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Title: STANDING IN THE SHADOWS.
Creator: Haffner, Jason, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "Standing in the Shadows" is a collection of short-stories that showcases the inner workings of the modern American family. Each of these six stories examines families, in one capacity or another, dealing with ups and downs, love and hatred, sadness and happiness, and everything in between. At the heart of these stories are the relationships between people, some affected by sadness and tragedy, others torn apart by secrets, all trying to cope and exist in a world full of conflict and...
Show more"Standing in the Shadows" is a collection of short-stories that showcases the inner workings of the modern American family. Each of these six stories examines families, in one capacity or another, dealing with ups and downs, love and hatred, sadness and happiness, and everything in between. At the heart of these stories are the relationships between people, some affected by sadness and tragedy, others torn apart by secrets, all trying to cope and exist in a world full of conflict and difficulties. The characters in this selection deal with shortcomings--shortcomings of others and of themselves--while forced to overcome obstacles in order to find truth, meaning, and understanding within their lives. "River Jumping" and "All the Wrong Ways to Say I Love You" involve protagonists trying to come to terms with their current situations in life while attempting to rectify the mistakes of their pasts. "Standing in the Shadows" discusses the secrets that father's keep, and the adverse affect it can have on their children. "Stolen Summer" examines how tragedy can affect the inner workings of family and also the relationship between two friends. The story is an example of how sadness is an all consuming organism that, if not faced head on, can forever alter the futures of those involved. "Pastime" deals with the relationship between fathers and sons and how the love and desire a father has for his son impacts their relationship in negative ways. Finally, "Glass Onion" completes the collection detailing the story of a woman who is so frustrated with her current disposition that she can no longer take it. As the years have passed and routines are formed, Tabby struggles to maintain her identity, her desire for life, and ultimately, her sanity. In each of these stories, families are forced to deal with issues that ultimately define the characters as individuals. Whether it's a lack of communication or they are haunted by the sins of the past, these characters struggle to overcome obstacles that in the end will provide insight into who they are and where they are going.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: CFE0002036, ucf:47581
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002036

Title: BROKEN OPEN.
Creator: Stannard, Taylor, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: ABSTRACT Broken Open is a collection of short stories, four of which deal with culpability and the unexpected transformations that occur when blame, either unintended or deliberately invoked, is exposed and finally understood. The remaining two stories concern relationships that turn out to be gifts, as well as painful learning experiences. In "Other Living Creatures," one family contends with post traumatic stress disorder as another implodes following the death of a young soldier in Vietnam...
Show moreABSTRACT Broken Open is a collection of short stories, four of which deal with culpability and the unexpected transformations that occur when blame, either unintended or deliberately invoked, is exposed and finally understood. The remaining two stories concern relationships that turn out to be gifts, as well as painful learning experiences. In "Other Living Creatures," one family contends with post traumatic stress disorder as another implodes following the death of a young soldier in Vietnam. "Hunters" deals with the unconscious motivations that leave a father resentful and unable to forge a relationship with his son. In "Bardenbrook," an accidental death is the impetus for blame and, finally, forgiveness. Rage acts as a catalyst in "The Summoning," the story of a lesbian couple's struggle to accept the reality of breast cancer shortly before one of the partners undertakes a transformative journey as her death approaches. The two remaining stories in Broken Open deal with the protagonists finding their voices. In "Sunday Wars," a girl begins to think for herself, and in "Beyond the Parking Lot," a woman comes to terms with the restraints, self-imposed and otherwise, that have held her captive for most of her life. Each character in Broken Open struggles, perseveres, grows and, ultimately, flourishes. Despite sorrow, pain, and unexpected loss, being broken open leads them, as it does us all, if we let it, to the richest places within.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001552, ucf:47135
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001552

Title: IN SEARCH OF: STORIES FROM THE ONES LEFT BEHIND.
Creator: Velez, Mayra, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "In Search Of: Stories from the Ones Left Behind" introduces five young women-- June, Leila, Kiss, Marianne, and Alma-- who struggle to impede loved ones from abandoning them. One woman confronts her worst fears when she finds out about her husband's affair with a mutual friend; one comes to terms with her sister's poor lifestyle choices; another copes with her mother's sudden marriage; and yet another figures out that in order to keep her fiancé, she must be willing to...
Show more"In Search Of: Stories from the Ones Left Behind" introduces five young women-- June, Leila, Kiss, Marianne, and Alma-- who struggle to impede loved ones from abandoning them. One woman confronts her worst fears when she finds out about her husband's affair with a mutual friend; one comes to terms with her sister's poor lifestyle choices; another copes with her mother's sudden marriage; and yet another figures out that in order to keep her fiancé, she must be willing to take on responsibilities foreign to her. And then there is the story of Alma, a contemplative but naïve seventeen-year-old girl who commits a serious mistake, an act of prostitution, and when her parents find out, she's left with no choice except to leave her hometown before high school graduation. Alma learns that when it comes to the aftermath of mistakes, women often get a double-dose of pain, plus they run the risk of being removed from the family circle. These stories also touch on other themes: mother-daughter relationships; sibling rivalry and communion; adultery; marriage to foreigners; spirituality; atheism amongst a religious family; dependency; and also how contemporary young women deal with relatively successful careers. But the one common thread running through the heart of these women's stories is how they confront the threat of being pushed aside or deserted by a loved one.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001841, ucf:47365
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001841

Title: KARMIC BUYBACK: A PILOT PROGRAM.
Creator: Dauer, Cindy, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "Karmic Buyback: A Pilot Program", a screenplay, is the story of Oliver Harker, a water resources engineer in his early thirties, adrift in a world of lost social connections. Aside from this work, which he describes as "just a lot of redundant paperwork," his only connection to the outside world is his exuberant younger brother Van. With no father to speak of, and harboring long term resentment against his mother who ran away to Africa the day after Van's high school graduation, Oliver&...
Show more"Karmic Buyback: A Pilot Program", a screenplay, is the story of Oliver Harker, a water resources engineer in his early thirties, adrift in a world of lost social connections. Aside from this work, which he describes as "just a lot of redundant paperwork," his only connection to the outside world is his exuberant younger brother Van. With no father to speak of, and harboring long term resentment against his mother who ran away to Africa the day after Van's high school graduation, Oliver's defining tragic moment came three years earlier. It was then he discovered Eva, the woman he planned to marry, cheating with an old flame. Isolating himself from his few remaining friends, Oliver has become a short-tempered, unbearable grump. Meanwhile Eva, unbeknownst to Oliver, has recently died. She wakes to find herself in a strange, antiseptic afterlife where she is given the opportunity to repair some of the bad karma she accumulated in her short life, specifically in regard to Oliver. As Van begins to help him reestablish social ties, an accident which lands Oliver in the hospital finally draws their mother back across the Atlantic. Oliver must decide between Eva, in her foolish attempts to win him back as a result of the ultimately misguided Karmic Buyback Pilot Program, and the real people who love him.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001954, ucf:47439
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001954

Title: THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS: STORIES.
Creator: Albamonte, Gene, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The Natural Order of Things is a collection of unrelated short stories that focuses on the love, despair, happiness and sorrow prevalent in relationships. Another common thread is how the lack of communication between family, friends and lovers can create burdens that, in some cases, are simply too heavy to lift. Some of the stories have a humorous voice while dealing with those burdens. Many others deal with the complexities of those emotions in a more somber tone. These fictional stories...
Show moreThe Natural Order of Things is a collection of unrelated short stories that focuses on the love, despair, happiness and sorrow prevalent in relationships. Another common thread is how the lack of communication between family, friends and lovers can create burdens that, in some cases, are simply too heavy to lift. Some of the stories have a humorous voice while dealing with those burdens. Many others deal with the complexities of those emotions in a more somber tone. These fictional stories are completely unrelated to each other, and yet they all aim to shine a light on life's conflicts – and on the ramifications of how we deal with those conflicts.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002534, ucf:47651
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002534

Title: GRAVITY FAILS.
Creator: Cowe-Spigai, Kereth, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Gravity Fails is a collection of four short stories and two memoirs that explore the ways in which characters adjust and fit into to a world that is destructive, fragmented and sometimes alien. Many of these pieces deal not with the moment of crisis, but with the aftermath. In "Gravity Fails," the young Danielle struggles to feel safe after the violent murder of her mother. Eliza Morrison negotiates the disappearance of her husband in "More Colors." "Following Rebecca" chronicles a woman's...
Show moreGravity Fails is a collection of four short stories and two memoirs that explore the ways in which characters adjust and fit into to a world that is destructive, fragmented and sometimes alien. Many of these pieces deal not with the moment of crisis, but with the aftermath. In "Gravity Fails," the young Danielle struggles to feel safe after the violent murder of her mother. Eliza Morrison negotiates the disappearance of her husband in "More Colors." "Following Rebecca" chronicles a woman's return to normalcy after her alcoholic husband divorces her. These characters are not happy; they are not healthy. Their lives have, in some way, been fragmented. But they find ways to move on by whatever possible means, and at their core, they are searching not just for a way to survive, but for a way to put themselves back together and find wholeness.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: CFE0000243, ucf:46268
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000243

Title: BISTRO GIRLS.
Creator: Blakeslee, Vanessa, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "Bistro Girls" is an interconnected collection of short stories focusing on characters whose lives intertwine in the affluent Floridian town of Bellamy Park. In "Bistro Girls of Bellamy Park," a senior at a privileged college struggles to confront an old friend who has slipped into addiction. In "Bobby Blues," two women's stifling situations with live-in boyfriends give way to a small hope as Valerie casts aside her illusions and leaves to find a new apartment, temporarily freeing herself...
Show more"Bistro Girls" is an interconnected collection of short stories focusing on characters whose lives intertwine in the affluent Floridian town of Bellamy Park. In "Bistro Girls of Bellamy Park," a senior at a privileged college struggles to confront an old friend who has slipped into addiction. In "Bobby Blues," two women's stifling situations with live-in boyfriends give way to a small hope as Valerie casts aside her illusions and leaves to find a new apartment, temporarily freeing herself from the pattern of relying on a man. In these stories people wrestle with flawed concepts of personal identity that create outward limitations in their interactions with those they care about most. In "Disconnect," an eccentric millionaire struggles with spirituality and a romance spoiled by his inability to find satisfaction. In "The Coffee Shop," the emotionally removed Don leaves Valerie in the inevitable position to find contentment through self-reliance. Through trial and error, the obstacles of insecurity and disillusionment can at times be overcome. In "Scout's Honor," a young woman marries under the spell of fateful disillusionment, with tragic results. An annulment is the catalyst for her maturity, yet the road before her promises to be a long, painful one. As the characters come closer to acceptance of the imperfections and possibilities in themselves and the world around them, there is almost always some hope, no matter how difficult the means to get there.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: CFE0000745, ucf:46576
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000745

Title: GUKUNDANA.
Creator: Van Stone, Lindsay, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Twenty years after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Violet Walters makes her way to the tiny village of Murumba to fulfill her dream of becoming a philanthropist. In addition to the shock of a new culture, Violet must now contend with Bret Calloway, a hardened philanthropist whose ten years at Murumba have made him less than happy about the arrival of Violet and her optimistic new perspective. Amid the mounting tension of their relationship, war looms in the background. What ensues is a testament...
Show moreTwenty years after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Violet Walters makes her way to the tiny village of Murumba to fulfill her dream of becoming a philanthropist. In addition to the shock of a new culture, Violet must now contend with Bret Calloway, a hardened philanthropist whose ten years at Murumba have made him less than happy about the arrival of Violet and her optimistic new perspective. Amid the mounting tension of their relationship, war looms in the background. What ensues is a testament to the transformational nature of a culture and its people. Gukundana seeks to illuminate injustices related to civil strife and genocide from an outsider's perspective. The character of Violet acts as a stable lens from which western viewers can engage with cultural hardships very different from their own. Within this, the connection between the warring ideologies of Bret and Violet against the background of the mounting violence around them serves as another window into greater emotional engagement with themes of violence and war. Ultimately, this screenplay's mission is to bridge cultural barriers in order to endear viewers to the unity, resiliency, and power of the Rwandan people, thus sparking change within a viewing audience's surrounding community.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFH0004371, ucf:44977
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004371

Title: THE EIGHT-DOLLAR BILL.
Creator: Stiles-Tardieu, Wendy, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "The Eight-Dollar Bill" is a collection of tales that explores human isolation and displacement accented by the backdrop of magic and mystery. The characters are often cynical and disenchanted while harboring deeply suppressed longings. They are guided by strange events and circumstances that ultimately transform their world-views. Each story provides a window into an ordinary life at the moment it slips into the extraordinary. The common thread of loneliness and loss runs throughout the...
Show more"The Eight-Dollar Bill" is a collection of tales that explores human isolation and displacement accented by the backdrop of magic and mystery. The characters are often cynical and disenchanted while harboring deeply suppressed longings. They are guided by strange events and circumstances that ultimately transform their world-views. Each story provides a window into an ordinary life at the moment it slips into the extraordinary. The common thread of loneliness and loss runs throughout the collection, explored with multiple points of view and interconnected plots that link characters and places. The title story follows a divorced, detached banker who is jolted out of his monotonous routine when a peculiar bank note becomes his new obsession. Young, irreverent newlyweds learn more about their solemn commitment when they come face to face with their future selves at a mysterious sea-side hotel in "Honeymoon Suite". Two sisters traveling home from their father's funeral must examine their own personal barriers in "Black Ice" when a mysterious stranger offers a glimpse into their father's memories. "Plywood Kingdom" preludes "Honeymoon Suite" when the prospect of marriage forces Lenny and Elsie to carve a separate space from their long-time friend and roommate, Trey. Concluding the collection is "The Ruined Grove", about a troubled teenager who struggles with his mixed ethnicity and dangerous temper. He meets a little girl who can manipulate reality, but only within the boundaries of an abandoned orange grove. The stories take each character out of his or her comfort zone to a place where convictions are tested and often demolished by the shifting margins of dreams, visions and memory. From debilitating self-denial to the bitter longing for a sense of identity, the themes present in the collection always end in the subtle placement of hope and triumph.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: CFE0002361, ucf:47806
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002361

Title: QUARTER LIFE CRISIS OR HOW TO GET OVER COLLEGE AND BECOME A FUNCTIONING MEMBER OF SOCIETY.
Creator: Anderson Jr., Patrick, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As a writer, I feel like dealing with conflict in real life is the best way to deal with conflict in my fiction. Quarter-Life Crisis or How to Get Over College and Become a Functioning Member of Society, while a fictional novel, is very much about many of the conflicts I've experienced over the past few years. Sean Easton is a twenty-five year old college graduate living in Miami, trying to balance out his life in a world that doesn't make as much sense to him as it did when he first...
Show moreAs a writer, I feel like dealing with conflict in real life is the best way to deal with conflict in my fiction. Quarter-Life Crisis or How to Get Over College and Become a Functioning Member of Society, while a fictional novel, is very much about many of the conflicts I've experienced over the past few years. Sean Easton is a twenty-five year old college graduate living in Miami, trying to balance out his life in a world that doesn't make as much sense to him as it did when he first graduated college, happy and looking forward to the future. Suffering through the aftermath of a major breakup as well as the death of his best friend, Sean is in the midst of a year-long alcohol binge when we are introduced to him, a period of time characterized by sporadic bouts of self-loathing interlaced with sardonic internal dialogue directed towards the world at large. Sean's story eventually intersects with the second protagonist in Quarter Life Crisis, Lauren Ellis. Lauren is a twenty-four year old college dropout turned pharmacy technician. When we are introduced to her, Lauren's life is characterized by her child-Justin-and her husband Rick. Rick's a mechanic, and he, Lauren, and their son are all living a comfortably mundane life until the day Lauren comes home to find Rick having sex with eighteen year old Natalie, Justin's babysitter. From there, Lauren's entire life is thrown into disarray, forcing her to confront desires and dreams she had previously filed away in the mental category of "lost." Together, Sean and Lauren represent a large portion of our society, a generation of individuals entering their mid- and late-twenties in the new millennium. Many of them have been told to dream big and aim high throughout their entire lives, that the next four years will be the best of their lives. And then the next four years. A few of us fulfill these dreams. Most don't, and in a time when acquiring a college degree has become more an expectation than an accomplishment, Sean Easton and Lauren Ellis are two of many that are defined by their uncertainty as to where their place in society is. Quarter Life Crisis follows their journey from complete uncertainty to little less uncertain, bringing their lifelong dreams into direct conflict with what they are actually capable of achieving. Though the circumstances of Sean and Lauren's shifts in character are both distinct, their mentality and outlook on love and life are similar. In the end, they both find a balance that gives them hope for happiness which, they both realize, is the most they can really get in the long run. The underlying theme of Quarter Life Crisis or How to Get Over College and Become a Functioning Member of Society is that college has become a fixture in American upbringing. The novel isn't saying this is a good or bad thing, just that it is something that hangs over everybody in the current generation's heads growing up, whether they attend college or not. The novel is an attempt to examine how people function in the new millennium after reaching the point in their life when college is no longer a factor, when they are thrown into the real world and told to fend for themselves. It's the story of how two people end up doing exactly that, and the hellish process they go through to get to that point.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003985, ucf:48671
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003985

Title: CRASHING AGAINST THE WOOD.
Creator: Ryan, Jessica, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In this collection of short stories, the characters struggle to recover equilibrium in their lives that have been turned upside down. They struggle against one another, against change, and against the loss of loved ones. No matter what bonds hold the characters together, the underlying tension of change and reaction permeates their relationships and threatens what they know to be true. A theme of discontent runs in these stories. Something beneath the surface is not right, and the characters...
Show moreIn this collection of short stories, the characters struggle to recover equilibrium in their lives that have been turned upside down. They struggle against one another, against change, and against the loss of loved ones. No matter what bonds hold the characters together, the underlying tension of change and reaction permeates their relationships and threatens what they know to be true. A theme of discontent runs in these stories. Something beneath the surface is not right, and the characters struggle to climb out of the mess their lives have become. Some of them have been stifled, like the narrator in "Resounding Gong, Clanging Cymbal," who's being pressured on all sides to marry. Some of them are toeing the line of fitting in and being independent, like the teenagers in "Hibiscus Boulevard," who, caught up in the last days of summer, are more concerned with being adults than being kids. In the title story, the teenagers in a small town find a way to memorialize one of their own by performing the act that caused him to die. The cautious bonds between the characters are continuously being worked by one another, by oppressive scenery and location, by the aftereffects of dysfunction, or by unrequited love. No matter what the context or situation, something is always just a little bit off, or wrong, in each story in this collection, and the characters must do their best to correct the situations.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002604, ucf:48281
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002604

Title: CUBAN JAM SESSIONS IN MINIATURE: A NOVEL IN TRACKS.
Creator: Rincon, Diego, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This is the collection of a novel, Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature: A Novel in Tracks, and an embedded short story, "Shred Me Like the Cheese You Use to Make Buñuelos." The novel tells the story of Palomino Mondragón, a Colombian mercenary who has arrived in New York after losing his leg to a mortar in Korea. Reclusive, obsessive and passionate, Palomino has reinvented himself as a mambo musician and has fallen in love with Etiwanda, a dancer at the nightclub in which he plays-...
Show moreThis is the collection of a novel, Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature: A Novel in Tracks, and an embedded short story, "Shred Me Like the Cheese You Use to Make Buñuelos." The novel tells the story of Palomino Mondragón, a Colombian mercenary who has arrived in New York after losing his leg to a mortar in Korea. Reclusive, obsessive and passionate, Palomino has reinvented himself as a mambo musician and has fallen in love with Etiwanda, a dancer at the nightclub in which he plays--but he cannot bring himself to declare his love to her. His life changes when he is deported from the United States at the height of the Cuban Missile crisis without having declared his love. Through the thirty years chronicled in the novel, Palomino does all possible in his quest to return to the United States to find Etiwanda despite the fact that he knows she has grown to be a fantasy, an obsession of his imagination. Palomino's quest takes him to the United States and back three times, as he becomes more and more desperate, as he becomes involved with drug traffickers and for-hire murderers like Polo Norte, as he loses track of what it means to feel alive. Palomino is trapped in a tug-of-war between his rational desire for a normal existence and his irrational but inescapable longing for Etiwanda. In the end, his desperation to get to Etiwanda brings the underworld of Polo Norte to her doorstep. "Shred Me Like the Cheese You Use to Make Buñuelos" tells the story of Polo Norte, Palomino's antagonist, on his last day on earth, as he is followed by a writer who has agreed to watch him commit suicide. Together, the stories explore the history and nature of the Colombian Diaspora in the United States, and the violent circumstances surrounding the relationship between both countries and the migrants stuck in the middle of it.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002627, ucf:48202
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002627

Title: POTENTIAL ENERGY.
Creator: Bull, Edward, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: BULL, EDWARD. Potential Energy. (Under the direction of Pat Rushin.) Potential Energy is a collection of sixteen short stories. They range from the fictional to the autofictional to the entirely non-fictional. In all of them, characters both real and imagined struggle to live and define themselves in a world that is outside their control. They cope with the inevitability of loss, dangers both internal and external, and the passing of their own greatness. Some of these characters become lost...
Show moreBULL, EDWARD. Potential Energy. (Under the direction of Pat Rushin.) Potential Energy is a collection of sixteen short stories. They range from the fictional to the autofictional to the entirely non-fictional. In all of them, characters both real and imagined struggle to live and define themselves in a world that is outside their control. They cope with the inevitability of loss, dangers both internal and external, and the passing of their own greatness. Some of these characters become lost while others learn to embrace life on its own termsÃ‚Â--to accept Ã‚Â"without hope or expectation.Ã‚Â" More often, they are not lost or enlightened, but simply survive to continue on, still uncertain. Though all the stories in Potential Energy are stand-alone, they are thematically connected. The themes of family and identity are most prominent in Ã‚Â"Potential EnergyÃ‚Â" and Ã‚Â"Eulogy to Maria Mamani, Fire-Eater.Ã‚Â" Loss is confronted and the question of what comes next is asked in Ã‚Â"OystersÃ‚Â" and Ã‚Â"Slide.Ã‚Â" The conflict between fate and the need for control rises to the surface in Ã‚Â"Threshold,Ã‚Â" Ã‚Â"The Elizabeth Years,Ã‚Â" and the non-fiction story of Charles WhitmanÃ‚Â's deadly rampage in 1966, Ã‚Â"Seed.Ã‚Â" Themes of ambiguity, moral erosion, and literary exploitation appear in the non-fiction Ã‚Â"Bright and Loud and Then Gone,Ã‚Â" about a landlord burned alive in Chicago in 2008, and Ã‚Â"What It Might Have Been Like If We Had Been There,Ã‚Â" an apologetic for the writerÃ‚Â's right to write inspired by the 2007 Al Mutanabbi Street car-bombing in Baghdad, Iraq. Most importantly all the content of Potential Energy tells stories of people trying to hold on to what is good when, tragically, everything must eventually come to an end.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003148, ucf:48651
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003148

Title: Enterface : a novella.
Creator: McLeod, Hubert Calip, Rushin, Pat, Arts and Sciences
Abstract / Description: University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; A computer screen places each of us in an interface and virtual reality provides a totally simulated environment, a virtual world that we can enter. Enterface is a novella that examines the question first posed by Michael Heim: How far can we enter cyberspace and still remain human? It also explores the power and the limitation of language and the role of stories to shape reality in human life. Its themes are death, technology...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; A computer screen places each of us in an interface and virtual reality provides a totally simulated environment, a virtual world that we can enter. Enterface is a novella that examines the question first posed by Michael Heim: How far can we enter cyberspace and still remain human? It also explores the power and the limitation of language and the role of stories to shape reality in human life. Its themes are death, technology, ethics, and love. It is informed by Wittgensteinian philosophy, Norse mythology, and the "metaphysics of virtual reality." The plot involves Moses Mackinow, a former Air Force officer and entrepreneur, who decides there should be a way to simply live forever. He hits upon the idea that life could be digitized, and a civilization, a world of complete, sentient humans could be created in cyberspace--a world he could enter upon his death and continue to live. A variety of technologies are available to digitize the physical human (x-rays, CTSCNS, Magnetic Resonance Images, graphic images, etc.), but the big problem is how to synthesize his human heart. Moses decides that the stories of his life are the keys to creating the "rag and bone shop" of his eternal heart. Getting the stories "right" is critical to the prospect of digitizing life and is a major focus of the novella action. The novella traces the reduction of Moses as a a human being as he pursues his obsession, compromising one principle after another. Everything in the environment of the novella, reflects this reduction. Everything becomes less than it was, a glimpse of humanity reduced to bits and bytes, floating 1's and 0's. Enterface is a work at war with itself.
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Date Issued: 1999
Identifier: CFR0011964, ucf:53091
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011964

Title: Close to home.
Creator: Gagnon, Donald P., Rushin, Pat, Arts and Sciences
Abstract / Description: University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis
Date Issued: 1994
Identifier: CFR0011938, ucf:53112
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011938

Title: Road Stories.
Creator: Mindar, Louis, Rushin, Pat, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Road Stories is a collection of three novellas that explore the pull, allure, sanctuary, serendipity, and adventure of life on the open road. The novellas examine how for some, the road holds the promise of a new day, an improved life, a better opportunity, or a deeper love; while for others, it is nothing more than an assortment of jumbled blue lines on a map. In Tierra del Fuego, a man takes to the road to figure out how to deal with the grief and sense of betrayal he feels following the...
Show moreRoad Stories is a collection of three novellas that explore the pull, allure, sanctuary, serendipity, and adventure of life on the open road. The novellas examine how for some, the road holds the promise of a new day, an improved life, a better opportunity, or a deeper love; while for others, it is nothing more than an assortment of jumbled blue lines on a map. In Tierra del Fuego, a man takes to the road to figure out how to deal with the grief and sense of betrayal he feels following the death of his wife.Lake of the Falls involves a decades-long dispute between a father and son who take to the road and come to realize that home is not always where you live.In Back on the Road, three recent college graduates set off on a road trip inspired by Kerouac's On the Road to celebrate the end of their college years and lament the imminent approach of adulthood, only to learn that their lives are soon going to take vastly different paths.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005670, ucf:50194
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005670

Title: Black Skies and Gray Matter.
Creator: Bennett, Jacquelyn, Rushin, Pat, Kesler, Russ, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Black Skies and Gray Matter is a collection of stories thematically centered on characters that are lonely or lost in the world. These stories explore the characters' personalities through their interactions with others (strangers, family, friends, and spouses) and the difficulties they face being misunderstood. Their journeys are ones of trying to find happiness and their place in society (or rejecting it). As they face alienation, they must endure the trials of everyday life (some more...
Show moreBlack Skies and Gray Matter is a collection of stories thematically centered on characters that are lonely or lost in the world. These stories explore the characters' personalities through their interactions with others (strangers, family, friends, and spouses) and the difficulties they face being misunderstood. Their journeys are ones of trying to find happiness and their place in society (or rejecting it). As they face alienation, they must endure the trials of everyday life (some more extreme than others) and, at the same time, search for kindred spirits, a sense of belonging. Some stay true to themselves while others conform to social norms with various degrees of success and contentment. One trait all characters share is selfishness, but they are not aware of it, nor are they aware of how their selfishness affects others. These stories also explore the characters' philosophies and growth (or stagnation) through how they deal with alienation, loneliness, social awkwardness, drug abuse, alcoholism, disease, death, failure, rejection, and loss.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005579, ucf:50256
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005579

Title: Sunset View.
Creator: Armstrong, Danielle, Hubbard, Susan, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Sunset View is a linked collection of short fiction that explores the dynamics of dysfunctional families. Characters in this collection have been affected by the neglect, absence, or death of their family members and friends. They search for recognition and love as they try to find their place in life. Some turn to animals or fleeting relationships to fill this void. Others attempt suicide or simply disappear. The characters are in denial, unsure how to deal with grief, and often make...
Show moreSunset View is a linked collection of short fiction that explores the dynamics of dysfunctional families. Characters in this collection have been affected by the neglect, absence, or death of their family members and friends. They search for recognition and love as they try to find their place in life. Some turn to animals or fleeting relationships to fill this void. Others attempt suicide or simply disappear. The characters are in denial, unsure how to deal with grief, and often make decisions that alienate them from the friends and family they do have. Set in northeast Tennessee and named after a local trailer park, the collection creates a portrait of Candace Annette, a young woman who struggles to come of age and distance herself from the only life she's ever known.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005573, ucf:50237
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005573

Title: Lonely Monsters.
Creator: Davis, Patricia, Rushin, Pat, Thaxton, Terry, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Lonely Monsters is a full-length feature screenplay that explores the ways in which a classic damsel narrative may be reconsidered. It offers ideas on how death and girlhood may find symmetry. The characters within Lonely Monsters deal with loss, identity of the self versus the world's ideas on self-identity, place, gender, and class. Utilizing the elements of a fairy tale, the narrative seeks to complicate the roles of gender in a cautionary tale. Set in the fictional Florida town of Puerto...
Show moreLonely Monsters is a full-length feature screenplay that explores the ways in which a classic damsel narrative may be reconsidered. It offers ideas on how death and girlhood may find symmetry. The characters within Lonely Monsters deal with loss, identity of the self versus the world's ideas on self-identity, place, gender, and class. Utilizing the elements of a fairy tale, the narrative seeks to complicate the roles of gender in a cautionary tale. Set in the fictional Florida town of Puerto Palmera, an economic divide between the Estates and the Glades makes for a ripe, troublesome environment for a foul modern-day aristocrat who masquerades as a grandiose and romantic prince. The story's protagonist, Fisher Franklin, loses two key relationships(-)as well as her sound mind(-)in the wake of the false prince's folly. Utilizing her experiences as a child within the lavish lives of the Estates(-)at the desire of a wealthy and secretive benefactor with motives of her own(-)Fisher creates a persona who becomes entangled in a lustful and dangerous liaison with Wyatt Sharpe, the villainous playboy. By assuming this persona, Fisher recasts herself as the damsel, the monster, and the heroine.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005600, ucf:50232
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005600

Title: Let Me Tell You About Homestuck: The Online Production of Place.
Creator: Short, Jennifer, Hubbard, Susan, Kesler, Russ, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis investigates the potential for the online production of place, specifically as it applies to the host site for the Homestuck web comic, MS Paint Adventures, and its attendant fandom. The proliferation of digital environments such as video games, web sites, and chat rooms has led to numerous opportunities for the study of online spaces and the numerous practices that take place within them. The lack of physical location in online spaces can, however, make it difficult to...
Show moreThis thesis investigates the potential for the online production of place, specifically as it applies to the host site for the Homestuck web comic, MS Paint Adventures, and its attendant fandom. The proliferation of digital environments such as video games, web sites, and chat rooms has led to numerous opportunities for the study of online spaces and the numerous practices that take place within them. The lack of physical location in online spaces can, however, make it difficult to conceptualize of a web site as real, a problem that has often led researchers to develop new theories of space that do not rely on material places. This thesis was inspired by questions about the potential for the production of online place, and how and to what extent this operation can be studied through the application of a theory of place. Applying Certeau's theory of place from The Practice of Everyday Life this thesis theorizes the operations through which Andrew Hussie created MS Paint Adventures as a habitable place. Hussie accomplishes this through the generation and maintenance of authority, the creation of stable and ordered elements, and the establishment of the "proper," the rules and reality that govern the site. In addition, I theorize about the space that MS Paint Adventures as a place attempts to create, a space where readers are encouraged and enabled to engage with the web comic Homestuck and with each other through meaningful online interaction, and about the ways in which the site can be, and is, inhabited. Ultimately, I explore the extent to which web sites, though lacking physical location, can be fairly and logically conceived of, and therefore examined as, habitable places.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005416, ucf:50424
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005416

fiction (7)	+ -
Fiction (4)	+ -
short stories (4)	+ -
creative writing (3)	+ -
Academic (2)	+ -

Academic -- Arts and Sciences (2)	+ -
Arts and Sciences -- Dissertations (2)	+ -
Dissertations (2)	+ -
Loss (2)	+ -
coming of age (2)	+ -
screenplay (2)	+ -
screenwriting (2)	+ -
African American (1)	+ -
African Culture (1)	+ -
Alienation (1)	+ -
American Family (1)	+ -
Bogota (1)	+ -
Cali (1)	+ -
Certeau (1)	+ -
Colombia (1)	+ -
Colombian-American (1)	+ -
Coming-of-age (1)	+ -
Computers -- Fiction (1)	+ -
Conflict (1)	+ -
Creative Nonfiction (1)	+ -
Creative Writing (1)	+ -
Creative Writing MFA (1)	+ -
Crisis (1)	+ -
Florida (1)	+ -
Fragmentation (1)	+ -

ETD Collection (22)	+ -
Honors Collection (1)	+ -

Rushin, Pat (23)	+ -
University of Central Florida (21)	+ -
Hubbard, Susan (4)	+ -
Bartkevicius, Jocelyn (3)	+ -
Arts and Sciences (2)	+ -

Kesler, Russ (2)	+ -
Poissant, David (2)	+ -
Roney, Lisa (2)	+ -
Albamonte, Gene (1)	+ -
Anderson Jr., Patrick (1)	+ -
Armstrong, Danielle (1)	+ -
Bennett, Jacquelyn (1)	+ -
Blakeslee, Vanessa (1)	+ -
Broom, Jeneca (1)	+ -
Bull, Edward (1)	+ -
Cowe-Spigai, Kereth (1)	+ -
Dauer, Cindy (1)	+ -
Davis, Patricia (1)	+ -
Davis, Sloane (1)	+ -
Gagnon, Donald P. (1)	+ -
Haffner, Jason (1)	+ -
McKee, Raymond (1)	+ -
McLeod, Hubert Calip (1)	+ -
Mindar, Louis (1)	+ -
Neal, Mary (1)	+ -
Rincon, Diego (1)	+ -
Ryan, Jessica (1)	+ -
Short, Jennifer (1)	+ -
Stannard, Taylor (1)	+ -
Stiles-Tardieu, Wendy (1)	+ -

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