Last week, my husband and I went on a cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Grand Turk, St. Thomas, and the Bahamas. That’s me on the left, swathed heavily against the sun. Unfortunately, that is not my husband on the right. Nevertheless, I had a great time. I had hoped to go kayaking and be able to trade stories with the intrepid Blaze Senior Editor, Brenda Chin, but it was not to be. Instead, I toured del Morro, annoyed iguanas, shopped in St. Thomas, and made friends on the beach (see left). I handled an alligator and went on a pub crawl–and I won the toasting contest with this limerick:

There were two couples from Texas
Who could have been driving a Lexus
But they went on a cruise
And are enjoying the booze
And afterward hope they’re not exes.

My prize was a lovely key chain.

The fact that I was on a pub crawl at all is solely due to the Blaze influence. Blaze heroines are confident and go after what they want. Their attitude has begun to rub off on me. Would a Blaze heroine sit around moping about her cancelled kayaking trip? Absolutely not, and neither did I. And now I have a new key chain and a new friend! (see above)

While I was cavorting in the Caribbean, did I forget the Blaze Blog readers? Why no! Straight from St. Thomas is a lovely, dainty, sterling silver Larimar necklace that a lucky blog commenter will win. Larimar, or blue pectolite, is found only in the Caribbean and is the result of lava merging with copper. The more times you comment, the better your chances of winning. On Sunday night, I’m going to ask the girl next door to draw a number and will post the winner on Monday morning.

I don’t know my new friend’s name since I, er, didn’t bother asking. It didn’t seem important at the time. What shall we call him?

In the last 18 months or so, I have had the chance to write three Blaze short forms, novellas. I’ve found, as a person, I like both long and short projects for different reasons. For instance, when it comes to sewing, I make large quilts than can take me a year to finish (or more), and those are really wonderful to see come together, but I also love to make bags and small projects I can finish in a day, because I get the immediate gratification, and I learn a different set of skills. It works the same with writing.

I have an online read (which I believe starts on Aug 17 on eHarlequin — the title is Caught by Surprise and it’s a linked story to my October “Dressed to Thrill” Blaze, Caught in the Act), and my other two novellas are anthology books, my story “No Reservations” which came out last July in the What I Did On My Summer Vacation collection, and my upcoming 2010 Bedtime Stories two-fer. All of these novellas were different lengths, different formats, and from them I get that same short-term, immediate gratification blast that I get from any other short project — it’s a brief, intense experience that teaches you a lot about focus and pacing in a whole different way than writing a full novel. I also learn to be flexible in my story telling, to break out of the well-worn lessons we learn in writing long contemporary.

I love writing the short form, though I know some people find it more difficult. But I also love subplots, and I suppose those are a kind of short format, as well. I think I’ve brought some of that focus and speed that a short-form teaches you back to my regular book writing. I hope so, anyway. I find the expansiveness of the longer book a much bigger challenge. In a long book I need to dig deep and pull out a lot of layers, an experience that I find satisfying in a different way, like mining for gold. But it can be stressful, and stressful over a longer period of time. Still, I think writing shorter format has taught me how to get into stories faster and how to hit a level of intensity in a more focused way, and I think that will make writing longer books more interesting as well.

As a reader, I tend to like full-length books over anthologies or serials. I don’t even like short chapters — I never understood how people enjoyed The DaVinci Code because it was so chopped up for me, all those one or two page chapters, it drove me batty. I didn’t feel like I could get into it, like having commercial breaks every 3 pages. I like the feeling, as a reader, of really soaking up a story and staying in there for a while, and shorts never let me do that. However, though now that I’ve discovered how much fun they are to write, I think I will go get some anthologies and read some novellas b/c I have a feeling I would read them differently now, too.

How about you? Reader or writer, long or short, or both? What are the benefits and downsides for each? Share, and for those of you following me long in my blog tour, this post counts to qualify you in my contest to win a handmade bag and signed books (details at ). Even if you missed my initial post, it’s not too late to join the tour starting with this blog, so I hope you’ll hop on and follow me through June blogging.

Sam

In honor of Mother’s Day, I’d like to give away some books!

My Harlequin Blaze, UNDERNEATH IT ALL, features a heroine who has moved cross-country to track down her birth mother. I can’t think of a more suitable story line for this special day, so I’ve got three copies to give away to bloggers today. All you need to do is post in the comments your answer to this question:

What is one trait you appreciate about your mother?

Winners will be announced here in the comments tomorrow so be sure to check back.

And to those of you celebrating this day, Happy Mother’s Day!

Welcome to the Blaze Blog! To celebrate the launch of the blog, we’re kicking off with a HUGE contest!
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