Liz:
Here's a post from another thread where I outlined my favorite books on fusing. These will help you immeasurably in fusing with understanding:
Three books will get you a long, long way toward the knowledge and experience you want quickly:
*Contemporary Fused Glass, Guide to Fusing, Slumping, and Kilnforming Glass
http://www.warmglass.org/books beside being absolutely beautiful, this book walks through stages of fusing so you can advance at your own pace with the projects presented. Note especially the information about fusing with non-tested glass; it's a real money saver! Presentations are for 90COE glass but the information is universally applicable.
*The Joy of Fusing, is about basic fusing but it also introduces single layer with partial layer setups. The big plus for this book (again IMHO) is the discussion of various firing levels. An important take away in this discussion is that not everything needs to be fired to a full fuse (my favorite temperatures are 1390F and 1425F except where higher temperatures are needed for a particular process such as a pot melt, shelf melt, etc.) This book also has a great presentation of glass processes relating to firing schedule development. This book focuses on 96COE, but again other than process temperatures is universally applicable.
*Firing Schedules for Glass
http://www.warmglass.org/books; if there is a fusing bible, this is it. Get familiar with ideas behind firing schedule development and annealing before you take on the more technical aspects of this book. Contemporary Fused Glass is good prerequisite reading and practice is essential to using this book (IMHO).