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.

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 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.

The first time we divorced we did it on a serviette. I arrived first. Sitting outside on the wooden deck nursing my first gin and tonic I watch you get out of your car and walk towards the restaurant. One hand brushing the chunky curls off your broad forehead. The other hovering protectively around the zip of your jeans trying not to draw attention to itself but needing to make sure that you are securely zipped in.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and filled out the appropriate web form. / A collection of short stories / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

Please note: creative writing works are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / Eight separate, but thematically linked fictional stories / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Please note: this work is permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for this item. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / The three long narratives of Breakdown capture the stories of three young women dealing with grief and trauma as they navigate love and friendship. / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Please note: creative writing works are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / A collection of poems / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Please note: creative writing works are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / This thesis is the culmination of my graduate work in fiction writing. The first parts are short stories, written for this program and workshopped by my peers, and then heavily revised by me. The second section is an excerpt of a novel-in-progress, created in a similar process. All of the works in this thesis touch on the small absurdities of the human experience, including but not limited to: self-doubt, miscommunication, chance, and the lonesome subjectivity of reality. / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Please note: creative writing works are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / A collection of short stories / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Please note: creative writing works are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / A collection of four short stories, Witness explores the disconnections inherent within human relationships: frustration between coworkers, shame between family members, and reticence between would-be friends. / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z