A novel requires a certain kind of world-building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn't see.

It had occurred to him that if the undead don't realize that they are dead, he might easily be one of them himself.

A lot of people work really diligently to maintain a "profile" in the writing world, but that's so hard, and so boring most of the time. So you just keep doing what you like to do, I guess, and try to enjoy it.

Even when our death is imminent, we carry the image of ourselves moving forward, alive, into the future.

I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down - it feels fatalistic in some way.

I'm certainly very influenced by what you would call "contemporary headline horror," stuff that is true crime or for one reason or another catches our attention in the media, those strange cases that we end up obsessing about. I'm always influenced by weird anecdotes and news. And, you know, lastly, probably things that have happened to me in my own life.

I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them.