B. Lynch is a YA/MG fantasy writer from New Jersey and a 2015 Odyssey Writing Workshop graduate. His latest book, King Callie, can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com; since his Odyssey classmates challenged him to become the Michael Bay of fantasy novels, he’s currently working on an MG manuscript involving goat-poop powered mechas and gratuitous amounts of explosions.
There were three things I noticed immediately about the Odyssey Writing Workshop class of 2015: we weren’t short on creativity, odd careers, or punctuality. (more…)
Rebecca Roland is a 2007 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop (and chief correspondent for this blog).
She is the author of the Shards of History series, and The King of Ash and Bones, and Other Stories, all published with World Weaver Press, as well as The Necromancer’s Inheritance series. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Nature, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Stupefying Stories, Plasma Frequency, and Every Day Fiction.
This post is a bookend to our June essay by Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief of World Weaver Press.
When I was offered the chance to write a guest post on what it was like to work with a small publisher, I jumped at the opportunity because I’ve been wanting to write this up for a long time. I’ve had a great experience working with a small press, and I want to share that so people can figure out if a small press might be a good fit for them.
My first published book came out in 2012 with World Weaver Press. To say I was nervous about the entire experience would be like saying that Bruce Banner might have a teensy anger issue. Although I knew what the process was to take a book through all the steps of publication, more or less, I was scared of somehow messing up. (more…)
Mike Grinti is a 2003 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. He and his wife, Rachel, cowrote two books: Claws (2012) and Jala’s Mask (released last November). They write middle grade fantasy, though they have dipped into YA on occasion. They met at a writing workshop in 2002, though they didn’t start writing together until a few years later. They live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
Rachel Grinti grew up in Pittsburgh as the oldest of five siblings. She learned to read when she was only three and has been reading about magic and monsters ever since. Not only is she hopelessly addicted to reading, but she tries to spread the habit by working as a children’s librarian. She loves dogs, and still lives in Pittsburgh with a hyperactive, cowardly Boston Terrier named Miles.
Mike Grinti was born in Russia but moved to the US with his parents at a young age. He picked up the language quickly, and fell in love with reading after he checked out The Hobbit from his school library. He’s been hooked on fantasy and science fiction ever since. Besides some short stories, he wrote one very bad novel on his own before finally working with Rachel on some good novels. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s probably playing video games. He has a day job making video games to support their writing and reading (and eating, and dog-owning, and roof-having) habits.
Catch up with the Grintis at their website–www.grinti.com–and go here for Part One of our interview with them.
When and how did you make your first sale? What is your philosophy about rejections?
Mike: I think my first pro sale by pay rate was to a horror anthology called Corpse Blossoms, back when I wrote under my way-too-long legal name. (more…)
Mike Grinti is a 2003 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. He and his wife, Rachel, cowrote two books: Claws (2012) and Jala’s Mask (released last November). They write middle grade fantasy, though they have dipped into YA on occasion. They met at a writing workshop in 2002, though they didn’t start writing together until a few years later. They live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
Rachel Grinti grew up in Pittsburgh as the oldest of five siblings. She learned to read when she was only three and has been reading about magic and monsters ever since. Not only is she hopelessly addicted to reading, but she tries to spread the habit by working as a children’s librarian. She loves dogs, and still lives in Pittsburgh with a hyperactive, cowardly Boston Terrier named Miles.
Mike Grinti was born in Russia but moved to the US with his parents at a young age. He picked up the language quickly, and fell in love with reading after he checked out The Hobbit from his school library. He’s been hooked on fantasy and science fiction ever since. Besides some short stories, he wrote one very bad novel on his own before finally working with Rachel on some good novels. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s probably playing video games. He has a day job making video games to support their writing and reading (and eating, and dog-owning, and roof-having) habits.
Catch up with the Grintis at their website: www.grinti.com.
Mike and Rachel, you work as a team to write fantasy novels. Congratulations on the release of your second book, Jala’s Mask, which was released last November! How do you see your work fitting into the contemporary publishing market?(more…)
Eileen Wiedbrauk is Editor-in-Chief of World Weaver Press and Red Moon Romance, as well as a writer, blogger, book reviewer, coffee addict, cat herder, MFA graduate, fantasist-turned-fabulist-turned-urban-fantasy-junkie, Odyssey Workshop alumna, photographer, designer, tech geek, entrepreneur, avid reader, and a somewhat-decent cook.
She wears many hats, as the saying goes. Which is an odd saying in this case, as she rarely looks good in hats.
Small presses play a multi-faceted role in the publishing industry, whether they’re focused on commercial/genre fiction or if they’re boutique/literary arts presses (the latter are often associated, at least marginally, with a university or arts endowment). I’ve had the pleasure of running World Weaver Press, a speculative fiction small press, for the past three years, and before that I studied so-called “little and literary” publishing in grad school. (more…)
Melanie Tem was an author and writer-in-residence whose works won the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the British Fantasy Award, among others. She often cowrote stories and novels with her husband, Steve Rasnic Tem. They shared a passion for working with developing writers, and served Odyssey as writers-in-residence twice, first in 2005 and again in 2014. They are, in fact, the only writers-in-residence who have served at Odyssey more than once. In their time at the workshop, they held fascinating “dialogues” in which Melanie and Steve explored their differing views on concepts, providing illuminating insights. They also gave generously to students through critiques and private meetings. Melanie was always eager to reach out to other writers, to understand their struggles and share her own.
Melanie passed away this February and the void she left is keenly felt by Odyssey organizers, graduates, readers, and all who knew her. Michael Main, class of 2014, wrote the following about his experiences with Melanie and Steve.
Photos provided courtesy of Lauren O’Donnell, also class of 2014. (more…)
Jeanne Cavelos is the director of the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust, which is in its 20th year of operation. She was a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she worked for eight years, editing the fantasy/science fiction program, the Abyss horror line, and other fiction and nonfiction. Jeanne is also the bestselling author of seven books and numerous short stories and articles. She has won the World Fantasy Award and twice been nominated for the Stoker Award.
Find out more about Jeanne here and more about the Odyssey Writing Workshops here.
Most authors try to understand what a character is feeling at a particular moment: He’s angry here. He’s happy there. Many authors also consider how the character’s emotional arc changes over the course of the entire story: He begins insecure. He ends confident. But few think about how the character’s emotional arc develops over the course of a single scene.
Guest lecturer Brendan DuBois is an award-winning mystery, suspense and science-fiction author. Mr. DuBois is a former newspaper reporter and a lifelong resident of New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife Mona, their hell-raising cat Bailey, and one happy English Springer Spaniel named Spencer.
He is at work on his seventeenth novel, and his latest Lewis Cole novel, Fatal Harbor, was published in May 2014. Last year, he published his science fiction trilogy, The Empire of the North, made up of The Noble Warrior, The Noble Prisoner, and The Noble Prince. His recent thriller, Twilight, received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. DuBois has been published in ten countries by such publishers as St. Martin’s Press; Little, Brown; Time Warner UK; Houghton Mifflin; Pegasus Books, and many more.
His most widely published suspense-thriller, Resurrection Day, has received world-wide acclaim. It takes place in October 1972, ten years after the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted into a full-scale atomic war, destroying the Soviet Union and decimating the United States. Called “one of the most inventive novels of alternative history since Robert Harris’ Fatherland,” Resurrection Day is a chilling tale of what might have been. At the 58th World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, Resurrection Day received the Sidewise Award for Best Alternative History Novel.
His short fiction has been awarded the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America and the Berry Award for Best Mystery Short Story of the Year, has been nominated three times for an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and has been nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Mystery Short Story of the Year.
He is also a one-time Jeopardy! game show champion.
You write mainly mysteries, including your popular Lewis Cole mysteries, and suspense. What drew you to write in those genres? You also write science fiction. Does writing SF appeal to you in the same way as writing mysteries and thrillers?(more…)
Author and Odyssey graduate Alex Hughes will be a guest lecturer at this summer’s Odyssey Writing Workshop. Alex was born in Savannah, GA, and moved to the south Atlanta area when she was eight years old. Shortly thereafter, her grandfather handed her a copy of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonrider series, and a lifelong obsession with scifi was born.
Alex is a 2011 graduate of the prestigious Odyssey Writing Workshop, a Semi-Finalist in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, and a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers. Her short pieces are published in several markets including EveryDay Fiction and Monster Corral. Clean was a Finalist in the Silver Falchion Award 2013.
Alex’s work is layered, dark, adventurous, and a little funny, with an emphasis on great characters and interesting worlds. She gets her inspiration from history (she majored with a European history focus in college), family members, and headlines, as well as whatever book she has in her hand. Lately she’s been reading neuroscience books; the brain’s a cool, cool place and the mind even more so.
An avid cook and foodie, Alex loves great food of any stripe–even better if she can figure out how to put it together. Great food is like a great book; it has lots of layers that work together beautifully, and the result is delicious and harmonious. She’s working on figuring out Thai curries right now–suggestions welcome!
Alex loves swing dancing, Tetris, music of all kinds, and has been known to get into long conversations with total strangers at restaurants about the Food Network, much to the embarrassment of her sister. She can also balance a spoon on her nose while crossing her eyes, and talk for hours about absolutely nothing.
Congratulations on your recent release of Vacant (Mindspace Investigations, #4, released December 2014 from Roc). We’re excited to have you as a guest lecturer this summer, wherein you’ll be lecturing, workshopping, and meeting individually with students. What do you think is the most important advice you can give to developing writers?
Thank you! I’m excited about Vacant, and about the opportunity to teach at Odyssey. The program was a huge push forward for me as a writer, and I hope that I can share some of the lessons I’ve learned in the last few years with the students. (more…)
Writer-in-residence at this summer’s Odyssey Writing Workshop, Kij Johnson is widely considered one of the top fantasy/science fiction writing teachers in the country. She is the author of three novels—two fantasies set in classical Japan, The Fox Woman and Fudoki, and a Star Trek:The Next Generation novel—and a short story collection, At the Mouth of the River of Bees.
Since 2008, her short fiction has won the Nebula Award (three times), the Hugo, and the World Fantasy Award. In the past she has worked in book publishing, comic books and graphic novels, RPGs and trading card games; managed development and tech-writing groups for Seattle-area tech firms; edited cryptic crosswords; identified Napa cabernets by winery and year while blindfolded; and bouldered an occasional V-5.
She received her Master of Fine Arts from North Carolina State University, and teaches at the University of Kansas, where she is associate director for the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. She splits her time between Seattle and Lawrence.
You are a permanent fixture at the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, where you teach novel workshops in addition to classes, and we’re excited to have you as the writer-in-residence at this summer’s Odyssey Workshop. Share with us the most important advice you can give to developing writers.(more…)
