Never Close Enough

How well do you know yourself? And how well do you know your connection to others? For me, this is the driving question behind all of the collected pieces of this anthology. Through works of fiction that range from simple narrative fiction to a horror short story, through poems, and a nonfiction monologue, I take a look at both my own connections to people I love and to myself. We start with a fantasy romance short story that explores chance meetings and how sometimes the thing you were looking for is right in front of you. From there, we move into two poems, the first is dedicated to my partner, and describes my experiences with our long distance relationship. The second is an extended metaphor description of what falling in love with my partner felt like. Then, comes the horror short story, that examines connection to yourself, and in a way, the loss of that connection. That theme of loss of self connection is continued into my next piece, a nonfiction monologue about my depression and how it affects me. Not to worry, the tone lightens for the final two pieces, both fictional love stories. The first is a simple day-in-the-life romance between two women who were high school sweethearts and now share a quiet life together. The final piece is a story about a girl who stops aging and lives hundreds of years of life, until she meets someone who sparks her interest and she finally begins aging again. My goal with all of these works is to demonstrate how love, and connection to self and others is a uniting theme among genres, and can allow us to take a closer look at ourselves and the ones we love.