Jack Ketchum was a guest lecturer at Odyssey 2009, where he lectured on crafting strong openings, worked with students, and critiqued their stories. In this podcast, Jack discusses what the author needs to accomplish with the first sentence, the first paragraph, and the first page. Jack explains the importance of Read more
Jeanne Cavelos is the director of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. 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 Read more
Recent/Upcoming Publications Novels Elaine Isaak, class of 1997The Bastard QueenPublished by: Swimming Kangaroo PressElaine’s website: www.elaineisaak.com Short Stories Barbara A. Barnett, class of 2007“Monkey Love”Anthology: The Best of Every Day Fiction TwoPublished by: Every Day PublishingBarbara’s website: http://www.babarnett.com/ Jason Heller, class of 2009“Behold: Skowt!”Anthology: Descended From DarknessPublished by: Apex PublicationsJason’s Read more
Most writers are aware that the main character in a story is supposed to change; the course of that change is often referred to as the character “arc.” But making that change believable and right is often a lot more difficult than it seems. This is where many stories fail. Read more
Laura Anne Gilman will be the writer-in-residence at this summer’s Odyssey workshop. Before she took the first plunge into murky writing waters and submitted her first story to a professional market, she was an editorial assistant at the Berkley Publishing Group in 1994. An almost immediate sale to Amazing Stories Read more
Jeffrey A. Carver was a guest lecturer at Odyssey 2009, where he lectured on Story Structure: Conflict and Plot. In this podcast, Jeffrey explains the importance of structure. Structure supplies the skeleton for your story; without it, your story becomes a jellyfish. But structure is more than the organization and Read more
Recent/Upcoming Publications Novels Carrie Vaughn, class of 1998Kitty’s House of HorrorsPublished by: Grand Central PublishingRelease Date: January 4, 2010Carrie’s website: http://www.carrievaughn.com/ Short Stories Michael J. DeLuca, class of 2005“Maryann Saves the World”Published by: The Future FireMichael’s website: http://michaeljdeluca.com Carl Frederick, class of 2000“Narrow World”Published by: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Read more
Writing “exercises” may not sound very fun. Yet they can be invaluable tools to practice various techniques, to push yourself out of your normal writing habits, to open new doors of creativity, and to break the dam of a writer’s block. We asked Odyssey graduates to discuss the writing exercises Read more
Michael Arnzen will be a guest lecturer at this summer’s Odyssey workshop. He has been publishing outrageous horror fiction, SF, poetry, literary criticism, instructional essays on writing, and offbeat humor since 1989. Across his career, Arnzen has won four Bram Stoker Awards, an International Horror Guild Award, and several “Year’s Read more
Patricia Bray was a guest lecturer at Odyssey 2009, where she lectured about the uses of the sidekick in fiction. In this podcast, the second of two parts, Patricia explains how the sidekick’s characteristics can balance those of the protagonist, or contrast with those of the protagonist. She discusses the Read more