"The difference between a short story and a novel" by Philip K. Dick

 "The difference between a short story and a novel comes to this...."

"It is in sf stories that sf action occurs; it is in sf novels the worlds occur.... Crisis is the key to story-writing,a sort of brinkmanship in which the author mires his characters in happening so sticky as to seem impossible of solution. And then he gets them out... usually.... But in a novel the actions are so deeply rooted in the personality of the main character that to extricate him the author would have to go back and rewrite his character. This need not happen in a story, especially a short one.... [T]his makes clear why some writers can write stories but not novels, or novels but not stories.... [A]nything can happen in a story; the author merely tailors his character to the event.... As a writer builds up a novel-length piece it slowly begins to imprison him, to take away his freedom; his own characters are taking over and doing what they want to do--not what he would like them to do. This is one one hand the strength of the novel and on the other its weakness."

--Philip K. Dick, The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick [originally 1968, so probably from the 1969 collection, The Preserving Machine.

J.G. Ballard on Short Story Outlines

"With short stories I do a brief synopsis of about a page, and only if I feel the story works as a story, as a dramatic narrative with the right shape and balance to grip the reader’s imagination, do I begin to write it."

-- J.G. Ballard in the Paris Review interview 

Ray Bradbury on the short story

"The short story, if you really are intense and you have an exciting idea, writes itself in a few hours. I try to encourage my student friends and my writer friends to write a short story in one day so it has a skin around it, its own intensity, its own life, its own reason for being. There’s a reason why the idea occurred to you at that hour anyway, so go with that and investigate it, get it down. Two or three thousand words in a few hours is not that hard. Don’t let people interfere with you. Boot ’em out, turn off the phone, hide away, get it done. If you carry a short story over to the next day you may overnight intellectualize something about it and try to make it too fancy, try to please someone."

-- Ray Bradbury from a Paris Review interview   

Analysis of "Midnight at Valdosta's" by Jay Lake

First appeared in The Steampunk Megapack* (?).

Hemp Cumin drives his mule, Salt, into Triune Town to make his midnight appointment at Valdosta's.  In exchange for found objects that have stories to tell, the protagonist will live another year.

This may be Jay Lake's best tale.  It resonates beyond itself, especially knowing that Lake, like the protagonist, struggled to stay alive [fighting cancer], hoping for another of life and of telling stories.

According to freedictionary.com, salt is "An element that gives flavor or zest."    This interpretation is backed up by  the protagonist's last name, Cumin.  The mule is probably an extension of its owner, relating to its also meaning, "a stubborn person" (same source).  The protagonist's first name, Hemp, on the other hand, denotes a coarse, tough fiber (same source) often used to make rope. It also has a humorous connotation, which the author may or may not have intended.  Triune--meaning "three in one. Used especially of the Christian Trinity"--town makes it clear that death is meant.  Valdosta is a border town (in Georgia on the Florida edge).  Although some irony may be intended [from Wikipedia]:

"...named after the Valle d'Aosta in Italy. The name Aosta (Latin: Augusta), refers to Emperor Augustus. Thus, the name Valdosta can be interpreted literally as meaning "Valley of Augustus' City". Originally, a long-standing rumor held that the city's name meant "vale of beauty."[9] The land around Valdosta is flat."

This shows some of the protagonist's uncertainty of whether he wants to live or not, yet he does go on, chooses to live another year.

This tale has given more insight into Lake's process than I've previously found.  Although Lake's organic work tends fall outside of "design" [link gives a nice summary], it reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's use and definition of a story ("Philosophy of Composition") where the effect or the conjuration of the reader's emotional response is primary.

* I'm not sure why this is considered steampunk.