To Short Story, Or Not To Short Story

After a recent conversation with Alexandra Sokoloff about short stories, I've decided that my next book may very well be a collection of shorts.

I've just published my first book, Hand One Is Dealt (coming out very soon in paperback, already an ebook) and I've been wondering what I'm going to follow it up with. I've been writing on quite a few different stories for the last few years and while most of them are close to being finished, none of them are novel-length.

Some authors are better at writing short stories than others, and some authors write short stories more than novels. I guess I'm one of the latter.

I'd like to write novels, but for some reason the stories wind up getting told before there's enough content to make it to a novel's length, or even a novella. Even Hand One... is a short novel, right on the border of that and a novella.

So should I stick with writing short stories and occasionally put out a novel if one strikes me? Should I make my second published work a collection of shorts? Is there a time when it's appropriate to publish a collection of shorts or not?

I'm really not sure. I don't think there are laws governing this sort of thing, unwritten or otherwise, but regardless, I just want to get my stories out to the public. That's why I became a writer.

No, it wasn't for the money, obviously, but to share the stories that haunt my head with the masses... or those few who decide to read what I've written. Either way, just so long as I get my stories out there and available, I'm happy.

So folks, it looks as if my next publication, hopeful for the end of this year but more than likely sometime next year (assuming we don't all die when the world ends, HA!) will be a collection of shorts. Now the hard part... figuring out a decent name for it. Stephen King has those all wrapped up, it seems.