Short stories are not just truncated long ones but a literary form in their own right. That's what I was taught but, as in many arenas, literary definitions can create their own debate. Sometimes the 'authorities' can't even decide on a definition. For example, one online source defines a novella as a 'short narrative tale, often with a moral or satirical point' and then provides an alternative definition as 'a short novel or novelette'. So that's clear! At least, provided you're prepared to accept Italian or French suffixes as English definitions. The same source even tries quantification citing a novella as 'more complex' than a short story. Hmm, how much shorter and in what units is it measured? One option might be word count but with just two books among my own collections of short stories by Irwin Shaw and Paul Gallico I could offer you a range so large it defeats the definition entirely. My own simplistic view is that we each know what a short story is, even if we can't describe or measure it. So these are a few of mine. What I have done in this book is to imitate (with due credit) Paul Gallico's delightful creation of an essay that describes how each story came to be written. These are generally published in advance of the story itself though in one or two instances I felt it more appropriate as a postscript. As Gallico perhaps intended, I found these essays immensely helpful when I first decided to venture into the field myself. These also give me the opportunity to describe the audience for which the story is intended. I hope that will stay the critical pen of any reader who finds themselves reading a tale intended for my grand-daughter or her cousins.