You’d think I’d have learned something by now, some 300+ books along in my career. I should have said, “You have turned short stories into novels before–Dragon’s Boy, Snow in Summer, Dragon’s Blood, and others.” Surely, I should have remembered that having written a short story doesn’t make it easier to write it in novel form. It makes it harder. Here’s why. First, of course, is that a short story’s compression and singular focus, its lyricism and leaps as dazzling as Margot Fontaine’s jetes, can’t be counted on to work at novel length. As one of my brilliant editors years ago told me, “Let your story take its own time. If the story is interesting enough, the audience will follow where you lead.” Next what can be suggested in a short story, hinted at, waved in passing, with a wink at the audience, needs to be spelled out in the…