This spring, in addition to releasing my novel Nirvana Is Here, I’ve also published a new short story, “Kimono Story” in the Maine Review. I tend to go back and forth between novel-writing and story-writing, which leads me to consider the difference between the two. I once heard author Lorrie Moore say the difference is that the end of a novel looks forward and the end of a story looks backward. I’m still not too sure what she meant by that, but how I interpret that is that a story is a small self-contained unit while a novel because it covers a much broader canvas, suggests the possibility that time might continue in either direction (before or after the novel’s plot ends). As a writer, though I find that both formats take equal levels of work and concentration, somehow I feel like the novel form allows me to relax just a bit more as I’m working. Maybe it’s because I feel less pressure to see the whole thing at once when at work on a novel than when at work on a story. There’s something so magical about a short story that’s just right, like a beautiful, perfect jewel. Whereas in a novel, I’m more willing to overlook a flaw here and there.