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MIDDLE GROUND: A NOVELLA AND COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
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.
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Date Issued
2009
Identifier
CFE0002600, ucf:48261
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002600
QUARTER LIFE CRISIS OR HOW TO GET OVER COLLEGE AND BECOME A FUNCTIONING MEMBER OF SOCIETY
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
Evidence of Lives
Title
Evidence of Lives.
Creator
Cummings, John, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Rushin, Patrick, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Evidence of Lives is a novel that deals with themes of childhood abuse, mental illness, and alienated families. The book opens with the main character, forty-two-year-old Mark Barr, who has returned home from New York to West Virginia after eleven years for his older brother Steve's funeral. Steve, having died of a heart attack at forty-six, was mentally ill most of his adult life, though Mark has always questioned what was (")mentally ill(") and what was the result of their father's verbal...
Show moreEvidence of Lives is a novel that deals with themes of childhood abuse, mental illness, and alienated families. The book opens with the main character, forty-two-year-old Mark Barr, who has returned home from New York to West Virginia after eleven years for his older brother Steve's funeral. Steve, having died of a heart attack at forty-six, was mentally ill most of his adult life, though Mark has always questioned what was (")mentally ill(") and what was the result of their father's verbal and physical abuse during their childhood. When Mark discovers that there is to be no funeral, but a cremation without service, he calls his girlfriend, an attorney back in New York, who tells him he has a (")legal responsibility(") to voice his brother's oral will. Just nights before his death, Steve called Mark and conveyed his last wishes to be buried, not cremated. The book unfolds into an odyssey for Mark to discover love for his brother posthumously in a loveless family. Evidence of Lives is a portrait of an oldest brother's supposed mental illness and unfulfilled life, as well as a redeeming tale of a youngest brother's alienation from his family and his guilt for abandoning them.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004530, ucf:49248
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004530
Young Thinkers
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.
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Date Issued
2011
Identifier
CFE0004106, ucf:49097
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004106
Stuffmobile
Title
Stuffmobile.
Creator
Greenberg, Ted, Rushin, Patrick, Hubbard, Susan, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The leitmotif of Stuffmobile, a modern day Florida-based novella, is that of relational healing: a son with his father, ex-lovers with one another, and, even more challenging perhaps, a son making peace with his dead mother. New beginnings are explored, both as resurrection of long dead feelings and as starting afresh after loss. A husband finds distraction in a covert project after his wife's death, so much so that his preoccupied isolation worries his two adult children. The son comes to...
Show moreThe leitmotif of Stuffmobile, a modern day Florida-based novella, is that of relational healing: a son with his father, ex-lovers with one another, and, even more challenging perhaps, a son making peace with his dead mother. New beginnings are explored, both as resurrection of long dead feelings and as starting afresh after loss. A husband finds distraction in a covert project after his wife's death, so much so that his preoccupied isolation worries his two adult children. The son comes to investigate, and his malfunctioning car leads to the beginnings of reconciliation. The characters here struggle to understand and be understood, to avoid hurting others and avoid being hurt, all while searching for respect and love: just another normal day of the human experience.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004189, ucf:49001
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004189
Waiving Miranda
Title
Waiving Miranda.
Creator
Voyles, Vance, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Roney, Lisa, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Waiving Miranda is a nonfiction collection that explores my career in law enforcement with a special emphasis on how the day-to-day association with others can lure a person into self-observation. The essays include my experiences as a road-patrol deputy, sex-crimes detective, and homicide detective in one of the largest county law enforcement agencies in the nation. Instead of the TV version of law enforcement(-)anecdotes of police chases and shoot outs(-)this thesis examines people on both...
Show moreWaiving Miranda is a nonfiction collection that explores my career in law enforcement with a special emphasis on how the day-to-day association with others can lure a person into self-observation. The essays include my experiences as a road-patrol deputy, sex-crimes detective, and homicide detective in one of the largest county law enforcement agencies in the nation. Instead of the TV version of law enforcement(-)anecdotes of police chases and shoot outs(-)this thesis examines people on both sides of the yellow crimes scene tape as they face their own mortality and the gruesome truth of people's unabashed cruelty towards one another.These essays wrestle with such issues as the following: confronting my own perceived inadequacies while encountering the expectations of those whose ideas of police work come from shows such as SWAT, Law and Order, and NYPD Blue; balancing career and parenting in the aftermath of divorce and a loss of purpose; pursuing a career in law enforcement with the idea of serving the community; discovering that policing in real life is a direct contradiction to the celluloid heroes I grew up watching on television; staging an internal war and ultimately resolving to move past resentment and move forward with a new purpose.Unlike most true crime dramas, this collection does not promise a happily ever after. Instead, it's a detailed account of the men and women in the law enforcement community today, and how, as much as they guard the public against criminals at large, so must they guard themselves against the emotional toll that this knowledge carries with it.
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Date Issued
2011
Identifier
CFE0004490, ucf:49277
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004490
Toward the Red Shore
Title
Toward the Red Shore.
Creator
Bomhoff, Gary, Rushin, Patrick, Roney, Lisa, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
A fictional novel utilizing third person limited narration from the perspective of the primary character, Ilya Kollide, who narrates the story as though it were happening in his head as it occurred, with frequent embellishments. He has come to live near an old mansion on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, named Neimasaurus, to find an antiquated, dusty world of faded aristocracy. Temporarily orphaned at the age sixteen by the recent death of his parents, he has traveled four thousand miles to live...
Show moreA fictional novel utilizing third person limited narration from the perspective of the primary character, Ilya Kollide, who narrates the story as though it were happening in his head as it occurred, with frequent embellishments. He has come to live near an old mansion on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, named Neimasaurus, to find an antiquated, dusty world of faded aristocracy. Temporarily orphaned at the age sixteen by the recent death of his parents, he has traveled four thousand miles to live with his last living relative, an uncle named Demetri, whom he has never met. The year is 1990, only this is not a world where the rule of the Tsar was supplanted by the Soviet Union. Instead, it is a logical exploration of what Russia might resemble, had communism never taken root. While the fantastical may or may not occur, depending upon how the reader chooses to interpret the point of view of the narrator, the setting in and of itself is not meant to be fantastical. Ilya discovers that all the servants who work there are deaf, as is his uncle and his own now deceased parents, whom he carries around in an urn after mixing their ashes together. While working at the great estate of the Neimasaurus family, Ilya discovers a surprising numbers of stories and people who both parallel his own experiences and serve as allegorical warnings toward his future mistakes in life. He becomes obsessed with the idea that he is to blame for his parents' death and sets out on a quest to bring redemption to the wounded inhabitants of the estate, only to discover that not everyone wants to be helped. In fact, they want him dead. They see him as an allegory, just as he sees them. To the young man Shoji Yamano, Ilya represents everything he was, and can no longer be. As such a reflection, he resolves to shatter Ilya like a mirror. The novel charts Ilya's personal growth from a neurotic wreck, incapable of normal interaction with people, to a young man capable of not just self-sacrifice, but an understanding of what it actually means to literally sacrifice himself for the well-being of someone he barely knows. He learns to value time spent with others rather than dwelling within a narcissistic and lonely fantasy world.?
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004976, ucf:49591
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004976
Renovations and Other Stories
Title
Renovations and Other Stories.
Creator
Lager, Amanda, Poissant, David, Hubbard, Susan, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Renovations and Other Stories is a linked collection of ten fiction stories that examines the ways by which women renew or restore themselves. The collection is set in the imaginary city of St. Clair, South Carolina, a town balancing historical accuracy with the sensational tourist industry; Carolinians who trace their ancestries back to the American Revolution with suburban newcomers; and the notion of cherishing the past with moving forward. Many of the characters struggle with identity,...
Show moreRenovations and Other Stories is a linked collection of ten fiction stories that examines the ways by which women renew or restore themselves. The collection is set in the imaginary city of St. Clair, South Carolina, a town balancing historical accuracy with the sensational tourist industry; Carolinians who trace their ancestries back to the American Revolution with suburban newcomers; and the notion of cherishing the past with moving forward. Many of the characters struggle with identity, whether it is regional or feminine individuality. The protagonists must challenge self-image when faced with situations that make them reconsider their places in their marriages, schools, jobs, and in their lives.Relationships among women, especially mother-daughter bonds, are an important motif throughout the collection. These stories cover the lifetimes of two generations of Carolinian women. A baker struggles to break free of her Northern transient upbringing. A history student yearns to escape her past as a victim of bullying to form a new, confident identity while saying goodbye to her estranged mother. Another girl explores the confused social politics of the South which alienate her from a childhood friend. I intend to examine, through fiction, how people come to appreciate one another, often a moment too late, and how sometimes we completely misunderstand ourselves.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004254, ucf:49516
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004254
Trade Secrets
Title
Trade Secrets.
Creator
Kolman, Rachel, Hubbard, Susan, Neal, Mary, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Trade Secrets is a collection of fourteen short stories that explores characters falling in and out of relationships and coping in unusual and even comedic ways. These characters are often obsessive and do not trust one another. They think life is funny, and discover that love is funny, and yeah, sex can be funny too. They don't feel the right things when they're supposed to. They find love, and lose love. They find hope, and lose hope. They escape sometimes, but more often are unable to go...
Show moreTrade Secrets is a collection of fourteen short stories that explores characters falling in and out of relationships and coping in unusual and even comedic ways. These characters are often obsessive and do not trust one another. They think life is funny, and discover that love is funny, and yeah, sex can be funny too. They don't feel the right things when they're supposed to. They find love, and lose love. They find hope, and lose hope. They escape sometimes, but more often are unable to go anywhere. These stories consider relationships through the disconnection between reality and fantasy, exploring how the lines between illusion and actuality can become blurred. A young boy fantasizes about running on the wind; teenagers pretend to be werewolves; twenty-somethings obsess about potential love affairs, dreams, and the possibility of escape. There is a driving curiosity behind these characters, a desire to figure one another out(-)a desire to learn the other's secret. Trade secrets are insider information after all, and must be earned. These characters are all earning the right to hold their own trade secrets and, when the time is right, sharing that information with whomever is willing to listen.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004273, ucf:49512
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004273
Pebbles and Shards
Title
Pebbles and Shards.
Creator
Kindle, Edith, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Uttich, Laurie, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Pebbles and Shards is a collection of personal essays based on family relationships that focus upon motherhood, responsibility, and the complexity of love and loss. The essays explore how people cope with the inevitability of loss and how they move beyond that loss to find something meaningful, perhaps even beautiful. They reflect upon success and failure in the face of loss and how, either way, life goes on, heedless of people's desires and plans.The essays in Pebbles and Shards, while meant...
Show morePebbles and Shards is a collection of personal essays based on family relationships that focus upon motherhood, responsibility, and the complexity of love and loss. The essays explore how people cope with the inevitability of loss and how they move beyond that loss to find something meaningful, perhaps even beautiful. They reflect upon success and failure in the face of loss and how, either way, life goes on, heedless of people's desires and plans.The essays in Pebbles and Shards, while meant to stand alone, are thematically connected so that, read together, each story resonates with the others. In (")Promises,(") I explore the fear of watching my mother die of Alzheimer's disease. In related essays (")Frame by Frame(") and (")In Darkness,(") I focus on my mother's efforts to struggle with Alzheimer's and how, as an adopted daughter, I underwent a role-reversal and became the mother figure. Other essays, such as (")Heart of a Deadhead(") and (")Circus,(") consider the mothering impulse, especially the guilt and conflict that so often accompany my desire to nurture others. In attempting to support and strengthen those who seem (")weak,(") I have sometimes found that my own actions and thoughts underscore a deeper weakness in myself.As a collection, Pebbles and Shards contemplates the suffering and joy that is a family.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004704, ucf:49813
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004704
Hidden Variable
Title
Hidden Variable.
Creator
Harms, Heather, Hubbard, Susan, Rushin, Patrick, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Hidden Variable is a novel that blends linear storytelling with the novel-in-stories form. It poses questions about the nature of identity as well as the feasibility of personal power, particularly with respect to disorders of the mind.Darla Pierson, the novel's protagonist, is a woman in crisis. She is steeped in self-loathing brought on by the knowledge that she has, in effect, become her dead father(-)a genius with an epic libido, habitually using and discarding people. Her father has...
Show moreHidden Variable is a novel that blends linear storytelling with the novel-in-stories form. It poses questions about the nature of identity as well as the feasibility of personal power, particularly with respect to disorders of the mind.Darla Pierson, the novel's protagonist, is a woman in crisis. She is steeped in self-loathing brought on by the knowledge that she has, in effect, become her dead father(-)a genius with an epic libido, habitually using and discarding people. Her father has another habit that Darla doesn't share: being struck by lightning. After the second strike kills him, Darla makes a conscious attempt to recreate herself. But soon the new Darla sinks into depression, and her act begins to crumble, damaging her and those around her. Throughout the years, she and her family members experience periodic clashes with nature, never fully realizing that sometimes the most powerful, most devastating opponent comes not from without, but within.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004784, ucf:49774
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004784
Zora
Title
Zora.
Creator
Tyrrell, Genevieve, Roney, Lisa, Rushin, Patrick, Scott, John, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This mixed-media memoir uses a variety of forms from short epigrammatic essays to straightforward stories and graphic narratives to explore the author's coming-of-age experiences augmented by chronic illness. Trying to succeed in the film industry, romance, and family situations, the young female narrator navigates the often unexpected or disappointing consequences of having an autonomic nervous system disorder. Relationships between conflicting identities emerge(-)between healthy versus sick...
Show moreThis mixed-media memoir uses a variety of forms from short epigrammatic essays to straightforward stories and graphic narratives to explore the author's coming-of-age experiences augmented by chronic illness. Trying to succeed in the film industry, romance, and family situations, the young female narrator navigates the often unexpected or disappointing consequences of having an autonomic nervous system disorder. Relationships between conflicting identities emerge(-)between healthy versus sick self, projected/envisioned versus actual self, and tough versus vulnerable self(-)as the narrator journeys toward a more complete and accepting self-understanding.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004763, ucf:49777
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004763
Escape Artist
Title
Escape Artist.
Creator
Mujica, Alejandro, Rushin, Patrick, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
My thesis, Escape Artist, is a composite novel written as a fictitious memoir, similar in style to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, that describes my experiences between the years 2001 and 2011. During that time I went through Marine Corps Boot Camp, became a military police officer, patrolled Yuma, AZ, was sent to Iraq for a seven-month tour as a security detail just before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and made it back home four years later. The novel also looks into my...
Show moreMy thesis, Escape Artist, is a composite novel written as a fictitious memoir, similar in style to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, that describes my experiences between the years 2001 and 2011. During that time I went through Marine Corps Boot Camp, became a military police officer, patrolled Yuma, AZ, was sent to Iraq for a seven-month tour as a security detail just before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and made it back home four years later. The novel also looks into my struggles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, how they affected the people around me, and what I've been trying to do to remedy them (or ignore them).
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004788, ucf:49732
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004788
Mercury
Title
Mercury.
Creator
Gaines, Adrienne, Rushin, Patrick, Neal, Mary, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Mercury is a collection of short stories based in the fictional town of Mercury, Georgia. Set over the course of several decades, the stories trace the events that changed individuals, families, and a whole community for decades. Loosely based on the author's real-life family history, the stories, both humorous and heartbreaking, show characters caught between the past and the present and searching for a way forward. A girl who makes friends with a ghost, a woman who can't help but run from...
Show moreMercury is a collection of short stories based in the fictional town of Mercury, Georgia. Set over the course of several decades, the stories trace the events that changed individuals, families, and a whole community for decades. Loosely based on the author's real-life family history, the stories, both humorous and heartbreaking, show characters caught between the past and the present and searching for a way forward. A girl who makes friends with a ghost, a woman who can't help but run from crying babies, a man forced to face the town's darkest side(-)these and other characters respond in surprising ways to circumstances that are both ordinary and extraordinary. Most of the stories in the collection are linked, showing the interconnectedness of the lives in this small town. The pieces work together to present a larger narrative of how the characters and the town struggle to change, survive, hope, and face the future.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004846, ucf:49692
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004846
Mirrors and Vanities
Title
Mirrors and Vanities.
Creator
Salas, Leslie, Rushin, Patrick, Poissant, David, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
"Mirrors and Vanities" is a multi-modal collection which showcases the diversity of working in long and short storytelling forms. Featured in this thesis are fiction, nonfiction, graphic narrative, and screenplay.Using unconventional approaches to storytelling in order to achieve emotional resonance with the audience while maintaining high standards for craft, these stories and essays explore the costs inherent to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. The fiction focuses on the...
Show more"Mirrors and Vanities" is a multi-modal collection which showcases the diversity of working in long and short storytelling forms. Featured in this thesis are fiction, nonfiction, graphic narrative, and screenplay.Using unconventional approaches to storytelling in order to achieve emotional resonance with the audience while maintaining high standards for craft, these stories and essays explore the costs inherent to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. The fiction focuses on the complications of characters keeping secrets. A husband discovers the truth behind his wife's miscarriage. A girl visits her fianc(&)#233; in purgatory. A boy crosses a line and loses his best friend. Meanwhile, the nonfiction centers on self-discovery and gender roles associated with power struggles. A schizophrenic threatens to ruin my mother's wedding. I rediscover my relationship with my father through food writing. Sword-work teaches me to fail and succeed at making martial art. The title work of the thesis is a collaged story highlighting the tribulations of a physicist fixated on recovering his lost love by manipulating the multiverse. The multi-modal format implicates the nebulosity of physics theories and how different aspects of the narrative can be presented in various formats to best suit the nature of the storytelling.Through the interactions of characters in mundane and extraordinary circumstances, the works in this thesis examine the consequences of choice, the contrast between reality and expectation, coming of age, and the Truth of narrative.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004745, ucf:49789
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004745
A Clutch, A Pride, A Murder
Title
A Clutch, A Pride, A Murder.
Creator
Miles, John, Rushin, Patrick, Neal, Mary, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
A Clutch, A Pride, A Murder is a linked collection of seven short fiction pieces and one novella that examine a world much like our own, but with the cover revealed(-)a world laid bare, exposed by its desires, its emotions, its beauties, and all its machinations. All of the stories involve, either directly or indirectly, the fictional Ohio city of Milton. Some of the stories take place within this seemingly typical American city, while others only involve characters coming from or in some...
Show moreA Clutch, A Pride, A Murder is a linked collection of seven short fiction pieces and one novella that examine a world much like our own, but with the cover revealed(-)a world laid bare, exposed by its desires, its emotions, its beauties, and all its machinations. All of the stories involve, either directly or indirectly, the fictional Ohio city of Milton. Some of the stories take place within this seemingly typical American city, while others only involve characters coming from or in some cases returning to this unassuming location. Regardless, the events of these stories either in cause or effect all have their roots in Milton.The world at large also plays a part within these pages. While the stories themselves are completely fictitious, many of the peripheral events that happen beyond the principle storylines are pulled from today's real-world headlines: a series of increasingly devastating tornadoes in the American heartland; a mysterious suicide of a wealthy industrialist; the amazing technological feats of a nation's space program; the heinous crimes of a serial kidnapper. These events, each a worthy story in their own right, filter into the events of this collection, much as they do in our world(-)through the media. Television, radio, newspapers, social media all are outlets of information and current events making the stories of others part of our lives as we all live out our own personal adventures. I utilize these true-life events to add scope and breadth to the world of my fictions so that these events might at times inform and offer new perspective on the principle narratives. And while these true-life stories unfold in the backgrounds of their fictitious hosts, the hope is that the reader will be able to have a better sense of the timeline as the events unfold over the days, months, and years that these stories inhabit.Humanity in all its wonder and woe is on full display within this collection. From the journey of idyllic love to tragic romance, and the thin line that turns passion to obsession, we will see all the places theses complex emotions lead: a young botanist travels half-way around the world for a chance to reconnect with a lost love; a young girl's love for her family pushes her to extremes to protect her brother; a man's love for his city challenges his morality; the bond between brothers is put to the test; and a young man's reverence for history, and his love of family leads him down a dark path. How far will someone go to protect themselves? Their loved ones? Or even their way of life? The lengths these characters will go, or in some cases will not go, are central to the stories in this collection. I intend to show those lengths and tell my characters' all too human stories.?
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0005034, ucf:49988
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005034
The Never-Knowns
Title
The Never-Knowns.
Creator
Haskins, Ryan, Marinara, Martha, Poissant, David, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The Never-Knowns is a novel about a high-intensity behavioral group home for adults with severe to profound developmental disabilities, its residents, and the staff who are employed there. Focusing on plural protagonists, no single narrative is ever fully realized or resolved, leaving only a cryptic aggregate of experiences, revelations, and trauma.In a typical suburban neighborhood, much like any of us grew up in or now live, there is a house down the block that no one discusses openly. This...
Show moreThe Never-Knowns is a novel about a high-intensity behavioral group home for adults with severe to profound developmental disabilities, its residents, and the staff who are employed there. Focusing on plural protagonists, no single narrative is ever fully realized or resolved, leaving only a cryptic aggregate of experiences, revelations, and trauma.In a typical suburban neighborhood, much like any of us grew up in or now live, there is a house down the block that no one discusses openly. This house seems like all the rest, well landscaped and tidy. Although three times a day much coming and going of college-aged kids and ne'er-do-wells whispers of something covert, obscure. This house is many things to many people; a workplace, or home, or burden, or profit, or prison.An unfortunate, absurd one-act play echoes infinitely for those kept here. Constance is a thirty-something disabled woman who wakes every morning by sprinting nude in a wondrous fury toward the first person or thing she can destroy. Malcolm is a new staff member who snorts meth and masturbates in his car during shift breaks. Terry is a twenty-five year old deaf mute who believes his clothes dresser is God and always knows exactly how many feet are between him and every other place he'd rather be. Jake is a veteran staff member who has finalized his plans to take all the residents of the house deep into a forest and abandon them.Using disjointed, prolix, and often dissonant approaches to storytelling, The Never-Knowns seeks to convey the perspectives of developmentally disabled individuals who possess few or no language skills, and who are so far detached from their own existence that their understanding and interaction with the world is simultaneously grotesque, beautiful, and confounding.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004861, ucf:49684
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004861
Calamity of the White Picket
Title
Calamity of the White Picket.
Creator
Nagengast, Gabrielle, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Roney, Lisa, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Calamity of the White Picket is a collection of essays that portray how perfection(-)whether a perfect image, perfect relationship, perfect friendship, or perfect family(-)becomes withered down, destroyed, and turned into something else. They explore how the idealized image of a family surrounded by a cute white picket fence is dismantled and rearranged through theft, addiction, and a disintegrated family. The essays explore drug addictions, childhood nostalgia, the relationship between...
Show moreCalamity of the White Picket is a collection of essays that portray how perfection(-)whether a perfect image, perfect relationship, perfect friendship, or perfect family(-)becomes withered down, destroyed, and turned into something else. They explore how the idealized image of a family surrounded by a cute white picket fence is dismantled and rearranged through theft, addiction, and a disintegrated family. The essays explore drug addictions, childhood nostalgia, the relationship between heritage and property, innocence, and a stolen best friend. The collection is a train ride of family problems, broken friendships, lying and stealing, and hidden secrets about love and sex. Through these essays, I let go of my versions of the white picket fence, and embrace the new and complicated life that replaces it, ultimately still trying to maintain happiness.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFE0005219, ucf:50616
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005219
Last Kind Word
Title
Last Kind Word.
Creator
Richardson, Dianne, Poissant, David, Hubbard, Susan, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Last Kind Word is a novel that explores the ways people seek control and power in the face of the unknowable. Set in the fictional town of Thorpe, South Carolina, the story follows four main characters(-)Donna Neese, Melissa Burnside, Anthony Washington, and Jill McManus(-)struggling in the aftermath of biracial teenager Micah Burnside's disappearance. They search for a replacement for the lost connection to Micah and for a sense of control at a time when their lives seem to lack it, when...
Show moreLast Kind Word is a novel that explores the ways people seek control and power in the face of the unknowable. Set in the fictional town of Thorpe, South Carolina, the story follows four main characters(-)Donna Neese, Melissa Burnside, Anthony Washington, and Jill McManus(-)struggling in the aftermath of biracial teenager Micah Burnside's disappearance. They search for a replacement for the lost connection to Micah and for a sense of control at a time when their lives seem to lack it, when other forces, be they people or circumstances or spirits, hold power over them. In the midst of this, the four of them must decide what life will look like going forward. In Thorpe, theories about what happened to Micah range from the plausible to the fantastical. Those closest to him have their own theories, too, although they are less inclined to share them with the gossip-hungry townspeople. Micah's mother Melissa, reeling from the equally mysterious loss of Micah's father Dan eighteen years earlier and the intense mood swings from her untreated bipolar disorder, is convinced that her son is alive, searching for his father in San Diego. Meanwhile, Micah's grandmother Donna believes that he is dead, murdered by Nick and Nathan Goff, Thorpe's not-so-secret meth dealers who come from a long line of rowdy and dangerous men. Jill, Micah's ex-girlfriend and a recent college drop-out, worries that a prank they played on a hoodoo practitioner is somehow to blame not only for the dissolution of their relationship, but also Micah's disappearance. Jill seeks the aid of a hoodoo conjurer to set things right in the spirit world and, hopefully, her life. Anthony is a black country and blues musician and small-time drug dealer. His work forces him into a tenuous and volatile friendship with the Goffs, one that could explode into anger and violence at any moment. Anthony also thinks the Goffs have something to do with Micah's disappearance, but he believes his friend is alive, just laying low after a lie leads to the Goffs' arrest. These four characters must grapple with long-standing feuds, secrets, and family discord as they try to solve the mystery of Micah's disappearance and come to grips with the possibility that he may never be found.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFE0005238, ucf:50582
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005238
Reason for Rejoice
Title
Reason for Rejoice.
Creator
Karr, Jennifer, Hubbard, Susan, Neal, Mary, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This collection of short stories features characters who face unexpected situations arising from ordinary circumstances. Most of the characters find themselves compelled to react in ways that may even surprise themselves. A young woman finds her first feeling of joy in a long time in the face of her mother's possible death. Best friends recall their years spent doing drugs and ignoring responsibility. When a woman confronts her fear of sex, she finds herself literally in another world. Rather...
Show moreThis collection of short stories features characters who face unexpected situations arising from ordinary circumstances. Most of the characters find themselves compelled to react in ways that may even surprise themselves. A young woman finds her first feeling of joy in a long time in the face of her mother's possible death. Best friends recall their years spent doing drugs and ignoring responsibility. When a woman confronts her fear of sex, she finds herself literally in another world. Rather than sticking with one form, several stories depart from traditional structures. One flash fiction piece is told in the first-person collective voice; another story evolves into magical realism; two are linked, and one story is told as an elegy. What matters are the characters, their struggles, and their relationships with one another.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0005101, ucf:50736
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005101