Short stories are right at the centre of who I am as a writer. I love writing them, whether they're 1500 or 15000 words. I certainly don't regard them as something to be left behind as I progress as a writer. If anything, I regret not having the time to write more. They are wonderful opportunities to experiment, to try out themes and possible main characters. And yes, sometimes I have to be very disciplined in how I write. That's a good thing in my book. In a toss-up between multi-chaptered stories and their stand-alone cousins, I think I would eventually come down on the side of the short story.