These stories attempt to follow John Gardner’s instruction to create a dream that will engage the reader. Mirroring the goal that an author has to create a relationship with his audience, each story in turn focuses on emotional details that convey the characters’ feelings of isolation or, alternatively, inclusion in their communities. In the first story, a young man tries to recreate his father’s king cake. In the next, a middle school girl fixates on her relationship with her sister. Trying to recapture the memory of a lost daughter, a man searches for the perfect nectar snowball. A mom, then, comes to terms with her parenting skills after there is trouble at her son’s mother’s morning out daycare. Finally, a man tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter by taking care of a fawn. Each main character yearns for a relationship, as I, the writer, hope to connect with the reader of these stories by crafting details whose emotional quality evoke the audience’s memory.
","abstract_html":"<p>These stories attempt to follow John Gardner’s instruction to create a dream that will engage the reader. Mirroring the goal that an author has to create a relationship with his audience, each story in turn focuses on emotional details that convey the characters’ feelings of isolation or, alternatively, inclusion in their communities. In the first story, a young man tries to recreate his father’s king cake. In the next, a middle school girl fixates on her relationship with her sister. Trying to recapture the memory of a lost daughter, a man searches for the perfect nectar snowball. A mom, then, comes to terms with her parenting skills after there is trouble at her son’s mother’s morning out daycare. Finally, a man tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter by taking care of a fawn. Each main character yearns for a relationship, as I, the writer, hope to connect with the reader of these stories by crafting details whose emotional quality evoke the audience’s memory.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Melancon, Frederick C"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Steven Barthelme","Andrew Milward","Martina Sciolino"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:34Z","subjects":["creative writing","short story","fiction"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/146","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Steven Barthelme","Andrew Milward","Martina Sciolino"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Melancon, Frederick C"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-10-06T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["creative writing","short story","fiction"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/146"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["These stories attempt to follow John Gardner’s instruction to create a dream that will engage the reader. Mirroring the goal that an author has to create a relationship with his audience, each story in turn focuses on emotional details that convey the characters’ feelings of isolation or, alternatively, inclusion in their communities. In the first story, a young man tries to recreate his father’s king cake. In the next, a middle school girl fixates on her relationship with her sister. Trying to recapture the memory of a lost daughter, a man searches for the perfect nectar snowball. A mom, then, comes to terms with her parenting skills after there is trouble at her son’s mother’s morning out daycare. Finally, a man tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter by taking care of a fawn. Each main character yearns for a relationship, as I, the writer, hope to connect with the reader of these stories by crafting details whose emotional quality evoke the audience’s memory.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Achieving Relationships"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Steven Barthelme","Andrew Milward","Martina Sciolino"],"dc:creator":["Melancon, Frederick C"],"dc:date.available":["2015-10-06T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["These stories attempt to follow John Gardner’s instruction to create a dream that will engage the reader. Mirroring the goal that an author has to create a relationship with his audience, each story in turn focuses on emotional details that convey the characters’ feelings of isolation or, alternatively, inclusion in their communities. In the first story, a young man tries to recreate his father’s king cake. In the next, a middle school girl fixates on her relationship with her sister. Trying to recapture the memory of a lost daughter, a man searches for the perfect nectar snowball. A mom, then, comes to terms with her parenting skills after there is trouble at her son’s mother’s morning out daycare. Finally, a man tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter by taking care of a fawn. Each main character yearns for a relationship, as I, the writer, hope to connect with the reader of these stories by crafting details whose emotional quality evoke the audience’s memory.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/146"],"dc:subject":["creative writing","short story","fiction"],"dc:title":["Achieving Relationships"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:34Z"}