Abstract

How can we find happiness when everything falls apart? When the world is ending, can we grab onto anything? In this collection, a sister recounts her mother's telekinetic control over her younger brother; a big box store assistant manager, with no-where-to-go-but-down, attempts to reclaim his estranged family while working in a mostly-abandoned, mostly-radioactive beach town; their first date at an ocean-side sports bar is anything but a fairy tale, regardless of the mermaids; a battery-operated child latches onto what little of her life she remembers; a Florida girl scout troop come-of-age discussing hook-handed-killers, and other bogeymen, around the campfire; a week after sentient life is discovered in the cosmos, a married couple combat depression, and anxiety, while navigating a twenty-year high-school reunion; a dragon falls in love with a cat. These stories seek humor out of horror, hope out of despair. They are restless, under-siege, and deeply connected through their mutual traumas. The characters find love in all the wrong places, hate in all the right ones, death around every corner, and life in the tiniest of cracks.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2019

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Peynado, Brenda

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

Creative Writing

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008271; DP0023642

Language

English

Release Date

June 2025

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Campus-only Access)

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Restricted to the UCF community until June 2025; it will then be open access.

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