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Pages
- Title
- The Long and Short of It.
- Creator
-
McElroy, Ciera, Poissant, David, Peynado, Brenda, Kolaya, Chrissy, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The Long and Short of It is a collection of ten stories, spanning centuries and continents, illustrating the universality of loss. Here is a war-haunted Korean vet, brainwashed Nazi brides, a neurotic Soviet ballerina, and a re-imagined Ethan Frome. In these stories, anxiety waits in the wings: will Ethan's wife discover his affair? Will the brides acknowledge the dark truth behind their training? Will a mother recover her kidnapped baby? Characters grapple with grief and anxiety in various...
Show moreThe Long and Short of It is a collection of ten stories, spanning centuries and continents, illustrating the universality of loss. Here is a war-haunted Korean vet, brainwashed Nazi brides, a neurotic Soviet ballerina, and a re-imagined Ethan Frome. In these stories, anxiety waits in the wings: will Ethan's wife discover his affair? Will the brides acknowledge the dark truth behind their training? Will a mother recover her kidnapped baby? Characters grapple with grief and anxiety in various ways. Two mothers mourn missing babies: one turns to the occult, the other heads to Mars. Children reel with abandonment: one obsesses over ballet, the other strives to escape a raging wildfire. With recurring themes of family and motherhood, these stories explore the psychological effects of loss. Ranging from the mundane to the wildly magical, the characters in these stories are haunted by figurative and literal ghosts as they navigate both internal conflict and external responsibilities.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007500, ucf:52633
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007500
- Title
- Kidron Road and Other Stories.
- Creator
-
Molohon, Jason, Neal, Mary, Powell, Mark, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Kidron Road and Other Stories is a collection of fiction that ranges from the soberly tragic to the magically real. The characters in each selection are molded by their choices, the choices of others, and the cruel whims of fate. I am fascinated by the way fatalism and free will intersect in the human experience. Therefore, my work often explores the paradoxical way lives are molded by past decisions while, at the same time, those decisions seem determined by outside forces.
- Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006146, ucf:51158
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006146
- 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.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002361, ucf:47806
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002361
- Title
- Marriage and Other Trouble.
- Creator
-
Buckingham, Benjamin, Poissant, David, Neal, Mary, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Marriage and Other Trouble is a collection of (mostly) realist short stories. These stories explore the dynamics of marriage and family, ranging from characters dating in their twenties, to remarrying in their sixties. The characters in this collection grapple with adultery, sexual identity, addiction, class, privilege, and illness. I am interested in the lasting impact of events. Therefore, these stories often reflect on the history of relationships and on how the events of these characters'...
Show moreMarriage and Other Trouble is a collection of (mostly) realist short stories. These stories explore the dynamics of marriage and family, ranging from characters dating in their twenties, to remarrying in their sixties. The characters in this collection grapple with adultery, sexual identity, addiction, class, privilege, and illness. I am interested in the lasting impact of events. Therefore, these stories often reflect on the history of relationships and on how the events of these characters' lives will carry into the future. Mostly set in Florida, place plays an important role in these stories, providing both structure and conflict. The one magical realist story I've included takes place in the afterlife. Addressing suicide and depression, this story explores the guilt over those left behind, and the continual struggle to reconcile with the past, even after death.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006080, ucf:50955
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006080
- Title
- Though I Know the River is Dry.
- Creator
-
Campbell, Victoria, Poissant, David, Thaxton, Terry, Milanes, Cecilia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Though I Know the River is Dry is a place-oriented collection of short fiction. The included stories follow female protagonists as they struggle with identity, relationships, and place in the world. The women in these stories frequently grapple with the fear of being loved in the wrong way, often unearthing a deeper examination of what it means to be tethered to a person or a place, along with the ramifications of these ties. All tangentially related to the island of Martha's Vineyard, place...
Show moreThough I Know the River is Dry is a place-oriented collection of short fiction. The included stories follow female protagonists as they struggle with identity, relationships, and place in the world. The women in these stories frequently grapple with the fear of being loved in the wrong way, often unearthing a deeper examination of what it means to be tethered to a person or a place, along with the ramifications of these ties. All tangentially related to the island of Martha's Vineyard, place serves as a grounding element in this collection, as well as an entity with which the women interact.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006083, ucf:50941
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006083
- Title
- Broken Toys.
- Creator
-
Eliot, Robin, Pugh, William, Milanes, Cecilia, Nwakanma, Obi, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This novel is about a character, Felicity Gourd. She's Cinderella, but she lives in twenty-first century Boston and knows the Cinderella story as well as anyone else. She's also one of a small number of people who are able turn into the creatures represented by their childhood toys. Felicity's toy was a mouse. Her godmother's was, of course, a fairy.Through her godmother, Felicity enters the community of Toys, where she finally finds a home. But the Toys are the only people who stand in the...
Show moreThis novel is about a character, Felicity Gourd. She's Cinderella, but she lives in twenty-first century Boston and knows the Cinderella story as well as anyone else. She's also one of a small number of people who are able turn into the creatures represented by their childhood toys. Felicity's toy was a mouse. Her godmother's was, of course, a fairy.Through her godmother, Felicity enters the community of Toys, where she finally finds a home. But the Toys are the only people who stand in the way of Clarity, a secret organization that wants to place humanity under the rule of a personality-type based master race. The Toys' victory comes at the cost of most of their lives, leaving Felicity to find her own way, with neither stepmother nor fairy godmother.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0006999, ucf:51624
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006999
- Title
- "IN THE DROWNING CITY" AND OTHER STORIES.
- Creator
-
Segarra, Malyn, Leiby, Jeanne, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
"In the Drowning City" and Other Stories is a collection of fiction written and revised during Malyn Segarra's graduate studies at the University of Central Florida. Most of the collection examines the transient nature and fragility of identity and shifting roles within the family unit. All focus on a particular span of time, the transition into young adulthood. Each character is faced with an obstacle or event that tests his or her beliefs, integrity and sense of self. As each one...
Show more"In the Drowning City" and Other Stories is a collection of fiction written and revised during Malyn Segarra's graduate studies at the University of Central Florida. Most of the collection examines the transient nature and fragility of identity and shifting roles within the family unit. All focus on a particular span of time, the transition into young adulthood. Each character is faced with an obstacle or event that tests his or her beliefs, integrity and sense of self. As each one struggles to make a unique and permanent impression in the world, he or she must come to terms with the past, in some cases, breaking away from it. Although the characters come from varying backgrounds, the themes that thread the collection are universal. The three stories that serve as the backbone of the collection, "Slashing, Tripping and Other Offensive Plays," "In the Drowning City," and "This Is Just a Modern Love Song" find the protagonists striving to adapt to their newly transformed environments. As the situations they face become more complicated and the resolutions exceedingly compromised, the innocence and certainty associated with childhood is jeopardized.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001870, ucf:47386
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001870
- Title
- HOW THE SKY TASTES: EIGHT STORIES.
- Creator
-
Sinclair, Daniel, Leiby, Jeanne, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
How the Sky Tastes is not simply a collection of stories. It is my representation of moments in life, social commentaries, bits of humor, and pure entertainment all in one. Each story, although unique and easily able to stand alone, shares qualities I find important in writing fiction. First, each story features realistically flawed, yet sympathetic characters dealing with difficulties in life. Secondly, the actual moment is important in each story--whether that moment is something shared...
Show moreHow the Sky Tastes is not simply a collection of stories. It is my representation of moments in life, social commentaries, bits of humor, and pure entertainment all in one. Each story, although unique and easily able to stand alone, shares qualities I find important in writing fiction. First, each story features realistically flawed, yet sympathetic characters dealing with difficulties in life. Secondly, the actual moment is important in each story--whether that moment is something shared between two or more characters or simply the time a certain character comes to a serious realization. Finally, the style can make or break the story. I do not believe in gimmicky writing--form must always have function--but I do feel that the writing must be representative of the characters and the stories that it serves. Experimentation is important in writing. Each story should have its own way of telling itself. All these stories can be seen as experimental in some way, but also all these stories are told the way they have to be told. The characters tell the stories themselves and the writing just follows suit. It is my hope that readers can identify with most, if not all, of these stories, and engage interest in these characters enough to care about what happens to them, even if they don't necessarily like them.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001973, ucf:47431
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001973
- Title
- NEED: STORIES.
- Creator
-
Ellis, Megan, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The intent of this thesis is to create a literary fiction collection centered on diverse adolescent girls. In recent years, women writers have moved away from the domestic sphere of authors whose writing focused solely on the daily lives of women, and have begun penning epic stories and novels whose themes were previously tackled by men alone. Authors show that the craft of expansive and immersive literary fiction transcends gender, allowing women more freedom with the types of stories they...
Show moreThe intent of this thesis is to create a literary fiction collection centered on diverse adolescent girls. In recent years, women writers have moved away from the domestic sphere of authors whose writing focused solely on the daily lives of women, and have begun penning epic stories and novels whose themes were previously tackled by men alone. Authors show that the craft of expansive and immersive literary fiction transcends gender, allowing women more freedom with the types of stories they choose to write. That's not to say that domestic fiction is unimportant or "less than" other types of literary fiction, however. The difference is in choice—women are free to create works in other genres, forms, and conventions separate from domestic fiction, but can also reclaim and reinvent the genre to show the importance of everyday women. Each story in this collection highlights the complex lives of adolescent girls while exploring universal themes of women from a literary fiction rather than young adult fiction perspective. Issues such as sexuality, virginity, and popularity—which all girls experience at least tangentially—are often relegated to young adult fiction. Their purpose is to build a relationship of trust between characters and readers who are experiencing the same confusing period. Literary fiction allows deeper exploration into these issues, showing how larger psychological and societal problems result in adolescent physical manifestations, such as the sexualization and commodification of women's bodies. This thesis will add to the current literary conversation by highlighting teenage girls, a demographic whose importance is often downplayed by modern society.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFH0004612, ucf:45264
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004612
- Title
- IMAGO DEI: STORIES.
- Creator
-
Langevin, Benjamin, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Translated from Latin, Imago Dei means the image of God. In the very beginning of the Torah, the writer says that God created humanity in Their own image. According to the text, woven in the fabric of who we are is God. In a post-secular society, the concept of God brings a lot of weight and baggage. Which God are we talking about? Can God be talked about it? Is God or thinking about God even relevant anymore? Hasn't science taken care of it? What good can discussions on faith bring us? These...
Show moreTranslated from Latin, Imago Dei means the image of God. In the very beginning of the Torah, the writer says that God created humanity in Their own image. According to the text, woven in the fabric of who we are is God. In a post-secular society, the concept of God brings a lot of weight and baggage. Which God are we talking about? Can God be talked about it? Is God or thinking about God even relevant anymore? Hasn't science taken care of it? What good can discussions on faith bring us? These are the questions explored in Imago Dei: Stories. Within the collection is a story about a group of college students in the Bible belt struggling with sorting through emotions in the aftermath of their pastor's suicide. There's a husband search for grace and acceptance in the midst of a looming divorce and a dying father. Finally, there's a letter from a youth pastor who is publically accused of abusing a transgendered student. The collection was written under the guidance of Dr. David James Poissant with the help of Professors Laurie Uttich and Nathan Holic. In the directed readings portion of the program, I read Marilynne Robinson, Bret Lott, and Flannery O'Connor to get a better picture of faith and moral fiction. For craft guidance, I read works by Bret Anthony Johnston, Junot Diaz, David Foster Wallace, Vanessa Blakeslee, and John Henry Fleming.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFH0004712, ucf:45403
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004712
- Title
- DON'T SEE, DON'T SPEAK: A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES.
- Creator
-
Kalfar, Jaroslav, Neal, Darlin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This short story collection follows diverse characters as they long to find their place in the chaos of modern world. As the trend of postmodern literature traces our failure to understand our lives and discover a larger context, we find that our reality is ever-changing and there is not a single constant to follow. We are disappointed by modern political systems, our lovers, and our own individual capabilities. The issue of belonging means finding a place that, both physically and mentally,...
Show moreThis short story collection follows diverse characters as they long to find their place in the chaos of modern world. As the trend of postmodern literature traces our failure to understand our lives and discover a larger context, we find that our reality is ever-changing and there is not a single constant to follow. We are disappointed by modern political systems, our lovers, and our own individual capabilities. The issue of belonging means finding a place that, both physically and mentally, provides context and meaning for our existence. The five short stories presented here examine social issues, such as immigration, political revolution, and social role of the media. At the same time, the subtleties of personal belonging - love, rejection, fear of the future, crisis of identity - are dissected under a looking glass, brought forward to emphasize the individual human element while the larger themes fade into the background. The main character of "Winter Velvet" speaks from the midst of the Velvet Revolution taking place in Prague, anxiously awaiting the outcome and attempting to understand the impact this revolution will have on his life. The narrator of "Metathesiophobia in Three Parts" possesses the kind of existential fears and anxieties we see in the eyes of American youth as they all face grim futures in a country without direction. "The Stage" explores the moments of terror an immigrant experiences when facing his first deportation scare. "El Pollo Negro" is the story of a Mexican man haunted by a black chicken as he attempts to build a life in America. Finally, "Jeremy Stock Live!" examines the role of morality in American reality TV shows ala Jerry Springer. What is it that fascinates us about pitting tragically flawed people against an audience of judges and a host/executor? In all of these stories the characters experience a longing to hold onto a single place, to find firm ground in the world and allow home, whatever and wherever it is, to pour over them and never let them go.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFH0004101, ucf:44876
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004101
- Title
- Red Tide and Other Stories.
- Creator
-
Vazquez, Heather, Peynado, Brenda, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Pugh, William, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Red Tide and Other Stories is a fictional collection of eleven short stories in which characters react to their struggles with loss, frustration, regret, loneliness, and love. Each story presents a strong sense of place and moment, while examining how characters are influenced by these elements. While individual stories present new characters and scenarios, they are connected by elements of water and include aspects of coasts and shorelines in the setting of the real world. The commonality of...
Show moreRed Tide and Other Stories is a fictional collection of eleven short stories in which characters react to their struggles with loss, frustration, regret, loneliness, and love. Each story presents a strong sense of place and moment, while examining how characters are influenced by these elements. While individual stories present new characters and scenarios, they are connected by elements of water and include aspects of coasts and shorelines in the setting of the real world. The commonality of water in the stories works to demonstrate a connectivity between all people and cultures because water is shared and linked between continents without regard to socioeconomics or political boundaries drawn throughout the world. Regardless of these drawn boundaries, we all share grief and disappointment, just as we share water.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007110, ucf:51968
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007110
- Title
- The Storm.
- Creator
-
Delemeester, Kara, Peynado, Brenda, Thaxton, Terry, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Set in a world where natural disasters start increasing in both intensity and frequency, this work examines what it means to be self-reliant when the world is falling apart. As the largest recorded hurricane heads for the eastern coast of the United States, Sierra Egan evacuates her Florida home with her boyfriend and makes her way toward safety(-)a shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. When Sierra and her boyfriend breakup and part ways along the evacuation route, Sierra assumes her history of self...
Show moreSet in a world where natural disasters start increasing in both intensity and frequency, this work examines what it means to be self-reliant when the world is falling apart. As the largest recorded hurricane heads for the eastern coast of the United States, Sierra Egan evacuates her Florida home with her boyfriend and makes her way toward safety(-)a shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. When Sierra and her boyfriend breakup and part ways along the evacuation route, Sierra assumes her history of self-reliance will work to her benefit. But an anti-government couple, a beach cult, a lonely storm chaser, an interdependent family, and a pregnancy call this into question, forcing Sierra to ask whether or not it's possible to survive a world like this alone.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007450, ucf:52733
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007450
- Title
- Assisted Living: Stories.
- Creator
-
Swift, Donovan, Poissant, David, Peynado, Brenda, Milanes, Cecilia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Assisted Living is a collection of stories that explores themes of parenthood, brotherhood, old and new love, adultery, financial strife, and the many faces of loss. The collection offers different points of view, which allow the reader to experience these themes within varying lives and situations. For example, the eponymous (")Assisted Living(") is from the perspective of a pet-sitter at the brink of losing both her job and husband, while (")Holy Mother(") explores the point of view of a...
Show moreAssisted Living is a collection of stories that explores themes of parenthood, brotherhood, old and new love, adultery, financial strife, and the many faces of loss. The collection offers different points of view, which allow the reader to experience these themes within varying lives and situations. For example, the eponymous (")Assisted Living(") is from the perspective of a pet-sitter at the brink of losing both her job and husband, while (")Holy Mother(") explores the point of view of a wife coming to terms with her affair and the physical injury that has changed her husband. (")The World of Reptiles(") follows a father walking his son through a zoo before they receive his son's cancer test results, while (")Host(") follows two sons who discover their recently deceased mother believed in reincarnation before she died. Other stories explore characters stuck in relationships(-)both familial and romantic(-)that started bright, but curled toward the dark, leaving the characters feeling trapped by the ones they love. The collection as a whole seeks to explore people stuck between selves, people striving to be new and better, while failing and succeeding in ways big and small.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007537, ucf:52625
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007537
- Title
- Young Thinkers.
- Creator
-
Elgeness, Jaclyn, Neal, Mary, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Young Thinkers is a collection of short fiction dealing with what it means to earn wisdom in the twenty-first century. When our phones can remember everything for us, and we're plagued by a sense that everything has already been said and digitally cataloged, insight becomes even more important, particularly to the thoughtful characters explored throughout the collection. The prolonged American adolescence facilitated by the economic crisis, as well as the societal acceptance of marrying and...
Show moreYoung Thinkers is a collection of short fiction dealing with what it means to earn wisdom in the twenty-first century. When our phones can remember everything for us, and we're plagued by a sense that everything has already been said and digitally cataloged, insight becomes even more important, particularly to the thoughtful characters explored throughout the collection. The prolonged American adolescence facilitated by the economic crisis, as well as the societal acceptance of marrying and having children much later in life, creates an atmosphere of intense self-doubt. A young man working at a gas station after college witnesses a high school boy die in a hit and run, and he longs to comfort others at the vigil. Another young man decides he would rather rob houses than return to community college while wondering at ways to extend his lifespan. Young women struggle to feel important and independent, but find themselves assuaging their fears with cigarettes and alcohol. These characters yearn for the insight and experience that would make them decidedly and authoritatively adult.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0004106, ucf:49097
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004106
- Title
- WE WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD EXPLODE.
- Creator
-
Sullivan, Jaclyn, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
We Will Make Your Head Explode is a collection of short fiction stories that explore themes of friendship, family, love, lust, jealousy, loyalty, and disappointment. The characters in these stories are utterly human; they are pushed, pulled, and often fall victim to circumstance. A woman grapples between her love of roadside attractions and her boyfriendÃÂ's grief. A son is forced to decide whether or not to honor his motherÃÂ's final wishes. A...
Show moreWe Will Make Your Head Explode is a collection of short fiction stories that explore themes of friendship, family, love, lust, jealousy, loyalty, and disappointment. The characters in these stories are utterly human; they are pushed, pulled, and often fall victim to circumstance. A woman grapples between her love of roadside attractions and her boyfriendÃÂ's grief. A son is forced to decide whether or not to honor his motherÃÂ's final wishes. A college student is blind to her brotherÃÂ's evolution beyond their family. A woman discovers new possibilities while stalking graveyards to escape the memory of a man who left her behind. A teenager on the run findsÃÂ--and losesÃÂ--her first love. As desperately as they struggle to control their situations, their love lives, their families, and their emotions, they are often faced with simply having to come to terms with their realities. These eleven stories are intended to examine the ways people are capable of treating each other, both good and bad, and how people deal with the inevitably of being forced to move beyond what seems permanent, to create new identities, to laugh, and to learn from their mistakes.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003035, ucf:48356
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003035
- Title
- MIDDLE GROUND: A NOVELLA AND COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES.
- Creator
-
Uttich, Laurie, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This collection of fiction--a novella and a collection of short stories--focuses on the commonality of the human condition. While we create separations for ourselves by focusing on distinctions such as, religion, class, gender, and race, we are, I believe, spiritual beings sharing a human experience. My work tends to explore these distinctions and our motivations for embracing them. In the novella, Middle Ground, two sisters in alternating narrative voices share the story of their parents'...
Show moreThis collection of fiction--a novella and a collection of short stories--focuses on the commonality of the human condition. While we create separations for ourselves by focusing on distinctions such as, religion, class, gender, and race, we are, I believe, spiritual beings sharing a human experience. My work tends to explore these distinctions and our motivations for embracing them. In the novella, Middle Ground, two sisters in alternating narrative voices share the story of their parents' struggles with separation, sobriety and cancer. Their voices, as distinct as their perspectives, explore the landscape of a family, the borders between forgiveness and acceptance, the self-preserving act of looking beyond imperfections and weaknesses, and the realization that truth is an illusion and flawed love the only certainty. The short story collection consists of eight pieces. Many of these stories explore characters in a state of recovery--a brain tumor operation, a death of a spouse, a shot to the head where a bullet rests and reminds--and plot occurs as these characters attempt to move on. They meet sandhill cranes who cry out in pain for the death of another, lovers who speak in italics, vets who swear that the blasted silence is louder than King Kong screaming in your ear. They sit with shrinks who lie, sleep with poets who stray, compete with incarcerated ex-husbands who were "man enough" to put a gun to a woman's head and pull the trigger. They are nothing--and everything--like all of us, and readers are invited to join the characters beside the mirror of our collective Middle Ground.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002600, ucf:48261
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002600
- Title
- OF SPANISH COWS, WILD BOARS, UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER, AND OTHER ODDITIES.
- Creator
-
Sanchez, Lydia, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In this collection of connected stories, the inhabitants of the imaginary Mediterranean village of Marcenac struggle with daily situations that often take allures of a farce, simply because they occur in Marcenac. The stories explore the influence southern France's Roussillon region has on people, the way the proximity of the Spanish border and the Mediterranean shapes the inhabitants of Marcenac's daily lives, and the influence of the climate. Often, the Tramontane, the region's...
Show moreIn this collection of connected stories, the inhabitants of the imaginary Mediterranean village of Marcenac struggle with daily situations that often take allures of a farce, simply because they occur in Marcenac. The stories explore the influence southern France's Roussillon region has on people, the way the proximity of the Spanish border and the Mediterranean shapes the inhabitants of Marcenac's daily lives, and the influence of the climate. Often, the Tramontane, the region's predominant wind, becomes a character. While some of the stories are told from a collective point of view, others reveal the inner thoughts of children and adults, male and female. Because the stories are connected, characters visit different stories and help tell the collective tale of Marcenac. Even though the stories stand on their own, they form cohesion, united by the progression of the seasons and the underlying theme of death. Each story reveals a particularity of the region's weather and culture. Some stories are entertaining and lighthearted. Others are serious. Each invites the reader to share the most intimate thoughts of the characters as they seek solace from various degrees of grief and frustration. Some characters are gauche, naïve, some tender, others bitter, but all are resilient and amicable. The characters' speech and the narrative are often peppered with French, which makes for humorous situations and takes the reader deep within a foreign culture without giving the feeling of an anthropology lesson. As a result, the characters become cultural guides as they ruminate over the past or go about their daily lives. They give the reader a unique insight into the habits and values of the region.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002626, ucf:48211
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002626
- Title
- THE WHOLE HEADLIGHT-COLORED NIGHT.
- Creator
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Bryan, Matthew, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This collection of short fiction probes the lives of characters trying to make their home in the flat, unchanging landscape of the small towns that make up central Florida. The largely static environment reflects the rigid patterns of behavior and domesticity the characters find themselves so easily falling into. Seemingly ordinary items--a shotgun, a t-shirt, a paper bag--and the small moments that make up everyday life are imbued with significance as men and women painfully aware of their...
Show moreThis collection of short fiction probes the lives of characters trying to make their home in the flat, unchanging landscape of the small towns that make up central Florida. The largely static environment reflects the rigid patterns of behavior and domesticity the characters find themselves so easily falling into. Seemingly ordinary items--a shotgun, a t-shirt, a paper bag--and the small moments that make up everyday life are imbued with significance as men and women painfully aware of their own ordinariness struggle to hold onto those fragile instances of connection, happiness, or even their own self-constructed sense of identity. The struggle becomes one of opposing forces: as characters yearn to connect to the people, places, and objects around them, they find themselves more and more attracted to the idea of escaping their own lives, even if for just a moment. Stories range from two pages to over twenty and introduce the reader to a diverse population of characters, from an out of work construction worker cum wannabe philosopher to an amateur historian writing a history nobody cares about to the one man who actually did escape--a cockfight organizer who made it big in Georgia before blowing himself up at a gas station. Characters fight over toothbrushes, puzzle out whether a father is just drunk or beautiful, and look for space stations they may or may not be able to see at all. As in life, in these stories, it's the small, quiet moments that come to define who these people are and demonstrate their pursuit of something bigger and more important, even if they don't have any idea what that may be.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002630, ucf:48219
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002630
- Title
- Everyday Monsters: Stories.
- Creator
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Druckenmiller, Brian, Poissant, David, Thaxton, Terry, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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These seven short stories explore characters either at war with themselves or living in a delusion, unaware that their skewed sense of self projects a subjective version of the universe. When one operates in a world that doesn't quite exist, their real world is destined to crumble, and, for many of these characters, the challenge is understanding the mirage's existence before it's too late. By slightly bending the parameters of reality as well as inviting these characters and conflicts into...
Show moreThese seven short stories explore characters either at war with themselves or living in a delusion, unaware that their skewed sense of self projects a subjective version of the universe. When one operates in a world that doesn't quite exist, their real world is destined to crumble, and, for many of these characters, the challenge is understanding the mirage's existence before it's too late. By slightly bending the parameters of reality as well as inviting these characters and conflicts into absurdity, Everyday Monsters offers wholly unique commentary on familiar struggles, including marriage, occupation, grief, destiny, and societal expectations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006588, ucf:51305
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006588