At this year’s Bubonicon, I was on a fascinating panel discussing the differences between writing short stories and novels. Jane Lindskold made an interesting observation that, in general, short stories should be able to work as the last chapter of a novel. The idea is that in a short story, the characters should either be facing or soon face a problem that can be resolved with a satisfyingly complete conclusion.

Soon after this, while recovering from hernia surgery, I continued my explora...