaayyyy too many to count. I’m a huge fan of interconnected books and love getting to know characters throughout each book. I feel more invested in what happens to them, they’re almost like family.
And doesn’t Joanne have a great cover?? BTW, Joanne, did you find these easier, harder, or about the same to write?
I’m crazy about this cover
. And I found it both harder/easier to write for different reasons. I always enjoy writing the fun opening set-ups, so I got to do that four times with this project (awesome!), but with four openings come four endings . And those challenge me more… especially when there’s not a lot of time for battling through obstacles through the middle. So that was tough to have to pull together four strong endings for ONE book! Overall, it took longer to write than a normal book of this length. But I really, really had fun with it.
Exactly! It took me longer to write as well.
I have only recently started reading Blaze so the only series I have read in this line is “The Martini Dares”. Otherwise I read a lot of series the latest being a Medical series called Brisbane General Hospital which is a trilogy by Amy Andrews. I really enjoy the series “The Taken” by Kathleen Creighton which is a Romantic Suspense series. I actually really like series where you can revisit characters and learn more about secondary characters.
Welcome to Blaze, Ellen!! We plan to woo you with lots of great stories (F) .
I have to admit that I can never remember the names of the series that I read but I have enjoyed series by authors like Jill Shalvis, Alison Kent, Julia Quinn and Eloisa James to name a few.
My favorites were girl-gear, the Martini Dares and Single in the City.
I love the Uniformly Hot series, I love the Love at First Bite series. I just started to read Sliding into Home and I’m enjoying it! The 4 Encounter Series is different, but I’m enjoying it. Some of the stories I think could be a full book!!!!
Other series I like is the 0-60 and Some of the Wrong Bed series!!
i loved the Unifomrly Hot series. I mean what could be better than a hot man in uniform..well of course when hes out of it. and to have several in one book. woohoo. Joanne, can’t wait to read yours.
jody
Thank you, Jody! And when you see the covers of the Uniformly Hot! series side by side, it makes you realize you have to collect the whole set. Whew! I’m thinking the art dept. enjoyed that series as much as we did .
I really enjoyed Kristin Hardy’s Sex & the Supper Club books and Sarah Mayberry’s Secret Lives of Daytime Divas books.
I don’t read much other Romance than Blaze, so my favorite miniseries are Blaze miniseries. Some of my favorites are “Do Not Disturb”, “Sex For Beginners”, “Lust In Translation”, “After Hours”, “The Martini Dares”, “The Bad Girls Club”, “Red Letter Nights”, “The Man Handlers”, “24 Hours:Blackout”, “Blaze Historicals”, “Sex & The Supper Club”, “Chicks In Charge” “It’s All About Attitude”,” Perfect Timing”, “Lust Potion #9″, “In Too Deep…”, and your “Single In South Beach” Girl Gone Wild being my favorite, I could really relate to Giselle, Joanne love those! I have the first book from “Stolen From Time” and I’m going to get the other two, and i also want to read “From 0-60″ and “Dressed To Thrill” and “Uniformly Hot”, and i want to read “One Wild Wedding Night”. I love miniseries and i love doing what Joanne mentioned playing catch-up and all that. Blaze in my opinion has the best miniseries and i frequently re-read my single title Blazes and Blaze Miniseries.
Lauren, I loved the “Sex for Beginners” series too…completely forgot about those. I read some of the “Lust in Translation” books too…You should really try to get your hands on Les’s “One Wild Wedding Night.” It has stories about the Santori’s. You will fall in love with them all.
OK, I really have to go now…
Peace and love,
Paula R.
Thank you, Lauren! It’s been too long since I did a big miniseries like Single in South Beach. I enjoyed the heck out of those books… the friendship among the women was especially fun to revisit in each new story.
On another note, isn’t The Man Handlers a super series title??? My hat’s off to whoever came up with that one!
Some of my favorites were Leslie’s Santoris, Rhonda Nelson’s Men Out of Uniform, Sarah Mayberry’s Daytime Divas, Tawny Weber’s ; the multiauthor Hush series; Lori Foster’s Buckhorn Brothers (Temptations?); from SuperRomance Karina Bliss’s titles and Jeannie Watt’s Home on the Ranch; and from Harlequin Historicals Michelle Willingham’s Warrior titles and Stacey Kayne’s Wild trilogy… Anyway, I’m a big fan of miniseries, but I do admit to being very impatient if there’s too much of a lag between titles. All the more reason I love the Encounters concept!
(L) (L) Cheers to Paula R., winner of the thread prize! Paula, I’m sending you a private email, but all I really need is a mailing address that you can send to joanne@joannerock.com and I’ll zip off a copy of SLIDING INTO HOME for you asap.
Thank you so much for chatting with me about miniseries and connected stories. I’m inspired to write a new one myself and I’m looking forward to tapping some friends for a shared miniseries in 2010. Details forthcoming after the first of the year
. Until then… enjoy those dog days of summer with a good book!!
Congrats Paula R.!!! (*)
Congrats Paula!! (D)
Congratulations, Paula!
Thank you so much guys! I got the email and sent my snail mail addy. Joanne, I am looking forward to your next set of Blazes. I had a blast chatting with you guys. It is interesting to see what gets talked about by some of my fav authors.
Peace and love,
Paula R.