Writing a Novella Focusing on Placemaking at Arizona State University's Tempe Campus

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Description

“The Garden and Her Secrets” is a young adult novella focused on creating a fantastical world using ASU buildings as inspiration for the key landmarks in this magical landscape. The story centers around a giftless woman, Fiona, striving to make

“The Garden and Her Secrets” is a young adult novella focused on creating a fantastical world using ASU buildings as inspiration for the key landmarks in this magical landscape. The story centers around a giftless woman, Fiona, striving to make herself extraordinary by breaking hundreds of years of rules and wielding the musical talent of Belle, the unmagical woman who plays at the local piano bar. Fiona’s quest for both love and unlove means finding where the Secret Garden is hiding within her university, the Philomathian, and exploring her newfound feelings for Belle. Should the Secret Garden choose to remove her hood, there are certainly gifts to be had and secrets to rebury.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Long Exhalations

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Description
This creative project consists of three short stories with a common theme of release, letting go, and exhalation. Nymphal Instar is a story about Tommy, a young boy, and his encounter with his uncle, a troubled man who has just

This creative project consists of three short stories with a common theme of release, letting go, and exhalation. Nymphal Instar is a story about Tommy, a young boy, and his encounter with his uncle, a troubled man who has just returned from war. The story explores the idea of growth and maturation, and the ability to move past and let go of trauma. A Cat Goes Away is about a young man, Richard, who is required to simultaneously deal with the loss of his cat and the suicide attempts of his sister. He also runs into his sister's ex-husband and is forced to deal with him. The story explores the difficulty in recognizing one's own emotions and the importance of knowing the difference between what one can change and what one cannot. Since Diagnosis is a story about Kate, a woman who has just been diagnosed with cancer and who is unable to tell her loved ones. The story explores acceptance and the idea that letting go can allow one to live more fully. Though the three stories are disparate in their characters and events, they share a commonality in their endings and in the final realizations of the characters. There is a focus on the importance of breath and breathing, and the essentiality of acceptance and release.
Date Created
2016-05
Agent

Honors Thesis: A Collection of Short Stories

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Description
In "Why I Can Never Leave the South," protagonist Zora-Neale Hurston Reed is called back to the South to give the eulogy at the funeral of her childhood friend, Roselia. Roselia had been murdered, supposedly by her boyfriend, Alex. Zora

In "Why I Can Never Leave the South," protagonist Zora-Neale Hurston Reed is called back to the South to give the eulogy at the funeral of her childhood friend, Roselia. Roselia had been murdered, supposedly by her boyfriend, Alex. Zora reminisces about growing up with the two of them, speculating as to why Alex would have been driven to kill Roselia. She remembers how sad Roselia was when they parted ways as Zora went off to college in Oregon, and how they became more distant as the years passed. At the funeral, Zora begins to give her eulogy, and we finally learn what happened to Rosalie. "Fifteen Selections from White Hills High," chronicles the daily, intertwining lives of various students at White Hills High. Teddy loves his irresponsible mother, Virginia, and picks up the slack for her when he can. Sean The Dream of Ralph and Cody
Date Created
2012-05
Agent

When It All Happens, The End, And She's in Her Forties

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Description
Both "After Annie" and "When It All Happens, The End, And She's in Her Forties" focus on evolving familial relationships characterized by both love and loss. Though told in different styles, different voices, different tenses, both stories triumph the power

Both "After Annie" and "When It All Happens, The End, And She's in Her Forties" focus on evolving familial relationships characterized by both love and loss. Though told in different styles, different voices, different tenses, both stories triumph the power of memory in relation to love while simultaneously emphasizing the trauma and long-lasting effects of loss. With one, through the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter and the other, through a daughter's loss of her mother, both stories converge at the intersection of duty and the need for flight (and perhaps self preservation). "After Annie" and "When It All Happens, The End, And She's in Her Forties" speak to the careful ghosts of memory, which are sometimes, thankfully, even stronger than the pull of what's been left in their absence.
Date Created
2014-05
Agent

The Lines that Bind: Stories of the Arizona Borderlands

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Description
This collection of original short fiction follows the lives of three men, Jess, Charlie, and Anthony, who are linked together by the space of the Arizona Borderlands. Through the three stories, the themes of longing and powerlessness are explored within the context of the unforgiving structure of the Arizona landscape.
Date Created
2014-05
Agent

Lift: A Short Story Collection

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Description
For this project, I have written a trilogy of interrelated short stories. The three stories are entitled "The Blue Bike," "Heartbeat," and "Elevators." Each of these three stories relate to each other both through the featured characters and the core

For this project, I have written a trilogy of interrelated short stories. The three stories are entitled "The Blue Bike," "Heartbeat," and "Elevators." Each of these three stories relate to each other both through the featured characters and the core themes. The little girl from the first story, Amy, is the little sister of the narrator Emma from the second story. The narrator from the third story is the son of Charles (Helen's husband) from the first story, who is also a major character in "Elevators." The gym in the second story also appears in the third story. On a thematic and poetic level, I have used the word "lift" as the inspiration behind and connecting thread between my stories. I have played with the various meanings of connotations of the word, using them to construct the plots of each story. For example, I have used it in the sense of face lifts in the first story, as well as alluded to the idea of planes lifting into the air through making Charles a pilot. There is also the idea of lifting a child into your arms, and lifting yourself or someone else up both physically and emotionally. In the second story, I use shop-lifting, weight-lifting, and the idea of giving someone a lift as in giving someone a ride. The idea of giving someone a lift also occurs in the last story, alongside the connotations of lift with elevators. There are a multitude of other instances in which I have tried to make the word "lift" resonate throughout these stories, though the over-arching theme for me would be the idea of lifting other people up. It is the exploration of meaningful connections between people and the way those connections can heal and "lift." This collection is thus an exercise in creative interconnectivity as well as an exploration of the way people can connect meaningfully to each other.
Date Created
2016-05
Agent