CLASS OF 2007
Back Row: Krista Hoeppner Leahy, Steve Clancey, Michael Potts, Erica Hildebrand, Eric James Stone
Second Row: Ellen Van Hensbergen, Rebecca Roland, Colleen H. Robbins
Third Row: Ronya Fullerton McCool, Samantha Weiss, Jeanne Cavelos, James Schuyler, David Roberson
Front Row: Vashti Bandy, Barbara Barnett-Stewart, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jean Marie Fuhrman, Susan Sielinski
Cameraman: Todd Vandemark
Vashti Bandy
Coming to Odyssey was one of the best decisions of my life. Before this workshop, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to accomplish as a writer, and an even vaguer idea of how I might get there. Now I know where I’m going, and I have detailed maps to guide me. I couldn’t be happier.
Through Odyssey, I’ve learned how to identify my weaknesses and where to attack them. I’ve also been shown my strengths and how to maximize them. In short, I’ve learned what it takes to create a successful story.
Barbara Barnett-Stewart
I came to Odyssey because I knew there were things I could do to improve my writing that I wasn’t getting elsewhere. I learned how to hone my strengths and beat my weaknesses into submission, but I had no idea how much more than that I was going to take away from the experience. Odyssey is the best thing I could have done for myself at this stage in my writing, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of classmates to share the experience with. Most of all, I wish I could take Jeanne home with me—her critiques and insights and encouragement are just that good.
Steve Clancey
This workshop has been invaluable. It has given me a huge jumpstart on my writing career, and has provided me with the tools and skills I need to write the stories I want to write.
Jean Marie Fuhrman
During this arduous, six-week Odyssey writing program, my focus shifted from wanting to be a good writer to wanting to be a good storyteller. Being a good storyteller, hooking readers into a fabulous world where they dance and grieve and laugh and sometimes even shriek in amazement along with my characters—now that’s the magic!
Ronya Fullerton McCool
Odyssey is a fantastically mind-warping experience. The instruction Jeanne provides is a must for anyone wishing to become better at the craft of writing. If you are serious about writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and want to learn to do it well, you need Odyssey!
Erica Hildebrand
If you write genre fiction and are in any way passionate about your craft, you should make every effort to attend the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Not only is it a great launch site for a career, but you walk away with a lode of knowledge and friendships that could last a lifetime.
Krista Hoeppner Leahy
Jeanne is a master writing teacher who fosters a creative and supportive learning environment, where students are encouraged to struggle, grow, and thrive.
Odyssey is a seemingly ordinary program.
Don’t be fooled.
Odyssey transforms capable writers—one at a time—into potentially extraordinary artists.
Ellen Van Hensbergen
Odyssey was an experience like no other. Everyone who comes through the program benefits from what I can only describe as Jeanne’s passion for writing and for helping blossoming writers to develop and grow in their craft. Every day, we walked from the classroom, discussing everything we’d have to change in our stories, based upon what we’d learned that day alone.
Attending the Odyssey workshop has dramatically improved my understanding of structure and aided me in the act of writing itself. I’ve learned more than I would ever have thought possible. Concepts that I’d seen and understood on an intellectual level have been explained to me in ways that I can (and do already) implement in my work.
Michael Potts
Odyssey was the best writers’ workshop I’ve attended. The intensive critiques combined with the task of writing new material forces the critical and creative sides of the mind to work together. I recommend Odyssey to anyone contemplating a career in writing science fiction, fantasy, or horror.
Colleen H. Robbins
I learned more in six weeks of Odyssey than in thirty years of reading the ‘How to Write’ books. Odyssey challenges you in ways you never dreamed of. The only way to keep up is to find a dimension with 48—or better yet 72—hour days.
David Roberson
Rebecca Roland
Odyssey has given me the tools to become a better writer. Jeanne is a wonderful teacher. She gave me detailed feedback that I was immediately able to put into use in my writing. I would recommend this course to anyone who has the desire to improve his or her writing.
James Schuyler
If you don’t go to Odyssey, you will die miserable and alone, ignorant, ignored, detested, and worst of all, unpublished.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Eric James Stone
Although I had several pro sales before attending Odyssey, I feel like I made a real breakthrough in improving my writing over the past six weeks.
Todd Vandemark
Odyssey is a Wunderkammen. Jeanne is the key. Unlock. Discover. Be amazed.
Samantha Weiss
“Painfully, maddeningly illuminating.”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“The omniscient narrator needs to know.”
—James Schuyler
“I was dreading it all week, and it turned out not to be that bad.”
—Rodman Philbrick
“I wanted to shake you on page 17.”
—Colleen H. Robbins
“Put the snot in maybe the second or third paragraph.”
—Steve Clancey
“I’m glad we got snot out there. Everything isn’t just poop.”
—Michael A. Arnzen
“The suicide mat.”
—Ellen Van Hensbergen
“I’m not going to feel a lot of fear on behalf of a character I’d like to shoot in the head.”
—James Schuyler
“I don’t like him. I wish to strike him.”
—Michael Potts
“I’ll come of age one of these days and have an epiphany.”
—David Roberson
“Bob. . . . How does he know all this stuff?”
—Colleen H. Robbins
“You need to smell Chanel No. 5.”
—Jean Marie Fuhrman
“An emotional white room.”
—Elizabeth Hand
“I just really can’t believe they’d be that desperate for temporary help.”
—Eric James Stone
“This story gave me such a headache.”
—Erica Hildebrand
“Milk it for all the cheesy glory it’s worth.”
—Barbara Barnett-Stewart
“If you’ve ever heard a line in a movie or TV show, it shouldn’t be in here.”
—Eric James Stone (quoting Larry Brody)
“I’d like to get out of the gastrointestinal tract.”
—James Schuyler
“I don’t know if that was me or if it was really in the story, but I loved it.”
—Vashti Bandy
“If one person calls you a donkey, pay him no heed. If two people call you a donkey, buy a saddle.”
—Michael A. Burstein quoting the Talmud
“It may be so subtle that it’s not actually what you intended.”
—Todd Vandemark
“There’s a part of me, 10 or 20%, that is bothered.”
—James Schuyler
“I’m a big fan of the monogamous relationship with one chick.”
—Ronya McCool
“She sort of reminded me of this evil Yoda.”
—Barbara Barnett-Stewart
“This was as frustrating for me to write as it was for you to read.”
—Ronya McCool
“There’s feces, there’s urine—I wanted to be there.”
—Vashti Bandy
“I know every possible way a person can die.”
—Michael Potts
“I agree with some people . . . or disagree. I’m not sure which.”
—Ronya McCool
“This story is beauty.”
—Eric James Stone
“If it’s wrong, other people will get you and catch you at conventions.”
—Todd Vandemark
“I want to see some of his stabbiness. Everyone has stabbiness. I have stabbiness.”
—Vashti Bandy
“I was like, ‘Why are you letting her rub your thighs?'”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“I wanted to strangle her.”
—Michael Potts
“Loved it! Loved it! Also had a lot of problems with it.”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“I would have read a whole story just about the penguin.”
—Rodman Philbrick
Vashti Bandy: “I was actually trying to cut down the weirdness.”
Rodman Philbrick: “Yes. . . . I see. . . .”
“A fun story though a little yucky once I started to think about the implications.”
—Eric James Stone
“Except you could come up with something good instead of something stupid.”
—James Schuyler
“I had to fight the urge to run around hugging people.”
—Erica Hildebrand
“Any story with psionics, monsters, swords, and lesbians is automatically a good story.”
—James Schuyler
“They collect their experience points and life goes on.”
—David Roberson
“I never met him, so I never got a chance to hate him.”
—Erica Hildebrand
“It did not make sense to me that the chicken had not regenerated.”
—Eric James Stone
“I read this as a heartfelt story about fighting chicken prejudice.”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“The story needs clear rules when it comes to the demonic chicken.”
—Todd Vandemark
“I thought that if he did have Spider-Man sheets and she saw them, he should be much more embarrassed.”
—Steve Clancey
“How did he get the chicken through customs each time?”
—Michael Potts
“I wanted other gross things to happen besides flesh melting.”
—Michael A. Arnzen
“I just wasn’t convinced that an ant and a crab would be attracted to a human woman. Imagining the logistics I found an aesthetically displeasing exercise.”
—Michael Potts
“Crazy yellow ant tendencies.”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“This is exactly the way Poe would do cyberpunk.”
—Michael A. Arnzen
“I thought that you really handled the lust well.”
—Vashti Bandy
“It seems to me that your theme is that gluttony leads to self-esteem.”
—James Schuyler
“He’s just a gluttonous cat who’s taking a bite out of life.”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“I just let my inner child completely free. I guess it’s a really dark child.”
—Rebecca Roland
“Sometimes you just want to chuck a rock at someone’s head.”
—Barbara Barnett-Stewart
“Your story is Roald Dahl on crack.”
—Erica Hildebrand
“I hate the plot and I hate the character, and you made me do it.”
—Todd Vandemark
“On first reading of the story, I’m traumatized for life.”
—Colleen H. Robbins
“You want to get the essential lesbian trope established as quickly as possible.”
—James Schuyler
“I think it would be cool when the eye popped out to have a nerve trailing off.”
—Rebecca Roland
“There’s an abstract, dreamlike quality to your story that hurts my brain.”
—Erica Hildebrand
“Clowns can’t kill humans. . . . But clowns can kill anything else. As long as they’re having a good time.”
—Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“There’s all sorts of things you could have done with that gum.”
—Colleen H. Robbins
“It seemed to me that wine bottle was pretty tough. But I’ve never actually beaten anyone to death with a wine bottle.”
—Vashti Bandy
“Too many ‘too stupid to live’ moments.”
—Nina Kiriki Hoffman
“Don’t call a rabbit a smurp.”
—George Scithers
“I agree with her other comments too, though I can’t remember what they were right now.”
—James Schuyler
“I laughed my ass off. But it’s not good to drive sixteen hours when you have no ass.”
—Michael Potts
“There was plot, and I was surprised!”
—Samantha Weiss
“I love healing powers. You can rupture someone’s heart. You can overheal and give someone cancer!”
—Vashti Bandy
“It doesn’t make sense to poison crappy food.”
—Susan Sielinski
“I was just taking a breath.”
—Vashti Bandy
“Bok-keerk!”
—Steve Clancey